Speaker 1: Hey guys, welcome to another episode of Eating While Broke.
Speaker 1: I'm your host, Colleen, and today we have very special guest, singer, songwriter,
Speaker 1: beat boxer Sellice Kevin O Lucia.
Speaker 2: Yes, there we go.
Speaker 3: You said anything there, that's that's it.
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm a dad, your dad, but you know
Speaker 2: that's exactly it.
Speaker 1: Okay, okay, So before we get into your story, I
Speaker 1: am tempted to do I don't know which one to do. First,
Speaker 1: try to get a little beatboxing in, or you know what,
Speaker 1: I don't know if this is possible. I'm going to
Speaker 1: challenge you to tell me what you're gonna eat today
Speaker 1: in an artistic Kevin way. Is that possible?
Speaker 4: You know?
Speaker 2: No, I can't do that.
Speaker 1: You're like, wow, make up a song on the spot
Speaker 1: what you're eating today?
Speaker 2: I'm not going to make. This is a Subway sweet
Speaker 2: onion chicken teriocky sandwich. And this is something that was,
Speaker 2: I mean a staple when I was starting off in Pentatonics.
Speaker 2: I ate that, like I said, almost every single day
Speaker 2: because they had five dollars foot longs. So I could
Speaker 2: take this, cut this in half, have it for lunch,
Speaker 2: and I also have it for dinner and it was perfect.
Speaker 1: So this is during your Pentatonics.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, this is I mean I was just.
Speaker 1: Sure, how far are you going to take me back?
Speaker 1: So we're going to go for the bag.
Speaker 3: We'll go for the bag. But I'm just telling you
Speaker 3: this is that's this.
Speaker 1: So this was like your Prime Brokes. Oh it's crazy
Speaker 1: because Pentatonics is huge. So you were struggling to they
Speaker 1: get during and then did you and then you get
Speaker 1: to see all the success. So it was like, you know,
Speaker 1: after Subway, you got I don't know what you.
Speaker 3: Eat, that's you want to know what I'll eat out.
Speaker 2: So I'm blessed that I can do this. But what
Speaker 2: I do is I actually order family meal sized tender
Speaker 2: Green boxes. Do you know tender greens? Right? So I'll
Speaker 2: get a family sized tender Green box and then I'll
Speaker 2: use that as my meal prep through the week, So
Speaker 2: do like chicken, vegetables, salmon smart exactly, and then I'll
Speaker 2: also cook a little ground turkey. I did this last
Speaker 2: night with my daughter Kaya and then I just put
Speaker 2: that in for some extra protein and that's my meal
Speaker 2: throughout the week.
Speaker 1: Wow. So you're still you're you're still like financially conscious.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean because I don't want to go back there,
Speaker 2: YEA one.
Speaker 3: And two just with with resources.
Speaker 2: I want to steward them well, because I want to
Speaker 2: teach my kids what it means to steward wealth so
Speaker 2: that they don't have to go through that. And then
Speaker 2: you know, we talk about it like generational wealth building
Speaker 2: in the black family and something that I think is
Speaker 2: just super important, and so I want to do that
Speaker 2: for my kids.
Speaker 1: Okay, I can respect that. Tender grains.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, tender family.
Speaker 1: You know what's so funny. I know people that do that,
Speaker 1: they'll like order I don't know, they don't use tender greens,
Speaker 1: but they'll do like pan express and an order family style.
Speaker 1: And then like if you work a nine to five
Speaker 1: shout outs, you know, you order the big size and
Speaker 1: then you could just keep it in the fridge at
Speaker 1: work and just eat it serve yourself all week.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's exactly, that's exactly it. I mean, I take it,
Speaker 2: I box it up, and then as I go to
Speaker 2: either my production sessions or for the band, I just
Speaker 2: take two of those things. Boom, I got my lunch,
Speaker 2: I got my dinner, and it's easy.
Speaker 1: Nice, nice, and what's the day in the life right now,
Speaker 1: like because it sounds so it sounds like hard work.
Speaker 2: Well it's a lot. I mean. So Sundays is when
Speaker 2: I meal prep all that stuff. So Sundays that's usually
Speaker 2: when all the food comes in. That's why I take it.
Speaker 2: That's when I cook the ground turkey and then make
Speaker 2: my boxes. And then during the week, I mean, because
Speaker 2: I still have right now these one or like sixteen months,
Speaker 2: so that's my son, so we're waking up pretty early
Speaker 2: taking care of him. I try to get some music
Speaker 2: in when I can, because I really try to do
Speaker 2: that in the hours between four and six if he
Speaker 2: doesn't wake up and you know, interrupt that. And then
Speaker 2: as family time, after family time taking kids to school,
Speaker 2: I'm either practicing or doing some of the work on
Speaker 2: my own project. And then I get to do the
Speaker 2: Pentatonics work, which I like because I get to focus
Speaker 2: on me first and what fills my soul so that
Speaker 2: my band gets my overflow, which I think is just
Speaker 2: super super important, and that.
Speaker 1: It's it's fully cohesive with you having your your outside
Speaker 1: project outside of Pentatonics.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I actually think it's best because each member is
Speaker 2: so different and so for me to find myself and
Speaker 2: reach the community that I want to reach, I think
Speaker 2: that just brings more people into the Pentatonics fold because
Speaker 2: some of these people, it's been so cool to see
Speaker 2: my project kind of have the success that it's had.
Speaker 2: Like I found out a few weeks ago that over
Speaker 2: two hundred and fifty million views have been on my
Speaker 2: project over my whole social media wow, which is crazy.
Speaker 2: And a lot of these people go, I've never heard
Speaker 2: of Pentatonics, but I love what you do. And then
Speaker 2: through that they go, who who is this? I didn't
Speaker 2: know about Pentatonics. They're learning about it and now they
Speaker 2: want to come see our shows too. So I think
Speaker 2: as every member kind of connects with their community, it
Speaker 2: also connects them back to.
Speaker 1: The band relate because I only know Pentatonics because I.
Speaker 2: Know you exactly, exactly the exactly.
Speaker 1: Now take me back to well, actually, let's let's try it,
Speaker 1: because I'm sure you're hungry and this is kind of cold,
Speaker 1: so let's try it.
Speaker 2: Let's try I'm ready man, onion, sweet onion, onion, chicken Teryoki, Yes,
Speaker 2: somewhere in the name.
Speaker 1: You like it.
Speaker 2: It's still hits.
Speaker 1: I have to get like a piece of chicken in it.
Speaker 4: Oh, I never ordered this before, and.
Speaker 2: So the sweet onion sauce, that's the thing that just
Speaker 2: makes it for me every single time.
Speaker 1: And then they were asking me a bunch of questions like.
Speaker 2: What vegetables do you want?
Speaker 1: What cheese do you want? And I was like, Kevin
Speaker 1: did not send me.
Speaker 3: Oh, I didn't send you those details any directions.
Speaker 1: So I was just like, whatever you make it to
Speaker 1: make it classic. What bread do you want? Like, I
Speaker 1: don't know, I probably would have this is really good.
Speaker 2: If I had to think back to that time, I
Speaker 2: think it was like a whole wheat bread or they
Speaker 2: have like the cheese. It was probably some sort of
Speaker 2: like Swiss cheese. And they always had their salt and pepper,
Speaker 2: always put salt and pepper on it. Oh my gosh. Yeah.
Speaker 2: It was so interesting because so we win the TV
Speaker 2: show to sing Off as a band, and that was
Speaker 2: in twenty eleven, and then twenty twelve we move. I
Speaker 2: remember we moved to West Hollywood in this apartment complex
Speaker 2: on San Vicente and Howser Boulevard. Across the street was
Speaker 2: the subway. So what eleven you know, eleven am before
Speaker 2: we start rehearsal. I'd go get that food, come back,
Speaker 2: bring it back. And it's just so it's so like
Speaker 2: powerfully emotional for me because I remember during that time,
Speaker 2: our rent was six hundred and thirty two dollars fifty cents.
Speaker 2: I remember that very very specifically each or something, yes,
Speaker 2: each and in LA that's.
Speaker 1: You guys have a girl in your group? Though, yes,
Speaker 1: how did that work?
Speaker 2: I mean she made it work too. I mean we
Speaker 2: six hundred and thirty two dollars fifty cents. We were
Speaker 2: all in the same apartment complex, not in the same
Speaker 2: apartment like the Basing and I were in one. Churcy
Speaker 2: and I think her boyfriend at the time was in one,
Speaker 2: and then Scott Mitch were in one. So they always
Speaker 2: met at our apartment at the base thing or and
Speaker 2: I and I remember my father came to see where
Speaker 2: I was living at that time. Now you have to know,
Speaker 2: my dad is a Nigerian.
Speaker 1: And that's what makes me laugh exactly right.
Speaker 2: Like he's a Nigerian man who came to the United
Speaker 2: States met my mom who's a Grenadian. Both immigrant mentality,
Speaker 2: and they wanted me to pursue what I mean, I
Speaker 2: would call the immigrant Holy Trinity. Right, Docta Eloya an engineer. Right.
Speaker 2: So the fact that I, you know, kind of defected
Speaker 2: and decided to go into music was very foreign to them.
Speaker 2: So they come see me. You know, these are the
Speaker 2: kind of meals that I'm having. They're seeing the kind
Speaker 2: of place that I live in. I remember my father
Speaker 2: texted me as he was going back to the airport
Speaker 2: and he was so sad. He son, I spent all
Speaker 2: of my heart earned money to send you to a
Speaker 2: school like Yale, and now you're living here doing this
Speaker 2: with no guarantee of a future. Please reconsider because this
Speaker 2: is heartbreaking for me as a father.
Speaker 1: Right, how do you feel on that moment when you
Speaker 1: see that text?
Speaker 2: So I felt sad because I felt like I knew
Speaker 2: what I was doing something I was supposed to be doing.
Speaker 2: I had no idea what the end goal was. Yeah,
Speaker 2: but I also look at it and I remember texting
Speaker 2: my father this. I said, I understand everything that you're saying. However,
Speaker 2: I haven't lost any of the ideals and the messaging
Speaker 2: that you've given me throughout life. I'm just using it
Speaker 2: in a completely different way. So everything you've instilled in me,
Speaker 2: the values.
Speaker 1: Is all there, but how do you comeback the also
Speaker 1: the Yale expenditure.
Speaker 2: Well, so I had finished all of my pre med
Speaker 2: requirements while I was at Yale.
Speaker 1: Oh hilarious.
Speaker 3: So I told that, Look, if this doesn't work out,
Speaker 3: I got the plan.
Speaker 2: I got the plan. B. We are good. Like we
Speaker 2: had that and I always had that in the back
Speaker 2: of my mind, honestly.
Speaker 1: So, you did all your pre med and everything.
Speaker 2: Pre med requirements, and if I wanted to take the
Speaker 2: m CAT, I think the MCAT would be good for
Speaker 2: five years after you take it. So I was like,
Speaker 2: I got time. I hadn't taken the m CAT yet,
Speaker 2: but I'm like, I got time to make this all work.
Speaker 2: And if this doesn't work, that's fine. I actually really
Speaker 2: enjoyed the idea of being a medical doctor. It's just
Speaker 2: that this started to become successful and I was like, oh,
Speaker 2: I guess I'm not going back to medical school.
Speaker 1: But I also think there has something that has to
Speaker 1: be said about your character because you still respected your
Speaker 1: parents to not flunk out of you, sure not drop
Speaker 1: out of you, to say, and I could see from
Speaker 1: your father's perspective where he'd almost have to respect your
Speaker 1: wishes because you already respected his right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I finished, I finished my college degree. I did it,
Speaker 2: and I did well, and and again I loved it.
Speaker 2: I was passionate about all of it. It's just that
Speaker 2: I knew I would regret not at least trying music.
Speaker 2: I would regret it so much. So that's when I decided,
Speaker 2: you know what, I'm going to give it, as they say,
Speaker 2: the good old college, try and put my all into it.
Speaker 2: And if nothing happened, at least I knew I give
Speaker 2: it everything that I could. I can go back into
Speaker 2: medicine feeling happy that I did what I could.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And then so you So I'm genuinely curious, like
Speaker 1: from that conversation, did your dad kind of bring little
Speaker 1: umbrella throughout the rest of your career ups and downs,
Speaker 1: kind of like, hey man, this is there what I
Speaker 1: wanted for you.
Speaker 2: This, this is what I'll say. So I remember when
Speaker 2: the band won our second Grammy. This is twenty sixteen
Speaker 2: or seventeen, I believe, and we're about to sing with
Speaker 2: Stevie Wonder that's the way of the World for Earth
Speaker 2: Wind and Fire, for the whole audience for the Grammys.
Speaker 2: And you could see this online. It's on YouTube, and
Speaker 2: then we with Stevie Wonder give Ed Sheeran his Grammy
Speaker 2: for Thinking out Loud for Song of the Year. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and then I sit back down in my seat. My
Speaker 2: dad's right next to me, and he goes, hey, congratulations
Speaker 2: on your grammy. When are you going back to medical school?
Speaker 2: Like freaking out?
Speaker 3: I'm like, Dad, did you not just see what happened?
Speaker 1: Were you really freaking out? I was like, are you
Speaker 1: I mean he laughed, Oh, he's why.
Speaker 2: I was like, are you serious? And then he starts
Speaker 2: to laugh. He's like, oh, sot, I'm proud of you.
Speaker 2: So that was a few years afterwards. So it's so
Speaker 2: cool to see him.
Speaker 3: Just say, hey, I see you.
Speaker 2: You could feed yourself now, like it's not you know,
Speaker 2: just these sandwiches and stuff, like you're you're doing good
Speaker 2: and I'm proud of you for sticking with your guns.
Speaker 1: Now. What was your mom's perspective? Were they in unison
Speaker 1: there or was there a little bit of let Kevin do?
Speaker 2: I think she was more understanding, and again she had
Speaker 2: the assurance of knowing what she's instilled in me and
Speaker 2: to know that I had finished my pre medal quirement.
Speaker 2: So I think she was a lot more chill than
Speaker 2: my dad. She's always been that way, you know. I've
Speaker 2: always appreciated that about her, even when I went to
Speaker 2: boarding school. So I went to boarding school for two
Speaker 2: years and it was hard, and I for you before Yale. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I went to a place called Phillips Academy and mass
Speaker 2: and I'd be in andover mass Oh no, no, no,
Speaker 2: and andover and so I'd be crying for semester. Oh
Speaker 2: my goodness, I can't do it. Everything's so tough, blah
Speaker 2: blah blah blah blah. And my dad would be freaking out, like,
Speaker 2: oh my god, we made the wrong decision. What would
Speaker 2: And Mom's like, chill out, That's why we sent him
Speaker 2: there because it's hard.
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, chill He'll be fine, And so I think
Speaker 1: he you would you would think it would be the
Speaker 1: other way around, like the mom would be more of
Speaker 1: the like softer, like oh, and then your dad would
Speaker 1: be like, no, this is why we sent him here.
Speaker 1: So it's kind of different to see that your mom
Speaker 1: and dad played different roles.
Speaker 2: They do. My mom in a lot of ways. I
Speaker 2: think she's the soothing voice and character for the whole
Speaker 2: family and that's who she's always been. And then my dad,
Speaker 2: I think he just always wants people to be their
Speaker 2: best and rise to the occasion, and because he doesn't
Speaker 2: want people to be in the place where he has
Speaker 2: been throughout his life. And he always reminds me in
Speaker 2: any conversations. He reminds me of where he had been
Speaker 2: in you know, the small one room house that he
Speaker 2: lived in when he was in Nigeria growing up with
Speaker 2: five brothers. He reminds me often, and so he I
Speaker 2: think there's a bit of a nervous anxiety there because
Speaker 2: he doesn't want his children to go back to that place.
Speaker 2: But my mom is just that's why they're married. I
Speaker 2: feel they compliment each other very very well.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I like that you seem to separate what you
Speaker 1: learn in college and what they instilled in you. Why
Speaker 1: is that, Like, was there that much of a differentiation
Speaker 1: to me?
Speaker 2: Yes, because I think what they instilled in me was
Speaker 2: more character building where I think for me, what college
Speaker 2: did was give me the tools and the skill set
Speaker 2: to be a high performer to an extent. I don't
Speaker 2: think I could be doing what I do in my
Speaker 2: band and also my solo work without both parts.
Speaker 1: What kind of character did they instill, Like, how did
Speaker 1: they go about that?
Speaker 2: Sure, I say, I mean partially hard work, but understanding
Speaker 2: and knowing who I am. You know, I'm a Christian,
Speaker 2: and so the character of Christ, if you will, and
Speaker 2: who he is, and letting that be my guiding light
Speaker 2: constantly in the industry. I think that's something that they
Speaker 2: gave me because I think it is stilled good things
Speaker 2: in me so that I can pursue good things within
Speaker 2: the industry. I think those types of things, and then
Speaker 2: when it comes to school, you know, it's about being
Speaker 2: extremely curious. It's about learning your limits and your resilience
Speaker 2: and your tenacity. Those things that I think, combined with
Speaker 2: you know, those good characteristics that I learned from my parents,
Speaker 2: hopefully creates something that allows me to pursue my career
Speaker 2: in a way that I feel like honors myself, honors
Speaker 2: my parents, and ultimately honors God.
Speaker 1: I love that. Wow, You're like perfect masterpiece. Now now
Speaker 1: now take me back two parent household clearly middle class
Speaker 1: upper Yeah, i'd.
Speaker 2: Say middle class. I mean, my dad's a doctor, my
Speaker 2: mom's a nurse. But they would say middle class in
Speaker 2: the sense that all the money they were using was
Speaker 2: to help us, you know, do really amazing experiences or
Speaker 2: go to boarding school. So they felt like they were
Speaker 2: always underwater because they were always just spending money for our.
Speaker 1: Experience, investing on you guys.
Speaker 2: Yes, exactly.
Speaker 1: And then how many kids did they had?
Speaker 2: Three? Three? Yeah, so myself, my sister who's younger, my
Speaker 2: brother who's also younger. Oh, you're the oldest, I'm the oldest. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Also I'm showing your dad was also nervous because he's,
Speaker 1: like you said, the president.
Speaker 2: That's exactly it, Like, I don't know my baby girl
Speaker 2: going to do this.
Speaker 1: You're gonna pursue surgery exactly, follow this doctor past exactly.
Speaker 1: But I still have to give homage to you guys,
Speaker 1: for there's something to be said about a young person
Speaker 1: that respects their parents enough to say, I know, I
Speaker 1: want to beat the drum this way, but in obedience
Speaker 1: to you guys and homage to you guys, I will
Speaker 1: respect your wishes because there there is the path where
Speaker 1: you could say this is the drum I'm beatn too.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, But I think that there was a value that
Speaker 1: you knew that these two individuals were working really hard
Speaker 1: to make sure that you don't have this terrible life
Speaker 1: that they had endured or they you know, they they
Speaker 1: wanted you guys to avoid. I love that you respected
Speaker 1: them enough to say, I did the work. Now let
Speaker 1: me go play bus band bucks. Please see this architecture thing.
Speaker 1: My daughter has. These they're like the magnet, lego, whatever
Speaker 1: you call them. Have you seen.
Speaker 3: Those like the magnet? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Have you? Have you given them to your kids?
Speaker 2: Yeah? We have them at home. That's why I know.
Speaker 2: Oh my god. Yeah.
Speaker 1: My daughter brings these like builds, these masterpieces, and they'll
Speaker 1: be up for like weeks, and then she puts a
Speaker 1: little prisoner in each little cell block that she has
Speaker 1: in her little castle that she's building on. But you know,
Speaker 1: just she's so proud of her little masterpiece that it's like, look,
Speaker 1: you know, I know it looks messy, but this is
Speaker 1: what I'm building. And I feel like when you go
Speaker 1: to your sandbox, so you can look at your parents
Speaker 1: and say, you know, this is you know, I know
Speaker 1: it's crazy, but I got a Grammy over here. I
Speaker 1: know it's crazy, but you know I'm making it over here.
Speaker 1: You see this little award. But in your case, they
Speaker 1: you know, they got obviously bigger and bigger and bigger.
Speaker 1: So take me, so you graduate Yale and take me
Speaker 1: to where Pentatonics are, where you start to see a
Speaker 1: formula forming information, where like music is starting to take lead.
Speaker 2: Hmmm. So kind of like how I figured out that
Speaker 2: music was going to be my thing? Yea more okay,
Speaker 2: So then I would have to start probably earlier in college.
Speaker 2: So in college on pre med knowing that I want
Speaker 2: to do medicine, and then my sophomore year of college,
Speaker 2: I actually went to a program called the Harvard Bidging
Speaker 2: Academy to study Chinese. And while I was there, one
Speaker 2: of my Chinese teachers asked me, I'll say it in Chinese, actually,
Speaker 2: naomi oshi, which in Chinese means have you ever thought
Speaker 2: about combining cello and beatboxing? He just asked me randomly,
Speaker 2: and I was like, that's the craziest thing.
Speaker 1: Is that because he heard you play both.
Speaker 2: It was because I would talk about the cello a
Speaker 2: lot in class, and then I'd beatbox because I just thought,
Speaker 2: you know, my Chinese professors thought that was the most
Speaker 2: hilarious thing. They'd never seen people like beatbox before.
Speaker 1: And then why were you taking Chinese?
Speaker 3: Oh well, because at that time.
Speaker 2: So the year before the President of China invited one
Speaker 2: hundred Yale students to go meet him his cabinet personally
Speaker 2: for ten days, and so I got chosen for that trip.
Speaker 2: That was the summer of my after my freshman year
Speaker 2: of college, and it completely changed my life. Where I said,
Speaker 2: I have got to study Chinese. I don't think there
Speaker 2: would ever be another opportunity for me to study such
Speaker 2: a difficult language. So I started studying that sophomore year.
Speaker 2: And then Yale had a fellowship that allowed you to
Speaker 2: study either in the summer or for an academic school
Speaker 2: year an East Asian language, called the Light Fellowship. So
Speaker 2: I did that for the summer after my sophomore year.
Speaker 2: So that's why I was in China studying.
Speaker 1: Okay, that's impressive.
Speaker 2: I mean I just loved the labor built different I'm sorry,
Speaker 2: I just loved laboring almost.
Speaker 1: Twenty years old, acquiring a whole new language.
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 1: Do you think that a part of it is like
Speaker 1: the environment you grew up in. Do you there was
Speaker 1: no intimidation when it came to school work or was
Speaker 1: schoolwork just very easy for you?
Speaker 2: I think again? Talking about character, I think my parents
Speaker 2: really helped foster curiosity. I think there's something about the
Speaker 2: immigrant mentality where they just wanted their kids to be
Speaker 2: the best that they could, and because they knew they
Speaker 2: were immigrants and especially black in the country, they were like, look,
Speaker 2: you have to be the best so that somebody will
Speaker 2: even look at you as the same.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: And I always kept that in the back of my
Speaker 2: mind because they're like, we don't want anybody to look
Speaker 2: at you and think that you were just because you're black.
Speaker 2: You can't do this or do that. And so my
Speaker 2: mom always had this phrase saying, be extraordinary and uncommon
Speaker 2: in everything you do. Don't just do what's ordinary, do
Speaker 2: what's extra. If you're gonna do something common, do it uncommon.
Speaker 2: Do the thing that people don't expect you to do,
Speaker 2: because that helps the whole black diaspora look different to
Speaker 2: the rest of the world. And I always I just
Speaker 2: I guess I just always.
Speaker 1: Kind of kept that ordinary and uncommon.
Speaker 2: Be extraordinary and uncommon.
Speaker 1: Yes, it's so funny because if you look at your career,
Speaker 1: you really took that to her a Jello beatbox and
Speaker 1: Gello like exactly, it was completely exactly. You know, if
Speaker 1: she ever were to say, you don't listen to me.
Speaker 1: You'd be like, I'm a yellow beatbox. What are you talking?
Speaker 1: Extraordinary and uncommon?
Speaker 2: I mean, look, I'm a I'm a part Nigerian, part Grenadian,
Speaker 2: Chinese speaking cello playing Kentucky boy, Like where do I
Speaker 2: fit it? Yeah? You know what I mean? But I
Speaker 2: think I have learned, especially as you know when we
Speaker 2: talk about Donovan missing my album, I finally realized what
Speaker 2: made me so different and also teased. Don't get me wrong,
Speaker 2: like I got made.
Speaker 1: Fun of all the time, and not in Yale, obviously
Speaker 1: in Kentucky.
Speaker 2: Yeah, when I was in Kentucky. Oh my gosh, what
Speaker 2: did you get teased for? I'm black playing playing playing
Speaker 2: cello first and foremost, Like I remember kids being like,
Speaker 2: you're not supposed to be in this. They're not supposed
Speaker 2: to be an orchestra with us, Like what the world
Speaker 2: made you pick? So my mom and my dad they
Speaker 2: were sending my sister to violin lessons with the string teacher.
Speaker 2: The string teacher, funny enough, was actually a cellist, but
Speaker 2: she knew how to teach violin and be over for
Speaker 2: some reason, so my sister was taking from her. And
Speaker 2: they asked me, would you want to play cello? And
Speaker 2: I go, I'm good, I don't need to. But I
Speaker 2: didn't know what a cello was. So then they put
Speaker 2: this wooden box in front of me, and she just
Speaker 2: started teaching me things and I'm like, I don't know
Speaker 2: what I'm doing. I'm just kind of having fun with
Speaker 2: this wooden box. And then they put a cello in
Speaker 2: front of me, and then it was just a wooden box,
Speaker 2: just a wooden box, just for me to get used
Speaker 2: to the feel of a cello and what the chello
Speaker 2: feels like in me to my my knees. So they
Speaker 2: just gave you a box, literally, a wooden box. It
Speaker 2: wasn't the cello. It's just like this box exactly, and
Speaker 2: like just trying a couple of things out to like
Speaker 2: feel what a cello's like.
Speaker 1: But there was no strings.
Speaker 2: But there were no strings. It just was just to
Speaker 2: get used to the feeling of it. And again, I
Speaker 2: don't know what this is. I'm just living my life
Speaker 2: were then six.
Speaker 1: Oh, So like if I walk over to my six
Speaker 1: year old and say, hey, put this box, that's exactly
Speaker 1: That's exactly it. Okay, So then sounds crazy. You're sitting there.
Speaker 1: I could imagine my daughter going okay, exactly americanized child
Speaker 1: child's like whatever you say.
Speaker 2: I'm just what you said. And so. But then they
Speaker 2: put a cello in front of me and my mom,
Speaker 2: and my mom like, you know, she kind of said
Speaker 2: at any point, if you don't want to do this,
Speaker 2: like you don't have to yeah, But I just kept going. Literally,
Speaker 2: there wasn't any time I was like this sucks, like wait,
Speaker 2: this is no.
Speaker 1: They replaced the box.
Speaker 3: With they replaced the box with a cello.
Speaker 1: Eventually you like the sound or something.
Speaker 2: I liked the sound. I was progressing really fast, it
Speaker 2: was it just was kind of fun. Like, if I
Speaker 2: will say this today, it still feels like an instrument
Speaker 2: that I can't.
Speaker 1: Master really after how many years have you been there?
Speaker 2: After what so about six so thirty one years now, Jesus,
Speaker 2: it feels like I still can't master it. But I'm
Speaker 2: saying that in a way where it keeps me pursuing
Speaker 2: and seeking and trying to find new ways because it's
Speaker 2: just so much more that whether it's for singing or beatboxing,
Speaker 2: like I just I want to pursue more and see
Speaker 2: what more I have to to.
Speaker 1: Offer now as six. I mean, I've watched some stuff.
Speaker 1: I try not to school up too much because I
Speaker 1: like to be president in the interviews. But at six,
Speaker 1: were you making the beat boxing type sounds?
Speaker 2: Oh gosh, I was making sound Okay, so you were?
Speaker 1: You were doing it then? And then did you have
Speaker 1: any there was a period where I was I remember
Speaker 1: I was playing music one year, and I, for whatever reason,
Speaker 1: I inherited like an ear for music, like where I
Speaker 1: could imitate sounds okay, no no, no, piano, like you know,
Speaker 1: you can hear a sound, and like you know, sure,
Speaker 1: And I don't know how that happened. It was like
Speaker 1: a brief year and then it went away. But did
Speaker 1: you when you were playing the cello, did you have
Speaker 1: that moment of realizing that your ear and your I
Speaker 1: don't know, your music were aligned.
Speaker 2: I definitely knew that I could hear music and replay it, okay,
Speaker 2: ear so playing music by ear? I knew that.
Speaker 1: I knew at around that age and.
Speaker 2: Earlier I knew that that was just kind of within me.
Speaker 2: And sometimes the professors or teachers would be angry because
Speaker 2: like play was on the music, like play was on
Speaker 2: the on the on the sheet music. But I'm like,
Speaker 2: but I'm having so much fun, like listening to all
Speaker 2: this stuff, like and just imitating what I'm hearing, right,
Speaker 2: But yeah, anyway, I started playing cello that way from
Speaker 2: that string teacher. And then again the beat boxing comes
Speaker 2: whenever I'm in college in terms of bringing cello and
Speaker 2: beatboxing together, and I go, you know, I thought it
Speaker 2: was a crazy idea for my Chinese teacher to tell
Speaker 2: me that, because actually, in my head, I thought I
Speaker 2: was going to get judged by the classical community, because
Speaker 2: how are you going to take hundreds of years of
Speaker 2: this of this classical music that's supposed to be in
Speaker 2: a box and so so sacred and tarnish it with
Speaker 2: you know what they would probably call street music?
Speaker 1: Yeah, right, hip hop. But now going back, because we
Speaker 1: were kind of talking about the bullying. So going back,
Speaker 1: you're black. Yeah, you're playing the cello. You you're you're
Speaker 1: honoring this classical you know, which, for lack of better word,
Speaker 1: we don't see it as a black people music, and
Speaker 1: especially back then. You know, maybe now it's like oh okay,
Speaker 1: you know, but back then, no, how did you not
Speaker 1: end up with some type of impostor syndrome?
Speaker 2: You know, it's so funny. I don't think I realized
Speaker 2: like I was black playing classical music until other kids
Speaker 2: told me. I was like, I remember I was in
Speaker 2: an all state orchestra. I was second chairs my ninth grade,
Speaker 2: and some kids back behind me were like, you know,
Speaker 2: you're not supposed to be here, and I'm like, what
Speaker 2: do you mean I'm not supposed to be here? I
Speaker 2: didn't like even register until one of my friends, like,
Speaker 2: they're saying that because you're black, and I go, wait,
Speaker 2: since when was that ever? A Like, I didn't even
Speaker 2: think about it. So for me, it was more like
Speaker 2: I just knew that I loved it. The sound, the
Speaker 2: sound of my cello wasn't black or white to me,
Speaker 2: it was just music. It just hit me in my soul.
Speaker 2: So that's the first time when I realized what in
Speaker 2: the world, like I wasn't It didn't It didn't exactly
Speaker 2: make sense to me until then, But then I didn't.
Speaker 2: I don't think I hadn't pop that's or syndrome, just
Speaker 2: because like I loved it, and my teachers continue to
Speaker 2: just like foster a love of it, and I kind
Speaker 2: of just found like my own friends too, who like
Speaker 2: just loved me.
Speaker 1: For me, but the bullying didn't have any negative impacts,
Speaker 1: like there was no come home with some kind of no.
Speaker 2: I would definitely say it that it would have some
Speaker 2: negative impacts. Like when I say negative, I think it
Speaker 2: was more trying to figure out if who I actually
Speaker 2: am is who I believe I say I am because
Speaker 2: what they're saying I'm supposed to be, which is, oh,
Speaker 2: black head, you're not supposed to be in these academic
Speaker 2: classes or black head, you're not supposed to be playing
Speaker 2: this kind of instrument. But I love it. So am
Speaker 2: I who I think I actually am? Somebody who just
Speaker 2: loves this music and can just do this music, not
Speaker 2: because of my color, but because of how I love this.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: And I think again that's when I I the teachers
Speaker 2: that I had who really loved Metri for me, Yeah,
Speaker 2: and making the music that I made. I just kind
Speaker 2: of continued focusing on that. And like also, I think
Speaker 2: meeting other black string players was really helpful. Like I
Speaker 2: remember ninth grade, I went to Ihga College for a
Speaker 2: Suzuki cello camp and I met this guy, one of
Speaker 2: my best friends to date, Ruben Harris, and I was like,
Speaker 2: I've never met another black cellis before and so he
Speaker 2: and I. I mean we played at church together at
Speaker 2: the Ithaca Camp. He's now off doing he's as a
Speaker 2: startup that's really really successful. But like those to see
Speaker 2: somebody else doing what I loved and just enjoying it unapologetically,
Speaker 2: I mean that that changed so much of it for me.
Speaker 2: And that's what you see today. I mean a Zenma,
Speaker 2: she's an amazing violinist, black doing crazy things. She was
Speaker 2: just on tour with Beyonce as a violinist. Like that
Speaker 2: is what I wish I saw growing up, very regularly
Speaker 2: and frequently that I think would have made me feel
Speaker 2: less alone. So I think I think that's why I'm
Speaker 2: so passionate about the music I'm making now with Donova Misfit,
Speaker 2: because I want kids to know, especially kids that look
Speaker 2: like me, that the things that you're probably being counted
Speaker 2: out for, the things that you're being teased for as
Speaker 2: weird or unique or as different or as weird as
Speaker 2: people may say that is that actually might be the
Speaker 2: superpower that you have been given to change your world. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and you need to hone in on that thing, no
Speaker 2: matter what anybody says, because you don't want to lose
Speaker 2: out on your superpower just because somebody says you can't.
Speaker 1: Yeah, damn. So the Donava Misfit is out. What is
Speaker 1: your favorite What is your favorite track on the record?
Speaker 4: Oh?
Speaker 2: Man, so there's this track called Hallelujah, I Don't Think
Speaker 2: about You.
Speaker 1: And the breakup anthem.
Speaker 2: Yes, my breakup anthem.
Speaker 1: That's the one I wish that when I go through
Speaker 1: a breakup.
Speaker 2: I don't know, I don't think about it.
Speaker 3: I get a step what'd you say, Well, i'd want
Speaker 3: to step in down?
Speaker 1: You want to stepping down the street? What did you love?
Speaker 1: If you go to a breakup? And that's how the
Speaker 1: breakup really is, though, I mean, it gets there, but
Speaker 1: they don't get there right away or sure right. So
Speaker 1: but I listened to it and I'm like, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: be there one day.
Speaker 2: It takes time. It really takes that.
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know how guys are with breakups
Speaker 1: or different people are, but I know as a female,
Speaker 1: Oh no, there's like a period of morning.
Speaker 2: That's the same thing with guys. Okay, at least for me.
Speaker 1: Not the way you made it sound. You was like
Speaker 1: I said, oh he happy.
Speaker 2: Well, so it's funny. This was this song I wrote
Speaker 2: because of somebody I had worked with. Funny enough, it's
Speaker 2: not a it wasn't a romantic thing. It was actually
Speaker 2: somebody I worked with who they left our lives and
Speaker 2: it was kind of a toxic working relationship and it
Speaker 2: was years after where I go, wait a second, I
Speaker 2: didn't realize how toxic this was. So I actually worked
Speaker 2: with you see, one of my bandmates was on that
Speaker 2: song because this person knew that person as well, and
Speaker 2: I was like, bro, you're the only one that knows
Speaker 2: the story. We should write this and it We wrote
Speaker 2: it in like two hours, and it was so therapeutic.
Speaker 2: We were able to to be like, oh wait, that's
Speaker 2: what I would want to say now, like where I
Speaker 2: can just have joy about it and like, hey, I
Speaker 2: thank you for everything it was, but now I'm gonna
Speaker 2: let you leave my life and I'm going to live
Speaker 2: life unapologetically and thank you in a joyous way, like hey,
Speaker 2: thank you, but I'm not thinking about you no more. Yeah,
Speaker 2: Like I gotta keep it moving and keep my joy.
Speaker 2: So that's that's where I wrote it. And honestly, I
Speaker 2: remember coming home from the demo session with my bandmate
Speaker 2: Scott and also a girl named Rozzy Crane, one of
Speaker 2: our best friends, and I drove home and I said,
Speaker 2: listening to the demo, I go, this is the sound
Speaker 2: I had been looking for my whole life. I knew it, Okay,
Speaker 2: That's why I'm so excited that even this is the
Speaker 2: song that people know me the best for because I
Speaker 2: remember it to me when I think about cello and beatboxing, right,
Speaker 2: if that's the most simple version of what I'm doing now.
Speaker 2: If you take the cello and expand that out, that's
Speaker 2: classical music. If you say beat boxing, spend that out,
Speaker 2: that's hip hop, that's modern genre. So it's me fusing
Speaker 2: modern genre and and and and and classical music in
Speaker 2: a way that feels so seamless but has so much joy,
Speaker 2: which I think I bring when I play cello and
Speaker 2: beatboxing together. So it just it's my favorite song. It
Speaker 2: makes me feel like me the most. And it's also
Speaker 2: a little petty, which I also like.
Speaker 1: To especially if it's a work situation. But I ain't
Speaker 1: gonna lie. You listen to it and you're like, I
Speaker 1: want to even if you're going through a breakup or
Speaker 1: anything relatable. You know, it's nice to hear a song
Speaker 1: that's kind of like, yeah, you know, it kind of
Speaker 1: reminds me of the big songs like f You or
Speaker 1: something like. It's like but it's it's just like it's
Speaker 1: a very empowering outside of that song. Is there another song?
Speaker 1: First of all? Is there a song where there's a
Speaker 1: morning period.
Speaker 2: On this album?
Speaker 3: No, I don't think so a beat.
Speaker 2: I mean, well, I'm not gonna say it's all a beat,
Speaker 2: but it's definitely I didn't really write a lot of
Speaker 2: relationship songs, and I'll tell you why. Honestly, when I
Speaker 2: was first trying to understand my artistic journey, I didn't
Speaker 2: feel like I could have a lot of like love
Speaker 2: romantic morning songs because I just was like, I feel
Speaker 2: like everything that's ever written about that has been written,
Speaker 2: Like what can I add to the conversation that I
Speaker 2: think would make what I do different? I really thought that,
Speaker 2: and only now because I think I'm coming from the
Speaker 2: perspective of a first generation like person or like from
Speaker 2: immigrant culture, I feel like there are definitely things that
Speaker 2: I now see where I go, Oh, I don't know
Speaker 2: if people understand this experience, Like, for example, I love you,
Speaker 2: but my parents don't like you because you don't respect
Speaker 2: like what they're coming from, A like those type of
Speaker 2: things right, or you know, for example, like thinking about
Speaker 2: I didn't try to fall in love in the beginning
Speaker 2: because what my parents had told me was that, like,
Speaker 2: love is not good for your health, love is not
Speaker 2: good for for your school work. Yeah, They're like, love's
Speaker 2: not good for your your school work. It's not good
Speaker 2: for you to like I just like that's that was
Speaker 2: the mentality. So I was like, I'm not going to
Speaker 2: date because this is gonna mess up my ability to
Speaker 2: get into college. It's what they implied. As we kept
Speaker 2: thinking about school work and things like that, like if
Speaker 2: I like the girl, like okay, cool, but can you
Speaker 2: actually balance that with your with what you're trying to
Speaker 2: do here, Like this is important what we're trying to
Speaker 2: You can do this later, And I was like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 2: that makes so much sense, Like I could, I could
Speaker 2: date later.
Speaker 1: But like so you were able to logically say they
Speaker 1: had they had instilled enough structure where you could be
Speaker 1: like I like this girl, but your parents were like, Okay,
Speaker 1: that's cute and all, but this is the track we're on,
Speaker 1: and you were able to to say, you know what
Speaker 1: you're right and put aside your feelings.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think I think it wasn't so direct like that,
Speaker 2: but it was more of the environment I lived in
Speaker 2: and what let's say we collectively were trying to do
Speaker 2: as a family, which was to succeed in the United States.
Speaker 2: There were just certain things where I was like, this
Speaker 2: is going to mess up my shot, just straight up,
Speaker 2: like I can't. I can't. I'm not trying to think
Speaker 2: about girls. I'm not trying to like, yeah you cute, Yeah,
Speaker 2: I see you on the Dance World, Let's dance wool.
Speaker 2: But like other than that, like I'm about business right now.
Speaker 2: Like it just kind of was what it was, and
Speaker 2: I think that was just instilled in me because of
Speaker 2: where they came from, what they told me. So I
Speaker 2: remember those stories, but like, yeah, well, I mean obviously
Speaker 2: when I joined Panatonics started to become adult, like that
Speaker 2: was a different story because like now I had done
Speaker 2: all that stuff. But yeah, man, I think, like, so
Speaker 2: those are the kind of stories though, I go, oh,
Speaker 2: I can write about that love from that perspective, And
Speaker 2: that's why it's funny. I've been writing for this next
Speaker 2: album and I'm like, I want to make an album
Speaker 2: about love and relationships, like thinking about those things because
Speaker 2: I know that there are other like immigrant kids, where
Speaker 2: there's kids that you know they're Indian kids who comes
Speaker 2: to United States. I know they go through similar similar things,
Speaker 2: or like Chinese kids that go through similar things. I
Speaker 2: know they do because I've had the conversations with them.
Speaker 2: So I'm like, I want to I want to add
Speaker 2: those stories because I always go like and music, like
Speaker 2: who speaks for them? Like when I think about bernow, boy,
Speaker 2: what I love about bern I is like he speaks
Speaker 2: for black people, he speaks for African people. He's like, look,
Speaker 2: I want the whole world to know that I am
Speaker 2: here for you and that you are more powerful than
Speaker 2: you believe. Yeah, that's that's all. He's only empowering. Like,
Speaker 2: and I'm like, who empowers like the immigrants in a
Speaker 2: way that it's not like, well, my mom is from
Speaker 2: not that, it's just the stories that they all know.
Speaker 2: Like honestly, I got that from it. And this is
Speaker 2: so funny to say this. I feel like I got
Speaker 2: that mentality from Taylor Swift. What yes, I know, let
Speaker 2: me tell you why. So I my wife is nobody
Speaker 2: expects like Taylor Swift of all people.
Speaker 1: Let me tell you something though, just to sign note
Speaker 1: I my production here today. The guy and the girl
Speaker 1: are actually really good Taylor Swift fanshifties. They're Swifties. Well,
Speaker 1: the girl for sure. And the guy is like, if
Speaker 1: Taylor Swift comes on, he's not changing it, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, Like, like it will come on. Him
Speaker 1: and his boys could be working out, and everyone's just
Speaker 1: kind of like they let it ride out, which I
Speaker 1: think is funny. I'm like, yeah, we should make a
Speaker 1: skit of just Taylor Swift coming on and nobody touching
Speaker 1: to change it. But the truth of the matter is
Speaker 1: I do have a respect for Taylor and her womanly strength,
Speaker 1: and I have a respect for Taylor and her writing
Speaker 1: ability and all that or whatever. But I do think
Speaker 1: it's interesting that Taylor Swift is coming up in this conversation.
Speaker 2: Oh for sure. No, I'll tell you why. So, as
Speaker 2: I was making my album, one of the things that
Speaker 2: my label and or asked me is like, who are
Speaker 2: you writing this for? And I think I, like, intuitively knew,
Speaker 2: but I couldn't figure out the way to pinpoint it
Speaker 2: and just write it down so clearly. So my wife
Speaker 2: is a massive Swifty, massive massive message Swifts, and so
Speaker 2: she wanted to go to see her in concert at
Speaker 2: Santa Clara the Levi Stadium. So I was like, okay, cool,
Speaker 2: I'm not a swiftie, but I love my wife and
Speaker 2: I'm trying to stay married, so I'm gonna go and
Speaker 2: support my wife. So I go. I meet her friends.
Speaker 2: So we're at this hotel where there's I mean, it's
Speaker 2: decked out in all this Taylor Swift stuff. And so
Speaker 2: we go to breakfast and I meet these two young girls,
Speaker 2: they're probably fifteen and thirteen, and they're with their parents,
Speaker 2: and they're talking about Taylor Swift, talking about how excited
Speaker 2: they are, and this breakfast space is crowded, so we're
Speaker 2: all together eating breakfast. So I just happened to be
Speaker 2: sitting right across from them with their parents. So I
Speaker 2: asked the parents, like, do you mind if I ask
Speaker 2: your kids a couple of questions about Taylor Swift because
Speaker 2: I am new to this and I'm trying to understand
Speaker 2: why people love her so much, because I don't understand,
Speaker 2: So I asked them, like, what is it about Taylor Swift?
Speaker 2: As people who are a generation removed, what is it
Speaker 2: about her that you guys love so much?
Speaker 3: And they said, it's as if.
Speaker 2: She opened up our journals and wrote everything I ever
Speaker 2: thought about love as a girl.
Speaker 4: Wow.
Speaker 2: And when they said that, I go, oh, that's interesting.
Speaker 2: It's not that she's just making good music. She's connecting
Speaker 2: to these girls and the lexicon she is using is
Speaker 2: speaking to the way girls think about this stuff.
Speaker 1: See, Okay, I get what you're saying. I think I
Speaker 1: love hip hop. I love hip hop. I grew up
Speaker 1: on jay Z. Hip hop is like my first I
Speaker 1: would say it's my first love. And Joiner Lucas, I think.
Speaker 2: He is the most incredible rapper. Let me tell you
Speaker 2: right now, join Lucas point blank.
Speaker 1: By far. I can listen to Joiner Lucas and is
Speaker 1: not much. He says that I just can't be like
Speaker 1: damn does he? You know Wall's hearing, you know, totally relate.
Speaker 1: And there's Eminem and there's Jay and there's all these
Speaker 1: people that you can relate to. I think when you
Speaker 1: get to like the Joiner in them, and they're less
Speaker 1: metaphoric than the J's and the Nas and those guys.
Speaker 1: But I don't I don't think and I don't know.
Speaker 1: I'm just an outsider, but like when I hear an
Speaker 1: artist get that vulnerable, I almost feel like I create
Speaker 1: platforms because I want people to know that we all
Speaker 1: have goal through the same issues and sold struggles. We
Speaker 1: just don't know it.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: I can look at you and be like, oh, his
Speaker 1: life must be amazing, and then we sit down and
Speaker 1: you're like and you're like, oh, okay, we're the same.
Speaker 1: And I think when an artist breaks that vulnerability of
Speaker 1: like just pure like nakedness, that's where the fans can
Speaker 1: really like, oh wait, we are on the same page.
Speaker 1: But I don't never I don't think I ever think
Speaker 1: that an artist intentionally writes to capture that spirit, right am,
Speaker 1: I right?
Speaker 2: I mean it depends, like sometimes they do, and sometimes
Speaker 2: they're just flowing and spitting. But again, like a lot
Speaker 2: of stuff like okay and w A, they're speaking literally
Speaker 2: from their experience being it like like that is their experience.
Speaker 2: So it's like they are speaking and people are going
Speaker 2: crazy because they're like I know that. I know that
Speaker 2: because my cousin data like I know that. And so
Speaker 2: I think when you're speaking from an experience that that
Speaker 2: you have and you realize, oh, way, other people have
Speaker 2: this experience too, and you say it in a way
Speaker 2: that they go it opens like the light bulbs go off.
Speaker 2: Right then I think you really hook people. So that's why,
Speaker 2: Like I remember, like when I went to this Table
Speaker 2: Swift concert and I'm seeing my wife and all of
Speaker 2: her friends like screaming, and I'm seeing all these young girls.
Speaker 2: I go, oh, I understand it. That's so that's when
Speaker 2: I was like, who are my people? Who are my
Speaker 2: That's exactly and that's what I was trying to figure
Speaker 2: out because in my head, I go, I know, there
Speaker 2: are black kids that are made fun of. There are
Speaker 2: immigrants that are made fun of because they like things
Speaker 2: that people may say that's not either stereotypically black, or
Speaker 2: there might be white kids that say you shouldn't be
Speaker 2: doing that. And now the thing that they love maybe
Speaker 2: it's archery. I don't know, maybe it's cello. Had they
Speaker 2: had somebody like me say hey, you're good, let me
Speaker 2: play songs and write music for you, Like I have
Speaker 2: this one song called Well. I did a cover of
Speaker 2: Miss of Crazy Mona's Barkley. But my whole story behind
Speaker 2: it was just feeling like nobody understands me because I'm
Speaker 2: a misfit. I don't fit into any bomb and realizing
Speaker 2: over seventeen years and making this finally get into this ilbum,
Speaker 2: going that's okay. I just never had that that's okay part.
Speaker 2: And I want other kids who look like me or
Speaker 2: come from those those backgrounds to go that's okay. And
Speaker 2: there's somebody rocking with me who understands that that's okay.
Speaker 2: So yeah, it's just like finding my people.
Speaker 1: Well, I think children of immigrants definitely have their own lane.
Speaker 1: My mom's a Jamaican. If you're a Jamaican, you already know,
Speaker 1: you already know what it is, you already know the
Speaker 1: trauma that bears being a Jamaican.
Speaker 2: Yo.
Speaker 1: It's funny because me and my girlfriend we talk. I'd
Speaker 1: never been to Jamaica, but sometimes you know, when you're mixed,
Speaker 1: people discredit your blackness or your ethnicity, and I'm like, eh, nope,
Speaker 1: I have a Jamaica mom, which means to me, it
Speaker 1: makes me one hundred percent qualifying to say this is
Speaker 1: who I am. But I want to go back to
Speaker 1: your first record deal.
Speaker 2: Yeah take me there. Yeah sure. So the first record
Speaker 2: deal that we got is funny. So it was when
Speaker 2: we won the TV show the singlef from Pentatonics. We
Speaker 2: on the show, if you win, get a two hundred
Speaker 2: thousand dollars, So you get two hundred thousand dollars and
Speaker 2: you also get a recording contract with Sony Records. So
Speaker 2: we get the record deal. But what people don't know
Speaker 2: is like thirty days afterwards, we actually got dropped. How
Speaker 2: So we meet with the record executive team and at
Speaker 2: that time there was a new executive in the building.
Speaker 2: I'm not gonna the name of who it was. There
Speaker 2: was a new executive who was just trying to get
Speaker 2: the record company i think in a sense solvent, so
Speaker 2: that they would be able to generate cash. So they're
Speaker 2: focusing on their winners. So he comes in and he
Speaker 2: sees this new contract. He's like, what's this. I don't
Speaker 2: know what this is. And so him and his team
Speaker 2: they ask us in that first meeting, will you guys
Speaker 2: put music behind what you do the a cappella vocals?
Speaker 2: And we were like, no, we just won a TV
Speaker 2: show for not doing that, and like people are loving that.
Speaker 2: They're like cool, cuck cuckoock cool, cool cool. And then
Speaker 2: we found out from our manager at the time. He said, yeah,
Speaker 2: they're they're most likely going to drop you guys. They
Speaker 2: gave you guys a kill fee of this much to
Speaker 2: kill the contract, and so you can Yeah, they call
Speaker 2: it a killfee.
Speaker 1: We'll go back to the two hundred k too. Did
Speaker 1: you guys have to split that all amongth Yes, that's
Speaker 1: what I mean, And that's taxes too, and then how
Speaker 1: long did it take to get the check?
Speaker 2: That's exactly it. So like moving. So this is why
Speaker 2: I think it's so funny because people are like, oh,
Speaker 2: my gosh, two hundred thousand dollars, y'all making money, blah
Speaker 2: blah blah blah blah. Okay, so first of all, two
Speaker 2: hundred thousand dollars, right, taxes, so half of that one
Speaker 2: hundred thousand. Also, they're probably like salary k one stuthing
Speaker 2: that I don't really understand, but I remember, we get
Speaker 2: that and it's split in five ways, so it's twenty
Speaker 2: grand right each. But like, you're moving to California, right,
Speaker 2: so I have to buy a car because I don't
Speaker 2: have a problem there.
Speaker 1: You have to move to California.
Speaker 2: Oh no, we wanted to move to California, so I
Speaker 2: had never moved to California, so like the moving fees,
Speaker 2: I don't have a car, never had a car in
Speaker 2: my life at that time, because you know, you're in college,
Speaker 2: I don't I don't need a car. So I'm like,
Speaker 2: buy a car for like ten thousand dollars. It was
Speaker 2: a ninety seven. It was a ninety seven LS four
Speaker 2: hundred Lexus, So it was like beating down a little bit.
Speaker 2: Jakie had one hundred and some thousand.
Speaker 1: Miles on your parents at this point, like on board
Speaker 1: with like helping you out a little bit.
Speaker 2: Well kind of, but they were kind of so they
Speaker 2: had already helped me out, I think from their standpoint
Speaker 2: with allowing me to help me with pay with some
Speaker 2: college bills because you know, obviously they're like, oh, this
Speaker 2: big Yale bill, that's exactly it, right, you're using exactly so,
Speaker 2: And I still had to pay off the rest of
Speaker 2: that Jesus exactly so. Like honestly, we didn't really start
Speaker 2: making money until twenty fourteen when we had our first
Speaker 2: big Christmas album. Like I remember that first year. I
Speaker 2: think we each made like fifty grand from our tour,
Speaker 2: which was like a good amount to us. But remember
Speaker 2: fifty grand half we got fees for actually doing the tour.
Speaker 2: And that's exactly it. And that's forty percent off the top.
Speaker 2: People don't know that stuff. So it's fifteen percent for management, yeah,
Speaker 2: ten percent for your business manager, five percent for your agent, sorry,
Speaker 2: ten percent for your agent, five percent for your lawyer. Right.
Speaker 3: So it's like you forget all that. Yeah, and that's
Speaker 3: off the gross, that's not off the the not off
Speaker 3: the net.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So it's like it's just yeah.
Speaker 1: So now at this point, you guys are learning the
Speaker 1: crash course of like I know, Yale's teaches a lot.
Speaker 2: Oh, they don't teach finances. It's funny.
Speaker 1: You go to college and then you enter the real
Speaker 1: world and like, oh, I don't think they discussed any
Speaker 1: of this.
Speaker 2: Where is that?
Speaker 1: But take me back to before Pentatonics forms? Then I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: I'm zig zagging. Yes, take me back before Pentatonics because
Speaker 1: I want to know, before you guys entered the show,
Speaker 1: how did that whole formulate?
Speaker 2: Oh, how did they come to how did they come together?
Speaker 4: So?
Speaker 2: So I come back so so so after my junior year,
Speaker 2: I took a year off and I study Chinese some more.
Speaker 2: I got money to study China Chinese. But I loved it.
Speaker 2: I love studying Mandarin Chinese. It was so fun.
Speaker 1: So is there any way to cash in on that
Speaker 1: later in life? Or is this going to be just
Speaker 1: a fun hobby. I'm sorry, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: no no no. What we going to do with this Chinese?
Speaker 2: And what are we going to do with the Chinese?
Speaker 2: Why do you study? Yeah, no, I've had a viral
Speaker 2: video for a bit. Other than that, I guess I'm a.
Speaker 1: Sex show dad, Like what are we doing with this Chinese?
Speaker 2: I mean, if I ever toured China?
Speaker 1: You want to know something, Yes, actually it will probably
Speaker 1: come in handy, like maybe on one of your tracks
Speaker 1: or something. You never know, because Chinese, there's Chinese immigrants
Speaker 1: exactly relate.
Speaker 2: I will say this. I'll tell you actually at one
Speaker 2: time it actually came in handy. And now, well, then
Speaker 2: we'll go back to the story. So our biggest song
Speaker 2: to date is Hallelujah, and we had actually done a
Speaker 2: Christmas version of Hallelujah with different lyrics.
Speaker 3: So this is twenty sixteen, We're on tour in Asia
Speaker 3: in Singapore, and we.
Speaker 2: Finish it turn it into the label feeling good about it,
Speaker 2: don't want to think about it anymore. We're done. But
Speaker 2: then we find out that we can't do that version
Speaker 2: because the Leonard Cohen estate had said, hey, that we're
Speaker 2: not doing any other version that you can record except
Speaker 2: for my version. So we were flying to Taiwan for
Speaker 2: a show and we had to turn it in really quickly.
Speaker 2: So we land and then the next morning before the
Speaker 2: show is that night we had to go into the
Speaker 2: studio and record ourselves singing the right lyrics. So I'm
Speaker 2: speaking to all the engineers in Chinese because I'm the
Speaker 2: only one that knows how to speak to them.
Speaker 3: Okay, So in that case it actually really really helped.
Speaker 1: I will say this though, you know what I overlooked
Speaker 1: in this conversation where the Chinese actually came in handy,
Speaker 1: what there would be no Kevin beat boxing celloists if
Speaker 1: there was no Chinese. That's true because it was your
Speaker 1: Chinese professors exactly. They said, have you ever thought about
Speaker 1: bringing them to so technically the dudes have already been paid. Hey,
Speaker 1: I appreciate right if you have you thought about that before,
Speaker 1: but that could be your comeback if your dad ever says,
Speaker 1: what are we going to do with this Chinese exactly?
Speaker 3: Well, he never said that actually about I just loved it.
Speaker 3: He's like, cool, that's that's fine.
Speaker 2: I'm not paying for it. I'm living. You don't have
Speaker 2: to pay for it.
Speaker 3: Some cool.
Speaker 2: I've sent you to college, go have your college education.
Speaker 1: Okay, so take me back to prior Pentatonics.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry, right, So how we started? So I take
Speaker 2: that year off after my junior year to study Chinese.
Speaker 2: Now the summer a.
Speaker 1: Year off of Yale, I can't have a problem.
Speaker 2: Well, because I had gotten a fellowship from Yale to
Speaker 2: be able to study for an academic year. So I
Speaker 2: did the LFE fellowship. I was telling you about twice,
Speaker 2: once for the summer and then one for the academic year,
Speaker 2: so we didn't have to pay a dome. So I
Speaker 2: finished that and then that summer. Funny enough, I bummed around.
Speaker 2: I didn't do anything that summer before my senior year.
Speaker 2: I was living in China, hanging out with Chinese friends, traveling, like,
Speaker 2: no internship, no nothing. So a lot of people probably
Speaker 2: think you're you're wasting your life or whatever. I was like,
Speaker 2: I'm I'm living my life. I don't need to do nothing.
Speaker 2: But what I did do was I started studying this
Speaker 2: piece called Julio by a guy named Mark Summer who's
Speaker 2: part of the Turtle Islands Drink Quartet, And I started
Speaker 2: practicing that. And at that point I had felt like
Speaker 2: I had gotten enough skills to try to add beatboxing
Speaker 2: throughout a whole entire piece. Before I had just done
Speaker 2: like simple scales and beat boxing or an easy groove.
Speaker 2: And this is the first time where I said, can
Speaker 2: I do it throughout a whole piece? So I worked
Speaker 2: on that for the whole summer while I was in China. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I took a whole summer to do that, but then
Speaker 2: it took a whole year to perfect it, Like I
Speaker 2: did it throughout my whole campus. I did it a
Speaker 2: talent show.
Speaker 1: How long is it?
Speaker 2: Four minutes? It took that long because it was something new,
Speaker 2: like I could not figure out how to make it
Speaker 2: feel seamless, like I'd make so many mistakes while I'd
Speaker 2: be playing cello and beatboxing at the same time, Like
Speaker 2: like think about that, like trying to make that happen
Speaker 2: and work, Like, oh, it's just easy. You think it's
Speaker 2: gonna take me like.
Speaker 1: A mutt if it took this song. I don't know
Speaker 1: how you guys would feel about this, but like he
Speaker 1: brought his cell I did, and I would love to
Speaker 1: know what that would sound like after a year you've
Speaker 1: obviously perfected it. Sorry, we're gonna get like a little
Speaker 1: you want to get a little sneak people, We'll do it.
Speaker 1: We'll we'll bake it in. But I'll get to hear
Speaker 1: what real work sounds.
Speaker 2: I will.
Speaker 3: I will give you the four levels of cello boxing.
Speaker 3: Ill show you.
Speaker 1: No, you said the piece, yeah, I will is at
Speaker 1: the four levels of boxing or the whole.
Speaker 2: No, So I'm going to show you what it sounded
Speaker 2: like when I started off to finally get to that piece.
Speaker 1: I'll just show you step because I saw that before
Speaker 1: I saw what on Like, No, I want to see
Speaker 1: the the final Yeah, okay, I can do that too.
Speaker 2: Is that is that?
Speaker 1: Is that horrible that I'm asking? I just want to
Speaker 1: see it because it's like if it took that long
Speaker 1: to learn it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I want.
Speaker 1: I want to witness greatness.
Speaker 2: That's all I will.
Speaker 3: Play you with. Slipping of that, that's easy, I get that.
Speaker 2: Yes, Okay, you are good, don't worry.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 2: So yeah, so that long. It took. It took a
Speaker 2: year of performing getting comfortable with it before I felt
Speaker 2: like really really solid in that for.
Speaker 1: Me a year, meaning you played it every day.
Speaker 2: I played it maybe not every day, but throughout campus
Speaker 2: people would ask me the cool talent shows, I'd play
Speaker 2: it at those I would play it for. I actually
Speaker 2: use it for my audition for music school because I thought,
Speaker 2: you know, I want to try this music thing for
Speaker 2: a little bit. Why don't I go to music school.
Speaker 2: But then what happened was my senior spring semester, I
Speaker 2: got nominated for a senior prize in the arts, and
Speaker 2: so I needed to show a portfolio of work. So
Speaker 2: I said, well, why don't I use this piece and
Speaker 2: show that to the arts committee. So one of my friends,
Speaker 2: Jake Brewin, he filmed me playing this piece and he said, bro,
Speaker 2: why don't you put this up on YouTube? And I'm like,
Speaker 2: nobody cares. Nobody cares about this piece, Nobody cares about
Speaker 2: this kind of music. It's not what Jason Derula was
Speaker 2: popping at the times. It's not Jason Derulo is. It's
Speaker 2: just it's just a a jello piece, that's it. And
Speaker 2: he goes, yeah, but you have nothing to lose, and
Speaker 2: I was like, that's true. I don't have anything to lose. Okay,
Speaker 2: so you know, I recorded it, I put it up online,
Speaker 2: went to bed, didn't think anything of it. A few
Speaker 2: days later, my roommates knocked my door and they told me, yo,
Speaker 2: your video is number four on Reddit, and like, to me,
Speaker 2: I go, What's Reddit? I had no idea what Reddit was.
Speaker 2: I don't know where that is, Like what read? Who read?
Speaker 4: Who? Like what?
Speaker 2: I didn't get it. But then the video is getting
Speaker 2: hundreds of thousands and millions of views, and I'm like,
Speaker 2: what is going on? Why is this happening. I'm just
Speaker 2: trying to graduate and literally at that time finished for
Speaker 2: my senior essay and like, I'm not thinking about all
Speaker 2: this stuff. Opportunities were coming. New York Times had asked
Speaker 2: me for the next Chullu beat boxing video you do
Speaker 2: we want an exclusive premiere, and I'm like, it took
Speaker 2: me a year to get the first one, so it's
Speaker 2: not gonna take you another year to get the next,
Speaker 2: Like like what like was not prepared, but that video
Speaker 2: got to the eyes of our friend Ben bram. Ben
Speaker 2: Bram is the is one of the producers of Pentatonics,
Speaker 2: but he was also acer on the TV show The
Speaker 2: sing Off, and one of the acapella groups on the
Speaker 2: show sent him that video, say hey, have you ever
Speaker 2: seen this kid before? And my bandmate, Scott Mintioned Kersey
Speaker 2: had just joined together to form for this TV show
Speaker 2: and they had found a bass singer, but they had
Speaker 2: gone through four to five different beat boxers and they
Speaker 2: had not found the right person. But they were like,
Speaker 2: that's the guy. He sent it to them, like you
Speaker 2: need this guy, so they literally facebooked me. Scott facebooked
Speaker 2: me that Facebook. He facebooked me, He's like, bro, Loop,
Speaker 2: we just saw your video. This is dope trying out
Speaker 2: for this TV show. Don't know if you're interested in this?
Speaker 2: And I said no. I was like, this is not
Speaker 2: something I'm interested in. I've seen so much acapella. I'm
Speaker 2: acapella out. I don't want to do this. Oh yes,
Speaker 2: I said no.
Speaker 1: Did you even see their work?
Speaker 2: Not yet? So he sent me after that like, hey,
Speaker 2: I want to send you just a video of us singing.
Speaker 2: Just check it out. I know you already said no,
Speaker 2: but just check it out and see what you think.
Speaker 1: Scott.
Speaker 2: Scott was Scott determined yet out this guy exactly. Scott was.
Speaker 3: He definitely did not take no. He was he was,
Speaker 3: he was, and he's still that way.
Speaker 2: He's still like he's determined when he wants something. But
Speaker 2: he sent me a video of them singing Telephone by
Speaker 2: Lady Gaga. Okay song, it's a great song, and they
Speaker 2: were singing it for their high school show choir concert,
Speaker 2: and I was like, this is actually a young yeah,
Speaker 2: I mean they were younger than me, so when I
Speaker 2: was twenty two, they were eighteen nineteen at the time.
Speaker 2: So I see this video and I'm like, okay, that's cool,
Speaker 2: and he goes, can you just show us like a
Speaker 2: little like can you do a little just beat boxing
Speaker 2: by itself? So I sent I finished my last final
Speaker 2: and I sent a little video of me beatboxing to
Speaker 2: them through Facebook.
Speaker 1: Even though you weren't still weren't interested.
Speaker 2: I still was. I was like, I was starting to
Speaker 2: get a little bit more interested after you heard them,
Speaker 2: after I heard them sing. So I sent a little
Speaker 2: video of me doing this thing, and he was like, yeah,
Speaker 2: this is perfect. You should you should join us. And
Speaker 2: I'm like, okay, what is the audition? He goes, it's
Speaker 2: this date, so which is two weeks after I graduate
Speaker 2: from college. I thought about it, and I said, and honestly,
Speaker 2: my thought process was, you know what, I'm meeting new people.
Speaker 2: I'm going to try music out anyway. It's like it's
Speaker 2: gonna be like a summer camp, because little music summer camp.
Speaker 1: And then where was this audition?
Speaker 3: Well, that audition, Oh, the audition for the TV show
Speaker 3: was in Los Angeles.
Speaker 1: Okay, so you had to get on a plane.
Speaker 3: So what we did is that I paid for half
Speaker 3: the flight, and he asked his mom to pay.
Speaker 2: For the other half.
Speaker 3: M Scott, Yes, I like, Scott, get this.
Speaker 2: Exactly. Hey Mama, look, I don't know if it's gonna
Speaker 2: pay any divides, but like, look, I'm gonna ask this guy.
Speaker 2: I don't know who he is. He could be crazy.
Speaker 2: That's exactly it. So I graduated, and then two weeks later,
Speaker 2: I'm on a plane. I get there on a Friday,
Speaker 2: and then I meet them the day before the audition.
Speaker 2: We practiced literally just the day before the audition, all
Speaker 2: five of us, and I'll never forget. We were all like,
Speaker 2: wait a second, this sounds good, like even me. Well,
Speaker 2: I said, I did not like acapella like point blank
Speaker 2: did not like it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I'm like, this is that's how I feel
Speaker 1: sometimes like musicals. I'm not really a fan of them.
Speaker 2: But yeah, I'm not a musical person. No no, no, no,
Speaker 2: no no. And it's so funny because I did musical
Speaker 2: like my bandmate's love musical. It's not necessarily my thing.
Speaker 1: Okay, that makes me feel good that she would admit that.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I'll be fully honest.
Speaker 2: Now I did. I just did see a musical recently
Speaker 2: that I really did, like call no I did.
Speaker 3: This is the first one.
Speaker 2: I was like, oh, this is kind of fly. It
Speaker 2: was Oh my gosh, it.
Speaker 1: Wasn't Alicia Keys. Thing was no, no, have you heard
Speaker 1: about it?
Speaker 4: No?
Speaker 2: I actually did she have a musical like.
Speaker 1: A hell of a Kitchen or something, helles kischen.
Speaker 2: Oh, I didn't know she did that. I think she did.
Speaker 1: Oh well, I don't know if she was in it,
Speaker 1: but she it was okay, go about it, yes, Okay, So.
Speaker 2: We do that, and I'm like, this is kind of fly.
Speaker 2: So then we do the audition the next day, and
Speaker 2: I didn't understand the scope and the magnitude of the show.
Speaker 2: There were hundreds of acapella groups trying out from all
Speaker 2: over the country. I didn't know that. So I'm coming
Speaker 2: in blind, just live in my life. Because I was
Speaker 2: I didn't put any pressure on it. I was like, yeah,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna go in, live my life. Whatever. So we
Speaker 2: do the audition and I'll never forget. We do telephone,
Speaker 2: We do one of the song and they were really
Speaker 2: liking it. They said, can you improvise something for us
Speaker 2: on the spot.
Speaker 1: I'm like a subway sandwiching.
Speaker 2: Literally kind of like that, like do you do a
Speaker 2: little jingle or do something?
Speaker 1: And we're like, we know, so, yeah, because you have
Speaker 1: to be in harmony and you guys have to like
Speaker 1: practice exactly.
Speaker 2: I think it's funny. Somebody just said I think Scott
Speaker 2: a video of the audition tape, and he goes, I
Speaker 2: don't know how they chose it because we were terrible,
Speaker 2: like that part of.
Speaker 1: It, you guys, and we just met, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, Like, what do you mean?
Speaker 2: So anyway, I remember, So we finished the audition. I'm
Speaker 2: not thinking we killed it or didn't. I just like, cool,
Speaker 2: we did it. We go to Olive Garden immediately afterwards,
Speaker 2: because right, yeah, we broke it. We broke go to
Speaker 2: Olive Garden. We're sitting outside of Olive Garden.
Speaker 3: Scott gets a call and he's like okay, yeah, wow, okay, cool,
Speaker 3: thank you.
Speaker 2: We're like, what happened? Goes? We got on the show
Speaker 2: and I'm like, we're one of sixteen on this show
Speaker 2: was just sixteen groups. Like oh wow. So we're trying
Speaker 2: to figure out a name for the for for our
Speaker 2: group we called. We came up with Pentatonics and they
Speaker 2: were like, that's a terrible name.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a hard name.
Speaker 2: That's a hard name.
Speaker 1: How would you come up with that? I thought you're
Speaker 1: gonna say we were looking at Spooner was.
Speaker 2: All right, no, no. So so we came up with
Speaker 2: the name because there's a scale in music called the
Speaker 2: pentatonic scale, and it's a five note scale that is
Speaker 2: used in all different types of music. And because of
Speaker 2: how diverse we were and we love all types of music,
Speaker 2: we thought that could be a really good thing that
Speaker 2: represents who we are. And that was all Scott. He
Speaker 2: learned that in theory class. I was just I'm along
Speaker 2: for the ride. Okay, yeah, I was along for the ride.
Speaker 2: I was like, cool, sounds good to me. Exactly how
Speaker 2: spelling though, right, And it's funny because they were like,
Speaker 2: you guys should call it yourselves Fifth Harmony, and we
Speaker 2: were like, whoa, yeah, exactly right, there's already a group
Speaker 2: now called that. There another name was like Plead the Fifth.
Speaker 2: It was bad. It was bad.
Speaker 1: I'm glad that guy exists, just to save the little
Speaker 1: bit of savings he did.
Speaker 2: He did, Okay, So that's how we formed.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 2: I love that.
Speaker 1: It's a beautiful story. For those of you guys that
Speaker 1: don't know, I met Kevin like twenty years ago, over
Speaker 1: twenty years ago. He didn't even know who I was
Speaker 1: because I was telling Kevin. I remembered him because he
Speaker 1: was so remarkably talented, and I saved his number on
Speaker 1: my phone. And I have this role with my cell
Speaker 1: phones because I do actually have a lot of people's
Speaker 1: numbers on my phones. And you know, when you transfer phones,
Speaker 1: they don't always transfer the numbers over. That's true, and
Speaker 1: so I keep all my phones. I have a cabinet
Speaker 1: that has like ten iPhones and it's serious, yes, because
Speaker 1: everyone's in iPhone. It's a lot androids, all of them.
Speaker 1: Because I had learned that whenever I transfer phoned, they
Speaker 1: don't always transfer, and sometimes I may be looking for
Speaker 1: XYZ's contact and I'm like, I know I have it,
Speaker 1: maybe three or four phones ago, I have the number.
Speaker 1: But ironically, by the grace of God, Kevin, I promise you,
Speaker 1: like I'll have like, let's just use Tom Brown or whatever.
Speaker 1: It'll say Tom Brown, Tom Brown, Tom Brown, Tom Brown
Speaker 1: on my phone, but none of them will actually have
Speaker 1: the number or the email. But I think on yours,
Speaker 1: did I have your email and your number?
Speaker 2: Maybe?
Speaker 1: But I saw that I had looked, and I know
Speaker 1: Lie had his number in my phone. I called it.
Speaker 1: Of course he didn't and whatever, and I left this
Speaker 1: voice like I know you don't know me or you
Speaker 1: may not remember me, but we know somebody that I
Speaker 1: was lucky enough that we knew a'm mutual. But I
Speaker 1: co called, I co called and a cold email, and
Speaker 1: somehow we almost didn't work it out because of scheduling,
Speaker 1: and then we almost didn't work out again because of
Speaker 1: Kevin's Teeve is very bulletproof.
Speaker 2: They are thorough.
Speaker 1: They slipped him off the email like he was like,
Speaker 1: what are you talking about? I'm like, yo, they told
Speaker 1: you off that email was like, I know you think
Speaker 1: this is how it's going on, but this is how
Speaker 1: it's really going down. And I was like, oh oh.
Speaker 1: So I went to Todate's and really thought like, oh,
Speaker 1: this interview may not happen, but you always come prepared.
Speaker 1: So I was like, I'm gonna dress my best, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna do my best, I'm gonna show up. I'm not
Speaker 1: even gonna tell Trevor the producer that this may get canceled.
Speaker 1: And I was like, damn, I'm probably gonna have to
Speaker 1: pay him for his time. So I was like, I
Speaker 1: wonder if you would hear me, let me get away
Speaker 1: with not paying him today. Probably not gonna happen, but
Speaker 1: just a case cause you know, if talent cancels, I
Speaker 1: still got to pay and so but I'm so thankful.
Speaker 1: But one of the things I wanted to share with
Speaker 1: you guys is, like Kevin and I were talking earlier,
Speaker 1: it's like, you know, when you watch your art history
Speaker 1: and you see the talent and you see what goes
Speaker 1: into it, It's like, I don't think you can really
Speaker 1: fully put it into perspective if you don't really know
Speaker 1: the person, you don't get to see their growth. And yes,
Speaker 1: I remember Kevin, he was younger than me, but very talented.
Speaker 1: And I remember just being like, Yo, this this kid's different,
Speaker 1: and I followed him on, like if it was socials
Speaker 1: or whatever, I always made sure to follow you. And again,
Speaker 1: I'm a fan of hip hop, so you know, you
Speaker 1: bring cello to a beaten just uniqueness. I just was
Speaker 1: always a huge fan. So I think it was LinkedIn
Speaker 1: or somewhere one of your socials I started seeing like
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, Kevin's doing stuff, you know, And
Speaker 1: so I followed you and it's just crazy to see
Speaker 1: your journey up close and from when you were like young,
Speaker 1: and to know that you didn't give up, you know,
Speaker 1: because if you did give up, and if you didn't
Speaker 1: take Chinese right, we may not be sitting here, you know.
Speaker 1: And I don't go to the doctor that often, so
Speaker 1: we probably would have never seen each other.
Speaker 2: Yo, that's funny, Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1: Would have never happened. So but thank you for honoring
Speaker 1: your parents and respecting your parents and giving homage to
Speaker 1: your family and you know, staying the course, because because
Speaker 1: you do that, you know there's gonna be other immigrant
Speaker 1: kids of immigrant children, immigrants, black people, brown people, and
Speaker 1: other people that because you let your light shine. They're
Speaker 1: able to do the same. So you know, even just
Speaker 1: this interview gives me like another week before I quit.
Speaker 1: I wake up three days from now and be like,
Speaker 1: I quit. But no, I think it's really important that
Speaker 1: we share these stories. And I'm super thankful that she
Speaker 1: showed up. Super thankful on many levels. I did not
Speaker 1: think this interview is gonna happen. And I'm glad you
Speaker 1: responded to my email. Got a job, man, you said, yeah,
Speaker 1: Trevor got paid today. I was sitting there like, I called, well,
Speaker 1: I was sending your team emails like and then I
Speaker 1: was like, fuck, I'm gonna have to pay Trevor.
Speaker 2: I didn't get those. No, we wasn't.
Speaker 1: They was taking No. I made sure that we responded
Speaker 1: and copied you on the ones today because I was like, well,
Speaker 1: maybe he'll be like, this is in my schedule. Of course,
Speaker 1: we had to try to manipulate it. But I thank
Speaker 1: you so much for your time.
Speaker 3: Guys.
Speaker 1: I am going to this is very terrible of me,
Speaker 1: but I want to take advantage of having Kevin in
Speaker 1: the studio, so I will be having him just play
Speaker 1: a little something, which, by the way, his team did
Speaker 1: not approve he ain't bring no challo over there.
Speaker 2: I was like, oh my god, I didn't even really know,
Speaker 2: so I'm glad to bring it.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I wanted to see your talent and see
Speaker 1: the growth, and you know, I want to see what
Speaker 1: a year's worth of work looks like. So I'll record
Speaker 1: it on my iPhone and have my team bake it
Speaker 1: in so you guys could enjoy it too. But thank
Speaker 1: y'all for tuning in. Please go check out Dawn have
Speaker 1: a misfit Yes out now anywhere and enjoy enjoy that.
Speaker 1: And if you're going through a breakup, you know, hallayu ya.
Speaker 2: Peace, don't think I don't think about you.
Speaker 1: No peace. For more eating while broke from iHeartRadio and
Speaker 1: The Black Effect, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.