Speaker 1: And well we are the authority on all things and
Speaker 1: ladies and gentlemen, I am Tank and this is the
Speaker 1: R and B Money Podcast, the authority on all things
Speaker 1: R and B. All things, not some things, all things, because,
Speaker 1: as we say, all things, it's not just the glitz
Speaker 1: and glamour. It's not what you see, m It's not
Speaker 1: just what you see. It's also yeah, yes, people you
Speaker 1: don't see you know what I'm saying. You here, what's
Speaker 1: just what you do? Close your eyes, close your eyes close, Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: this is we have an educational moment along with I
Speaker 1: mean one of the calls of voices I've ever heard,
Speaker 1: I mean period. And I always tell him when I
Speaker 1: see him, I said, manut, if you don't put out
Speaker 1: a record and stop playing with the universe gave you
Speaker 1: this gift. Lets without further ado, we have on Army
Speaker 1: Money Podcast. Give it up to Stevie Nkin. First of all,
Speaker 1: congratulations on the two piece. Let's start there, st he
Speaker 1: already started, he already started, hooked me up with you
Speaker 1: need to drip. Um. I just want to first I
Speaker 1: want to say thank you, um, first for being here
Speaker 1: and um and just a little little history, UM, I
Speaker 1: met you and we'll we'll we'll dive all the way
Speaker 1: back right because you know, we like, we like to
Speaker 1: go to the beginning. But I met you with Jennifer Lopez, Yes,
Speaker 1: and it was crazy because she was doing a residency
Speaker 1: at Planet Hollywood and I go to this show me
Speaker 1: and my wife was like, yeah, yeah, I was gonna say,
Speaker 1: j be fine, she could perform. She does her think
Speaker 1: and j Lo got on that stage and sang sing sing,
Speaker 1: sing sing and didn't miss I say, who's this j Loo?
Speaker 1: She'd been doing some work. She killing. And then I
Speaker 1: met you and we set at the piano in the
Speaker 1: in the in the sweet of all the sweet of
Speaker 1: all sweet, and and then I began to understand the
Speaker 1: magic is Stevie Mackie. Um, I just wanted to give
Speaker 1: you all a little bit of that. Okay, it starts,
Speaker 1: and we got a whole story to go telling, but
Speaker 1: I'm coming. We're gonna let him do the rest of
Speaker 1: the storytelling. Brother. We like to go all the way
Speaker 1: back to the beginning. And So when did you know
Speaker 1: or when did somebody say you have a gift, you're special?
Speaker 1: When did that happen for you? I remember being about
Speaker 1: five and my parents were playing Darryl Coley at home,
Speaker 1: and I whispered to one of my relatives, I said
Speaker 1: I can do that. I was little nothing. I was
Speaker 1: a little nothing, and I said I can do that.
Speaker 1: And I was a quiet kid. My parents are very social.
Speaker 1: I'm a little introvert. And so I said to somebody
Speaker 1: whoever would listen, I said, I can do that. Singing
Speaker 1: came like the A. B C's to me. It was
Speaker 1: very natural, and I would I would just mimic everything,
Speaker 1: and my parents play some good music. They would play
Speaker 1: the Clark Sisters, they played Commission, they played the Wine
Speaker 1: in BBC. That's a very important know parents playing. Yes,
Speaker 1: not even just the right music. But she's playing good music, right,
Speaker 1: because right is relative, right, but good music is not right.
Speaker 1: You're right. Good music is good music? Is good music.
Speaker 1: Play some good music for your kids. Yes, it's what
Speaker 1: you're playing. When you don't think they're listening, they are.
Speaker 1: I was a little thing, and I would turn over
Speaker 1: the record to hear Jesus a love song, and like,
Speaker 1: you know these records these and we would my dad
Speaker 1: would play the records. My parents would play them and
Speaker 1: try to pick out the chords on the piano. They
Speaker 1: were they're musicians too, and so I listen. I said,
Speaker 1: I can do that, and I'd go around mimicking everything
Speaker 1: I heard from cartoon voices and Sesame Street Voices two
Speaker 1: two singers that they loved. So I was I was mimicking,
Speaker 1: but I was still too shy to sing in front
Speaker 1: of people. But you know, as I got older, I
Speaker 1: started doing it. When was the first When was the
Speaker 1: breakout moment? I mean it was church. It was church.
Speaker 1: I remember gett in front of the church. I went
Speaker 1: to pretty conservative. I'm from Pasadena, Orn David got some
Speaker 1: legends man, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I've worked with John
Speaker 1: I love John Man. Pastaden is hidding gym in l A.
Speaker 1: And it's kind of old l A. And it's it's
Speaker 1: it focuses a lot. The city focuses on art, and
Speaker 1: it pushes art. It all. Now I realized why he
Speaker 1: said relatives earlier too, But go ahead, relative, I'm not California,
Speaker 1: so you know, it's just certain little things. So your relatives, yep,
Speaker 1: growing up at pianos all of the house, growing up
Speaker 1: in l A. You know, I would I would go
Speaker 1: to church. We go to church. We went to church
Speaker 1: on Saturday's raised Seventh Day Adventist, grew up going to
Speaker 1: church on Saturday. A lot of Adventist people grow up
Speaker 1: with harmony around them, less instruments, more acapella harmonies. So
Speaker 1: I grew up listening and listening to the acapella choirs
Speaker 1: and harmonies, and I would get in church. I remember
Speaker 1: singing one time and hearing the audience, like the church
Speaker 1: ladies and audience going m hm oh. You hear the
Speaker 1: little gasps from the audience when you hit it, like
Speaker 1: I had vibrato or something. They're judging, you know. It
Speaker 1: turns they're like when they when they start going, oh
Speaker 1: you hear that noise, Like, oh, maybe I'm supposed to
Speaker 1: do this thing. So whenever you year, people say whoa,
Speaker 1: oh man, you could do that. That's a sign to
Speaker 1: go in that direction. Whatever it is, go in that direction.
Speaker 1: So I I was like I never felt that before.
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, I'm gifted in something, you know.
Speaker 1: I thought I was going to be an artist in
Speaker 1: draw and maybe make cartoons for Disney, and I love
Speaker 1: doing that because I could do it alone. But when
Speaker 1: I started getting reactions from people at at twelve thirteen,
Speaker 1: when I was singing. I knew I had a special voice,
Speaker 1: and I love to do it. I love to I
Speaker 1: mimic everybody. I turned to a lot of Adam cc widen's,
Speaker 1: Fred Hammond, all of them. I was. I was. I
Speaker 1: was trying to become these people that I looked up
Speaker 1: to so much. So, you know, teenage years were everything.
Speaker 1: My first time singing in church, Um it didn't go
Speaker 1: to saying it didn't it didn't go as well. UM
Speaker 1: tell us was that I was. I was. I was
Speaker 1: a kid, you know, just trying to figure out my
Speaker 1: run life, you know what I mean. And and it
Speaker 1: was the State Baptist Convention. My grandmother was the dean
Speaker 1: of the State Baptist Convention. And we have been rehearsing
Speaker 1: Jesus is the Answer all week and they have been
Speaker 1: letting me practice the lead for the world one of
Speaker 1: the leads. And it was me and like a couple
Speaker 1: of the guys singing the lead. So Friday comes and
Speaker 1: it's time to do it, and and the choir director
Speaker 1: he comes over to me and says, listen, we're gonna
Speaker 1: let the other guys do lead today. You know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. You're gonna We're gonna We're gonna just have
Speaker 1: you singing singing the choir, and I threw a fit.
Speaker 1: I wasn't like, not like a loud fit, but I
Speaker 1: was just like, and I go to my grandmother and
Speaker 1: she like, what's wrong? Or and my grandmother's aggressive, that's
Speaker 1: wrong song. I was like, had me rehearsing all week
Speaker 1: to do the lead, and then he gonna come to
Speaker 1: me and say, I ain't singing the lead, you know, no, no,
Speaker 1: you're singing the lead. Let's go. And we turned down
Speaker 1: to the choir, thing the whole choire. My brother game,
Speaker 1: what's you got? My grandson rehearsal I we even have
Speaker 1: seen the league, and he was like this, well I
Speaker 1: just want to know he's singing the league. He's singing
Speaker 1: the League. And I'm like, yeah, you know MS with
Speaker 1: Mary Jane James, MR with Dean him Blood. So I'm
Speaker 1: all excited to sing this this this Jesus the Answer lead.
Speaker 1: And so song starts and I start singing my lead
Speaker 1: and I'm you know, I'm all you know what I'm
Speaker 1: saying as I'm singing. It's just, you know, there's no
Speaker 1: real reactions, just kind of, you know, fairly quiet and
Speaker 1: I hear this lady from my churches to take your time, Torell,
Speaker 1: and I was like, okay, yeah, I'm gonna take my time.
Speaker 1: Take your time is never really good. Take your time
Speaker 1: means I love you, but you can do a lot
Speaker 1: better than this. Come on, take it to So as
Speaker 1: we're continuing to sing the song, I'm noticing that the
Speaker 1: other guys, who also singing lead a lot older than me,
Speaker 1: was slowly but surely boxing me out of the microphone.
Speaker 1: So by the end of the song, I was singing
Speaker 1: to their shoulders. So I don't think nothing. But they
Speaker 1: were saving you. They were saving in church. Come on,
Speaker 1: I talked, n see what you're doing. I'm so he
Speaker 1: started to um. So after the after the you know,
Speaker 1: after the big service, we walked into the car and
Speaker 1: Auntie Betty, who was the choir director for our junior choir,
Speaker 1: you know, so it's a sing with you know. I
Speaker 1: go to Aunti bettycause Aunty Betty gonna get the truth.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, Auntie Betty, how I do She said,
Speaker 1: you was off, baby, you was real off. And I
Speaker 1: was like, okay, all right, well back to the drum board.
Speaker 1: And that made me go really study and lock in
Speaker 1: and so like you, I used to mimic everybody. You
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. I wasn't totally allowed to listen
Speaker 1: to R and B music, but I would mimic Stevie,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. But there was the Mississippi
Speaker 1: mass Quarter. It was Kimberly McFarland and that's the land.
Speaker 1: And then and then, and then came along my my
Speaker 1: studying of the Whinings, and then that made me say
Speaker 1: to a great singer, and it pushed me into the
Speaker 1: space to where I started learning from all of those people.
Speaker 1: And the fact that at that point I was trying
Speaker 1: to run. Running was everything to me. So I started
Speaker 1: digging in the archives of who was running. Sounds like
Speaker 1: by the time you debuted, you had it kind of
Speaker 1: figured out. I I listened for a long time before
Speaker 1: I tried to sing. I did, but also I was
Speaker 1: my parents played the singers that did runs, because running
Speaker 1: We're from similar generations. I was born in eighty one,
Speaker 1: I'm forty now. Running has become a popular thing in
Speaker 1: pop music, but back then you got just a few runs.
Speaker 1: Whitney was doing a little, Luther was doing a little,
Speaker 1: Anita straightforward. It was. I think you know when you
Speaker 1: talk about runs and like Sam Cook and people who
Speaker 1: brought runs into popular music, I mean you know, uh
Speaker 1: mother mother wream talk about James about to says cold
Speaker 1: gets overlooked because he was such an amazing dancer, the
Speaker 1: sacond way that Michael Jackson gets overlooked because singing gets
Speaker 1: overlooked because they were so powerful and they were so
Speaker 1: great at at being performers that their vocals are secondary
Speaker 1: for some odd reason. Rick James cold blooded, cold blooded,
Speaker 1: Prince powerhouse. Yes, yes, I don't think Prince gets overlook
Speaker 1: He does too, though not not as much as to me.
Speaker 1: James Brown is James Brown. James Brown's just people when
Speaker 1: they named amazing vocalist, He's never like it's like he's
Speaker 1: not there with Donnie Hathaway and Marvin Gaye. Wasn't because
Speaker 1: it wasn't smooth. It wasn't James Brown was a monster vocalist. Yeah, monster,
Speaker 1: I mean he was doing them high. Mariah Carey, Yeah,
Speaker 1: he was. He was like a preacher and a singer
Speaker 1: all in one because he was half talking. Because what notice,
Speaker 1: like you've noticed that's not get it changed. I still
Speaker 1: haven't heard anybody remake it's a man's world. Very tough,
Speaker 1: very tough, very tough record to re sing. They'll they'll
Speaker 1: try all the rest of you, but that you're right
Speaker 1: with that stuff all came from the church, and a
Speaker 1: lot of it came from Detroit. And you have a
Speaker 1: lot of groups out of Detroit that we're doing these runs.
Speaker 1: Like you said, the Whinings, when you got into the
Speaker 1: Whinings and Commission, you have to give. We have to
Speaker 1: give the Whinings and Commission a lot of points. Fred
Speaker 1: Hammon Stevie Wonder and Steven when of got you know
Speaker 1: a lot that Detroit sound is very important to what
Speaker 1: we do today in R and B. Yeah, Mitchell, Mitchell, uh,
Speaker 1: you know all Keith, all the guys up there, you know,
Speaker 1: um Keith stating who who who kind of invented the sound? Yes?
Speaker 1: He and mar like and then and then John p
Speaker 1: Key under around and turn and turned it into something
Speaker 1: else that was like it had electricity too. I know
Speaker 1: that that whole Detroit thing needs to be studied and
Speaker 1: taught and tried to. It needs to be analyzed. No
Speaker 1: one's paying attention that sound. I need a baker, you know,
Speaker 1: she has that too, that Detroit sound, the migration of
Speaker 1: blacks to the north and how the freedom they felt there,
Speaker 1: that it got away from the blues in the South
Speaker 1: but got more popular and and like gritty in the north,
Speaker 1: it has a whole different sound. So that sound transferred
Speaker 1: as people as blacks migrated west, you know, Oklahoma, Los Angeles,
Speaker 1: we got a lot of that out here from listening
Speaker 1: to that, so we got the California so which more
Speaker 1: Darryl Coley, the Hawkins and j Crouch, that kind of
Speaker 1: gospel and so those kind of runs. Growing up, I
Speaker 1: would listen to the cords and the runs and and
Speaker 1: try to mimic all of that. And it was it
Speaker 1: was coming into popular music in the eighties with you know,
Speaker 1: to bars and some of the R and B groups,
Speaker 1: and you'd hear it. You you'd hear more funds and
Speaker 1: runs got faster, and I was like, who's doing it?
Speaker 1: And then you know, I'd hear all kind of runs.
Speaker 1: I gotta copy this stuff. Karen Clark, Vanessa Bell, Armstrong
Speaker 1: doing stuff that. Vanessa Bell was one of the cleanest
Speaker 1: runners of the time. So this is outside of secular music.
Speaker 1: This is this was you know, this is these are singers.
Speaker 1: A lot of people don't know. Vanessa did the song
Speaker 1: to the Amen show and she was so she's still
Speaker 1: she's still amazing. But Darryl her, you know that kind
Speaker 1: of music, the people who could do it, we're doing it.
Speaker 1: And I was trying to do that because it was
Speaker 1: tricky and fun. And your discovery is around twelve thirteen
Speaker 1: point for that. Yeah, I was. I was carried away
Speaker 1: by I was scared to play. I didn't start playing
Speaker 1: until later, like sixteen seventeen. No, I played out of
Speaker 1: just necessity. I just wanted to play for myself. But no,
Speaker 1: we had pianos in my home, but I didn't take
Speaker 1: playing seriously play. I would have thought you started playing
Speaker 1: at five. Oh man, I wish, I wish i'd be allowed.
Speaker 1: You can play anything. I can hear anything, but you know,
Speaker 1: you literally like you're like a jukebox. Like if we're
Speaker 1: all sitting around a piano, you can dial up. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'd become that. Yeah. I made myself when I coach,
Speaker 1: I made myself play for everybody I work with, so
Speaker 1: that it gives me a lesson while I'm teaching a lesson. Still, coach,
Speaker 1: we're gonna get to that it's really I've posting myself
Speaker 1: on the piano over here during these teenage years for you.
Speaker 1: Are you thinking in your mind I want to become
Speaker 1: an artist or I just want to sing in the
Speaker 1: church and just play in church. My biggest dream was
Speaker 1: to be a background singer. Your dream? Biggest dream? I
Speaker 1: could possibly either be Mickey Mouse in Disneyland in the costumes. Okay,
Speaker 1: let's go, or all disney Land. Here we go. Take
Speaker 1: So are you kidding me? So? You would? You would?
Speaker 1: You would study Mickey Mouse. I love Mickey I wanted
Speaker 1: to be Mickey Mouse. I thought that was one of
Speaker 1: the highest jobs in the world, being Mickey Mouse in
Speaker 1: the costume walking around you know. So I love that,
Speaker 1: But the second best would be being a background singer.
Speaker 1: I still want to skip over that. That was a
Speaker 1: great Yeah, that was great. I think he could still
Speaker 1: be making if you want to. I would stop everything today.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't stop everything. I wouldn't see nobody. I would
Speaker 1: go be Mickey Mouse and YA wouldn't see me again.
Speaker 1: I'd got be Mickey Mouse somewhere and sit him home
Speaker 1: and record Mickey Mouse all day. Have you have you
Speaker 1: thought about I just just just sidebar. Have you thought
Speaker 1: about auditioning for Mickey Mouse? Yeah? And what have you done?
Speaker 1: I they auditioned a new Mickey around the same time
Speaker 1: I was graduating high school and this guy I coveted
Speaker 1: in and I was like, who got his voice? And
Speaker 1: I should have auditioned back then whenever, twenty years ago,
Speaker 1: but I didn't. So I want to do it. So
Speaker 1: if if anybody's listening out there, I would love to
Speaker 1: be Mickey Mouse. I'd be the first Mickey with Saul
Speaker 1: who can sing, and I will be Mickey. I would happily.
Speaker 1: I'd be Mickey so and he would have a tan,
Speaker 1: and he'd be he have a little little good hair,
Speaker 1: like it'd be a whole thing like Mickey. I'm rolling
Speaker 1: with all right, okay, where okay? But in my life
Speaker 1: they're not making I love background singers because they got
Speaker 1: to travel the world without the stress of you gotta
Speaker 1: sing this or that. I didn't feel comfortable singing a
Speaker 1: lot of secular music because I wasn't raised on it.
Speaker 1: I didn't I didn't see myself out there doing this
Speaker 1: thing alone. I like to sing with people, so I
Speaker 1: like background singing. You get to travel the world, see
Speaker 1: the best places, get treated well without the pressure of
Speaker 1: being number one, and you get to sing with your friends.
Speaker 1: That's what I really really like. If it was my
Speaker 1: last ding on Earth, I'd like to be singing with
Speaker 1: my friends. That's what I love the most. So that
Speaker 1: was the highest calling as a teenager, become a background singer.
Speaker 1: And I have a uh, you know, my mom's good
Speaker 1: friend who who's a family friend of ours, Lisa, who's
Speaker 1: a background singer. She's sang for Shaka for for twenty years.
Speaker 1: She's she brought me to rehearsals when I was a teenager.
Speaker 1: She would bring me to Earth when and fire Ska
Speaker 1: Khan and see different rehearsals and say to just sit
Speaker 1: there and be quiet. She said, bring me this inter
Speaker 1: stage and she would just say just sit there and
Speaker 1: be quiet and just watch. So that was eye opening
Speaker 1: for me that people got paid to sing rather than
Speaker 1: singing for free in church like I was doing. But
Speaker 1: I didn't know people got paid to sing and have
Speaker 1: fun like that and harmonized. So that was the highest
Speaker 1: thing I've ever seen. I was there was everything and
Speaker 1: was that was that like an intro to you getting
Speaker 1: an opportunity to do that as you what when? What
Speaker 1: was that first like, what was your intro into into
Speaker 1: that dream? I mean I I would follow the music.
Speaker 1: I follow singers around, and I'd show up at places
Speaker 1: where the singers would go. I'd show up at shows,
Speaker 1: and I remember showing up at shows with no ticket
Speaker 1: and no money, just showing up, sitting in my car
Speaker 1: and just sitting the parking lot. Um. I remember doing
Speaker 1: this at Leyla Hathaway show and Layla. Leyla gave me
Speaker 1: a chance earlier sang background for her early on when
Speaker 1: I first got out out of college and I was
Speaker 1: sitting in the back of Yohi's in I think Oakland.
Speaker 1: I was living with my parents. I was not in
Speaker 1: a good time. I've been probably fire from my job
Speaker 1: or something. I was just you know, trying to make it.
Speaker 1: So I was like sitting in the back of this
Speaker 1: part no ticket, and I knew somebody in the band
Speaker 1: or something. I would just sit there and wait for
Speaker 1: them to come out halftime in the show and then
Speaker 1: talk to him. I said, Stevie, I'm a singer. I'm
Speaker 1: I'm a little Stevie. I could sing. I could sing
Speaker 1: whatever you want. I see all the parts, and I
Speaker 1: would and I called myself, yeah, I'll sing it all.
Speaker 1: So I was like whatever I was singing. And then seriously,
Speaker 1: Layla was like coming here, coming to my hotel. And
Speaker 1: then her friends were like, she was like to sing something,
Speaker 1: and I was so ready. I think, I say, you know, hey,
Speaker 1: pretty baby with the high hills. Huh. I sang some
Speaker 1: Michael or something. She said, do you want to work?
Speaker 1: I said, yeah, I want to work. I thought it
Speaker 1: was gonna be just carrying a bag or something. She said,
Speaker 1: you want to sing. I have a show coming up
Speaker 1: and you could be my singer. And I was so
Speaker 1: excited that Layla was one of the best singers. This
Speaker 1: is like my first gig. And I was sucking with
Speaker 1: my parents who had moved San Jose and I didn't
Speaker 1: want to live with them. Of them, but I didn't
Speaker 1: want to live with him. So I'm trying to get
Speaker 1: back to l A, where I grew up and where
Speaker 1: I had gone to college, and I was in Alabama
Speaker 1: and I was like, Okay, let me get back around
Speaker 1: to l A where the singers are. So I get
Speaker 1: a shot to sing background here with her. Then I
Speaker 1: get another call to sing background for for Whitney Houston
Speaker 1: for her Christmas album. Mervin Warren had called me to
Speaker 1: sing background on that and I could sit read you
Speaker 1: go from Layla half the way to Whitney, Houston. These
Speaker 1: are your first first another session with Kanye West, singing
Speaker 1: with Kanye and dilated people's I can't Live my life
Speaker 1: this way, so certain calls. I remember they were my first,
Speaker 1: and I moved back to l singing on the choir
Speaker 1: on the I Can't Love this work. Yeah, I helped
Speaker 1: arrange some of that. Yeah, I was doing a choir.
Speaker 1: We were this way, this way, this were Google and
Speaker 1: some others were on that. But that kind of stuff
Speaker 1: like back then was huge because I got paid. I
Speaker 1: got two hundred dollars for doing this stuff, like I'd
Speaker 1: never been paid to sing, and I was living free
Speaker 1: here in l A with my grandparents. At that time,
Speaker 1: I was I'm moved to l am and be a singer,
Speaker 1: backup singer. I was so excited, man, and so that
Speaker 1: was what I wanted to do. And then eventually, you know,
Speaker 1: they kept evolving, but touring, so you were doing more
Speaker 1: session work. Yes, I stayed here and did session work.
Speaker 1: A lot of my friends would go and tour, but
Speaker 1: I would stay here. I would go to this spot
Speaker 1: called Cozys that would do open mic stuff and you
Speaker 1: know out here in the valley, not far from here,
Speaker 1: and I would go to different spots that help open
Speaker 1: mics and I would sing. I sing Maxwell seeing you know,
Speaker 1: everybing A, all my favorite singers, and you know, I'd
Speaker 1: see all these guys that I would I could sing high,
Speaker 1: and I could, I would, I would learn. I would
Speaker 1: watch them as like a game. I'd see what everybody
Speaker 1: else was doing, and I learned the good Mike. I
Speaker 1: learned what what Mike was good and what everyone else
Speaker 1: had already done. Then I come in and sing something
Speaker 1: different and make everyone listen because they talk. And they
Speaker 1: put me on last because I didn't I didn't know
Speaker 1: nobody yet, so they put me on the last of
Speaker 1: these spots. So I remember just like people would be
Speaker 1: drunk by that time, talking and stuff. But I remember
Speaker 1: singing and making everybody be quiet. If I can get
Speaker 1: them to be quiet, I want. Yeah. Yeah, So I
Speaker 1: knew that was the thing to just kind of quiet
Speaker 1: in the in the in the beginning, I didn't know
Speaker 1: what that was. It took big j excuse me to
Speaker 1: tell me what that was. Because in my mind, silence
Speaker 1: can scare you. You can scare you. Because I was
Speaker 1: on the road with Genuine where they just lose their mind.
Speaker 1: Show you don't have curls. I don't have I don't
Speaker 1: curls out here whatever, So anyway, so I'm just I'm
Speaker 1: just like, if they're not screaming, it's not happening. You're
Speaker 1: not doing your thing, You're not doing your things. And
Speaker 1: so that's what I was programmed to believe until until
Speaker 1: one day because I would like in those in those
Speaker 1: moments where there was a lull in the in the screen,
Speaker 1: I would I would not panic, but I would just
Speaker 1: like try to do something to get the scream and
Speaker 1: get them to We've watched so many artists do that
Speaker 1: and lose. There's no reason for the pelvic threast. You
Speaker 1: don't have to Why did you hump the speaker? And
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go back to Jinuine because Jue One wanted
Speaker 1: to was so used to the screams that we're singing.
Speaker 1: She's out of my life and he's like too things
Speaker 1: for two years and he goes she was he you
Speaker 1: don't do that there, that's not where that goes. But
Speaker 1: that's what she was shout out to my brother genuine
Speaker 1: about two years ago. That's good. So so when there
Speaker 1: was a lull in the in the crowd activity, it
Speaker 1: would throw me off a little bit, and Jason came
Speaker 1: to me, He's like, listen, bro, you don't have to
Speaker 1: overdo it. In those moments they're listening to you. Shout
Speaker 1: out to Bigeah there there. They're quiet because they want
Speaker 1: to hear what you're doing. They want to connect with you.
Speaker 1: Don't be scared of that silence. I was like, Wow,
Speaker 1: I didn't. I never I never knew that in church
Speaker 1: thin screaming the show, you better do it like it's
Speaker 1: always And that was a customed to and in the
Speaker 1: beginning of my career took me a second to adjust
Speaker 1: to the silence of people having a moment with you,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, and being able to set
Speaker 1: an atmosphere. But you have to be a different type
Speaker 1: of vocalists for that. You do. That isn't made for
Speaker 1: everyone because that silence is deadly on the flip side.
Speaker 1: But if you're not that type of vocalists, and that's
Speaker 1: not what your performance is about. If you're not a
Speaker 1: flat foot stand at the mic singer, it can get
Speaker 1: tricky for you if you're more of a performance based
Speaker 1: and you're jumping around or you it's your clothes or
Speaker 1: whatever it is. It's the sparkles is the ship going
Speaker 1: off the screens and nobody's saying anything. That's when the
Speaker 1: sweb begins the cold. It's so quick side. I just
Speaker 1: didn't know. But it takes years to learn what not
Speaker 1: to sing, and I think with any good singer takes
Speaker 1: years to learn what not to sing. And you find
Speaker 1: peace in that silence and people are listening. You're like, Okay,
Speaker 1: this is cool. How do I do this. I'm not
Speaker 1: a performer like that. I ain't gonna dance for real.
Speaker 1: I dance like Carlton Banks or something like. I'm just
Speaker 1: gonna do that and give you a snazzy outfit or something.
Speaker 1: But I'm not going to perform like that. But I'm
Speaker 1: gonna give your vocals. I'm gonna just make you sit
Speaker 1: still and try to put you in a trance and
Speaker 1: connect so deep you're just like, for sure, I want
Speaker 1: to bring it almost a tear or something. I'm trying
Speaker 1: to get to that point. That was my that was
Speaker 1: my party trick. I've seen you do it. I've seen that.
Speaker 1: I knew I could do that, so I was all right,
Speaker 1: that's my things. So I'd watched singers and I come
Speaker 1: in at that moment and try to make an impact.
Speaker 1: How did you get from the session background saying I mean,
Speaker 1: you're you're living the dream, You're you're making money doing
Speaker 1: exactly what you want to do, to being now the
Speaker 1: premier vocal coach. Two people who can really sing like
Speaker 1: you're like like like like for example, Joe, Joe, Yeah,
Speaker 1: who can sing. But we'll sit at the piano with
Speaker 1: you and you'll make adjustments all these things. How did
Speaker 1: you get how did you transition from there to there
Speaker 1: or to hear? I mean, just in short, my mom's
Speaker 1: a school teacher. I come from a lot of school
Speaker 1: teachers and pastors. Mom's school teacher. My dad has been
Speaker 1: a physical therapist for many years growing up. That's what
Speaker 1: he did. I understood the muscles and how they could recover.
Speaker 1: So I understood the muscles. Some of the first stuff
Speaker 1: I knew muscles and how they recovered and teaching. So
Speaker 1: little do we know. We take a lot from our
Speaker 1: parents and the people around were little without trying to
Speaker 1: a knowing it, I was that was an automatic thing
Speaker 1: for me. I knew how to teach and break things
Speaker 1: down because I learned how everything worked. I love history.
Speaker 1: I love learning how everything works. I knew if I
Speaker 1: could get someone to listen a certain way and become
Speaker 1: a character, they could their voice would change. So I
Speaker 1: taught people how to be characters. And I love that.
Speaker 1: So I was asked around, you know, after singing background
Speaker 1: for some years, I was I was being asked to
Speaker 1: put to help groups harmonize and Dannity Kane at that
Speaker 1: time was a group and I was asked to work
Speaker 1: with them, and then it was it was another group,
Speaker 1: another group, and you know groups. There was just a
Speaker 1: lot of different guys and girls groups and I knew
Speaker 1: that like the back of my hand, harmony. So I
Speaker 1: would have them become different characters. And then singers would
Speaker 1: ask me to help prolonged their voice, and I knew
Speaker 1: how that would take place too. And I minored in
Speaker 1: vocal performance and opera in school, and I'm majored in
Speaker 1: graphic design at Oakwood University. So I had a lot
Speaker 1: of experienced singing opera, but I didn't want to sing it.
Speaker 1: Wait wait, wait, wait, wait wait this this this oak
Speaker 1: Wood place. Oh, it's magical because that's where went oh wow,
Speaker 1: yeah and Brian McKnight and Little Richard and take six okay,
Speaker 1: and I think Prince like it's like that weird it's
Speaker 1: a it's a little gym and this this is an
Speaker 1: Alabama hunts Kill Alabama singer and you go there today,
Speaker 1: Like singing is like basketball. It's like a sport. There's
Speaker 1: so many choirs and singers and everybody's just it's we're
Speaker 1: like running like if you were if you can run,
Speaker 1: it takes off at Oakwood. Oakwood loves or run. It's
Speaker 1: like you too. So it's like it's like how you
Speaker 1: know those us when we have a thing as people
Speaker 1: like it's gonna be Oh it's a sing off. It's
Speaker 1: like you buy a ticket to go into the auditions
Speaker 1: of the single. It's like that for real. So you're
Speaker 1: gonna you're gonna do it or you're not. So I
Speaker 1: wouldn't know I was singing. I was I wasn't perfect
Speaker 1: pitch or nothing. When I started Oakwood. I was just
Speaker 1: trying and I was fearless, and I would saying I
Speaker 1: was saying, so Oka got got a lot of gave
Speaker 1: me a whole lot of you know push and so
Speaker 1: this place is incredible. They have the best choir, the
Speaker 1: Aolians dynamic praise like these choirs are incredible. So coming
Speaker 1: out of Oakwood, I still didn't have you know, you're
Speaker 1: trying to make it work. And and I knew that
Speaker 1: if I could teach people how to sing, I could
Speaker 1: last a long time in this industry without having to
Speaker 1: compromise anything. I believe, not trying to be you know
Speaker 1: this or that, just I could make everyone happy, including myself.
Speaker 1: I could teach people how to sing and last forever
Speaker 1: because the people behind the scenes lasted the longest time
Speaker 1: in this business. I knew that because I would see
Speaker 1: people rise and fall. So it's like if I become
Speaker 1: a coach, i'd be young. But if I, if I
Speaker 1: do it differently, I can make it work. So I
Speaker 1: started throwing little parties at my house. And I would
Speaker 1: throw parties on Tuesdays with tacos and I little skill
Speaker 1: it and I would make tacos and my as a recital.
Speaker 1: Because recitals were boring. I didn't want that. I wanted
Speaker 1: to have a party, So we'd have taco Tuesdays at
Speaker 1: my house where all my voice students would sing and
Speaker 1: we come together and just make some tacos and sing together.
Speaker 1: And then at the same time, you have Instagram, and
Speaker 1: I have to get a lot of credit to social media.
Speaker 1: At that time, Instagram uh debuting video formats, so a
Speaker 1: ten second video or fifteen second video was a new thing,
Speaker 1: and you can show videos of what was happening there.
Speaker 1: So videos took off from that to show people how
Speaker 1: I talked, and I would stop people in the middle performance,
Speaker 1: say do it like this, and I'd go back and
Speaker 1: forth with them and strengthen them in front of everyone,
Speaker 1: to make teaching less scary, to make it more of
Speaker 1: a group thing. We all sat around and learned together.
Speaker 1: We harmonized together, and we're supportive together. So I go
Speaker 1: back and forth and all right, do it again, let's
Speaker 1: start over, let's get it right. And so it just
Speaker 1: kind of like set a different tone for what a
Speaker 1: recital was or a voice lesson and the session was um.
Speaker 1: Then it always did it at my house, so I
Speaker 1: would invite people over, and then it was those those
Speaker 1: tacos to taco Tuesdays are very famous. It's a life
Speaker 1: that's out now, it's been some You've had some power houses.
Speaker 1: It has come through Taco Tuesdays every Wilson. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: the best singers in the world. Goodness, I mean, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's insane. That's insane y'all singing together. It was insane.
Speaker 1: That just it's not fair. I told Abe, I was
Speaker 1: kind of He was like, I can't wait, I can't wait.
Speaker 1: You know, this is like but this, this has never
Speaker 1: talked about, like what you're doing right now. I have
Speaker 1: to just give it up for you, guys. This is
Speaker 1: behind the scenes talking. I never thought i'd be talking
Speaker 1: about this with you. This is amazing. But I think
Speaker 1: people are interested in hearing about the behind the scene
Speaker 1: to what we do because it's it's it's the foundational
Speaker 1: things that are missing, right because there is no more
Speaker 1: an R ring. There is no more there's very little
Speaker 1: to none artists development and so not less as people
Speaker 1: want to be R and B singers, right, we have
Speaker 1: to get back to the basics of learning, just learning
Speaker 1: how to sing. And R and B needs to be polished. Yes,
Speaker 1: R and B is a is a genre of music
Speaker 1: that needs to be polished. It can't just be thrown
Speaker 1: out there. And I think to us too to a
Speaker 1: certain degree. At times it has been just thrown out
Speaker 1: there because of economics. When rap came along, rap, really
Speaker 1: you could do it for the low best the best
Speaker 1: term that I can come away. You can do rap
Speaker 1: for the low. You can do it in your basement,
Speaker 1: you can do it at the park. You can like
Speaker 1: R and B rehearsal vocal coaches the outfit, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, Like I tell I tell people all
Speaker 1: the time, Like in my opinion, Jay Z was the
Speaker 1: first normal superstar, meaning he could wear exactly what he
Speaker 1: wore to the interview, to the stage and then to
Speaker 1: the party. And it may not even be an outfit
Speaker 1: change at any point, maybe he changes from a blue
Speaker 1: Yankee to But but he was so gifted and he's
Speaker 1: so talented at what he does. Um, he still became
Speaker 1: a superstar. But he didn't. He didn't he there was
Speaker 1: no character. And R and B is always like, think
Speaker 1: of the names that we started this podcast off with today.
Speaker 1: These were all characters. These were all characters that they built.
Speaker 1: You know, Rick James wasn't the same guy in the beginning.
Speaker 1: When he first got out the arm he had to
Speaker 1: find that Prince wasn't the same guy in the beginning.
Speaker 1: You go back and see where he was. All of
Speaker 1: these you know, staple superstar artists, especially from R and B.
Speaker 1: Since all had a character, they all you know, and
Speaker 1: that and that's what are That's why R and B.
Speaker 1: And that came from the jazz days when they would
Speaker 1: nickname themselves. They all had nicknames, you know, they had
Speaker 1: They didn't choose their regular they got to choose their name.
Speaker 1: And that started in the early jazz days. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: some of the earliest jazz jazz legends made up their
Speaker 1: own names. They have nicknames, and that's from that's a
Speaker 1: lot of black history. We just oh, that's a money
Speaker 1: making running right there. And they'd call each other different things,
Speaker 1: and that that has led into what we do now
Speaker 1: with you know, John Legend. Though we can you know
Speaker 1: Bruno Mars like, this is the thing that we can.
Speaker 1: We can name ourselves whatever, whatever we can be, whatever
Speaker 1: we recreate ourselves and that helps us get a stage,
Speaker 1: give a stage presence in a personal life. It helps
Speaker 1: delineate that I think, and like when you think about
Speaker 1: R and B itself, like think Jerry Wexler was a
Speaker 1: person I think who coined the term R and B um.
Speaker 1: Then he worked with a wreath. I think he discovered
Speaker 1: a wreath of Franklin in that sense, as much as
Speaker 1: you can discover her. But he It was called race
Speaker 1: music before that, and it was colored music, race music,
Speaker 1: and then that word was getting kind of old, and
Speaker 1: it's called rhythm and blues R and B. That changed things,
Speaker 1: and it has split. It's like a tree that's split
Speaker 1: into different ways, with neo soul and new sold all
Speaker 1: kinds of ways. But the roots of R and B,
Speaker 1: like you said, are the same. These are the rules.
Speaker 1: You've gotta be able to perform, you gotta be able
Speaker 1: to sing, you gotta have a character, right, you got
Speaker 1: to have a character. You gotta So it's more expensive,
Speaker 1: it's more expensive, and and then they just kind of
Speaker 1: watered some of it down by adding all the derivatives,
Speaker 1: by adding it's, oh it's neo soul. Oh it's trapped.
Speaker 1: So yeah, you know, it's not really are And then
Speaker 1: when the artists fall into that, that's the part that
Speaker 1: hurt me. I don't give a fuck what the outsiders
Speaker 1: name it, what the people you know, they put on it.
Speaker 1: When the artists started buying into that though, and being like,
Speaker 1: I'm not an R and B artist, Yeah, yes you are.
Speaker 1: They don't know me, but you know what it was.
Speaker 1: It wasn't even that they didn't know. I just think
Speaker 1: they didn't want to be put into a box, which
Speaker 1: I respect. I respect that because they you know, you see,
Speaker 1: why do you think that is? Because you see your
Speaker 1: your money shorter, your money shorter when they put you
Speaker 1: in a box. You know what I mean? Like you
Speaker 1: know it's it's that's why. That's why you know. I've
Speaker 1: had the conversation with people when when people mentioned, well,
Speaker 1: Michael Jackson called itself the king of pop. He did
Speaker 1: that for a reason. He did that to ship on them.
Speaker 1: That wasn't no I think I'm this No no, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: I am the most popular motherfucker on the planet. So
Speaker 1: I am the king of pop, not the king of
Speaker 1: white music, are dance music or no, no, no, I'm
Speaker 1: still R and B. But I'm the king of any
Speaker 1: filler that I have the most popular person population with
Speaker 1: the population. But it got it became this thing within
Speaker 1: our culture and when it within music that it was
Speaker 1: like if you were an R and B artist, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, the the executive shall remained nameless, but he
Speaker 1: called our ship bathtub music, called our bathtub music, and
Speaker 1: this is a very powerful motherfucker. But they were trying
Speaker 1: to put things on it so that it wouldn't seem
Speaker 1: as big as it truly is. Because everything it's R
Speaker 1: and B m hm. And that's a big reason why
Speaker 1: we have this podcast and a big reason why we
Speaker 1: have artists and executives and athletes and whoever the funk
Speaker 1: we choose to have on here, because R and B
Speaker 1: touches everybody in one way or another. Rap right now
Speaker 1: is very melodic, yep, in our business. You know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying is they want to sing. Everybody wants. Everybody
Speaker 1: wants to say everything. And that's what it comes down
Speaker 1: to say that all the time. Everybody wants to sing,
Speaker 1: from the President to everybody, everybody would love to sing. Yes, Andy,
Speaker 1: And I'm not to believe that everybody should be singing
Speaker 1: everybody everybody, because I can say I'm glad you mentioned that,
Speaker 1: because as the amazing vocal coach that you are, I
Speaker 1: knew I was gonna get this question. Go can you
Speaker 1: help my sisters? They're they're gonna fight me. My sisters
Speaker 1: can't sing. They can't sing um and and they think
Speaker 1: I can. And I'll actually pay for the lesson with her,
Speaker 1: and you're gonna jump. These are my two sisters and
Speaker 1: very successful in their careers because this music. She just
Speaker 1: still want to sing a little bit. You know what.
Speaker 1: At every at every event, they're kicking off the happy
Speaker 1: birthday loud and two different. But you I hate a
Speaker 1: bad happy birthday. And I just can't wait to tell me, y'all,
Speaker 1: y'all was off. Man got to stop. But we you know,
Speaker 1: we think we have a special gift, is black people
Speaker 1: especially saying we think we have we have say so
Speaker 1: in singing, you know, because we've been through a lot
Speaker 1: to sound this's good. That's what. It's what. It's the truth.
Speaker 1: We have been through a lot. When everything's taken away
Speaker 1: from you, what do you have left? You have? So
Speaker 1: can you get with you? So can you get blood
Speaker 1: out of the turn up? You know? Let's do this,
Speaker 1: Let's do this, Let's do this. Let's be very I
Speaker 1: want to be very specific. You want no, not yes,
Speaker 1: yes in a sense, but on a bad way, none
Speaker 1: of that way. I just I just want to talk
Speaker 1: process right because of what you do right and and
Speaker 1: and and j Lo when she came on this right
Speaker 1: right right not not not revered as the greatest singer. Right,
Speaker 1: you don't understand, I'm saying, very much a performance driven artist.
Speaker 1: You got her to a place to where her vocal
Speaker 1: matter was that process, Um, just so they can understand
Speaker 1: how you went from yeah, you gotta you gotta make
Speaker 1: a song meet you, and you gotta meet a song.
Speaker 1: There's just those two sides. A song has to be
Speaker 1: adjusted to you. You have to adjust to the song
Speaker 1: specifically give me. Yeah. So a lot of her early
Speaker 1: songs that she's known for, we're not really in her key.
Speaker 1: They're not in her key. So she they were right.
Speaker 1: They were great records and she knows it his song
Speaker 1: and so she's like, I need that song. So she
Speaker 1: had to sing it like like that and that, and
Speaker 1: she she didn't realize at the time, you can how
Speaker 1: to really make the song yours. And so by the
Speaker 1: time I met her, she says, baby, I want to
Speaker 1: focus on my voice. I want to focus on singing.
Speaker 1: And the amount of respect I have for her at
Speaker 1: that moment, I was it just went through the roof.
Speaker 1: I was like, I got you, I understand, and she's
Speaker 1: willing to put in the work because her early music,
Speaker 1: as catchy as it is, it doesn't it just didn't
Speaker 1: make her voice shine like it should have. Because she's
Speaker 1: a singer. I will tell you right now, she's a singer,
Speaker 1: and she's a very musical person. She knows notes and
Speaker 1: she knows key. She knows if the chord is wrong.
Speaker 1: She's she's that involved in her music. And so that
Speaker 1: process was really saying, Okay, where is the where is
Speaker 1: the golden part of her voice, the part that just
Speaker 1: literally sounds good? Where is that? And so you I
Speaker 1: find that point. And she's already a storyteller. She's already interesting.
Speaker 1: I don't have to teach that. You can't teach that.
Speaker 1: I could teach you how to be you know, fixed
Speaker 1: notes and stuff, but I can't teach you how to
Speaker 1: be interesting. So she had all those other elements, but
Speaker 1: the singing part. What part of your voice sounds good?
Speaker 1: When do you need to go to falsett up? When
Speaker 1: do you need to pull back? When do you need
Speaker 1: to change the shape of your mouth to get a
Speaker 1: different tone? Uh? And use air so you get a
Speaker 1: balance of some air and some tone. You know how
Speaker 1: to use the things we can do with our voice,
Speaker 1: with your volume, pitch, vibrato, and air. There's four things
Speaker 1: you can essentially do as a singer. So those things
Speaker 1: we have to with those, we have to create a masterpiece.
Speaker 1: How are we going to create this masterpiece with those elements?
Speaker 1: So I'm shaping the voice like a designer in that
Speaker 1: sense and saying that sounded good. Let's do more of that.
Speaker 1: That didn't sound good, don't try to do that too much.
Speaker 1: This was great right here? What did you do? Just now?
Speaker 1: What did you do? Let's do it again? So you
Speaker 1: rehearse and re hear and make habits of the good things.
Speaker 1: Muscle memory, just training, the right things. And so for
Speaker 1: someone who works hard, it could work for you. And
Speaker 1: she's a she's probably the hardest, working, hardest, working hard.
Speaker 1: She'll work, She'll be rehearsal after everybody. Let's go one
Speaker 1: more time, baby, I'm like, yeah, yeah, So you can't
Speaker 1: help China on change? He cannot you know who they're
Speaker 1: gonnahop your ass too? Oh see, kick his ass too.
Speaker 1: I'm going down to the ship. We together. One question
Speaker 1: I've always asked you, Um, you know what before we
Speaker 1: get there, Before we get there, I want to tell
Speaker 1: the Maxwell story. Mm hmm. As we're singing as we
Speaker 1: as we're at the j Low party. Yeah, I wasn't
Speaker 1: at the jew party. Yeah yeah, I wasn't. Engratulations on
Speaker 1: your your your new nuptials. Congratulations. So so we're at
Speaker 1: j Low's perfect and you're one of my favorite voices.
Speaker 1: She tells me that you're gonna be there, and I'm
Speaker 1: tripping out. I'm tripping out because I knew you were
Speaker 1: coming in Maxwell's kind So I didn't know Maxwell was coming.
Speaker 1: You told me, No, he told you. Ye, Benny told
Speaker 1: me that Maxwell was coming to sing Happy Birthday. And
Speaker 1: I said, what the Maxwell? Maxwell? Maxwell? Yeah, I said,
Speaker 1: I said, oh my god, don't you do this? Um,
Speaker 1: So it gets on my nerves. So Maxwell walks in
Speaker 1: and I'm like, I've never met Maxwell in person. I've
Speaker 1: never That was the first time, mean Max, that was
Speaker 1: my first time meeting Maxwell. I mean, I'm going for
Speaker 1: the story two of my influences. So I'm sitting I'm
Speaker 1: sitting there and Maxwell is singing Happy Birthday, and I'm
Speaker 1: filming it and I don't really totally know how to
Speaker 1: work my social media's and as I'm feeling it as
Speaker 1: I'm filming it. It's done filming, and then it starts
Speaker 1: replaying real out and Jay looks me. I'm like that
Speaker 1: they tell you to lock your phone, my phone in place.
Speaker 1: So this guy, it's like losing my mind. I'm losing
Speaker 1: my mind on the floor, just falling out, relaxing on
Speaker 1: his shoulders. Just relax. You're gonna be fine. Max, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna you gotta, I don't know how crazy right. So
Speaker 1: the birthday, you know, the song is over, the moment
Speaker 1: is over, and so I'm not sure where Stevie was,
Speaker 1: but I'm walking over. I just I just want to,
Speaker 1: you know, just shake Maxwell's hand. Man. I just want
Speaker 1: to having a family. And I walked with the Maxwell
Speaker 1: and he was like, I love your music. And I'm like,
Speaker 1: don't do this, yea, not here, not crying. This is
Speaker 1: he's like the consulating your vocals the way you're talking.
Speaker 1: And I'm saying the same thing, man, like but you
Speaker 1: but you man, yeam, so listen to listen. Just my
Speaker 1: first time meeting Maxwell. So as I'm walking away from
Speaker 1: having this moment with Maxwell, Stevie comes up and he said,
Speaker 1: you have to introduce you to Maxwell. I said, oh, Okay,
Speaker 1: come on, let's go, I said, I said, Maxwell, this
Speaker 1: is Stevie, one of the coldest vocalists I've ever heard.
Speaker 1: Stevie just says, can I give you a hug? He was,
Speaker 1: he was listen, can we That was your first time?
Speaker 1: That was the first I would listen to Maxwell, my
Speaker 1: second genesis. I played out over every night. I would
Speaker 1: play that out. But it's just whenever, wherever I would listen,
Speaker 1: and the whole thing. It was just like he had
Speaker 1: a high voice like mine. He was just dreamy falsetto.
Speaker 1: And I was like, so I never thought I'd need him.
Speaker 1: So here's the bar. Okay, that was the moment, right
Speaker 1: they met. I mean, great moment. J Low is like,
Speaker 1: let's sing. Let's kick it off board out, let's go there.
Speaker 1: So you know, everybody's doing their singing thing, right. Stevie
Speaker 1: looks at me. It's like he comes over. It's like,
Speaker 1: do you do you think it's cool if I do
Speaker 1: a Maxwell song? And I said, absolutely, go crazy. He
Speaker 1: didn't realize you as a full hype man battery and
Speaker 1: listen water not that far off bridge. He started singing.
Speaker 1: Stevie got on that piano and started singing this woman's work,
Speaker 1: and it was so intense, it was so crazy. Then
Speaker 1: Maxwell had to start singing with him, and it is Stevie,
Speaker 1: Mackie and Maxwell singing this woman's work together where all
Speaker 1: it is? And you didn't know how to work your
Speaker 1: goddamn camera at that time. I couldn't even get to
Speaker 1: my I couldn't even get to my camera. But I
Speaker 1: don't even know if anybody has this on tape. Everybody
Speaker 1: in the room was just like, I have it, you
Speaker 1: have it. I have it. It's stored in my phone
Speaker 1: under favorites. I have it. He was giving Maxwell everything
Speaker 1: he needs by all and Maxwell said, I will not
Speaker 1: stand for this. I'm gonna give you something back, and
Speaker 1: I'm ready for someone to sing it back at me.
Speaker 1: And I thought that that was just I thought that
Speaker 1: that was an amazing moment and it was a testament
Speaker 1: to how amazing you are. Excuse me, which leads me
Speaker 1: into my next question where I've always every time I
Speaker 1: see you, I pulled you to the side and say,
Speaker 1: why are you going to put out a record? Or
Speaker 1: why won't you put out a record? You have to
Speaker 1: answer that right here on the R and B Money Podcasts.
Speaker 1: We need to know were the gifted with the talented
Speaker 1: need to know is there a reason? Is there because
Speaker 1: I pay attention to ship? He said it earlier about
Speaker 1: not being in the front of it. He said that
Speaker 1: really early, you discovered that for yourself, really early, that
Speaker 1: that wasn't what you wanted then, and you were just like,
Speaker 1: since there's no pressure, I can stay back here. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I kind of you know, I I can. I can
Speaker 1: have a good time doing what I'm doing. I don't
Speaker 1: have to be the guy they're waking up at six
Speaker 1: am to do radio, right, I mean, you're exactly right.
Speaker 1: There's I never felt like I was ready until now
Speaker 1: to actually put out my own music. I released a
Speaker 1: Christmas album and I loved it, and that actually opened
Speaker 1: the door for me to actually say I want to
Speaker 1: do more. But it's tricky though, like what what do
Speaker 1: I want to do with that? I do I want
Speaker 1: it to just live? And do I want to go
Speaker 1: on a tour? Do I want to where do I
Speaker 1: want to sing? What do I really want to do?
Speaker 1: And with this? So I have to think who am
Speaker 1: I singing too? And in my head I like themes,
Speaker 1: I like things like Christmas. I would do a Disney
Speaker 1: R and B album of just me singing my favorite
Speaker 1: Disney songs that I love so much at the piano.
Speaker 1: Then I do I would do? Would I would do
Speaker 1: a soul Disney album Somebody Get by? Oh? I would
Speaker 1: also do album of Negro spirituals that I love things
Speaker 1: but nobody but no one does Negro spirits. I know
Speaker 1: everybody like, what's the funny? Why is this so funny?
Speaker 1: It's not funny like I like because I'm a cartoon.
Speaker 1: I like, I like things I like. But you are
Speaker 1: we are we getting to the space to where you're
Speaker 1: just why. The hardest part is to say, if if
Speaker 1: I had to do one project, what would be on it.
Speaker 1: That's the toughest question in my life if I had
Speaker 1: to do one because in my mind I want to
Speaker 1: do different ones, be a lot of different things. Put
Speaker 1: them all out. They can live wherever they were want
Speaker 1: to live. But it's hard for me to say if
Speaker 1: I had to do one project, what would be on that.
Speaker 1: It's tough. It is tough, but just the process you
Speaker 1: just haven't it would be all over the place, It'd
Speaker 1: be all over the place. Why couldn't it be? I
Speaker 1: think now it can The timing is perfect to do
Speaker 1: broadway you want to do. Now you may not. And
Speaker 1: this is this is, this is the reality into all
Speaker 1: of this ship. You may not get the results that
Speaker 1: you want if there are certain results that you want
Speaker 1: by doing that and by maybe it not being as
Speaker 1: cohesive in you know, one project and top to bottom
Speaker 1: and it this is what it is. And instead of
Speaker 1: it just being like ensemble and I just want to
Speaker 1: do everything and I'm just gonna give y'all all of
Speaker 1: my gift, that ship might actually click right, Like we're
Speaker 1: in a different business now they've ever been in to
Speaker 1: where you can do whatever you want. There's nothing in
Speaker 1: front of that. And I completely understand where you come
Speaker 1: from because I am also someone who people bother about
Speaker 1: making an album because I've just I've kind of always
Speaker 1: done what i want, even in the even when the
Speaker 1: industry that wasn't promoted to do what you want. It
Speaker 1: was like no, no, no, you the new usher. I'm
Speaker 1: not means two different people. Are you the new such
Speaker 1: and such? Are you? You know what I mean? Like
Speaker 1: you're gonna you're gonna do this type of music or
Speaker 1: you know, I'm like funk if I am, I'll let you, nigga,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm so, it's but the industry that
Speaker 1: we're in now, UM shout out to the Bay Area.
Speaker 1: I feel like we created the new music business by
Speaker 1: making it accessible with the whole you know, with with
Speaker 1: social media, with with you know, with streaming, with digital
Speaker 1: that that come from the Bay Area. We changed with
Speaker 1: the music business was about, and we pushed a lot
Speaker 1: of the bullshit out, which is crazy because that's the
Speaker 1: Bay Areas also where independent music has flourished for generations.
Speaker 1: We go back to MC hammer and in Too Short
Speaker 1: and E forty and RBL Posse and all these you know,
Speaker 1: hip hop artists and even Tony Tony Tony and you
Speaker 1: know what I mean, like people that were that were
Speaker 1: doing it. We had a thing out there called out
Speaker 1: the Trunk, But now out the Trunk is digital. All
Speaker 1: you gotta do is upload this ship. Now it's our
Speaker 1: the Bear Room. It's no excuse. So someone like yourself,
Speaker 1: with the gift that you have, there's no reason to
Speaker 1: just do what you want. I'm gonna I'm gonna say
Speaker 1: it right here first, I'm about to do this and
Speaker 1: it's and it's going to be whatever it's gonna be.
Speaker 1: All over the place. There's gonna be a song for
Speaker 1: for this group, that group, that group, and in this
Speaker 1: TikTok generation where people can consume whatever they want to consume,
Speaker 1: go at it, go at it, and you're you're exactly right,
Speaker 1: And so that it means a lot. And it backs
Speaker 1: up what what I was like, kind of doubting and
Speaker 1: but feeling at the same time. So it means a lot.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna go for it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's the thing, especially when you have a gift. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you have too much a gift for any of it
Speaker 1: to be wrong because we've got too many of the
Speaker 1: um the non talented, Yeah, just doing whatever they want
Speaker 1: and putting out as much as they want. We need
Speaker 1: the talented people to do the same thing to come
Speaker 1: back that right, because it's free. Listen, it's it's free
Speaker 1: for you to be able to do whatever you want.
Speaker 1: All of us. Some of you Niguas ain't talented. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's not everybody. Come on, man, The age thing is changing.
Speaker 1: There's not like an age to it anymore. This is
Speaker 1: being young and pop and all that. It's just great content.
Speaker 1: It's the music business is Peter Pan. It's the music business.
Speaker 1: Like true, you go go to an old school rap concert,
Speaker 1: they're going to be dressed exactly like that word was
Speaker 1: the most popular dangerous. You know what I'm saying. But
Speaker 1: it's it's Peter Pan. We can be who we want
Speaker 1: to be in this business. You can be Mickey Mouse
Speaker 1: for sure, For damn sure. I'm about to trademark. It's
Speaker 1: going to be the interludes in the album. I'm a
Speaker 1: trademark Nick Mouse and make That's the funniest thing I've heard.
Speaker 1: So Nick Mouse and Nicky So Micky, So I am
Speaker 1: selling tea shirts. What does Mickey sal do? Like? What
Speaker 1: is he flirting with the bow? Are you looking good?
Speaker 1: Oh gosh, no, that was happening up in here. H
Speaker 1: Mickey with cheese at Minie. Yeah, many cheese Hungary. Man,
Speaker 1: those are gonna be lose. You said that gonna be
Speaker 1: the Oh my gosh, I'm crazy. I can't believe I
Speaker 1: was trying to keep it together today. Yeah, you are
Speaker 1: a friends coming as coming. He just told us, he
Speaker 1: just announced it on the Army Money podcast that the
Speaker 1: project is coming. You will have nothing but love and
Speaker 1: support from you already know that from us period, point blank.
Speaker 1: U building man. We like to build things on this show,
Speaker 1: and we want you, from your personal opinion, to build
Speaker 1: a voltron the R and B singer. We want to
Speaker 1: know where you would get the vocals from, where you
Speaker 1: would get the styling from, or let me say who
Speaker 1: who you would get the vocals, who you would get
Speaker 1: the styling from, who you would get the performance from,
Speaker 1: and who you would get the emotion from. So let's
Speaker 1: start with the vocal. If you're building your your R
Speaker 1: and B voltron, who what one person would you grab
Speaker 1: the vocal from? You can say yourself too if you
Speaker 1: want to. I mean, man, Michael Jackson, Marvin Gay, Jesus, Chris,
Speaker 1: I'm just missing one other elements like you and they're
Speaker 1: like that would be my third, Like I need someone
Speaker 1: who can so you see, that's where that's why I
Speaker 1: chose him, because what they did laid the groundwork for
Speaker 1: so many. I'm a piece of Marvin for sure. Yeah
Speaker 1: I feel that. All right, All who are you getting
Speaker 1: styling from? What do you want your artists to look like?
Speaker 1: Because I'm short and light skinned? About to say prince
Speaker 1: mm hmm, yeah, you know he's he's he cares about style.
Speaker 1: He's a stylist. You know, guys are always at the
Speaker 1: hair in place and all that. He was just always
Speaker 1: you know. I mean, yeah, yeah, you have explain like that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like that um performance performance style. We already talked about
Speaker 1: James Brown. But I want to take it away from solo.
Speaker 1: But like when I think of R and B, like
Speaker 1: R and B performer, I don't want to be all
Speaker 1: like school, this is this gotta give it to like he.
Speaker 1: I mean, the king is James Brown a performance. The
Speaker 1: king is James Brown. He had the elements that produced
Speaker 1: what became popular music and R and B. So he's
Speaker 1: going to perform like James. He's just gonna have every
Speaker 1: little foot studies going better. Dad, you know, have all
Speaker 1: the movies. Yeah yeah, yeah, band you know yeah yeah, Okay.
Speaker 1: Who you get the emotion? Baby Face? Who? Baby Face
Speaker 1: knows his gift and he knows how to pull emotion
Speaker 1: out more than I think any other R and B
Speaker 1: writer that has ever lived. He is an R and
Speaker 1: B writer, the architect of so much of what we
Speaker 1: know as R and B. I really give it a
Speaker 1: lot of credit to baby Face. He's gifted and he
Speaker 1: knows emotion. He knows silence, and he knows how to
Speaker 1: use his voice and to pull back. I love and
Speaker 1: appreciate baby Face a lot for that's a great. Um,
Speaker 1: he's a great less it's more kind of yes, yep,
Speaker 1: he's able to do small to this day, he'll he'll
Speaker 1: get up in that. Okay, we're not done. Top five
Speaker 1: R and B artists, no order. There's the nineties R
Speaker 1: and B that I grew up. I know, I know,
Speaker 1: I know. But there's there's like, okay, okay, just because okay, okay,
Speaker 1: there's the you Maxwell, Joe like D'Angelo like I have
Speaker 1: to give that that that important pivot in R and
Speaker 1: B A name just that's that's honorable mention for who
Speaker 1: I'm about to name. You know what, But I gotta say,
Speaker 1: you Joe, aren't uh D'Angelo max um Um. There's more
Speaker 1: in there. I can't I can't think of it right now.
Speaker 1: Tevin Campbell, you know so. But but but the the
Speaker 1: O g s. We would not have this if it
Speaker 1: were not for Donny Hathaway, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gay Prince
Speaker 1: and I'll say, Michael, you gotta say it. You gotta
Speaker 1: say it. That's a very that's a contextual digest. Absolutely absolutely,
Speaker 1: that's where they had. They had a lot of kids.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying, Dad, But now I'm about
Speaker 1: to trip you up, all right, trip me up. I
Speaker 1: love mentioning any women. And we didn't say, Man, no,
Speaker 1: you didn't. You didn't, you didn't, And don't catch me
Speaker 1: on this camera, don't catch me this because that's that's
Speaker 1: a whole different thing. Another five for that. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: you gotta pick your five. That's why five is five?
Speaker 1: Is your five? All? Here we go, we go, We're
Speaker 1: gonna continue it. Top five R and B songs, Rupe
Speaker 1: or solo, al Green stayed together. When I think of
Speaker 1: R and B, Let's get it on. Come on, Marvin
Speaker 1: take time. Yeah, yeah yeah. Stevie wonder um which one
Speaker 1: muld choose some Steve is like trying to pick your
Speaker 1: favorite child? Uh, superwoman? Where were you where I needed to?
Speaker 1: Right now? Marian wants to beausic that that's the song
Speaker 1: is just R and B. The chords and everything is
Speaker 1: just beautiful. Where were you I needed to? Uh? Ain't
Speaker 1: no mount high enough written by you know the late grades.
Speaker 1: I mean that's like that's like, um, I would say
Speaker 1: Diana's version is beautiful. Marvin's R and B. But I
Speaker 1: would say what what Ashford and Simpson redid with Diana's
Speaker 1: version is just beautiful. It brings out the a high
Speaker 1: point in R and B music. That was just what
Speaker 1: I'm like, the orchestra and the classiness of it, the
Speaker 1: elegance of it, um and sweet love. Anita Baker who
Speaker 1: wound co. Anita Baker is just She's She's R and B.
Speaker 1: She's She's on my top five. I don't care if
Speaker 1: I can't count Anita Baker's on the top five R
Speaker 1: and B singers. Baker is R and B. She's R
Speaker 1: and B. She's what I know as R and B music.
Speaker 1: She's with. My father used to always Anita the chord.
Speaker 1: My house grew up on Anita Baker. Anita Baker. Anita
Speaker 1: Baker in her band too, like those guys in the
Speaker 1: back and the Paris Sisters that saying with the band too,
Speaker 1: there was another group that saying from Bakersfield, Parre Sisters
Speaker 1: saying they saying back up for Anita there in that
Speaker 1: group too, they were like right there. So, but Anita
Speaker 1: Baker is very special being from that scene that that
Speaker 1: Detroit scene with her dad having a club like she
Speaker 1: grew up in it. That's all she knows. She does
Speaker 1: it to every little lick she does, it's it's just
Speaker 1: perfect arm and record she chooses is you know, giving
Speaker 1: me the best that I got. You know, that's just
Speaker 1: perfect army with you being on the show what's the name?
Speaker 1: I've seen it a couple of times. But the documentary
Speaker 1: about background singers, uh, I think something like that. But
Speaker 1: that's it's an amazing documentary that needs a part two
Speaker 1: that needs to executive produce. That you should executive produce.
Speaker 1: That you absolutely should because it's a very instrumental part
Speaker 1: of our business. Yes, yes, that people just don't talk
Speaker 1: about because there are nights where the main person doesn't
Speaker 1: have it and those background singers are saving people. Yep,
Speaker 1: background singers saved saving people. Then the audience may not
Speaker 1: even know at times they can usually do what the
Speaker 1: artist does. And more and more and more you think about,
Speaker 1: you think about some of the Luther Vandross was the
Speaker 1: background singer. Yep, Tank was the background singer. Yourself loved
Speaker 1: and loved every minute of it. If I could afford
Speaker 1: to do it all the time and make a living
Speaker 1: do it. I would still do. I love I say
Speaker 1: background of the Voice for many years and that's where
Speaker 1: I got a lot of experience at the Voice, but
Speaker 1: also learning behind the scenes. The same people that worked
Speaker 1: at The Voice worked at the Grammys, worked at the
Speaker 1: Academy Awards. To this day, the am mays, they're working
Speaker 1: behind the scenes and you see them and your life
Speaker 1: is easier when you see them, like, oh, I'm good,
Speaker 1: you're directing, All right, good, we got you here, we
Speaker 1: got the cameraman, I know all y'all. This is the
Speaker 1: crew that does it everything the best, and you feel
Speaker 1: like you're in a in a family like at home.
Speaker 1: These are the same people that've been working this for years.
Speaker 1: The stars have come and gone, but the same something
Speaker 1: that we've never done on this show. And it could
Speaker 1: probably get tough for you, but I need you to
Speaker 1: do this because we need to put that spotlight. Can
Speaker 1: you shout out some of the dope background singers? Absolutely? Absolutely,
Speaker 1: absolutely with Sharif for Paine, who's amazing to me and
Speaker 1: she's always been amazing to me. That's one of my
Speaker 1: favorite of all time. But I'm there's a family, there's
Speaker 1: a there's a family that people may not know about.
Speaker 1: That that's pretty core in this business. And the session
Speaker 1: singers for all the movies and everything. You talk about
Speaker 1: Dorian Holly, who did backup from Michael Jackson who's still
Speaker 1: in the game, and he sings with me and we
Speaker 1: do cole play together. And his daughter in Ayanna, you
Speaker 1: have co play the same with co play and they're amazing.
Speaker 1: I love co play, So that's that's I mean. You
Speaker 1: have my my girl that I sang with for many
Speaker 1: years of the Voice, Kara White, girl alto, craziest alto
Speaker 1: in the world. She's amazing. Love her, shout her out. Um, Denise, Denise, Denise,
Speaker 1: She's one of the baddest sopranos ever. My boy Nelson,
Speaker 1: who I grew up with, also went to Oakland. Elson
Speaker 1: took over for me at the Voice. Um you have
Speaker 1: you know, and like even every same background for a
Speaker 1: while too. I call your name. Avery's starting his own right,
Speaker 1: But you have like like those you know, Uh, Jason
Speaker 1: Jason who does directs the gospel choir, Jason White, and
Speaker 1: he used to call me for gigs years ago. He
Speaker 1: used to be minister of music at West Angelis. He
Speaker 1: was raised bringing in the singers you know he did.
Speaker 1: He created the samples Kanye Choir. A lot of my
Speaker 1: friends who singing the samples have been in this business
Speaker 1: a long time doing session work. Then you have like
Speaker 1: Eadie Bodiker who puts the lot of the choir sessions together.
Speaker 1: You have Jasper, you have Bobby Page. You have just
Speaker 1: a few vocal contractors that put together Sally Stevens, who's
Speaker 1: still alive, the people who put together the stuff for
Speaker 1: the movies, and they sang in the old movies like
Speaker 1: the Peter Pan and the old stuff. They could you
Speaker 1: could put a sheet of music in front of them
Speaker 1: and they don't have to even know the song. They
Speaker 1: just go. And so these singers never get the credit.
Speaker 1: And there's a whole room of them and they're they're beautiful, professional, kind,
Speaker 1: friendly and they can sing anything. And I love working
Speaker 1: with him, I love, I love it so much because
Speaker 1: they're the core of what we hear in Hollywood. There.
Speaker 1: I call it like the choir room of Hollywood. When
Speaker 1: we're together at Center stage and one of these places
Speaker 1: where you're rehearsing s I R. And you see your
Speaker 1: family in there, and those those are the people that
Speaker 1: you're like, Okay, I know we're good now, I know
Speaker 1: this is going to be good. So there's there's a
Speaker 1: lot more. But those people, those people I the ones
Speaker 1: I mentioned to Nash, I've mentioned her, the people I
Speaker 1: mentioned I've worked with for many years. But the session
Speaker 1: singers are magical. Those are the ones that keep everything going.
Speaker 1: You don't even noticing. Man, you gotta have a shout out, man,
Speaker 1: that's right. And our brother Lani Barell, Lonie Barrel, Lonni Man. Recently,
Speaker 1: after years years, I saw that DJ Cassidy's birthday party.
Speaker 1: Luke Jan Luke Luke Coach Luke Coach Luke Luke came
Speaker 1: to my house with this song called I Want You.
Speaker 1: He's like, I gotta sing this song. I put him
Speaker 1: in opera soprano lessons like we were that really crazy
Speaker 1: high song. He came over and we started working on that.
Speaker 1: That that was years was one of them for both
Speaker 1: of us. He's one of the baddest singers singers, and
Speaker 1: he did a lot of shows and he was little. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that would be a dangerous room. You Loop Avery. I
Speaker 1: used to bring Loop to the front of my stage
Speaker 1: and just let him go crazy, go crazy. You cannot
Speaker 1: stand back there and just do that. You gotta put
Speaker 1: the light on these guys. And he stopped bringing my
Speaker 1: brother to the front of the stage because he would
Speaker 1: take brother brother. Brother wouldn't wait, Your brother didn't wait.
Speaker 1: He just there's a time where my shirt comes off.
Speaker 1: It's choreographed. I know when there's a time and Bob,
Speaker 1: and Bob anticipated to snap. He he took his shirt off, no.
Speaker 1: Four bars before me four yards and I look and
Speaker 1: the girls are the girls are screaming. I'm like, I
Speaker 1: look back, but he's doing this. Didn't shut up. I'm like,
Speaker 1: try taking my shirt off. I don't even feel good.
Speaker 1: Streams are all streamed out, so I have to let
Speaker 1: Bob go. You can't do that. I just know, Bob,
Speaker 1: But how often do you work out? How do you
Speaker 1: keep this up? Sorry to turn the tables, but I
Speaker 1: don't know. I'm just like, I work out as as
Speaker 1: often as I can. If I can work out six
Speaker 1: seven days a week, I'll work six seven days a week. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean, because like, it didn't scare me that women
Speaker 1: were screaming take your shirt off. Like I was like, okay, cool.
Speaker 1: Some of them came for the teas. Some of them
Speaker 1: came for the music. I'm going to take care of
Speaker 1: them all. It's your job to make everybody. I'm going
Speaker 1: to take care of them all. You never know why
Speaker 1: people fall in love with you, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: And so I just listen and pay attention and and
Speaker 1: being in shape and being an athlete. That's just second
Speaker 1: nature for me. And it's also part of your job
Speaker 1: and responsibility. And so they game part of my job
Speaker 1: and responsibility. And his name is Tank. His name is
Speaker 1: you gotta show up with show up with the bird chesse. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm not show up, Hank. You ain't hang you have?
Speaker 1: Isn't you know? You have to bring it? M hm.
Speaker 1: I'm forty six years old. And my wife is like,
Speaker 1: when are you gonna stop taking your shirt off? I'm
Speaker 1: gonna say when. I can't you understand? Yeah, when it stopped?
Speaker 1: Any artist that has any art, has any artist done
Speaker 1: that until forty six two years taking their shirt off?
Speaker 1: I don't take a shot off anymore. I don't think.
Speaker 1: I don't know, but he's a tired at that part.
Speaker 1: I think you out ran No, you've you've outran everyone's
Speaker 1: my idol, and you're not close to finishing Like this
Speaker 1: is still no, no, no, no, no, no, I'm still no.
Speaker 1: I'm still going to another level. You have a whole
Speaker 1: another level to get too. I'm probably gonna next year.
Speaker 1: Wants to compete in fitness competitions. Crazy. I didn't know
Speaker 1: that crazy, because I'll see you soon. I think we're
Speaker 1: gonna promote it. Like were you after part? Were you
Speaker 1: always genetically like blessed like that to have so? Did
Speaker 1: you always have? Yes? I was always skinny, and I'm
Speaker 1: just I just think some people are born with muscles
Speaker 1: tested an R and B. Some people might be going
Speaker 1: with some help no good genetics, you have good. I'd
Speaker 1: always going singing, like I have a little blessing of singing.
Speaker 1: But but some people are born. Oh I go to
Speaker 1: gym once a week and it's like no, no, no, no.
Speaker 1: I mean I was naturally cut, Okay, naturally you know,
Speaker 1: athletic and all these things. But when it came time
Speaker 1: to put on you know, some real muscle. You know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. The word my first stop was g NC.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. I'm in g n C
Speaker 1: and like what you do, just it's creatine. There's a
Speaker 1: loading phase, alright, alright, alright, all right, okay, that says
Speaker 1: anabolic what I'm saying, and so I would just I
Speaker 1: was just trying and safely figure out the concoction to
Speaker 1: help me, you know, pushing it to that next level.
Speaker 1: But back to you, my brother, we're not done with you. Um.
Speaker 1: We got very very important segment of the show, very important,
Speaker 1: most important. Next one. Some people say it's called I
Speaker 1: ain't saying no names. Mhmm. Will you tell us a story.
Speaker 1: Let's either funnier, fun up or both. The only rule
Speaker 1: you can't say the names. Who come on? Come on,
Speaker 1: I know we know you guys. I know you've got
Speaker 1: a lot of stories. Yeah, a lot of things. But
Speaker 1: it's a rooms. Well, I just don't say no name.
Speaker 1: No no, no, no, no no no. That's about to
Speaker 1: be our new intoke to it. No no, no, no,
Speaker 1: no no. We gotta sample back here. No no no, no,
Speaker 1: no no no no. You gotta clean. Yeah, they're gonna
Speaker 1: call for a royalty. Hey guys, um you don't remember,
Speaker 1: all right, I got a story. Here we go. Story
Speaker 1: I can't say no name. Very well known person in
Speaker 1: the industry, um that I was around for a while.
Speaker 1: At one point I I can't say that he's a rapper.
Speaker 1: And so I never knew this rapper love love singing
Speaker 1: so much and so oh it's gonna be dangerous. Um,
Speaker 1: you're almost this is there's a point where I learned
Speaker 1: that rappers, I really love to sing. Yeah, they grew
Speaker 1: up listening to singers a lot of times as much
Speaker 1: as they did other rappers. Like, so they really want
Speaker 1: to sing. And so with the advancement of technology and
Speaker 1: auto tune, they can. They can now hearing notes, and
Speaker 1: so I did. I was like, you know, I'm not.
Speaker 1: I'm not. I don't say I'm a rapper listener. I'm not.
Speaker 1: I listened to singers. So I was singing. I was
Speaker 1: doing what I do, jam, jam jam. This rapper gets
Speaker 1: on the piano. Stop the music, stop the DJ, just
Speaker 1: stop stop everything. One more song, please, Stevie. One more song,
Speaker 1: and and and uh, let me know if I could
Speaker 1: sing it. Let me let me know if I could
Speaker 1: do the lead. I get one Mike's when Mikes so
Speaker 1: who goes. I knew it was gonna go downhill a
Speaker 1: little bit, and I just remember playing the chords really loud.
Speaker 1: It might have been like, can you stay in the
Speaker 1: rain or something that we all love, you know, and
Speaker 1: I'm playing damn the drowned altums about happening, and I
Speaker 1: turned the reaver on all the way on his mic
Speaker 1: all the way turn and trying to tweak it, turned
Speaker 1: mine up his down. Dad. I was like, you know, boom,
Speaker 1: it's supposed to be on a perfect day. I don't
Speaker 1: know what I thought I was gonna hear, but I had.
Speaker 1: I hadn't been around non singers in a long time.
Speaker 1: But it went, it went south right there, and all
Speaker 1: all my, all, my, if people even knew, if people
Speaker 1: even knew, like how how if this moment was ever
Speaker 1: filmed and out, it would just be a catastrophe, a catastrophe.
Speaker 1: It went down that fast, and I remember having kind
Speaker 1: of stop and swerve that song back into its but
Speaker 1: just out of respect for the song, I had to
Speaker 1: swerve it back into the lane and I was I
Speaker 1: was like, okay, because I need some by I remember
Speaker 1: just doing that and like like yanking that Mike. I
Speaker 1: took that X SOLR and I kind of yanked it
Speaker 1: out at the bottom there, remember yanking it out, and
Speaker 1: he was like, what happened? I remember something happened. I
Speaker 1: took my hand. I just yanked it out and I
Speaker 1: can't be associated with anything if this ever gets out,
Speaker 1: I can't be the one on the piano. I will
Speaker 1: not be seeing around around bad vocals like this. I can't.
Speaker 1: I have a reputation of hoole, I cannot be I
Speaker 1: won't be singing around. So you're a vocal snob if
Speaker 1: there ever was one. I have to say that I've
Speaker 1: become I become friendlier, friendlier, but I am definitely a vocus.
Speaker 1: I don't enjoy concerts like everybody else. Vocal coaches are
Speaker 1: like that. It's me looked like wise, don't it sound
Speaker 1: like this? Sound men are my worst enemies, you know.
Speaker 1: I'm like, why isn't this and so I am? I
Speaker 1: am that guy I am, And I sept that that's
Speaker 1: where my snobbery lives. It's the only place it lives
Speaker 1: a rapper. So there's that. But I understand it was
Speaker 1: a stretch yesh. Yeah, just I don't see why rappers
Speaker 1: don't rap in the space just after the singing. There's
Speaker 1: a point where I would just play the piano you
Speaker 1: freestyle like they did. And when I was growing up
Speaker 1: in the eighties and nineties. You just put a cool
Speaker 1: rapping there and we're all like, that's amazing, that'd be great.
Speaker 1: But no, they want to be the singer too, and
Speaker 1: so it's a whole different game now. And when they're
Speaker 1: on the mic that has the auto tune, it's a
Speaker 1: different mic. That's studio mic. This is live performance Mike. Oh,
Speaker 1: we guys, a little rever been here. You've got to
Speaker 1: be able to hold it. If that. So that's that's
Speaker 1: my story. You can take a million guests of who
Speaker 1: it is. But anyway, I ain't saying no name, no name.
Speaker 1: I ain't saying no name. Um. Bro. First of all,
Speaker 1: you told us you're putting out a project on the
Speaker 1: Army Money podcast. We got exclusive, We got the exclusive,
Speaker 1: we got no no, no, no, no, okay to sample.
Speaker 1: Take it go along with I ain't saying no names, um,
Speaker 1: and just more flowers. Man you are you are one
Speaker 1: of the coldest man and um, your gift keeps us
Speaker 1: on the level. Mm hm. So keep doing more of that,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. Continue to be excellent, Continue
Speaker 1: to have those spaces and forums where people can come
Speaker 1: and perfect their excellence. Yes, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: Is absolutely necessary and needed. We're gonna be sending people
Speaker 1: to you. We're gonna come see you to come on
Speaker 1: and God continue the legacy of just of just what
Speaker 1: you are man and what you do. Man, you're really
Speaker 1: really dope. Do you take eb Yeah? Whatever you can
Speaker 1: your man. I know you need something up. I know
Speaker 1: you need something up. Baby. Let me st I'm Jay
Speaker 1: Valentine And this has been the R and B Money Podcast,
Speaker 1: the authority on all things R and B. And we
Speaker 1: have been blessed to have Stevien Mackie. Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1: I appreciate you. Appreciate you. Thank thank you, Jay and
Speaker 1: and crew. Like that's what we're talking about. People who
Speaker 1: are in the background and we don't see right now,
Speaker 1: that are always working. This is this is you know,
Speaker 1: kind of dedicated to you, this episode, This is for
Speaker 1: all people that work in this energy. Takes a lot
Speaker 1: of people to make a star. And so yep, I
Speaker 1: really appreciate I love being here. It was like sitting
Speaker 1: down with my family getting grilled. I love it. This
Speaker 1: is everything everything. Keep working or if you're a singer,
Speaker 1: put the work in, but the work in. If you
Speaker 1: don't feel like you should sing, don't sing. There's a
Speaker 1: lot of people in line to be singers. We don't
Speaker 1: need you, we don't need more singers like that. If
Speaker 1: you feel like there's something men you go sing, Go
Speaker 1: figure out how to do it. And listen. Listen. You're
Speaker 1: born listen. You're not born singing, you're not born talking.
Speaker 1: You're born listening first, listening. So that's your gift. Listen,
Speaker 1: and then take that and try to do what you
Speaker 1: can with it. So say that speech, I don't know, man,