Speaker 1: Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeart Radio. All Right,
Speaker 1: ladies and gentlemen, do not attempt to adjust your dial.
Speaker 1: I'm so old school, of course, I would say a
Speaker 1: dial as if it was a radio. We learned on
Speaker 1: a previous episode of Quest Love Supreme you gotta file
Speaker 1: the light. And so we're doing something rather different. This
Speaker 1: is going to be a one on one interview, and
Speaker 1: you know, oftentimes we just have to you know what, Okay.
Speaker 1: Normally I would do my normal jargon of you know,
Speaker 1: we have greatness in the room and da da da da,
Speaker 1: But I feel that's a lot of pressure. Sometimes, oh,
Speaker 1: I will just simply say that there is an episode
Speaker 1: of two friends, two colleagues having a conversation with each other,
Speaker 1: and uh, I don't know it's happening, Ladies and gentlemen,
Speaker 1: there's a conversation with the one and only. How do
Speaker 1: I describe Andre Lauren Benjamin aka three stacks shit, he's
Speaker 1: so enlightened he might be four stacks right about now
Speaker 1: aka Johnny Vulture, Sunny Bridges. I forgot about just chipped
Speaker 1: out the nicest Gemini I know, like he's the acceptance
Speaker 1: of my new Gemini's rule. Sorry, about that. Come on, now,
Speaker 1: you're man. You're made Gemini though, So you know, I
Speaker 1: like to think you're more tarist adjacent than Junie Geminis.
Speaker 1: I don't know, I don't. I don't get along with
Speaker 1: many June Geminis. So Gemini is crazy, man, like exactly.
Speaker 2: Yes, you are all crazy, but so crazy that you
Speaker 2: just into it. Like whatever we're into, we're crazy about it.
Speaker 1: Yeah. No, you guys are bold. I mean, look, dude,
Speaker 1: our hero Prince is a Gemini. Yeah, so many Geminis
Speaker 1: out there. Yeah. So yeah, I want to do something
Speaker 1: a bit different because I know you're on a press
Speaker 1: run and I know when an artist does a press
Speaker 1: run where you're just doing an interview at the interview,
Speaker 1: at the interview to interview, the muscle memory kicks in.
Speaker 1: You're answering the same exact questions over and over again.
Speaker 1: And I kind of want to use this as an
Speaker 1: opportunity to actually to get to know you as a human.
Speaker 1: All right, let's stretch Dan. Yeah, And so I'm yeah,
Speaker 1: I'll say that I'm taking a three thousand approach in
Speaker 1: quest love Supreme Land, and I'm gonna throw out questions
Speaker 1: that I wouldn't typically ask on AQLS episode and no, no, no,
Speaker 1: this is gonna get fun. Yeah, I assure you, I
Speaker 1: assure you it's that. So my first question to you
Speaker 1: is what time do you wake up in the morning,
Speaker 1: just automatically, not like on the clock that I got
Speaker 1: to get to the airport, but what's your body clock?
Speaker 1: When do you wake up?
Speaker 2: About about eight eight am? Maybe like naturally about eight am?
Speaker 1: Naturally eight am? Okay, do you have a morning routine?
Speaker 1: What do you do in the first half hour of
Speaker 1: your day?
Speaker 2: Like, I've never used social media, so I've never had
Speaker 2: a Twitter account. I only have an Instagram account now
Speaker 2: to preserve my name, but I've never ever posted anything
Speaker 2: in my life. So it's funny that when I see
Speaker 2: most people in the world and they're constantly checking their Instagram,
Speaker 2: like you know, kind of going through these little things.
Speaker 2: So when I get up in the morning, I have
Speaker 2: my TV set up to like I'm a YouTube person, man,
Speaker 2: Like YouTube is my university. So I just watch a
Speaker 2: whole bunch of shorts, just random, random shorts. I guess
Speaker 2: the same thing someone would do scrolling through Instagram. But yeah,
Speaker 2: I kind of get thrown stuff from the youtubel.
Speaker 1: Alga, Okay, where do you live?
Speaker 2: I live in Venice Beach. I live a few blocks
Speaker 2: up from here. I live in Venice Beach, California. How
Speaker 2: long have you lived out in Venice?
Speaker 1: About four? Four or five years now? Maybe? So was
Speaker 1: there every time you lived in New York? Yeah?
Speaker 2: I lived in New York for four years before I
Speaker 2: came here. So I lived in Atlanta, lived in Dallas
Speaker 2: for two years. Then I moved to New York for
Speaker 2: about three years maybe, and then then moved here.
Speaker 1: I heard a crazy room. Are you a fishing a fishonado? No?
Speaker 2: I started going deep sea fishing, like my family took
Speaker 2: me dee deep sea fishing, and I enjoyed. And I
Speaker 2: invited a big boy on a on a couple of them,
Speaker 2: and big boy like he's been running with it, Like
Speaker 2: big boy goes out in deep sea fishes all the time.
Speaker 1: So I think you may be confusing me with big boy. Well,
Speaker 1: I heard that someone told me like in Long Island
Speaker 1: once that you like I saw one hundred and three
Speaker 1: thousand like going fishing in Long Island. I was like,
Speaker 1: Long Island, he's not from New York. And it's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: he's from New York.
Speaker 2: So now what do young people say? That's cal Okay,
Speaker 2: that's a good room. I mean, fishing is awesome, you know, now,
Speaker 2: just I've never done it in Long Island.
Speaker 1: Though, okay. And these are also non secuitur and random questions.
Speaker 2: No, I love these kind of questions, like you're interviewing me, like, like, well,
Speaker 2: when we go to Europe, they asked different questions.
Speaker 1: Exactly, you know what I mean. I like figure you're
Speaker 1: just tired of asking the same thing. Where have you been?
Speaker 1: You know? How many instruments do you play or can
Speaker 1: you play?
Speaker 2: I can mess around with maybe four or five to
Speaker 2: get a sound out of them. But I don't even
Speaker 2: consider myself a musician in that way, Like I can't
Speaker 2: even claim that.
Speaker 1: I know real musicians, you know. But I can write.
Speaker 2: I use them as kind of like writing to sometimes
Speaker 2: I can record myself doing it, but I'm not proficient.
Speaker 2: I'm probably more proficient on flute than I am on
Speaker 2: any of them.
Speaker 1: So in a world full of instruments, why.
Speaker 2: The flute natural? How I got there? How I discovered it?
Speaker 2: With instruments, you kind of you pick them up and
Speaker 2: you mess around with them, and you start to see
Speaker 2: where am I spending most of my time, and it
Speaker 2: ended up being the flute. But then I go through
Speaker 2: phases too, because I I did it with guitar for
Speaker 2: a little bit, then I did it with bass for
Speaker 2: a little bit, and then flute just happened to be
Speaker 2: the thing that I think stuck. And because I think
Speaker 2: the mobileness of a flute too, because I mean, right
Speaker 2: now I'm holding the flut. I cared it kind of everywhere,
Speaker 2: So any inspiration I get, I just pick it up
Speaker 2: and start messing around.
Speaker 1: I can't do that with a bass guitar. I can't
Speaker 1: do that with a piano.
Speaker 2: You can do it with a guitar acoustic maybe, but
Speaker 2: this is so unassuming and you just kind of carry
Speaker 2: it like you know. So I think that the portability
Speaker 2: of a flute probably made it my favorite. How many
Speaker 2: do you own about thirty thirty flutes?
Speaker 1: Maybe?
Speaker 2: So you have thirty versions of that, No, and they're
Speaker 2: all from different makers. But this style of flute, I
Speaker 2: probably owned more vs and my double flutes than any
Speaker 2: other style because it's kind of the flute that I
Speaker 2: really fell in love with the first, which is based
Speaker 2: in like meso American culture. You know Mayan and Nastec flutes,
Speaker 2: and now this is the Native American version of them,
Speaker 2: made by gear Moore. They were made of clay originally,
Speaker 2: but I own a lot of these. But I think
Speaker 2: once I started to go on the flute path, I
Speaker 2: started to get schooled by uber drivers because I play
Speaker 2: all the time, So I play in ubers, I play,
Speaker 2: I play in the back word yeah. And so if
Speaker 2: I'm playing and it's a Chinese driver, he'll turn around like, oh, man,
Speaker 2: that reminds me of my country. Or if it's Japanese,
Speaker 2: oh that reminds me.
Speaker 1: Oh, it reminds me.
Speaker 2: So everybody I'm playing the same flute, but every nationality
Speaker 2: of driver will turn around and tell me it reminds
Speaker 2: them of their country. So that let me know that culturally,
Speaker 2: every culture has a flute and a and a dram
Speaker 2: of course. But yeah, but I started to get schooled
Speaker 2: on the street and by uber drivers while people asking
Speaker 2: me about things like I was in Philly shooting the film,
Speaker 2: and I spent a lot of time in Philly and
Speaker 2: I would just walk and play, and this dude comes
Speaker 2: up to me and he's like, oh, you're doing that
Speaker 2: Japanese thing, and I was like, what Japanese thing are
Speaker 2: you talking about? And then he schools me and tell
Speaker 2: me that there was a whole shakahachi culture where you know,
Speaker 2: these Japanese players will walk around with baskets on their
Speaker 2: head to have no identity and no ego and just
Speaker 2: play for people.
Speaker 1: That was the thing. End.
Speaker 2: I would just walk around in public and play. So
Speaker 2: he was asking me was I doing that? Which I
Speaker 2: had no idea what that was, and went to research
Speaker 2: that and learned about that.
Speaker 1: I was going to say, there's a show that came
Speaker 1: on h in the seventies called Kung Fu Yes, and
Speaker 1: of which David Carodine's character is sort of and he
Speaker 1: Tarantinas sort of alluded to that and Kill Bill in
Speaker 1: which he played the same exact flute, like just walking
Speaker 1: around and start playing and okay, so yeah, I was wondering, like, wow,
Speaker 1: I wonder if he's in his kung fu face.
Speaker 3: It's it's just I'm being taught.
Speaker 2: I'm learning, and I see now that anything that I
Speaker 2: can blow when through and manipulate the notes with my fingers,
Speaker 2: I want to play it. So if I'm turned onto
Speaker 2: Persian nay flute or Indian bunstori flute or like a
Speaker 2: gore a Chinese go. Like I just like discovering things
Speaker 2: that I can blow, you know, and it's and it's fun,
Speaker 2: you know, paulse.
Speaker 1: How long did it How long did it take? How
Speaker 1: long did it take you for muscle memory to I
Speaker 1: get the feeling you're going to say, I have yet
Speaker 1: to master the flute, but oh yeah, man, I mean,
Speaker 1: but you do know, Like and right now when you're playing,
Speaker 1: are your hands telling you what to do? Or do
Speaker 1: you know that this particular position will yield this note
Speaker 1: and that note?
Speaker 2: And no, that's the fun and scary part about how
Speaker 2: I play, like when people hear the record like we've
Speaker 2: made it up as it was going So I'm discovering
Speaker 2: that melody as is going along, but I don't know
Speaker 2: what I'm doing.
Speaker 1: Until I do it.
Speaker 2: So like I couldn't like if you played a note
Speaker 2: for me right now on a keyboard, I cannot tell
Speaker 2: you what that note was. If you played a chord,
Speaker 2: I couldn't tell you. See, I understand when musicians talk
Speaker 2: about a key center or you know the bottom of
Speaker 2: this chord, but I don't know what that is.
Speaker 1: None of that. So for me.
Speaker 2: It's all physical and it's all shapes. So I do
Speaker 2: know if I take one finger and spread, I can't
Speaker 2: say it on the microphone or how to say it,
Speaker 2: but do these et kind of fingers. I know that
Speaker 2: gives me an odd note. That's all I know. I
Speaker 2: know it's odd, which may be of I don't know
Speaker 2: a flat or something. And I know if I put
Speaker 2: all my fingers down, I get a certain thing. So
Speaker 2: when I'm playing, I'm actually responding to what note I
Speaker 2: just played before, not knowing what that note is. So
Speaker 2: everything is on a tight rope. See you take one
Speaker 2: step at a time, purely one step at a time,
Speaker 2: but it is it is very physical. It is very
Speaker 2: physical because I'm trying to wheel something out because I
Speaker 2: know I never trained, so I have to find another way,
Speaker 2: another route to get to it.
Speaker 1: How often do you practice to day?
Speaker 2: I wouldn't even call it practice, which I'm now getting
Speaker 2: into practice, like because I started playing flute, Like I'm
Speaker 2: actually meeting like kick ass flute players, Like someone introduced
Speaker 2: me to shabaka and so Shebacca will show me exercise
Speaker 2: like but I've never done that before, and so I'm
Speaker 2: learning how to practice. I never went to college or anything,
Speaker 2: so I don't even have like the I just never
Speaker 2: had to study, so I don't have that. Emmy, It's
Speaker 2: all for me. It's always playing. I just try to
Speaker 2: play as much as possible, which ends up being studied.
Speaker 2: So even before I'm just always out playing. But I
Speaker 2: don't know, I don't have a regimen really, you know.
Speaker 1: Fun fact that's you're speaking for at least seventy percent
Speaker 1: of all musicians out there, Like I play by ear, yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I've just recently, maybe in the last twenty years,
Speaker 1: and only because like some of the more intellectual roots
Speaker 1: will eye roll because I don't know. I didn't know
Speaker 1: previously how to say, like play a a C sharp sus.
Speaker 2: I know those words, but that's so that's foreign to me, right.
Speaker 2: But for the majority of creatives there there's.
Speaker 1: Two types of musicians, technical musicians and musicians that feel
Speaker 1: I'm a field musician. Totally feel like if you were
Speaker 1: to put notaate notes in front of me, I wouldn't
Speaker 1: know what the hell is in front of me.
Speaker 2: So I got to go feel Yeah, that's all I have, man,
Speaker 2: That's all I kind of and and the thing about
Speaker 2: hip hop too, hip hop forces you to do the
Speaker 2: immediate thing. I don't know, it's just a certain energy that, Yeah,
Speaker 2: I don't know. We just kind of have this kind
Speaker 2: of flying by the seat of our parents kind of thing.
Speaker 2: And so when I put it towards an instrument, I'm
Speaker 2: kind of transferring in that way of like we just
Speaker 2: try stuff, like we pick up something that's not supposed
Speaker 2: to be for a thing and make it for something else,
Speaker 2: you know.
Speaker 3: So I'm using a lot of that.
Speaker 1: How did you assemble the musicians for New Blue Son?
Speaker 1: How did it come together?
Speaker 2: It naturally came about by me meeting Carlos. Carlos Nino.
Speaker 1: We met. It's such a Venice Venus story. We met
Speaker 1: in airwine no joke, no joke, we met it. We
Speaker 1: met like.
Speaker 2: And actually, uh, Mike d from Beastie Boys was there
Speaker 2: at the meeting because I saw him in line checking
Speaker 2: out and I went up.
Speaker 3: To him something man, you know, and then Carlos comes up.
Speaker 2: So there's three of us standing right here at the
Speaker 2: cash register, right and Carlos invites us out to an
Speaker 2: event that he's doing at night, and yeah, we kind
Speaker 2: of started hanging out since then he had heard that
Speaker 2: I was in town in Venice, and people were like,
Speaker 2: I think y'all need to meet, you know, and some
Speaker 2: people would say that to Carlos, and Carlos was like, yeah,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna meet him, you know at some point, you know.
Speaker 2: And we finally ended up meeting and he invited me
Speaker 2: over to his house. We recorded in his garage, and
Speaker 2: that was kind of like our first kind of getting
Speaker 2: into it. And I knew I wanted to work on
Speaker 2: this Wind project, and I knew a lot of the
Speaker 2: sounds that I was looking for.
Speaker 1: Uh that's what That's what Carlos does.
Speaker 2: And so when he was brought him to the Fold,
Speaker 2: he was like, man, I know a lot of people
Speaker 2: I could bring, you know, to help. And so we
Speaker 2: tried out a lot of different outfits, you know, different situations,
Speaker 2: and the core four of us ended up kind of
Speaker 2: ended up being Yes, Aihen Nate, and but that ended
Speaker 2: up being the core, and then we would invite just
Speaker 2: anybody in to come and you know, hang out. But yeah,
Speaker 2: this album definitely, it couldn't have been made without Carlos Nino,
Speaker 2: like Nino is.
Speaker 1: What I love about Nino is.
Speaker 2: He reminds me of when I was producing earlier on
Speaker 2: for outcasts, Like there's a certain excitement, like he's more
Speaker 2: concerned with what's the most interesting thing? Okay, you know,
Speaker 2: and I love that. It's like kind of kid spirit,
Speaker 2: you know.
Speaker 1: So okay. In the credits of the album, under Carlos's title,
Speaker 1: there's also play like It's listed as gongs, various instruments,
Speaker 1: and then there's plants. How are plants a part of
Speaker 1: the instrumentation of this album? I mean, you will see
Speaker 1: when we when we play live.
Speaker 2: But sounds are everywhere, man, like anything is anything is
Speaker 2: a sound. You know, We've only settled on certain instruments
Speaker 2: because we're used to them. But like Colos may just
Speaker 2: grab a palm leaf off the side of the road
Speaker 2: and shake it.
Speaker 1: Oh okay, I see, you know what I mean?
Speaker 2: So I get anything like it could be a beanstalk
Speaker 2: or drive anything, you know, just whatever makes a cool
Speaker 2: noise that you like.
Speaker 1: And Colos has like.
Speaker 2: Man and a myriad of sounds of stuff anything like, Yeah,
Speaker 2: plants happen to be one of them.
Speaker 1: So what's the division of labor as far as the
Speaker 1: technical aspect. I'm only asking this because when I read
Speaker 1: the credits to your album, there's a name there, a
Speaker 1: legendary Philadelphia name, gentleman named Andy Kravitz. Andy mastered this album. Yes, now,
Speaker 1: Andy Kravitz to me is a very legendary Philadelphia native. Trauma.
Speaker 1: We got our record deal in nineteen ninety three. I
Speaker 1: used to intern at Ropoul's Records, and so Andy Kravitz
Speaker 1: was sort of like a house producer at Studio fifty four.
Speaker 1: So I'm there like when he's working with ten Dog,
Speaker 1: He's played on Steady be stuff and so I you know,
Speaker 1: he was like really the first hip hop drummer I've
Speaker 1: seen with my own eyes. Nothing sorry Bobby Simmons of
Speaker 1: steps to signing forgive me, but yeah, Andy Kravits like
Speaker 1: and then he just disappeared off the radar for like
Speaker 1: twenty and I always wondered what happened to him. So
Speaker 1: he's mastering.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's so cool that the relationship, Like Carlos has
Speaker 2: worked with him before, and so his mastering studio is
Speaker 2: in Venice, so it was all in the neighborhood. So
Speaker 2: like his mastering studio is right by the beach, and
Speaker 2: we just kind of go to his house and he
Speaker 2: got like crazy equipment like knee.
Speaker 3: Boards, and a little bit of ass apartment.
Speaker 1: It's awesome. Like so basically I have to move to Venice.
Speaker 1: Why Venice?
Speaker 2: I have no idea, man like I got here havingstance,
Speaker 2: like I wasn't even supposed to be living in Ventage.
Speaker 2: And then this real estate agent lady and she was like, hey,
Speaker 2: check out this little house I got in Venice. I mean,
Speaker 2: it's just check it out. And all my friends in
Speaker 2: LA they were like, please, man, don't move to Venice.
Speaker 2: Like all right, LA people be like, man, we'll never
Speaker 2: see you because that's on the west side.
Speaker 1: That's way. Yeah. I was gonna say it's beautiful, but
Speaker 1: then I was like a man so much on sunset
Speaker 1: and all my favorite restaurants I would never know.
Speaker 2: But I never get back on that side though, Like
Speaker 2: everything I need is pretty much over here. And I
Speaker 2: think all of that, like me moving to Venice, catapulted
Speaker 2: me in the direction I needed to go. And I
Speaker 2: will say that because I met I went to a
Speaker 2: breathwork class in Venice. That's when I first heard this
Speaker 2: certain kind of.
Speaker 1: Flute that I love. And it was all because of Venice.
Speaker 2: So I have to say, sometimes them certain breadcrumbs.
Speaker 1: Or wherever You're wherever you are.
Speaker 2: Are for a reason, and you may not even know
Speaker 2: it at the time. But if I didn't move to Venice,
Speaker 2: this album probably wouldn't have been made.
Speaker 1: Okay, not in this way. What was the batter year
Speaker 1: or the starting year of your flute curiosity?
Speaker 2: I don't know the actual starting year, but I will
Speaker 2: say because it's me and college was just talking about
Speaker 2: it the other day. Since the love below, I've been
Speaker 2: interested in wind instruments, like I've messed around with saxophone,
Speaker 2: even though like and she lives in my life at
Speaker 2: the end, the horrible saxophone, that's me messing around on saxophone.
Speaker 1: Oh, I thought you had a free jazz saxophone players.
Speaker 1: That's me, that was you. Yeah, that's me playing. I
Speaker 1: have to listen to that. Okay, it's horrible.
Speaker 2: It's horrible, but it was like, I don't believe in
Speaker 2: wrong notes and I love Now.
Speaker 1: I got to go back and listen again. You're here,
Speaker 1: you're here. The thing is if you do with a
Speaker 1: straight face and confidence.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, Oh, it's always for real. Now it's serious,
Speaker 2: even if it's horrible, you don't believe it, Okay.
Speaker 1: I just thought you had some free jazz. Okay, now
Speaker 1: I have to revisit that.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I started wanting to play saxophone first tenor
Speaker 2: saxophone because of John Coltrane. I mean because I was
Speaker 2: a fan of John Coltrane, and me reading bios of
Speaker 2: John Coltrane, I learned that he played clarinet in school
Speaker 2: first before he switched over to so I was.
Speaker 1: Like, well, let me give me a clarinet.
Speaker 2: So I bought a clarinet straight B flat, the straight
Speaker 2: one be flat clarinet, and I played around with for
Speaker 2: a few months. And then we were on tour and
Speaker 2: I went to a pawn shop in New York and
Speaker 2: there was this Selmer bass clarinet.
Speaker 1: I don't know why I was there, and I was like, this,
Speaker 1: it looked cool. A lot of time.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna track it to an instrument because the way
Speaker 2: it looked. And so I saw it and it was
Speaker 2: in its case, it was open, and it happened to
Speaker 2: be like a nineteen sixty seven Selmer bass clarinet. Bought
Speaker 2: it and as soon as I started playing it, like
Speaker 2: and the thing is with wind players, it's a thing
Speaker 2: called armbiture. It's kind of like how your mouth fits
Speaker 2: over the tip of the the read and all that
Speaker 2: kind of stuff. It's weird, but I was just blessed
Speaker 2: to immediately have an amatry. Like my first time picking
Speaker 2: it up and putting my mouth on, it was like,
Speaker 2: I'm getting a good tone, like a good sound. So
Speaker 2: it motivated me to even want to play more, you know.
Speaker 2: So from there, once I hit the bass claerinet, I
Speaker 2: noticed that I love the deeper tones and I love
Speaker 2: wind on wood compared to metal, which is you know,
Speaker 2: soprano or but you I tried a little soprano too, okay.
Speaker 1: So from there it's just.
Speaker 2: Me loving what I could get out of wind instruments.
Speaker 2: So I even got into Obo, which is the hardest
Speaker 2: one to play, like I love the Obo sound, got
Speaker 2: into Obo, went into Obo Day, Obo Day, which yeah,
Speaker 2: Obo Day. At the new School, they have like Obow Day. Okay,
Speaker 2: see what I'm saying, like dre d but Obo Day.
Speaker 1: All right, Okay. I was like, is that a pun
Speaker 1: or no? Get it?
Speaker 2: So yeah, when I moved to New York, I would
Speaker 2: just kind of look at the school schedule of whatever
Speaker 2: performances were at the New School because I always like
Speaker 2: to go where the youth.
Speaker 1: Is performing new music. I don't care.
Speaker 2: Like there's something about that college age where you're dumb
Speaker 2: enough to try new things, but you're developed enough to
Speaker 2: do them well.
Speaker 1: And that's that. It's about that that period.
Speaker 2: And so I would just go to the new school
Speaker 2: and see whatever recital as a plan. I don't care
Speaker 2: if piano one night, it could be the soon it's
Speaker 2: another night, or whole orchestra, and I just sit there
Speaker 2: and listen.
Speaker 1: And side question, are you freaking people out as you're
Speaker 1: like just wandering into their school?
Speaker 2: Not really, because we're no. I just you know, talk
Speaker 2: to the students. You know, they'd be like, oh, he
Speaker 2: came to the show, but it would be maybe fifteen
Speaker 2: people in there, like ten people just sitting.
Speaker 3: So it was it was not like a big.
Speaker 2: Production or anything, so I could easily just slip in
Speaker 2: and slip out. But just my my interest and when
Speaker 2: instruments just kept growing, and so I would just collect
Speaker 2: different wind instruments, and then I discovered the Guiermo the
Speaker 2: Maya double flute, which is kind of what really pushed
Speaker 2: me into wanting to play it all the time. And
Speaker 2: maybe like even with the bass claierinet, you have to
Speaker 2: it's like a gun. You have to construct it, put
Speaker 2: it together, put it back in the case, clean it.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: With these it was so instant. I can just carry
Speaker 2: it around, So it was very instant. I think because
Speaker 2: I could carry it, I kept it with me longer
Speaker 2: than any other instrument. So yeah, I've been interested in
Speaker 2: win for a long time.
Speaker 1: But okay, yeah, so this album, Marks have returned to
Speaker 1: the spotlight for you for the first time in as
Speaker 1: of this recording, seventeen years, basically meaning you haven't released
Speaker 1: product with your name on it since two thousand and six.
Speaker 1: My own product, yes, your own product. Yet, even though
Speaker 1: you've done things here and there. Could you describe if
Speaker 1: you can go back that far two thousand and seven,
Speaker 1: like a year after two thousand and seven, Well, a
Speaker 1: year after two thousand and six where you know you're
Speaker 1: starting your I'm sure then you didn't think of it
Speaker 1: as I'm gonna start my exile or my rest from
Speaker 1: my day job that people know me from. But like
Speaker 1: a year or two after it, when you're not in
Speaker 1: daily motion of gotta have an au mount, got to
Speaker 1: figure out a tour, got it? Like, Yeah, what was
Speaker 1: two thousand and seven like for you you were thirty
Speaker 1: two years old.
Speaker 2: I don't remember, but that's cool too, Yeah, because it's
Speaker 2: harked me to place the dates like I you have
Speaker 2: to give me kind of like a like a marker,
Speaker 2: like that was a year after the leve Blow came out,
Speaker 2: or a year before Idlewow, or like.
Speaker 1: I kind of have to mark I think a year
Speaker 1: after Idawoa came out in two thousand and six. So
Speaker 1: I say a year after Idlewold, then, uh, you have
Speaker 1: to Idlewow.
Speaker 2: I'm at home, and I was blessed to start getting
Speaker 2: asked to be on remixes, okay, and that was a
Speaker 2: blessing for me because it gave me a chance to rap,
Speaker 2: you know, after all that had, So you see it
Speaker 2: as a blessing now because it feel good to wrap.
Speaker 2: So whenever you get to like the opportunity to do
Speaker 2: it and you in it, I know.
Speaker 1: But like, okay, So I remember once when you appeared
Speaker 1: on the remix of Walk It Out, walk It Out? Right?
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, and the so I know you're not on
Speaker 1: social media, so to see the social media reaction to
Speaker 1: you even being on that remix one was a shocker,
Speaker 1: Like wait, one hundred and three thousands on a walk
Speaker 1: It Out song and with Jim Jones whatever. So but
Speaker 1: it was such a mind blowing thing. But in my
Speaker 1: mind I was like, wow, I wonder if he notices
Speaker 1: like that. And again, I mean, this was no pressure,
Speaker 1: new intent of pressure, like you're kind of holding the
Speaker 1: world's oxygen supply, you know, hostage, because you can spit
Speaker 1: a verse and it's guarantee that at least three things
Speaker 1: that you say in that verse will be like holy shit,
Speaker 1: here are a couple of those words together, like it's
Speaker 1: it's an event I've seen people like, for instance, the
Speaker 1: verse on the Rick Ross thing, like I didn't think
Speaker 1: i'd ever experience coming from a place where we would
Speaker 1: have daily meetings about wait, what about this start doing
Speaker 1: your PowerPoint thing? And the way he does supposed these
Speaker 1: words together. But man, so it's just weird to hear
Speaker 1: you say like, oh, I'm just so blessed to be
Speaker 1: able to get the opportunity to.
Speaker 2: Do that, And I'm like, no, and when you are
Speaker 2: the opportunity, no, But when I say blessing, you got
Speaker 2: to understand too, this is a town, a town creating
Speaker 2: a new sound too. So dj unk like that actually
Speaker 2: came through another DJ friend of mine that no unt
Speaker 2: just saying, Hey, asked Andrea here you to get on
Speaker 2: this beat, and it came that way. It was no,
Speaker 2: it was nothing, no big production, Like I don't even
Speaker 2: know if I got paid for the song, like I think.
Speaker 2: I think the trade off was, hey, can you do
Speaker 2: a couple of beats that we scratched in the background
Speaker 2: of my cartoon. That'll be the payment class for class
Speaker 2: of three thousand. So I think it was set up
Speaker 2: that way. But the beat was so jamming that you
Speaker 2: just want to get on it. So I say the
Speaker 2: blessing because any rapid just want to be on a
Speaker 2: good beat and beat in the city, you know, you.
Speaker 1: Just want to be out. You want to be heard.
Speaker 2: So if producers are making new sounds or even like
Speaker 2: even later like new artists. So even if a Frank
Speaker 2: Ocean says, hey, get on my song. Frank Ocean a
Speaker 2: new artist, I don't know him, like, get on my song.
Speaker 2: But when I say a blessing, that reintroduced me to
Speaker 2: a whole nother generation too, you know what I mean?
Speaker 2: That were following that, you know, so I do look
Speaker 2: at it as blessings, am I say blessing because we
Speaker 2: had just come off of Speakerbox Cluve Below Idle Wow,
Speaker 2: which was a musical, more focused, melodic kind of thing,
Speaker 2: And so I didn't rap a lot, okay, and those
Speaker 2: offerings a little bit. So when I say a blessing,
Speaker 2: it gave me another opportunity to do what I enjoyed doing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, what five albums can you not live without? What
Speaker 1: five albums can you not live without? That's a hard pressure.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you should have gave me some time before we
Speaker 2: got on the microphone.
Speaker 1: Man. Well, the thing is, I think oftentimes when you
Speaker 1: when people are in this high pressure situation of like,
Speaker 1: I gotta give the most intellectual answer, Like sometimes I
Speaker 1: listen to boring as shit, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: I'm on an Elvis kick right now because i just
Speaker 1: saw the Lisa Marie biopic and I'm interested in that
Speaker 1: sixty eight comeback Black Leather, so i'm and plus you
Speaker 1: know the record crew were playing on that record. So
Speaker 1: right now I'm on an Elvis kicking Okay for some
Speaker 1: strange reason, but it doesn't have to be five.
Speaker 2: I've gone through that Elvis kick too, really, Yeah, man,
Speaker 2: Like E was a bad motherfucker, man.
Speaker 1: Or what five albums? Would you not expect us to
Speaker 1: think that you're into hmm, not think that I'm into.
Speaker 2: That's another thing because when you say your five albums,
Speaker 2: it's almost like I'm trying not to give you the
Speaker 2: ones that everybody's going to say too.
Speaker 1: So I'm double thinking.
Speaker 2: Like if I say, you know, you know Love Supreme,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean, that's everybody's you know what
Speaker 2: I mean?
Speaker 3: So I'm trying to figure out that's a good question.
Speaker 1: What okay, So everyone has a go to song that
Speaker 1: they put on to just calm them down, and you know,
Speaker 1: when the album came out, I hit you with twelve paragraphs.
Speaker 1: I'm certain the whole world was hitting you with paragraphs.
Speaker 1: But you know, okay, I won't say an album because
Speaker 1: what's an album in twenty twenty three? What music? What's
Speaker 1: your go to music that you escape to.
Speaker 2: It's different phases, man, And just like you're saying right now,
Speaker 2: you're into Elvis phase right now, I'm into like a
Speaker 2: kind of classical Steve reikish kind of Oh okay, it's
Speaker 2: very repetitive, calming and meditative at the same time, but
Speaker 2: at the same time, like very complex and moving it's
Speaker 2: like and it's rhythmic, you know, it's tight, you know,
Speaker 2: so I guess I'm into that.
Speaker 1: And I listened to.
Speaker 2: Like a lot of native drum circle music like Cree
Speaker 2: Indian cre Nation kind of drumming the way they sing. Man, Yeah,
Speaker 2: that just that just blows my mind some very powerful
Speaker 2: okay about that?
Speaker 1: Is there any lyric that is ever stuck in your head?
Speaker 1: A stanza or a lyric of any song or I've
Speaker 1: been I've been working on a slide documentaries for so
Speaker 1: long that I think almost every day here the last
Speaker 1: line of Family Fair, like you can't cry because you
Speaker 1: look broke down, but you're cry anyway because you're all
Speaker 1: broke down. So that's that's stuck in my head? Like,
Speaker 1: are there lyrics that are often just stuck in your
Speaker 1: head even if it's dumb? I met her in a
Speaker 1: hotel lobby, like anything like the.
Speaker 2: Song fast Card by Tracy Chapman, Like it's one of
Speaker 2: those songs that I wish you know how people ask you, man,
Speaker 2: what song.
Speaker 1: Do you wish you wish you wrote? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Like, as a child hearing that song, it introduced me to, oh,
Speaker 2: you can you can actually hit people in the heart
Speaker 2: with words, you know, and when she when she said
Speaker 2: the line, uh, something like the body is too young
Speaker 2: for bodies too old for working, but bodies too old,
Speaker 2: too young to look like his. My mama went off
Speaker 2: and left him. She wanted more than he could give.
Speaker 2: Somebody's got to take care of him, so I quit school.
Speaker 1: I was like, yeah, you wish she wrote that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was like we were like we were we
Speaker 2: were listening and watching a real life Like it's almost
Speaker 2: like the black, the black kind of trailer park story,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean, Like you and you were
Speaker 2: on the ride the whole time, like these big dreams
Speaker 2: of hurting this dude.
Speaker 1: And someone running away from a past life.
Speaker 2: And it went full circle like she had these big
Speaker 2: dreams just like a mama did. Then at the end
Speaker 2: she got to keep moving like WHOA right hard?
Speaker 1: Okay? Yeah. Anyone that has ever asked me like what
Speaker 1: song that I wish I wrote or a part of
Speaker 1: I will never hesitate to say. I think will ever
Speaker 1: beat the moment in which we were in our tour bus.
Speaker 1: We had one week to finish our Things Fallow Apart album.
Speaker 1: We were coming back from Pittsburgh.
Speaker 3: And this is.
Speaker 1: August of ninety eight and you know back in the day,
Speaker 1: of course your album had to be done like three
Speaker 1: months ahead of Oh yeah, man, yeah. So somehow my
Speaker 1: publicist was connected to Drew Dixon at Arista and had
Speaker 1: a copy of Equimini and The Feeling of Fear. When
Speaker 1: Spotioli Doplicious came on, I was like, fuck, they sound
Speaker 1: like a better band than we do, like and instantly
Speaker 1: I knew, like every black university marching ben like, this
Speaker 1: was gonna be something I heard like forever. And I
Speaker 1: was like, damn, how come ideas don't come to me
Speaker 1: like that? Man, Like, what the fuck you know? And
Speaker 1: plus it's very rare. It's it's it's rare in what
Speaker 1: you hear stream of conscious thinking, black people thinking. And man,
Speaker 1: that paralyzed me so goddamn much, man, Like I wish
Speaker 1: I don't know if I should say thank you or sorry?
Speaker 1: You know, made it made me try harder, man like,
Speaker 1: and I've yet to still create that, so like, in
Speaker 1: my mind, that's that's what I'm doing. What's the best
Speaker 1: piece of advice you've ever been given? It?
Speaker 2: Actually, the best piece of advice I would say came
Speaker 2: from Erica's grandmother, Erica would all Erica's grandmama would always
Speaker 2: say anything, any problem in the issue that come up,
Speaker 2: she'd be like, keep on living.
Speaker 1: It happened to you. That was it. Did you know
Speaker 1: what you meant? Yes? Okay, yeah, keep on living. It'll
Speaker 1: happen to you. Yeah, okay.
Speaker 2: And it's as simple as that, it's going to happen.
Speaker 2: Keep on living. It'll happen to you.
Speaker 1: If you can astro travel. If you can astro travel
Speaker 1: back to nineteen ninety two, and you were allowed you today,
Speaker 1: were allowed a twenty second window to disrupt the timeline
Speaker 1: and talk to yourself. And I believe you were seventeen
Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety two. What would you tell yourself in
Speaker 1: those twenty seconds? This is like before first album ninety two.
Speaker 2: I consider that at the beginning of the podcast, what
Speaker 2: would I tell myself? Get ready for the ride, man,
Speaker 2: get ready for a ride that you don't even know
Speaker 2: how to hold on because you can't even fathom what's
Speaker 2: going to happen, you know. So I don't know if
Speaker 2: there's any any more advice than that, just to get
Speaker 2: ready for the ride and just yeah, yeah, because there's
Speaker 2: nothing to prepare you for, because we can have plans
Speaker 2: like as humans, we you know, you just want to
Speaker 2: wrap okay, but those are kind of on the ground,
Speaker 2: you know, goals. But then there's a higher force that
Speaker 2: takes you further that things that I couldn't even imagine,
Speaker 2: that I couldn't even think about. So really, just get
Speaker 2: ready for the rode.
Speaker 1: Most people, when they dream, they often have themes that
Speaker 1: occur all the time. Yep, trains are always in my dream.
Speaker 1: For the least the last thirty year of trains are
Speaker 1: always in my dream. What is the prevalent theme of
Speaker 1: all of your dreams? Flying? You're always on a plane? No,
Speaker 1: I'm always flying no plane. Do you have a fear
Speaker 1: of flying? No? Besides trains. And this is weird. I live.
Speaker 1: I live in an apartment in New York and I'm
Speaker 1: on the seventy third floor and people always ask all
Speaker 1: the time, wait, aren't you a free to be up here?
Speaker 1: You know that that sort of thing. But yet when
Speaker 1: I sleep, because I often believe that times your brain
Speaker 1: can't register fantasy in real life. So I tried an
Speaker 1: exercise where, you know, I was watching somebody on YouTube
Speaker 1: and they said, like, imagine yourself flying, and when I
Speaker 1: close my eyes tot like to stand on a ledge
Speaker 1: to make that leap. I get that I can't imagine
Speaker 1: myself even in my dreams. I can't imagine myself flying
Speaker 1: over like it's it's the same fear as if I
Speaker 1: were on the ledge and want to hang on to
Speaker 1: deer life. M So in your dreams, you have the
Speaker 1: ability to just transport and fly.
Speaker 2: Yes, And it was from wherever I am, like not
Speaker 2: a I have to be on the top of a
Speaker 2: building like I can be on the ground. And I
Speaker 2: start to do this type it's almost like a a
Speaker 2: hover like it's like a floating kind of thing, and
Speaker 2: you're kind of like it's not like it's not like
Speaker 2: direct control. It's almost like you're drifted and you're able
Speaker 2: to manipulate the drift a little bit, but not fast.
Speaker 3: So if I want to make a turn, I got
Speaker 3: to start drifting a little.
Speaker 2: But yeah, like I'm always flying, I'm looking down on
Speaker 2: the world like I'm looking down on mountains, I'm looking
Speaker 2: down on things. But here's the craziest thing. Whenever I
Speaker 2: try to show my friends, like I remember one of
Speaker 2: dream I was trying to trying to show sea law,
Speaker 2: like see look man, check this out. And I tried
Speaker 2: to do it for him. It didn't work, you know
Speaker 2: what I mean, Like it's almost like you wanted to
Speaker 2: share and you were planning it, you couldn't do it.
Speaker 2: But it's when I was by myself and it was happening,
Speaker 2: I was like, whoa, look at this flying thing. And
Speaker 2: now at this point I want to show people. You're
Speaker 2: almost like I almost want to show off the trick, like, oh,
Speaker 2: check this out, and whenever I try, it just doesn't work,
Speaker 2: which is which is weird, you know. But I have
Speaker 2: that dream a lot, and it's the same flying style,
Speaker 2: which is and it's kind of like it's a really
Speaker 2: awesome style because it's.
Speaker 1: Because even in your dreams, you're cool shit.
Speaker 3: Because it because it's so it's so floaty.
Speaker 1: It's so floaty.
Speaker 2: It's not like a plain ship when I'm able to
Speaker 2: make quick rights or anything.
Speaker 3: So it's almost like it's hard.
Speaker 2: Okay, I guess how to describe dreams on a microphone.
Speaker 1: It's hard. It's hard. Who are three of the most
Speaker 1: in your career? Who are three of the most important
Speaker 1: people that you've met? La Reid who signed this.
Speaker 2: Big Boy, And I just I say third, i'd have
Speaker 2: to say collectively, the Dungeon, those are the most important, okay,
Speaker 2: you know.
Speaker 3: Because because and for for different reasons.
Speaker 1: But well, la read.
Speaker 2: Of course, he gave us our first opportunity, you know,
Speaker 2: so he he saw enough in us to sign us,
Speaker 2: to give us an opportunity to do something. Big Boy,
Speaker 2: because he's my high school friend, that started this whole
Speaker 2: thing with me that oh we can do this, you know,
Speaker 2: and not only not only that just contributing and like
Speaker 2: a music form, but in a motivational form too, because
Speaker 2: Big Boy knows me more than anybody, and he knows,
Speaker 2: you know, when I'm not feeling a certain thing or
Speaker 2: you know, when I've given up in a way. And
Speaker 2: Big Boy's always been kind of like the Chileader. Like
Speaker 2: I remember before we even first our first album came out,
Speaker 2: our first showcase, people didn't like us, you know, and
Speaker 2: we got the feedback from that showcase when all labels
Speaker 2: were coming you would do your acting.
Speaker 3: You know, it's kind of funny thing about it now,
Speaker 3: but we.
Speaker 2: Got word that, you know, some feedback was they're okay,
Speaker 2: they're not stars, you know.
Speaker 1: That's that was the feedback.
Speaker 2: And so at that point I remember we were kind
Speaker 2: of sad we were at the Dungeon, and I was like, oh, well,
Speaker 2: well shit, man, I'm gonna go ahead and do this
Speaker 2: art thing like I always like, I thought i'd be
Speaker 2: drawing and paint like that's why I started doing so
Speaker 2: I was the plan was like, all right, well we're
Speaker 2: just going to our school now. You know, this rap
Speaker 2: thing is not working so big boys kind of a
Speaker 2: person like, no, man, we don't came this far.
Speaker 1: Let's do it.
Speaker 2: So that value importance in my life and career the
Speaker 2: Dungeon because they created an environment to show me to well,
Speaker 2: to make me feel comfortable enough to do all the
Speaker 2: things that y'all are seeing now, Like you have to
Speaker 2: have a good ground to to feel comfortable enough to
Speaker 2: try stuff, you know. If yeah, I mean you've seen
Speaker 2: a year, your producer, you've been in the studio, Like
Speaker 2: you've gotten certain things out of artists when they're opening
Speaker 2: and you know, freer than if they're you know, nervous
Speaker 2: or you know they're scared to fuck up, you know,
Speaker 2: or scared.
Speaker 1: To not be great.
Speaker 2: You know, you got to create that environment, and I
Speaker 2: think the Dungeon created that environment for me to yeah,
Speaker 2: for me to know how to dream like they taught me, Like, yeah,
Speaker 2: they taught me how to get out.
Speaker 1: You know, what's the hidden talent that you possess that
Speaker 1: the world doesn't know about drawing paint? You're still actively
Speaker 1: paint right now? Yeah? Yeah. Are you into selling your work? Yes,
Speaker 1: very soon, stay tuned, very soon. Yeah. I want to
Speaker 1: be for because that's I collect works from different artists. Yeah. Man,
Speaker 1: So finally George Clinton gave an official piece.
Speaker 2: And yeah, man, I can't wait to share it because
Speaker 2: it's a whole nother thing. And I've been I've been
Speaker 2: sharing it a little bit, but only like on outcast CDs.
Speaker 2: Uh yeah, although our sketches a little quick. And that's
Speaker 2: that's another thing that was. That was a big boy thing,
Speaker 2: like I did it one time for the first album
Speaker 2: and then big boys like you're gonna do another one
Speaker 2: for the next one.
Speaker 3: I was like, yeah, sure, why not? So it became
Speaker 3: a thing because.
Speaker 1: He you've done all that artwork of on the AC Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's your work. Yeah.
Speaker 2: And I'm I'm I call myself more of a like
Speaker 2: a classroom drawer more than anything. I wouldn't say I'm,
Speaker 2: you know, full fledged. I'm learning how to paint now.
Speaker 2: But yeah, I've been doing it for a while now
Speaker 2: and I'm loving that I'm finding what. I am loving
Speaker 2: that I'm finding my style and can't wait to share it.
Speaker 2: But that I cook how good I have to cook it?
Speaker 2: You have to tell me, Like, but people that have
Speaker 2: had food, they enjoy it. And I really be doing
Speaker 2: the same thing that my mom and my daddy showed me,
Speaker 2: just recipes they showed me. So it's like Jim Salmon
Speaker 2: Patti's and cheese grits or fried fish. My dad had
Speaker 2: a fish shop on Riverdale Road, Okay, and my mom
Speaker 2: taught me, you know, recipes. I'm only child, so I
Speaker 2: cooked for myself a lot, so I had that skill
Speaker 2: to do it. So okay, other talents. I can make
Speaker 2: water noises with my mouth. Okay, you want to hear them?
Speaker 1: Hit me. What's the greatest cereal of all time?
Speaker 2: I would have to say, you gotta eat it quick
Speaker 2: with them fruit the pebbles though.
Speaker 1: Like oh before yeah, super sivy.
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, them fruity pebbles. Man, they something else.
Speaker 1: The story that you told me before we started taping
Speaker 1: about Coachella at night one, Yeah, yeah, man, could you
Speaker 1: share that story. Yeah, for sure, and it's funny.
Speaker 2: For a long time, I wouldn't sure if you know,
Speaker 2: when people pass away, you just wanted to kind of respect.
Speaker 2: But I think I think Prince would. I think he
Speaker 2: would enjoy it. So yeah, like I don't, I don't.
Speaker 2: I've met Prince in passing. Like when I was finishing
Speaker 2: up The Love Below, I lived in LA and I
Speaker 2: remember being a homie going out to a club on sunset,
Speaker 2: normal night, and I go, I say, hey, I'm going
Speaker 2: to use the bathroom and walking away use the bathroom
Speaker 2: and this big, huge bodyguard dude.
Speaker 3: Comes and grabbed me, and you say, hey, Prince is
Speaker 3: in the corner.
Speaker 1: He wants to meet you.
Speaker 2: And so that was my first time meeting Prince when
Speaker 2: I got a pee. Man, this was making Love Below.
Speaker 2: So no, actually this was Hey, y'all was already out. Hey,
Speaker 2: y'all was out. Yeah, and that's the only like the
Speaker 2: whole album.
Speaker 1: You were just meeting him.
Speaker 2: No, the album had just come out. Yeah I hadn't
Speaker 2: met him before.
Speaker 1: Crap.
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, yeah, all my friends had met him. You know,
Speaker 2: Erica told me stories. You know, I never met him,
Speaker 2: but so his bodyguard. I never mind you. I still
Speaker 2: got a pee, right, So I go over to this
Speaker 2: booth and this prince and he's sitting and uh, I'm
Speaker 2: very nervous, and he, you know, motions his hand like
Speaker 2: sit down, sit down, man, you know. So I go
Speaker 2: and sit down and I just I didn't know what
Speaker 2: to say, and he could he could tell that I
Speaker 2: didn't know what to say, right, so he was like,
Speaker 2: it's all good.
Speaker 1: Man.
Speaker 2: He didn't say all good, but he was like it's
Speaker 2: okay or something like that. He's like, it's okay. He's like,
Speaker 2: we don't have to talk about everything now. That's what
Speaker 2: we said. We don't have to say everything now. It's like,
Speaker 2: you can come out to Paisley Park, you know. He
Speaker 2: invite it in which I've never been to Paisley Park.
Speaker 2: But and so I'm sitting there and I didn't So
Speaker 2: he starts talking about, hey, y'all, and I didn't.
Speaker 1: Know if it was did that freak you out? It?
Speaker 1: Did that? He knew you were alive, that.
Speaker 2: You existed, Yes, But what he said I didn't know
Speaker 2: how to take it. I didn't know if he was
Speaker 2: taking a dig at me or what. Because he said, yeah,
Speaker 2: I liked that song hey, y'all man. He was like,
Speaker 2: I thought I was the only person that did songs
Speaker 2: in those tempos. That's what he said to me. And
Speaker 2: I didn't know if he was like, take that, nigga,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: You know what I mean? I didn't know how to
Speaker 1: take it. You know, this is my hero. I think
Speaker 1: he considered, did you appear like I don't know, I
Speaker 1: don't know. And so naturally, the album had just come
Speaker 1: out and we were trying to figure out what's the
Speaker 1: next single, and so I didn't know what to say
Speaker 1: to him, and I just said, hey, have.
Speaker 2: You heard the album? He was like, yeah, I've heard it.
Speaker 2: Then and I said, well, what do you think the
Speaker 2: next single should be? Then he said another Prince thing.
Speaker 2: He said in my day, we only had one shot.
Speaker 2: So basically he was saying, it don't matter now, whatever
Speaker 2: you do, it don't matter, right, And I know how
Speaker 2: to take that either, you know, It's like okay, okay, cool.
Speaker 2: The next time I saw Prince, I'm I'm and it's
Speaker 2: always random. So I'm walking down the street like close
Speaker 2: to Rodeo by myself, and a limo pulls up close
Speaker 2: to me.
Speaker 1: I'm not I swear to all the gods. Man.
Speaker 2: No, dude, every Prince story is this rand Yes, I
Speaker 2: know because I've heard him too.
Speaker 1: Yes.
Speaker 2: And so he so this window rolls down and his
Speaker 2: little head pops out and his prince and.
Speaker 3: He said, what's up man? I was like, what's up man?
Speaker 1: You know?
Speaker 2: And then he was like, you heard about this something.
Speaker 2: I can't say I remember which magazine, but they were
Speaker 2: they opposed the thing, or we want to put you
Speaker 2: in prints on the cover of a magazine together.
Speaker 1: And Prince said, you heard about that. Uh.
Speaker 2: I don't know if a rap paid, I don't know
Speaker 2: what complex. I have no idea which magazine was, but
Speaker 2: I was like, yeah, I heard about it. And I
Speaker 2: was asking him like what do you what do you think?
Speaker 2: And he said don't let them do you like that?
Speaker 1: Yeah? And I still.
Speaker 2: Like, I don't know, but but now, like in retrospect,
Speaker 2: I think what he meant was don't let them boil
Speaker 2: you down to being next to me, right, you know
Speaker 2: what I mean. That's that's what I got from it, Like,
Speaker 2: you know, you know what I mean, and people will
Speaker 2: try to put you in them boxes, you know what
Speaker 2: I mean?
Speaker 3: And I respected that from him.
Speaker 1: You know what I mean.
Speaker 2: He was like, You're more than whatever people are saying,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean, And that's what I that's
Speaker 2: what I took. So so fast forward. I hadn't talked
Speaker 2: to him and seen him that whole time. Big Boy
Speaker 2: done toured ten years, So we have this Coachella opportunities
Speaker 2: outcast twenty years.
Speaker 1: Wait, you must really be off the radar because Prince
Speaker 1: is super like I will see him in the most
Speaker 1: random situations. Yeah. So you're saying ten years went by
Speaker 1: before you saw him again.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it was seven to ten years.
Speaker 1: Damn.
Speaker 2: Okay, I'd moved from LA too, so I only saw
Speaker 2: him in LA. I think he was hanging out right
Speaker 2: here a lot. So the Coachella opportunity comes up, I
Speaker 2: was kind of like whatever about it, Like you know
Speaker 2: I was there were certain times I didn't even remember
Speaker 2: my raps, you know, I was kind of all right, whatever,
Speaker 2: let's go.
Speaker 1: I hadn't do it.
Speaker 2: So the first night of the first weekend of Coachella,
Speaker 2: nerves like I hadn't been on stage, you know what
Speaker 2: I mean, Like, that's not my normal every day anymore.
Speaker 2: Big Boy does it every night, so this is normal
Speaker 2: to him. So I'm coming out the dressing room. They
Speaker 2: start the show. I'm walking to the stage and I
Speaker 2: see Paul McCartney. Wow, no, walk to the left side
Speaker 2: of the stage and sit. I saw Prince walk to
Speaker 2: the right side of the stage, and.
Speaker 4: Oh god, I'm sorry. And you see what I'm saying.
Speaker 4: Tyler the creator just met us backstage. Tyler is new,
Speaker 4: He's sorry. We were talking. He came backstage. We tripping.
Speaker 4: I'm nervous as fuck. I'm walking to the stage and
Speaker 4: I see these gods standing on both sides of the stage.
Speaker 4: Mind you, my whole career, I've never used in ears.
Speaker 4: You know, the monitors. We always just worked out for
Speaker 4: whatever speaker was on stage. My first time ever using
Speaker 4: in the ears, and they're acting up, so they're clipping out.
Speaker 4: I'm him people voices I don't even know talking in
Speaker 4: my ear.
Speaker 2: I'm like, what the fuck? So it was a disaster
Speaker 2: to me, like I was trying to get through it.
Speaker 2: I didn't know how to do it anymore, Like it
Speaker 2: was just a new awakening for an old thing that
Speaker 2: I used to do.
Speaker 1: So halfway through the show.
Speaker 2: I'm checked out, Like I'm already just trying to get
Speaker 2: through it.
Speaker 1: I'm just trying to get through the night. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm already in my bed.
Speaker 2: So as soon as I walked off stage, I went
Speaker 2: home and went straight to sleep. When you crash, you
Speaker 2: go straight to sleep, like it's like a bad night.
Speaker 2: So you just let me go to sleep and you know,
Speaker 2: wake up in the morning. So when I woke up
Speaker 2: and I'm driving back to LA, my manager called and said, hey,
Speaker 2: Prince wants to talk to you. So he calls. I
Speaker 2: don't know where he got the number from. Yeah he
Speaker 2: should work for like the Secret Service, right exactly.
Speaker 3: But he calls and it's Prince on the phone.
Speaker 2: I'm like, hey, man, I'm like, you know, I don't
Speaker 2: even know, like I got prints on the fucking phone right.
Speaker 2: First thing he says, he says, you know what your
Speaker 2: problem is? He digs, he goes in straight like that.
Speaker 2: He said, you don't understand how big y'all are. And
Speaker 2: of course I'm telling him my sob story, like yeah, man,
Speaker 2: you know, I ain't really been wanting to do it anymore,
Speaker 2: like I don't like doing old.
Speaker 3: So he was like, and this is him.
Speaker 2: He's saying, I've been there, man, like I know exactly
Speaker 2: what you mean, I've been there where I don't want
Speaker 2: to do those songs.
Speaker 1: Blah blah blah. But he said, but you're a grown man.
Speaker 2: You signed up to do these shows, so do them.
Speaker 1: Just like that.
Speaker 2: And so that conversation made me have to re figure
Speaker 2: out how can I make these shows exciting to me?
Speaker 2: You know, how can I be in it? And that's
Speaker 2: when the idea to try to put messages on my
Speaker 2: uniform every night where That's what got me excited.
Speaker 1: Where are those uniforms. We have them in storage, all
Speaker 1: of them, all of them.
Speaker 2: So my biggest excitement of that tour was figuring out
Speaker 2: what I was going to say that night, because I
Speaker 2: was trying to say something new, like I love I mean,
Speaker 2: here's my thing. I love the blessing of the songs
Speaker 2: that we've been given. I don't like performing old songs, really,
Speaker 2: I just I just don't because I'm in a whole
Speaker 2: nother space and I have to kind of get back
Speaker 2: and remember what that felt like to do that, and
Speaker 2: I don't necessarily like doing that. It's almost like playing
Speaker 2: dress up to an eighth grade picture that you saw
Speaker 2: and now you're trying to rebe that person again and
Speaker 2: so I was trying to figure out how do I
Speaker 2: make this exciting this tour, and so the messages on
Speaker 2: the suits were just fun to me. It was just hilarious.
Speaker 2: What can I do to make it fun? That's that's
Speaker 2: how I got through it. And that gave me something,
Speaker 2: an entry way to make this exciting and that's.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Oh oh.
Speaker 3: But but back to back to Prince another thing.
Speaker 2: So when I was telling him about, you know, how
Speaker 2: I felt, and he was like, yeah, I've been there.
Speaker 1: I've been there.
Speaker 2: He's like, but you got to do these shows. You're
Speaker 2: grown man. And then he said, oh oh, so back
Speaker 2: when he was like, you got to remind people who
Speaker 2: you are. It's like when you've been gone for a
Speaker 2: long time, you have to remind people who you are.
Speaker 2: Every time he's like, you got to do that first.
Speaker 2: This is him telling me, like, you got to do
Speaker 2: that first, and then you can do whatever. He actually said,
Speaker 2: if you remind people what you do first, you can
Speaker 2: shave off all your hair and tell them to do
Speaker 2: it and they will do it. This is what this is.
Speaker 2: These are his words, and he said, I learned that
Speaker 2: from Mary J.
Speaker 1: Blige. This is Prince telling me I toured.
Speaker 2: I did a couple of shows with her, and I'm
Speaker 2: trying to do all this new stuff and she's doing
Speaker 2: what people know. And he said, I learned that from Mary,
Speaker 2: to give the people what they want first, then you
Speaker 2: can do whatever you want after that. And him trying to,
Speaker 2: I guess, plead his case about reminding people who y'all are.
Speaker 2: He started naming artists and I won't name the names
Speaker 2: because I don't think it's about these names. But he
Speaker 2: was like, this person, this person, this person. None of
Speaker 2: these people would be here if it wasn't for y'all.
Speaker 2: And you have to remember that, and you have to
Speaker 2: remind people of that all the time. So and then
Speaker 2: he said, and this is I guess the musician. And
Speaker 2: he was like, and why you didn't play your guitar
Speaker 2: on hey y'all on stage? Why you didn't do it?
Speaker 2: I was like, I'm not like a great guitarist or anything.
Speaker 2: You know, It's like, I know how to play a
Speaker 2: couple of chords. He's like, but you're good enough. You
Speaker 2: should have played it.
Speaker 1: So, you know, he digging it.
Speaker 2: And then I didn't tell everybody at the time because
Speaker 2: I wanted to keep the momentum together, but he totally
Speaker 2: dissed our band. Right, yeah, He's like, and what's up
Speaker 2: with that fucking band? This is Prince saying, what's up
Speaker 2: with that fucking band?
Speaker 1: And at that.
Speaker 2: Point I was like, ah, man, you know, I really
Speaker 2: didn't want a band, you know, I was trying to
Speaker 2: find a new way to be modern looking on stage
Speaker 2: or something like that. Anyway, I said, but you know,
Speaker 2: I'm in a group, and you know, we have to
Speaker 2: be fair about decisions, and I'm telling Prince about my
Speaker 2: inner you know, right, and a decision with me and Big,
Speaker 2: you know, Big like I want the band, the band,
Speaker 2: you know, shit, that's you know, these are folks who
Speaker 2: support our band, which I'm with on that, but I
Speaker 2: wanted to do something new. But we are together in
Speaker 2: this thing, so we had we made decisions to do
Speaker 2: the band, and it was our first night, so we're
Speaker 2: trying to get as tight as we can be. But anyway,
Speaker 2: he was like, what's up with that band? They sound horrible?
Speaker 1: Yeah that's all I remember from that conversation. But yeah, brother,
Speaker 1: you know, I just want to say that I've been
Speaker 1: a long time, long, long long time fan of yours.
Speaker 1: One of my prime career. Regrets in the in the
Speaker 1: early start is that we never got to shop it
Speaker 1: up or or like work together. Then in the what
Speaker 1: I call the fossil years, we started our careers thirty
Speaker 1: years ago, folks. But man, you know, but you're an
Speaker 1: inspiration in terms of like pushing boundaries because you know
Speaker 1: a lot of us are walking out here sort of
Speaker 1: mired and self doubt, you know, thinking of survival first.
Speaker 1: All right, I gotta get I gotta bring this money
Speaker 1: in so I can, you know, help my mom out,
Speaker 1: and obligations and stuff like that. And we never allow
Speaker 1: ourselves to like break free and dream and take risks
Speaker 1: and do these things. And you know, you've proven time
Speaker 1: and time again that there is a payoff when you
Speaker 1: do listen to your heart. And I'm a brain person.
Speaker 1: I used to be a brain person where I'm always
Speaker 1: thinking of fight or flight survival first, that sort of thing,
Speaker 1: and not what do I really feel? And yeah, man,
Speaker 1: with New Blue Man, Dude, it couldn't have come at
Speaker 1: a better time in my life because that's the type
Speaker 1: of music I always listen to just to calm down.
Speaker 1: Just a twenty four to seven, that's all I listened to.
Speaker 1: It listen like tones and all those things. Man. So no, man,
Speaker 1: thank you. Man.
Speaker 2: I'm glad that it's useful for you. Man, Like I'm
Speaker 2: just happy to be a part of that this time.
Speaker 1: You know what I mean?
Speaker 2: You said an attention and you never know where it's
Speaker 2: gonna land. Like my idea of what people are calling
Speaker 2: the Flute album, which I think it's I think it
Speaker 2: belittles it to call it a flute album, you know
Speaker 2: what I mean, It's not just a flute. I do
Speaker 2: play flute on it a bit. I play electronic flute
Speaker 2: on it. But it's it's just it's just music, man,
Speaker 2: It's just music. But can I ask you something?
Speaker 1: Have you heard from Stevie Wonder yet? Because no, I haven't.
Speaker 1: To me, this reminds me so my father and I,
Speaker 1: our bond was always been shopping records. I grew up
Speaker 1: in a household like three thousand records. So once a
Speaker 1: month we just go been chopping everything. And one day
Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy nine, he comes home with Stevie Wonder's
Speaker 1: Journey through the Secret Life of Plants album, which is
Speaker 1: like a three year follow up to Songs in the
Speaker 1: Key of Life. Songs in The Key of Life was
Speaker 1: like one of those events like Thriller. You know, everyone
Speaker 1: had to have it in the household, and we're listening
Speaker 1: to it together as a family. Brought the family together,
Speaker 1: and so we're waiting three years for this follow up
Speaker 1: record and the look of utter disappointment on my dad's
Speaker 1: face where he's like Stevie Wonder doesn't even sing until
Speaker 1: like the fourth song and he couldn't get it. Now,
Speaker 1: I'm eight years old and seventy nine, so I've never
Speaker 1: had a Dark Side of the Moon psychedelic experience. So
Speaker 1: for me, I'm putting my headphones on and I'm like
Speaker 1: imagine in space and all these things. So I totally
Speaker 1: took that record different. I think that for a new
Speaker 1: generation that this is going to be that for them.
Speaker 1: Like for me, I use it for meditative and sleeping purposes.
Speaker 3: Because I've heard a lot of that.
Speaker 1: Man, Like I used to sleep to the news, especially
Speaker 1: with the past administration, and it's just unhealthy to have
Speaker 1: that on like twenty four to seven and all the
Speaker 1: bad news. So then I started sleeping to that and
Speaker 1: when you're soundtrack, oh man, that to me, that was everything.
Speaker 1: So I thank you for that.
Speaker 2: Man, man, I'm so happy that you're finding use and
Speaker 2: people are finding use in it, like it's it's become
Speaker 2: a thing that people are actually using, like it's a tool,
Speaker 2: like I have to be in traffic. So I put
Speaker 2: this album on, and I'm not mad anymore, you know, Like,
Speaker 2: so I'm happy that I'm a part of something that
Speaker 2: can contribute positively.
Speaker 1: To somebody's life, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: Like, and the sleep thing is really important because I've
Speaker 2: read like a lot of people like man, I don't
Speaker 2: really sleep, and I've gotten the best sleep in the
Speaker 2: last three days after listening to the album. So to me,
Speaker 2: I'm just happy that it's it's working in that in
Speaker 2: that way too, and not just on a you know,
Speaker 2: Oh this is a moment and he's a rapper and
Speaker 2: he made this flute thing, you know, like beyond that,
Speaker 2: you know, And I'm kind of I'm upset that people
Speaker 2: are upset, but I understand because if you've been waiting
Speaker 2: for a thing for seventeen years, which I haven't been
Speaker 2: waiting for a thing, that's the that's the difference. I've
Speaker 2: never said, hey, I'm about to put the solo albm ount,
Speaker 2: Hey I'm about to put this solo albm ount, but
Speaker 2: I didn't do that for seventeen years, so I didn't
Speaker 2: see it the same as like when I put it out,
Speaker 2: I forgot, oh it has been seventeen years, so I
Speaker 2: didn't see it as hey, fuck y'all listen to this.
Speaker 3: I just saw this. This is where I am right now.
Speaker 3: You know, put it out.
Speaker 2: I didn't think that it would have as wide of
Speaker 2: wings as it's had.
Speaker 1: Are I'm happy for it? Are you planning on the
Speaker 1: visual aspect of it now? Are you trying to figure
Speaker 1: out how to present this live? Either by film or
Speaker 1: some sort like what salons used to do take over
Speaker 1: museums and both both both.
Speaker 2: We we did shoot a film to it that's going
Speaker 2: to be playing mid December, very simple kind of thing.
Speaker 2: It's gonna be an IMAX theaters, so you'll have a
Speaker 2: visual to it. But live, man like, that's what I'm
Speaker 2: really looking forward to, because that's honestly, that's the kind
Speaker 2: of jew and the magic in it. It's kind of
Speaker 2: like the feeding off of each other and making that thing.
Speaker 2: You know, it's kind of like watching a formation like
Speaker 2: and we don't know, especially I'm not a trained musician,
Speaker 2: so it's even more surprising to me when a note
Speaker 2: comes out or something falls a certain way. You're like
Speaker 2: when right, and you don't and you don't know it,
Speaker 2: Like I don't know like music theory wise, to make
Speaker 2: something land. I only know how to land because I
Speaker 2: jumped up before it, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3: So that's that's the only way that I know.
Speaker 2: So doing it live and actually doing music with these brothers,
Speaker 2: like that's the fun and out and I can't wait
Speaker 2: for people to experience in a room watching us do
Speaker 2: it do it, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: So that's yeah, that's what I'm looking forward to. Well,
Speaker 1: let's have it, ladies and gentlemen on behalf of my
Speaker 1: fellow Quest Love Supremes Layah and Fontekelo and Humpey Bill
Speaker 1: and it's your birthday to day as we do this.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 1: Shout to Brian and cousin Jake and Brittany as well
Speaker 1: on the home front. UH. Once again the great Andre
Speaker 1: three thousand on Quest Love Supreme. Uh and we'll see
Speaker 1: you in the next go round. Thank you, brother, appreciate now,
Speaker 1: Thank you man, appreciate it. Thank you for listening to
Speaker 1: Quest Love Supreme. Posted by a mere Quest, Love, Thompson,
Speaker 1: Why You Saying, Claire Fonte, Coleman, Sugar, Steve Mandell, and
Speaker 1: unpaid Bill Sherman. The executive producers are a Mere Quest,
Speaker 1: Loved Thompson, Sean Che and Brian Calhoun. Produced by Brittany
Speaker 1: Benjamin Cousin, Jake Payne, Eliah Saint Clair, edited by Alex Conroy.
Speaker 1: Produced by iHeart by Noel Brown and Mike Johnson. This
Speaker 1: episode was engineered by Trevor Young. What's Love Supreme is
Speaker 1: a production of iHeart Radio. For more podcasts from iHeart Radio,
Speaker 1: visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
Speaker 1: to your favorite shows.