Speaker 1: R and BE Money. Well, we are the authorities R
Speaker 1: and B. What's going on? People who have just tuned
Speaker 1: into the R and B Money podcast. I'm Tank, This
Speaker 1: is Jay Valentine. We are the authorities on R and
Speaker 1: B music and in the building all the way from Milwaukee,
Speaker 1: mill Town. Huh anything with meal lit it mil do
Speaker 1: My brother from another mother, Eric, thanks for the invite,
Speaker 1: man waiting to come up and listen. We wanted this.
Speaker 1: We want to kick this thing off the right way. Okay.
Speaker 1: We want to kick this off the right in honor Okay,
Speaker 1: in honor of Eric Baname. Okay, let me tell you something.
Speaker 1: Let me tell you something. First of all, all you
Speaker 1: all of a sudden organic, Yeah, all of the sudden,
Speaker 1: all you in touch with the earth, people, hopeful, all
Speaker 1: of a sudden you wait, listen, I'm gonna tell you
Speaker 1: started this ship. There was a man, yeah, walking barefoot,
Speaker 1: barefoot huh. He had already had c shells attached the
Speaker 1: strings and ship, and we was trying to figure out
Speaker 1: how is he doing this? Is he listen? I'm trying
Speaker 1: to tell you every girl I knew, everyone's like, oh
Speaker 1: my god, Eric, I was like thinking on shoes up.
Speaker 1: I love Eric and I'm looking at my temple and
Speaker 1: was like stent in all the name we are not
Speaker 1: we with no shoes. I'm gonna get rid of my air.
Speaker 1: Jesus here man man, Jesus everything. It was every Dame,
Speaker 1: Lenny Kravis, Maxwell, a very small group of elite organic men.
Speaker 1: We all smell like that. You back then something ladies life.
Speaker 1: He will be on Venice Beach and then I got
Speaker 1: some opportunity for you. See this, He's been doing this
Speaker 1: so freak, you said some money Eventually eventually, now y'all
Speaker 1: coming to terms. Now you've got your feet now you
Speaker 1: now you now you're not now you hold He's been
Speaker 1: doing it and the women have been going. So let
Speaker 1: me ask you a question. Yes, as your question, please do.
Speaker 1: Was that because I want to talk about the bear
Speaker 1: feet thing? Was that on? Was that on purpose? Like?
Speaker 1: Did you know going into this like I'm gonna give
Speaker 1: them something something different, I'm going to give them something vulnerable,
Speaker 1: something you know what I'm saying a different kind of
Speaker 1: very vulnerable with with my feet out. But I'm comfortable.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna tell you about that. I'm gonna, I'm gonna,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go a little surface with it and then
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go deep. Okay. So when I was first
Speaker 1: signed back in room, it was me and my sister.
Speaker 1: We were called Bene. We were first. My first record
Speaker 1: deal was with E and My Records, and so you know,
Speaker 1: we came up in Milwaukee. We did like the clubs
Speaker 1: we would do, like the obscure uh cities in Michigan
Speaker 1: and Illinois. And then we got our record deal. And
Speaker 1: I was always used to look into my left and
Speaker 1: seeing my sister right there. Okay, first record deal didn't
Speaker 1: work out so good. My sister was like, baby brother,
Speaker 1: you go ahead, it's music business ship crazy, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: get me a job. So my dumbass hung in there
Speaker 1: a little bit longer and I got my solo deal.
Speaker 1: Once I got my solo deal, I started to have
Speaker 1: to perform by myself. I was not used to that.
Speaker 1: The stage right, when you are used to looking over
Speaker 1: and see your family member and all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: it's me out there. It was. It was like I'd
Speaker 1: be backstage a little debilitated, just like stage fright would
Speaker 1: will come on me like that. So I discovered one
Speaker 1: day that if I just took my shoes off and
Speaker 1: went out on the stage. I relaxed almost I felt
Speaker 1: at home. And a byproduct was of that was women.
Speaker 1: Apparently I must have had a good foot day or
Speaker 1: something and they'd be like, oh, look at this feat.
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, y'all like this ship. Okay, I'll
Speaker 1: keep doing it because it makes me feel great. So
Speaker 1: let me flash forward. I'm a flash forward to something
Speaker 1: that I've reached. I told you I was going to
Speaker 1: go deep, something that I've just scovered, which you're probably
Speaker 1: hip to. You're so health conscious and YouTube. But um,
Speaker 1: there's such a thing. It's called grounding and earthing. Have
Speaker 1: you heard of this? Yeah, So, basically, grounding is the
Speaker 1: science based upon the fact that the Earth is just
Speaker 1: one big battery full of negative electrons. We as human beings,
Speaker 1: are basically electric beings were full of positive electrons. But
Speaker 1: when we walk around with shoes on all the time,
Speaker 1: especially rubber soul shoes, we are insulating ourselves from those
Speaker 1: a negative negative electrons, which balances our body and reduces inflammation,
Speaker 1: makes us healthy, makes us sleep better, makes sex more boy. So,
Speaker 1: So basically I've since discovered, which I didn't know back then,
Speaker 1: that ship just keeps me healthy. It keeps me young,
Speaker 1: It makes me feel makes me feel like I'm twenty
Speaker 1: years younger than I am. At least an hour day,
Speaker 1: I will walk around outside barefoot in the dirt, in
Speaker 1: the sand, in the grass. Wow. Yeah, it's real ship,
Speaker 1: you know what. And and thinking about that, I just
Speaker 1: always I wonder why my country cousin's healthiest ship was
Speaker 1: so far ahead, hairy party elements. They were faster than you,
Speaker 1: like they was driving. I was like, you're not driving.
Speaker 1: Dropping the car brough you and me both because where's
Speaker 1: your family from my mobile? Alabama? I got Alabama, I got,
Speaker 1: I got all over Alabama, Birmingham specifically, I got Arkansas,
Speaker 1: little Rock all through there. And then they all migrated.
Speaker 1: They Migrat's how they got the mill walk into Detroit.
Speaker 1: But you are, you are speaking the truth. Like we
Speaker 1: would go down to Alabama and then my other I'd
Speaker 1: be ten years old and my other ten year old
Speaker 1: cousins be like driving, got girlfriends and got everything everything.
Speaker 1: We're going to see these goods around the corner. You
Speaker 1: want to go out, like, I ain't him up, can go?
Speaker 1: I don't know we're gonna do get exactly the joke
Speaker 1: but that was ready to get to it. It was
Speaker 1: like and then I had two goods. Like you know
Speaker 1: what she's saying with it with the whole barefoot thing
Speaker 1: is that we shouldn't make jokes about the little drunk
Speaker 1: white girls after the club because we can stun. Let's
Speaker 1: let's keep that funny. I'm just wondering, man, how that
Speaker 1: all works. All right, let's tap into the music man. Yeah, um,
Speaker 1: let's go to Let's go to the beginning, right, we
Speaker 1: like we like to go to like the introduction of
Speaker 1: of YouTube music and music to you. You know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, like the complete where your whole story. No,
Speaker 1: I mean you can break it down to the pieces,
Speaker 1: but the part where it's where you said, you know
Speaker 1: where it claimed you because normally claims you first. Right,
Speaker 1: you don't know what the gift is. You don't have
Speaker 1: a gift. Um, you know you're able to do things
Speaker 1: that you just think you're able to do. And then
Speaker 1: there's a moment where you recognize, oh yeah, you really
Speaker 1: hit up. You really hit on something right there, because
Speaker 1: I remember far because I can remember, Um, you know
Speaker 1: Milwaukee in grade school, sixty street school and Capital Drive. Um,
Speaker 1: you know something as simple as music class. I just
Speaker 1: remember having an ability to sing and understand music on
Speaker 1: a level that was way above like the rest of
Speaker 1: the kids. And what I would do. I don't know
Speaker 1: if you did this, but because I didn't want to
Speaker 1: stick out and be weird, I acted like I was
Speaker 1: on their level, you know what I mean. It's like
Speaker 1: I don't I don't want too much attention to me
Speaker 1: right now. It's like, you know, the music teacher would
Speaker 1: tell us, okay, class, it's like here's the scale or
Speaker 1: here's the song, and it's like I'd already be like
Speaker 1: five steps ahead of them, and look, hit me over here,
Speaker 1: and don drelle over here is like completely clueless, and
Speaker 1: I'm just like, okay, i'mna act like I'm struggling too,
Speaker 1: Isn't that weird? No? That was me in six and
Speaker 1: seventh grade, and so I was just kind of like
Speaker 1: staying here and then really saying right right, right right.
Speaker 1: It was it was almost like this played football, you
Speaker 1: s were you saying, I'm like, right right right. I
Speaker 1: don't know if I want to you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: Because my cousin was the lead singer. My cousin, Keisha
Speaker 1: was the one who was doing all the solos. And
Speaker 1: then when I finally tried a solo, I tricked it
Speaker 1: off really bad, saying I was like, I see how
Speaker 1: did I do? She was like, you was off? You
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, So shock, I went back into training.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. Okay, So so you're starting
Speaker 1: there and you're and what about what time is it?
Speaker 1: So this is I mean, this is grade school. And
Speaker 1: then when I go home, like I'm I'm the youngest
Speaker 1: of a group of five siblings. We're all musical, we
Speaker 1: all sing. So that was the place, the whole house
Speaker 1: from me, from my mom playing the piano. My dad
Speaker 1: didn't really sing, but he had this extensive classical music collection.
Speaker 1: So I would be in my dad's music collection listen
Speaker 1: to Tchaikovsky and Brahms and Mozart, and then with my
Speaker 1: sisters and my brother, we would sing. We would listen
Speaker 1: to like the Silvers or the Carpenters, and we would
Speaker 1: deconstruct the harmonies and like, you know, sing them, and I,
Speaker 1: you know, before my voice changed, i'd have the soprano.
Speaker 1: So Michael Jackson, Yeah, I was Michael. I was a
Speaker 1: little Michael Jacks. So that's where music that's really People
Speaker 1: ask me who is my biggest influence, My biggest influence
Speaker 1: on my oldest siblings, because I've always equated music to
Speaker 1: love because that's how we that's how we would have
Speaker 1: fun together, that's how we would show each other. I
Speaker 1: love like like making music. So but outside the house,
Speaker 1: it was almost like, Okay, I'm gonna I'm gonna keep
Speaker 1: that talent close to my vest because it comes off
Speaker 1: a little too um, overpowering for people outside the family circle. Now,
Speaker 1: then puberty happened. So I've always been like the nerdy
Speaker 1: and you know, I kind of still am. I've always
Speaker 1: been like the nerdy science fiction book reading, um, you know,
Speaker 1: into writing my own little weird stories and making up
Speaker 1: my own songs. And so I've always been that little kid,
Speaker 1: even in like thirteen and fourteen, where I would stick
Speaker 1: to myself. Um and like I said, I still wasn't
Speaker 1: singing publicly in school. But I remember when puberty hit,
Speaker 1: there was a singing competition and nobody really know I sung.
Speaker 1: There was a singing competition in junior high school, and
Speaker 1: my sisters told me go into the contest and keep
Speaker 1: in mind I'm thirteen now, and my all my siblings
Speaker 1: are beasts, and that's when I come home seventh grade
Speaker 1: middle school. So I just grew up with older siblings
Speaker 1: who literally could deconstruct the song and we would put
Speaker 1: it back together. So I was at thirteen, I was dope.
Speaker 1: So I entered the contest. Nobody really knew I could sing. Bro.
Speaker 1: I sing Lionel Richie's truly I kill that ship. I
Speaker 1: kill that ship. That's still a no no offense, Linel,
Speaker 1: but I probably sang that. But you you you respected, bro?
Speaker 1: Can I tell you? The next day at school there
Speaker 1: were two girls I had crushes on that did not
Speaker 1: know I existed. They were waiting at my locker the
Speaker 1: next morning. I was like, there's something to this ship.
Speaker 1: Both both up, both Vicky Stanton, Vicky Stanton was Vicky
Speaker 1: Vicky Vicky stand Laura Oldenberg Olden Oldenberg, Yeah, I was.
Speaker 1: You were early there too. You were early there too.
Speaker 1: I didn't learn about equal offers a way later in
Speaker 1: my trip. I don't even know if I know right now,
Speaker 1: where are you? But yeah, and from there, you know,
Speaker 1: from there it was just like my cousin George, who
Speaker 1: was always like the musician, the musician of the family.
Speaker 1: My George, cousin George played you know, he was like
Speaker 1: he's like played piano and he played the guitar, and
Speaker 1: it was just dope and my cousin George and my
Speaker 1: sister Lisa, and we started writing songs. Then I dropped
Speaker 1: out of college u W Milwaukee, joined this band and
Speaker 1: uh then we got our first record dealer one I
Speaker 1: told you about Bannet Me and my sister Let's go
Speaker 1: there too. Yeah, So between time wise, when you guys
Speaker 1: get your first deal, so when you get your deal
Speaker 1: and get your first hit wreck, a lot of ship
Speaker 1: happened between that and me having a solo deal. So
Speaker 1: what's what's the what's the time frame? So we're talking
Speaker 1: about we signed the Banet here with E M I
Speaker 1: Capital in ninety two pluck from Milwaukee in Los Angeles,
Speaker 1: and that was just culture shock, man. That was just yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: it was I mean, I love Milwaukee, but it's like
Speaker 1: you come out to l A in the early nineties.
Speaker 1: It was a whole another expansive universe of from musical
Speaker 1: like the community of badass music dudes to like the
Speaker 1: most beautiful women you've ever seen in your life to
Speaker 1: like people who are the but but a lot of
Speaker 1: people who are on a higher level of consciousness, like
Speaker 1: talking about eating right, and you know, you go back
Speaker 1: home to Milwaukee and you just eat a vat of pork.
Speaker 1: You know, it's like salt pork, you eat it. But
Speaker 1: but come out here and it's like no, you know,
Speaker 1: it's like higher level of taking care of your your
Speaker 1: mind and your body. So it was just like culture
Speaker 1: shock all the way around. And that's that's ninety two.
Speaker 1: That record did not work out. Um, as everybody in
Speaker 1: his industry has these stories where your first management deal,
Speaker 1: your first record deal, it's like, well they kind of
Speaker 1: sort of put a single out, but I didn't really
Speaker 1: put any money behind it, so we got dropped, right.
Speaker 1: It was this was one of the hardest times in
Speaker 1: my life because a few years prior, my my father died.
Speaker 1: My father was a detective for the city of Milwaukee.
Speaker 1: So Dad died. Um, my my girlfriend, UM, Tammy Stouth.
Speaker 1: We became parents, right, we became parents India, UM short,
Speaker 1: my daughter India. Shortly after I got dropped, Tammy died
Speaker 1: in a car accident. So now I lost my record deal.
Speaker 1: Dad's gone. Um, all of a sudden, single dad, and
Speaker 1: I'm just trying to figure out, Wow, how am I
Speaker 1: going to do this? Thank God I have the family
Speaker 1: I have because between my mom and my sisters and
Speaker 1: my brother, they would let me like I could take India.
Speaker 1: India was only fifteen months old mother. So I have
Speaker 1: the most amazing family in the world because I could,
Speaker 1: you know, if I had to fly out to l
Speaker 1: A to talk to some people who were thinking about
Speaker 1: signing me. You know, as a parent, especially as a
Speaker 1: single parent, you need to know that your children or
Speaker 1: your child is safe and taking care of and loved.
Speaker 1: And I never had to worry about that when I
Speaker 1: was out there trying to make the dream happened. Um.
Speaker 1: I basically got a gig in Milwaukee as an assistant
Speaker 1: engineer at a recording studio on Fondla and I between
Speaker 1: George and this crazy ass dude who is one of
Speaker 1: the baddest keyboards ever, Demante. You know Demante? Do you
Speaker 1: know Demante Posy Nigga's bad Anyway, He's from Milwaukee. Also
Speaker 1: met Demonte and my cousin George during the off hours
Speaker 1: at the at the recording studio that I was working
Speaker 1: they would let me use the studio to record demos.
Speaker 1: So between me and George and Damante, we just started
Speaker 1: writing all these songs, writing all these demos. That demo,
Speaker 1: all those demos turned out to be my first album,
Speaker 1: the first solo Eric Banat True to Myself album, which
Speaker 1: is amazing. Thank you, sir, Thank you sir. Yes, it's
Speaker 1: an incredible story. I'm riding with a girl through d C.
Speaker 1: Was this side? It might have been that's another beat
Speaker 1: was outside, It might have been signed, Yeah, it might
Speaker 1: have been sided. She did you gotta hit his I'm
Speaker 1: like it really she played that, She played that femininity.
Speaker 1: Oh ship, And at that time, that's all I like.
Speaker 1: I was like everything for me was John p. Keiray
Speaker 1: and Hammond and and then it was it was it
Speaker 1: was all that I'm saying. So when you tell me
Speaker 1: to listen to something like, at this point, I had
Speaker 1: every run in the book downloaded. That's how I lift
Speaker 1: my life. I run. I don't want to go first verse,
Speaker 1: that's not glits over that that. You don't just run,
Speaker 1: you just you kill. At that time ran, yeah, have
Speaker 1: no verse melody at all. I'm gonna run this whole
Speaker 1: five So so if you ain't doing that, I don't
Speaker 1: want it. You got running through the whole song and
Speaker 1: she started playing this song and I'm missing to the thing.
Speaker 1: He was not making the faces and ship right interesting right,
Speaker 1: and the vocal was so clean and straight ahead, and
Speaker 1: I was like, who's this again? After she didn't already tell?
Speaker 1: And then and then, and then you did something that
Speaker 1: we're doing church. What was about the three and a
Speaker 1: half close to four minute mark, you did a van Okay,
Speaker 1: you left the band played for a minute, and then
Speaker 1: you went into a van. Yeah, that's this nineteen seventies.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, Chris Nick. I was so at that point, man,
Speaker 1: thank you to I was coming from you. I said,
Speaker 1: you're a problem coming from and then even I know
Speaker 1: we'll we'll get to we'll get to the later in
Speaker 1: the two thousand's. But then you started going digging into
Speaker 1: your false settle with the uh I cry sometimes sometimes
Speaker 1: like that bothered me. I took issue with that. I took,
Speaker 1: I took I felt a personal time. Okay, okay, because
Speaker 1: I took that because I'm on thromback. Let this nigga,
Speaker 1: this falsettle so clear. He's older than me. It's the
Speaker 1: only reason been connected with mending. And I hear you
Speaker 1: sing that on stage and you didn't miss a note.
Speaker 1: A no, and I'm a false settle, that's what I
Speaker 1: do you known for that? No? No, no, literally not
Speaker 1: just a falsettle, right, You're known for not missing, which
Speaker 1: is as as guys we all sing, right, we've we've
Speaker 1: been around a thousands, but not missing it is a
Speaker 1: different type of gift, right, That's just that's that's that's
Speaker 1: your special. Like you're talking to somebody, especially me being
Speaker 1: from the baby and my brother was talking about it,
Speaker 1: and he's like, man, because he's the first person to
Speaker 1: put me onto you, right, and he went to go
Speaker 1: see your yochi and he was like, Nick, he didn't miss.
Speaker 1: And you know, as singers, we all know what that means.
Speaker 1: But I had to ask again. I'm like, what do
Speaker 1: you mean miss? That's a huge conference, like he didn't
Speaker 1: And you know about this that comes from that comes
Speaker 1: from going through the ranks, like like, okay, so I
Speaker 1: dropped out of college, but my college was being in
Speaker 1: those shitty clubs all over the Midwest, right, having to
Speaker 1: it's a drunk crowd. This nigga over here is about
Speaker 1: to start a fight with this nigga. There's some something
Speaker 1: going over here. I'm gonna have to like take commands
Speaker 1: of this whole room, and I'm gonna have to do
Speaker 1: it consistently, And maybe I wasn't able to do it
Speaker 1: for the first six months I was in the band.
Speaker 1: But it was a honing process where a lot of
Speaker 1: artists today they don't have that honing process. They might
Speaker 1: they might be in their lab, in their base and yeah,
Speaker 1: doing some beats, put a couple of loops on it,
Speaker 1: you know, and they got all kinds of technologies that
Speaker 1: catch catch a record and then you put them on
Speaker 1: stage and it's like, no, you didn't go through the process, bro.
Speaker 1: I can tell you, well, I mean they're not investing.
Speaker 1: They're not investing in the process, right. I don't even
Speaker 1: know what the is the process. Is there any reverence
Speaker 1: for it anymore? There should be, There should be, But
Speaker 1: I don't really think that we're like probably the lasts
Speaker 1: who are who are looking for people who are actually
Speaker 1: just just season in, seasoned in some type of growth,
Speaker 1: some type of development. It's taken us years to find
Speaker 1: an artist, right because we're like, ah, but they're hot
Speaker 1: in their all time. They got this record government, but
Speaker 1: you like, that's so fleeting. I remember, like one of
Speaker 1: one of the things that I so appreciate y'all telling
Speaker 1: me that that means a lot to me. Um. I
Speaker 1: remember a couple of times in my career, and as artists,
Speaker 1: I guess there's always some level at least for me,
Speaker 1: there's always some level of insecurity. Um. But I remember
Speaker 1: when I first got something, I first started doing my
Speaker 1: solo deal, and you're doing the rounds at the radio
Speaker 1: stations and Luther Vandross was just leaving an interview and
Speaker 1: and Luther was like, I'm the type of dude where
Speaker 1: it's like, if I know Luther is there, I at
Speaker 1: least want to just say thank you. I don't I
Speaker 1: don't want to crowd you. I just want to say
Speaker 1: thank you. But Luther found out I was there, He's like,
Speaker 1: oh no, no, no, no, no, no, you tell him
Speaker 1: to come here. When somebody like Luther looks at you
Speaker 1: and say, you know what you're doing it right, you know,
Speaker 1: And that's all I needed. Luther looks at me. That's it.
Speaker 1: So it's like if you thought I was dope before,
Speaker 1: that's probably when you heard me go in the studio
Speaker 1: do that. Let me show these niggs was you know?
Speaker 1: So it's like when you get when somebody like that,
Speaker 1: like a Maurice White or Luther Vandross or David Foster,
Speaker 1: that just makes me want to, oh ship if I
Speaker 1: thought I was honing my craft before, I'm gonna have
Speaker 1: I'm really happy. I'm really going in deep now. So
Speaker 1: it's those kinds of things that make me continue to
Speaker 1: to to to strive to be better to this day. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the hunger doesn't go away, you know, the grind, the
Speaker 1: hustle never never goes away. So when you get that
Speaker 1: first hit record, right because Thank spoke about it a
Speaker 1: little bit, right, are you know you pulled up on
Speaker 1: them with shoes off, showing you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: showing them showing something on out, showing them something and
Speaker 1: the definitely showing out. What is the influx? Like? Yeah,
Speaker 1: you mean when you care you fresh from Milwaukee, Yes,
Speaker 1: you fresh from mill Walk, you get a major hit record,
Speaker 1: and but you don't but you also don't get the
Speaker 1: run of the mill hit record. You get a record
Speaker 1: that nobody's heard before, you don't get the some producer
Speaker 1: was did that record? And then your producer heard it
Speaker 1: and y'all recreated and now you get that little cheek
Speaker 1: colde hit. You had a record that set you apart
Speaker 1: from the gate, right, So it's a different it's a
Speaker 1: different level that it's a it's a different kind of
Speaker 1: vibe because back then, um, there were like you said,
Speaker 1: I mean, when you think about what I was doing
Speaker 1: back then and what kinds like de'angelo were doing back then,
Speaker 1: and like maxwell we're doing back then, that was outside
Speaker 1: of the norm for sure. It was like was brushing
Speaker 1: his teeth right video Like it's like, right, just brushing
Speaker 1: his teeth. You don't care at all, and they love
Speaker 1: it so so we Um it was just kind of
Speaker 1: like this feeling of I don't know, being that kind
Speaker 1: of a creative person. The people who I work with
Speaker 1: when I'm in the lab and i've been I've I
Speaker 1: like to go check in on like how see how
Speaker 1: lots of people work. A lot of people like to
Speaker 1: work like they like to check out what's hot right now,
Speaker 1: like what what what kick sounds are hot right now?
Speaker 1: You know what's happening in the top ten. And I'm
Speaker 1: gonna try to put my own spin on that. But
Speaker 1: I've never really worked. I've never really worked that way,
Speaker 1: even back then. I always dig from a more um
Speaker 1: intimate place, like even musically, like I don't I've never
Speaker 1: wanted to try to emulate the other things that are
Speaker 1: happening out there. And when you work like that, you're
Speaker 1: working in a bubble. At least I am. You're working
Speaker 1: on this note. I want to be cut off from
Speaker 1: everything that's like top ten, top twenty on the radio
Speaker 1: right now. I just want to be in like this
Speaker 1: little fortress of musical solitude with myself and whoever I
Speaker 1: invite to come in there and create with me. All
Speaker 1: I have to say as we're doing that, we don't
Speaker 1: I don't really know how this is working, Like motherfucking here,
Speaker 1: but I don't know how that's gonna play out there
Speaker 1: because it's like so intimate to us, and we're like
Speaker 1: nerdy music heads. So that's kind of it was like
Speaker 1: I was surprised. I was in a way. I was
Speaker 1: surprised because, um, we were signed to what I was
Speaker 1: signed to Warner Brothers as a solo artist, and they
Speaker 1: really did just leave me alone. They let me just
Speaker 1: do my thing. And then when I turned the record in,
Speaker 1: there was a reaction like somebody just reinvented the wheel,
Speaker 1: and I was like, really it was. It was just
Speaker 1: incredibly surprising because like I said, um, I was grateful um,
Speaker 1: and that it was at least it was affirming that
Speaker 1: I felt like, Okay, you have seen the bottom. I'd
Speaker 1: already had huge loss, personal loss in my life, the
Speaker 1: mother of my daughter dying all of a sudden. I'm
Speaker 1: a solo that single father, trying to figure out the
Speaker 1: next move. I was working at UPS when I told
Speaker 1: you I was working at the studio. I was also
Speaker 1: working at UPS uh and working at the studio to
Speaker 1: make you know, to make a little bread. So it's
Speaker 1: like I saw the bottom. And once I knew that, oh,
Speaker 1: you mean, I can win by just being completely authentic
Speaker 1: and in my appreciation for music, not the music industry,
Speaker 1: but music, I was like, Okay, I'm not I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna switch it up. And that's and that's a very
Speaker 1: unique situation as all of us have been in this
Speaker 1: music business for so long. Two Actually it's like getting
Speaker 1: drafted to the right team because more or worked for you,
Speaker 1: but universal may have not. You know, I mean, e M,
Speaker 1: I didn't you know what I mean? So it's like
Speaker 1: in that space man, that that in itself, and you know,
Speaker 1: we try to give that type of information when we
Speaker 1: when we do these interviews for people that are trying
Speaker 1: to get in the music business, people in the in
Speaker 1: the business to understand, like this ship just don't happen
Speaker 1: the way you wanted at that time, and you gotta
Speaker 1: keep pushing. You gotta keep pushing and until you find
Speaker 1: that situation that makes the most sense for you. Eatly.
Speaker 1: But we got off of the influx that came with
Speaker 1: this here you're talking, you're talking. I'm gonna let you
Speaker 1: surrounded by the baptized I tell you, I tell you
Speaker 1: just here. A lot of people don't believe it is.
Speaker 1: But actually now that you now that you know me,
Speaker 1: you can to leave it. Like I've always been the
Speaker 1: nerdy dude, like I've always been the if it wasn't
Speaker 1: for music, if it wasn't for me being on the
Speaker 1: stage and singing, like my game, like my just step
Speaker 1: up to a girl game was was garbage, Like I
Speaker 1: had no idea I need it, but I didn't know
Speaker 1: I didn't need it because you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: So okay, So then you got this guy who's basically uh,
Speaker 1: looking at women feeling like I don't really have that
Speaker 1: much of a shot. Two being on stage having a
Speaker 1: hit song and having them literally come to me. It
Speaker 1: was overwhelming. And I'm gonna say this, that's one of
Speaker 1: the most like if you're not ready for that kind
Speaker 1: of attention, may speak on it. Speak you will die,
Speaker 1: yes or things around you well, because it isn't awesome.
Speaker 1: Um and I don't use the word awesome like well,
Speaker 1: it can't be great, but it is. It is an
Speaker 1: overwhelming uh power. And if you are an insecure person
Speaker 1: who always idolized women but didn't know how to talk
Speaker 1: to them, and all of a sudden you're the guy
Speaker 1: that they're coming at to talk to you, that could
Speaker 1: be a very dangerous thing. And there is a process where,
Speaker 1: you know, for some of us, it takes a year
Speaker 1: or two or ten where you feel me where it's
Speaker 1: like I'm in that ten yeah you up, you know,
Speaker 1: I mean a little bit more time. It's a real
Speaker 1: list thing. And because it's like all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: I can have all of it. Are you fucking kidding me?
Speaker 1: It was like like, speak on, man, come on, you
Speaker 1: start Milwaukee, Milwaukee Maryland. Yeah, right, l A, Now, now
Speaker 1: I gotta I gotta taste. When I went on tour
Speaker 1: with Ginuine, it was it was like it was a
Speaker 1: heavy taste. It was it was the taste that changed
Speaker 1: my life. No, no, listen, I definitely from yes, you
Speaker 1: are correcting that man. I know, and and Ginuine would
Speaker 1: say to me, this is cool. I know you having
Speaker 1: the time of your life. But it ain't nothing like
Speaker 1: when it's you. And I didn't believe. I kept saying,
Speaker 1: I'm never leaving you to sing back, and you still do.
Speaker 1: You still do on stage and we got to show
Speaker 1: that he finds a way to sing back to get
Speaker 1: up up. So it's like and when you but then
Speaker 1: when it when listen, when I watched, when I watched
Speaker 1: maybe I deserve um start charting and me going from
Speaker 1: clubs like you know what was that like a hundred people,
Speaker 1: thousand people to seven hundred people to a thousand people,
Speaker 1: and then too co headlining radio shows and Rena's and
Speaker 1: in London Chris and and and Narly you know and
Speaker 1: and jar Rule. Jesus Christ, you have to be in
Speaker 1: a all the RV shows all because my name was
Speaker 1: Tank and so sometimes they wouldn't even listen to my music.
Speaker 1: Just saw my picture. Yes, so so so like you
Speaker 1: take you, I just I was dropped in a church. Kid.
Speaker 1: Still I'm still trying, you know. I still it's still
Speaker 1: biblical for me. It's their spiritual Lord. If you just
Speaker 1: guide me tonight, out let me. Just if you just
Speaker 1: let me get this tonight, I'm not gonna do it
Speaker 1: no more. Like, Lord, please give me tonight? Did Lord?
Speaker 1: Why did why did her ask? After? Look like that? Lord? You? Lord?
Speaker 1: You did that? You did this? And I honestly was not. No,
Speaker 1: you were not. I was not. There is no man
Speaker 1: and people people don't understand this, bro, like you get it.
Speaker 1: There is no man on this planet who works at
Speaker 1: home depot or who was working at Wells far ago
Speaker 1: right now. If you throw him in this situation, if
Speaker 1: you just throw him in the whatever you want situation,
Speaker 1: it will kill him, will suck the life out of them.
Speaker 1: And so it's like you have to be in a
Speaker 1: certain mental emotional preparedness, which I was not. But like
Speaker 1: I said, it will take some years and you have
Speaker 1: to live with some consequences to consequences, some losses, lossesces,
Speaker 1: and it's like wow, I need to reevaluate a lot
Speaker 1: of ship. So but there's you can't be ready for that.
Speaker 1: And and I think on the other side of that,
Speaker 1: the the upbringing and all of these things, and having
Speaker 1: the family structure that we've had prepared us in a
Speaker 1: different way to where we would be able to survive.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying, Because a lot of people know,
Speaker 1: a lot of people just don't know. And and and
Speaker 1: for you, you did it on a very public stage,
Speaker 1: right because you know what you were involved in. So
Speaker 1: it's like anytime it's on the public stage, it's a meal.
Speaker 1: It's not only magnified a million times, but there is
Speaker 1: a certain uh, there's a narrative that they want to
Speaker 1: tell to you know. Now it's click fait, but it's
Speaker 1: like to sell magazines to do this. Um, So things
Speaker 1: respawn a certain way, and then on the very tiny
Speaker 1: nucleus of what's happening on the inside, there are details
Speaker 1: that no one else knows and maybe I'll never share,
Speaker 1: but it's like it ain't mistakes were made. I've taken accountability.
Speaker 1: That's what I've done. I've grown from from but from
Speaker 1: the celebrity, any celebrity out there who's dealing with that
Speaker 1: relationship and the fresh ship. That's that's that's a that's
Speaker 1: a hard thing. It's even it's even harder now with
Speaker 1: social media. Oh my god, it's even harder now, right
Speaker 1: because back then you just have to try to see
Speaker 1: you and take a picture of you and then write
Speaker 1: whatever they wanted. Pig. You get tired of it or
Speaker 1: they get tired of it, and now you make your
Speaker 1: own and you started typing ship and now you're like,
Speaker 1: maybe I shouldn't, Yeah, maybe I should have. Just I'm
Speaker 1: gonna delete that. Right. They've already called me the morning.
Speaker 1: You'll call me about seven in the morning. What the
Speaker 1: fuck did? What do you want to do? What's her name? Saying?
Speaker 1: Can you stop this? No, I said, I said, but
Speaker 1: I get that, I said, Tank. What you gotta realize
Speaker 1: to a lot of times you're talking to ghosts literally talking. Yes,
Speaker 1: are there some people that are real people that are
Speaker 1: going at you, but sometimes it's just accounts that are
Speaker 1: made to literally absolutely get a rise out of you. Well, now,
Speaker 1: what come on down, come on out, dount Can you
Speaker 1: just stop arguing on Instagram? Can you do it for me?
Speaker 1: For two weeks? Believe no, they have to hear from me.
Speaker 1: That's just not easy. I have this outlook on life
Speaker 1: mistakes that might be a little different because granted, in
Speaker 1: the moment they feel like the exact wrong thing you've
Speaker 1: allowed to happen, or you participated in happening, or that
Speaker 1: has happened to you. Um, but in my fifty four
Speaker 1: years on this earth, you come on not know that.
Speaker 1: I think I'm buying no more shop. Yeah. Man, what
Speaker 1: I've learned is mistakes, all of them. And this is
Speaker 1: gonna sound like some cliche you see on the Instagram
Speaker 1: with a lion in the background of such but from
Speaker 1: something that's just a terrible human. He's probably horrible for
Speaker 1: the girls. I'm talking about some certain people whatever, it's
Speaker 1: a terrible humans, right or the Instagram models with the
Speaker 1: ass and it'd be like, you know, it's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, I've got some growth, Like could be like
Speaker 1: only God? You know anyway, so what what was those things? Mistakes?
Speaker 1: Only God? Mistakes for me have all been an opportunity
Speaker 1: to grow. So yes, I have made mistakes in my life. Um,
Speaker 1: And I feel and I think it goes back. I
Speaker 1: think it goes back to something something you hit on
Speaker 1: the parenting thing my mom and dad instilled in me
Speaker 1: a long time ago, Like, you are going to make
Speaker 1: a lot of mistakes in your life? What do you
Speaker 1: do with those mistakes? What do you do with those
Speaker 1: traumatic events in your life? So when I have um stumbled,
Speaker 1: when I've fallen, or when I've made mistakes in business
Speaker 1: or in my personal life, you know, I take a
Speaker 1: moment to fall back and see, Okay, God, what was
Speaker 1: the lesson you were trying to teach me? What this one?
Speaker 1: Sometimes those lessons are obvious as hell, and sometimes they're
Speaker 1: not so obvious, But every time it happens, it's it's
Speaker 1: an opportunity to be a better version of yourself. My
Speaker 1: first record deal, um, to answer uh, the question that
Speaker 1: deals with more professional situation. My first record deal that
Speaker 1: I did with my sister Ny, it was an incredible opportunity.
Speaker 1: It was uh, two kids being plucked out of Milwaukee,
Speaker 1: coming to l A, seeing things and experiencing things that
Speaker 1: I only saw on Magnum p I and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: You know, but uh, the record label didn't really give
Speaker 1: us autonomy, didn't really give us control two make all
Speaker 1: of the music we wanted to make, too, pick the
Speaker 1: producers that we necessarily wanted to work with, or or
Speaker 1: at least we felt like I shouldn't say that because
Speaker 1: there was a lot of energy on my part where
Speaker 1: I felt like I doubted myself enough. Is that twenty
Speaker 1: something your old kid who well, I certainly can't know.
Speaker 1: So if they tell if they're telling me I should
Speaker 1: work with this artist and that artist, and I guess
Speaker 1: I should. That was a mistake. That was a mistake,
Speaker 1: and that's a mistake that every young artist like needs
Speaker 1: to know right now. The reason why they own your
Speaker 1: ship right now, young artists out there, the reason why
Speaker 1: you get and the attention you're getting, it's because you're
Speaker 1: a dope. Because the creative decisions you make are are dope.
Speaker 1: Don't doubt that, you know, like, lead with that. Don't
Speaker 1: let somebody else who have who's been on their own
Speaker 1: journey and have seen their own ascent to fame and fortune,
Speaker 1: um tell you this is how I did it, So
Speaker 1: you need to do it. You need to do it
Speaker 1: like this. Look, some of those lessons that they bestow
Speaker 1: on you are appropriate and you can use that, but
Speaker 1: their path is not your path. So I think that's
Speaker 1: probably one of the biggest um uh lessons that I learned.
Speaker 1: I think I learned early from that mistake. That's why
Speaker 1: when I had an opportunity to the solo album in
Speaker 1: ninety six Eric Benet record, I was like, look, okay,
Speaker 1: we can do this record deal thing, but I have
Speaker 1: to be in charge of everything from the way I
Speaker 1: address to the way I look to the songs on
Speaker 1: the album. I told you like the whole album. My
Speaker 1: first album was like the demo between my cousin George
Speaker 1: and Demante and me just me, so um, I need
Speaker 1: to be in control. To the point where I named
Speaker 1: my first album true to Myself because I had been
Speaker 1: through the whole uh the alternative. I could only imagine
Speaker 1: Eric Bonet coming out as like the fifth member of
Speaker 1: Joda see with like because that's the type of like
Speaker 1: it's not you, you are somebody tried to get me
Speaker 1: and like to get me in like a three boy
Speaker 1: band group where it was me. I was the singer
Speaker 1: nigga and it was like this dark nigga from from
Speaker 1: like Nigeria or something, and it was a white nigga.
Speaker 1: Who was who was who? And it was like I
Speaker 1: almost did it. And this was before my first record deal.
Speaker 1: I was like, and I was in the meeting with
Speaker 1: the two guys, and You're like, come on, bro, this
Speaker 1: is our chance. Well if you don't like it, you know,
Speaker 1: we could blow up and then you can do your
Speaker 1: own thing. I was like, yeah, but I don't know.
Speaker 1: This is the same for me. So you're absolutely right. Man.
Speaker 1: It's like, you gotta, you gotta. You're gonna be true
Speaker 1: to yourself. You gotta be true to yourself. You have
Speaker 1: to be honest enough with yourself to know your gut,
Speaker 1: to know your soul so that when something doesn't vibrate
Speaker 1: right with you, you were the first to know and
Speaker 1: and and act upon that. No matter how old I get,
Speaker 1: I'm still that hungry, young creative dude from Milwaukee. No
Speaker 1: matter what happened. Shut shout out to Milwaukee. Thanks. Hey,
Speaker 1: Wisconsin came through, didn't they with that orange? Uh? Hold up?
Speaker 1: You know what? And that's that's okay, movie star writer
Speaker 1: all of that. Um, that's pivot to that because you know,
Speaker 1: I don't really do a whole lot of politics. You
Speaker 1: know sometimes and listen you in between you and b
Speaker 1: l you my god, I think that's the old that's
Speaker 1: the old man in me, you are out there. The
Speaker 1: old man ship is real because once you get to
Speaker 1: a certain age, it's like, I don't get I was
Speaker 1: just like you are saying it. I remember when I
Speaker 1: first started doing it, my management was like, yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: you know, we really respect that you want to voice
Speaker 1: your opinion, but we got to remember there's there are
Speaker 1: people out there who like your music who aren't exactly
Speaker 1: on the same political like that man, we're talking about
Speaker 1: a damn you know ship, damn Hitler he started kid.
Speaker 1: Here's what I say. It's like it is a double
Speaker 1: edge short right in terms of the political part of it,
Speaker 1: right right, right right. Once you start dabbling into that place, um,
Speaker 1: you can you can feel the shift of people who
Speaker 1: were there for the music and then knowing find discovering
Speaker 1: too much about you that makes them either go way
Speaker 1: left or way right with you. But you're right, You're
Speaker 1: you're out, You're outspoken in terms of you know, in
Speaker 1: terms of the political uh, in terms of your political stance.
Speaker 1: I think once you hit fifty, is there like any
Speaker 1: any whatever like filter I had left that ship just
Speaker 1: because you were you were attacking who was who was?
Speaker 1: You know, you said something, you said something running, ain't
Speaker 1: singing and if it's in insane you know because you
Speaker 1: and you young nigga, now you're putting we grew up
Speaker 1: on you, man, stop doing that. Man, but a love
Speaker 1: attacking the kids. Who was attacking the kids? At some
Speaker 1: point We're gonna have to stop. You ain't know back
Speaker 1: when I was growing up, when I was in the
Speaker 1: studio that I said, Eric, come on, man, stop, people
Speaker 1: ain't ship you know, you just saying a dime on it.
Speaker 1: But it was like like you were just I mean,
Speaker 1: you were being honest about now you felt about it,
Speaker 1: but you know what I mean, Like I think I
Speaker 1: was having one of those moments where hey, I love
Speaker 1: like I am. I'm one of the biggest fans of
Speaker 1: like dope runs and people who can run. It's just like,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I think it's like one of those
Speaker 1: things where before the run, that needs to be the melody,
Speaker 1: Like can we at least know what the melody is
Speaker 1: before you start? Like and I know what I said,
Speaker 1: and I agree with you, but had to say it,
Speaker 1: but because because because I grew up, Yeah, you said,
Speaker 1: Kim Barell, We'll see that's it's almost so guess what
Speaker 1: I need it like she she didn't. She didn't make
Speaker 1: a song that was like a straight ahead or a
Speaker 1: commercial thing until way later. I know that sounds like bullshit,
Speaker 1: but it's almost like that's different because because Kim Burrell,
Speaker 1: Kim Burrell is a whole another beatle, it's not different
Speaker 1: because I needed what she was doing. I needed it.
Speaker 1: I agree with that. I'm not disagreeing with you. Like
Speaker 1: what young nigga Kim Burrell probably that's what it's like.
Speaker 1: It's like these young niggas would hear Kim Burrell and
Speaker 1: be like, Oh, that's what I need to do, and
Speaker 1: it's like, no, before Kim Burrell was I don't know,
Speaker 1: I don't. I mean, i've met Kim Barrel. She's a
Speaker 1: wonderful person, but I don't know like her whole story.
Speaker 1: But I would imagine before she could do all that,
Speaker 1: at some point she had to bay sits like she
Speaker 1: could do a melody, sure so, and she had to
Speaker 1: evolved to that. But I think one of the frustrating
Speaker 1: things for me, it's like young singers would see the
Speaker 1: Kim Barrel and be like, Oh, and that's where the
Speaker 1: song is. That's all it is. But as I was
Speaker 1: able to grab use it and use it in spaces.
Speaker 1: And that's what the beauty of running like you you
Speaker 1: well you're a songwriter, you're a producer, so you know,
Speaker 1: construction of of of to learn to to stop singing
Speaker 1: versus myself. You know what I'm saying, Like mode will
Speaker 1: never be able to do this, Like that was my
Speaker 1: mentality when I went into the studio, and you're not
Speaker 1: gonna be like like maybe I deserve was like in
Speaker 1: my mind my worst song vocally one of my biggest,
Speaker 1: and I didn't understand why until fifteen years later. That
Speaker 1: kind of stuff is incredible to me because kind of
Speaker 1: feel the same way like with some of my biggest songs,
Speaker 1: with some of those songs where and it's interesting how
Speaker 1: this works. It's like you can be in the studio
Speaker 1: and you can have some song that you feel like
Speaker 1: it's a masterpiece and you just have to put no
Speaker 1: every every box of that song. No no no, no
Speaker 1: no no no, that wasn't right. I want to can
Speaker 1: we can I bring the can the gatapler come back
Speaker 1: to the studio because he wanted them to listen on this,
Speaker 1: you know. So it's like you can create this masterpiece
Speaker 1: and people were here and be like, wow, let's do okay, um,
Speaker 1: let me hear another one. And then you play a
Speaker 1: song where you was in the studio for like four
Speaker 1: minutes throw away. Yeah, you can be in a song
Speaker 1: where it's like, okay, we we were just vibing on this,
Speaker 1: and then I put some words on this motherfucker and
Speaker 1: it's like, oh, ship that that's the one. So it's
Speaker 1: like a story of my the story of my career.
Speaker 1: The song please Don't Go have been played for numerous
Speaker 1: artists who album whose albums I've worked on. I was like,
Speaker 1: I got this one thing right here, Blair, It's cool.
Speaker 1: I'm in Glenwood Studios working on uh, working on sect
Speaker 1: of Him Pain, and I got one day extra. I
Speaker 1: finished all the songs I wanted to relate here. They
Speaker 1: was like, it was like, well, you got one more day.
Speaker 1: If you wanna do something, you do something. Okay, they
Speaker 1: got good cookies, hang out at the studio, chill, and
Speaker 1: I'm gonna record this one track is one. I was like,
Speaker 1: I got this one track and just recorded Lonnie My Lonnie.
Speaker 1: He's like, he's like, what you working on teams? I
Speaker 1: was like, I'm just working on this song right here,
Speaker 1: like he's like, let me get some of that bridge. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: it was a hundred percenter into the bridge. So he
Speaker 1: puts the bridge down. I've seen the bridge. I'm not
Speaker 1: I'm just turning in with the rest of them. Turned
Speaker 1: the song in what was and it was pleased don't go?
Speaker 1: And they called me two days later, you did, nig
Speaker 1: You did that ship? Nick? And I started naming every
Speaker 1: other song, Oh oh, you like that ship right there,
Speaker 1: and they're like, nah, said, oh, I know what you
Speaker 1: want you talk about. You talk about that one because
Speaker 1: I put that song No, not that with nigga. Nigga,
Speaker 1: please don't go. I said, what right, nigga, it's a smash,
Speaker 1: I said, are you sure right? You know what, I
Speaker 1: haven't been out in five years. I've been on the bench. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I've been at war Company five years. And they're like,
Speaker 1: this is a song and I'm like, I don't I
Speaker 1: don't think. I don't think that after five years of
Speaker 1: being absent, that this is this, this is where we go.
Speaker 1: We don't start with this, and they're like this, yes
Speaker 1: we do, right, yes we do. Records I got I
Speaker 1: got the same story. So it had been a minute
Speaker 1: since I went through this whole thing with Warner Brothers
Speaker 1: where um I um, you know, we did A Day
Speaker 1: in the Life and that was a big record for me.
Speaker 1: And then I did this other record, another album UM
Speaker 1: called Better and Better, but they rejected my album, so
Speaker 1: the whole the whole album. So I'm going to the
Speaker 1: record label and I'm like, Okay, y'all don't really get
Speaker 1: this album. Okay, will you let me leave the label?
Speaker 1: You let me out at my deal? Nope? Okay, will
Speaker 1: you give me like a budget to go in and
Speaker 1: do some more ship like if you didn't like No,
Speaker 1: So basically I'm just sitting. I'm just sitting for a
Speaker 1: couple of years. They wouldn't let me out, they wouldn't
Speaker 1: give me a budget to do anything else. And so
Speaker 1: I'm back home just vibing some songs with my dudes.
Speaker 1: Ultimately I got another, um, I got a green lid
Speaker 1: to do another record, and we were in the hum
Speaker 1: My promotion man's room, Ken Wilson, you know that, my god. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So we're listening to all these songs trying to figure out,
Speaker 1: like what's the single, and we're listening we had a
Speaker 1: couple of dope choice so yeah, yeah, man, you got
Speaker 1: help man, man, this dope shot on that. But that's all.
Speaker 1: It's like, I got this other thing. But you know
Speaker 1: it's not a sad already shot that down. No, no, no, nobody,
Speaker 1: this is something. This is something new that I was like,
Speaker 1: that's this other thing and it's probably not a single,
Speaker 1: but I mean, I'll played it for you. Maybe we
Speaker 1: put it on the album for the Japanese release, like
Speaker 1: bonus track some ship like Nigga. I played the song
Speaker 1: Ken Wilson, Nigga, that that motherfucker right there, Nigga, that's
Speaker 1: your first thing. It was you're the only one? Wow, right,
Speaker 1: but you played as your throwaway. Yeah. I thought it
Speaker 1: was just like Jese. Yeah, I thought it was. I
Speaker 1: thought because when we wrote You're the only One, I
Speaker 1: thought it was one of those like throwback to you know,
Speaker 1: the whole vibe. We were doing like a seventies throwback thing,
Speaker 1: and I was like, I don't know people ready for
Speaker 1: that right now. It's probably just gonna be like a
Speaker 1: cool vibe on the album. He it was like, that
Speaker 1: was the vibe that ship right there. Maybe I don't
Speaker 1: know what you're smoking. So yeah, and that was that
Speaker 1: was number one for like number one, man boy's got
Speaker 1: a lot of my money mine. You have a part
Speaker 1: of the show. Okay, right, you can do it, you
Speaker 1: he can definitely. Does it involve calistinics or doing push up? No, no, no, no, no, okay,
Speaker 1: it involves talking that talk, so it's called I ain't
Speaker 1: sand on that. Whoah, listen, listen, listen, listen. It can
Speaker 1: be funnier fucked up. Are both funny and fuck up
Speaker 1: your story. But you do not say the names of
Speaker 1: the other participants in the story. But you give a
Speaker 1: no like, oh you're talking about that could have been
Speaker 1: at saying, ain't saying Okay, but you know, I know
Speaker 1: I didn't prep you for this name. You like to
Speaker 1: do it on the spot. We like to the spot.
Speaker 1: We'd like to get it honest, you did not. Let
Speaker 1: me see now in my memory, I'm you know, I'm
Speaker 1: doing like the fucking uh. They don't know, they don't
Speaker 1: know who that is. No, not that either. No, yeah,
Speaker 1: we're swiping. I'm swiping right now in my brain. Oh hell,
Speaker 1: let's see no name, no face, no case, there's that.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to think. It don't fit. I ain't saying
Speaker 1: no name y'all edit this ship. No we broke you
Speaker 1: name man, whatever you need, whatever you need. Um, Jamie
Speaker 1: told us don't Edie ship. It cuts us out. But
Speaker 1: wanted to add some ship. Okay, okay, okay, I ain't
Speaker 1: saying no names. I mean this's I mean just in
Speaker 1: the spirit of the conversation and being from Milwaukee, and
Speaker 1: you know Milwaukee gets cold as ship. Mhm. A somebody
Speaker 1: was this was I used to before I actually moved
Speaker 1: to l A. I kept my I kept a place
Speaker 1: in Milwaukee for a while. And uh there was an artist.
Speaker 1: Oh god, I can't believe I'm telling me mean burn
Speaker 1: me here. If I didn't have like three glasses of wine,
Speaker 1: I probably wouldn't say this. So that was somebody. There
Speaker 1: was this female artist who I was kind of vibe
Speaker 1: and by the way, full disclosure, was not married. This
Speaker 1: was like Eric and Milwaukee, just like being at Milwaukee
Speaker 1: A baname. There was this artist in Milwaukee and um
Speaker 1: we uh we had stayed. I forgot how we got
Speaker 1: each other's information, but we stayed in touch and she
Speaker 1: was like, yeah, I'm I'm in Milwaukee. We should have
Speaker 1: some drinks. We went out. God, this sounds horrible. It
Speaker 1: sounds horrible, man, but it's really not that bad. So
Speaker 1: we went out, you know, east side of Milwaukee. It's
Speaker 1: all kind of dope little bars and dope pizza joints
Speaker 1: and where one drink after another and as cold as ship.
Speaker 1: I think it was probably like it was it was
Speaker 1: it was. It was either December or January Milwaukee. So
Speaker 1: you know, that's no way, no joke. So we are, um,
Speaker 1: we're drinking, we're eating, and as we're drinking and eating,
Speaker 1: we're getting a lot more touchy Philly with the laughs,
Speaker 1: the laughs, the lingering hands are lingering longer and boo
Speaker 1: boo whoop, and then ah, we're both drunk, which this
Speaker 1: is everything about the story is horrible because because I'm
Speaker 1: drunk in the bar with this person and now I'm
Speaker 1: gonna drink, I'm like, where are you saying? What? What hotel?
Speaker 1: You saying? Okay, I'm just driving that I'm not drunk,
Speaker 1: incredibly irresponsible. So we're in the car and she says
Speaker 1: we're driving past esther Brook Park. She says it's kiss streaking.
Speaker 1: I'm like streaking, Yeah, let's do it. So it's like
Speaker 1: one o'clock in the morning. It's probably like eight degrees
Speaker 1: outside drunk as hell. That's a great idea. Pull over,
Speaker 1: Oh my god, pull over. And that's the book park
Speaker 1: in the parkt lot looking ship. We take it off
Speaker 1: our clothes. We run through es the brook Park one
Speaker 1: o'clock in the morning, but ass naked ended up in
Speaker 1: the bushes and that's where I leave the park and
Speaker 1: the bushes eight degrees? You are? Did you have me
Speaker 1: here about the nude run in Milwaukee? This this is
Speaker 1: what we said. I got a lot a lot of
Speaker 1: crazy white boyfriends in Milwaukee, so they got this are
Speaker 1: they used to? I don't know if they do it anymore?
Speaker 1: But on New Year's Eve, you got the polar Bears
Speaker 1: and they jump into the polar Bears. But y'all did
Speaker 1: don't know what the polar Bears is. It is a
Speaker 1: bunch of crazy as white people in Milwaukee. On New
Speaker 1: Year's Eve, they will strip down out to their swimsuits
Speaker 1: and jump into sub zero water, freezing ice water for
Speaker 1: whatever reason, I don't know. But anyway, some other homies
Speaker 1: in mine, some of them I went to college with.
Speaker 1: But some of them were just like crazy as white
Speaker 1: dudes like I would go have drinks with every year
Speaker 1: they would do the nude run. You would run from
Speaker 1: like River West all the way to the lake front.
Speaker 1: But as Nick what, Yes, so you would do the
Speaker 1: nude run and you would ultimately end up at this
Speaker 1: public swimming pool that of course was closed, and then
Speaker 1: it would turn into they were breaking the swim. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So I did the nude run in in Milwaukee once,
Speaker 1: but I feel like you do. Probably probably the nude
Speaker 1: run walking. I didn't like what I know. I was lying.
Speaker 1: You could tell I was lying, all right. Every year
Speaker 1: like newde Road run, This niggas Will ferrell a n
Speaker 1: that's franking tank right here, the gentleman. This has been
Speaker 1: Everybody podcast with our brother Aris, but may be na
Speaker 1: name name. Are being money money