Speaker 1: Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: What Up y'all? It's like yeah, And this week we
Speaker 2: are traveling back back back back to June of twenty
Speaker 2: twenty when we finally caught up with se Lo Green.
Speaker 3: Yep, se Lo Green.
Speaker 2: He talks about finding his boys, Goodie Mob, Naarls Barkley
Speaker 2: and all the good stuff. It's so good that it's
Speaker 2: a two parter. We know you love those. As we
Speaker 2: queue that up for you, don't forget to make sure
Speaker 2: you check out our whole Dungeon Family series of interviews.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, y'all, from Organized Noise to My Girl Joy
Speaker 2: to even quests one on one with Andre three thousand. Yep,
Speaker 2: it happened. So here is part two of se Lo
Speaker 2: Green on Questlove Supreme.
Speaker 3: How does one?
Speaker 4: Well, it's actually two parter because you know you said
Speaker 4: you didn't you really weren't with the direction of the record.
Speaker 4: Who is the alpha, Who's the Who's who's the alpha?
Speaker 3: Goodie?
Speaker 4: That one is the anchor that brings everyone together to
Speaker 4: have a meeting or or discussion about it or My
Speaker 4: second question is how do you dissolve the situation?
Speaker 3: How?
Speaker 4: What was what was the process of you leaving the
Speaker 4: group to start Your Perfect Imperfections and the Soul Machine projects.
Speaker 5: Well we had just done not too long ago maybe,
Speaker 5: like you know, I think in March, you know, our
Speaker 5: episode of Unsung had added and we kind of touched
Speaker 5: on that, and you know me, it was me and
Speaker 5: Timo that discussed very you know, very plainly that you know,
Speaker 5: after that project, everybody wanted to venture out and do
Speaker 5: solo solo projects. You know, everybody's always had an ambition
Speaker 5: to do it, but like we kind of stumbled upon
Speaker 5: our own synergy and became kind of you know, you know,
Speaker 5: safeguarded by that, you know what I mean, Like, you know,
Speaker 5: because we did ultimately have three consecutive Gold Reference but
Speaker 5: we were only kind of like slated to do just
Speaker 5: one record, I mean, being that it was just meant
Speaker 5: to be a compilation. And then also we were friends
Speaker 5: and and and you know, like and we were kind of,
Speaker 5: you know, if you will, ganged in like you know
Speaker 5: what I mean, Like we loyal like down with each other.
Speaker 5: So it's like, you know, everybody felt a certain kind
Speaker 5: of way by feeling anything ulterior to you know what
Speaker 5: I mean, Like, uh, you know, goodie, you know what
Speaker 5: I mean, like you know, but you know, I had
Speaker 5: to be true to dying self, you know what I mean,
Speaker 5: Like you know, because the fact of the matter is
Speaker 5: I was always poised to be a solo artist anyway,
Speaker 5: and that that point I really was ready, you know
Speaker 5: what I'm saying, Like I can honestly say at the beginning,
Speaker 5: I wasn't. But that after three albums and after touring
Speaker 5: consecutively and accomplishing what we accomplished, I said, Okay, I
Speaker 5: think we you know, I think we made out our
Speaker 5: you know, our our impression. It's like this, so I
Speaker 5: I knew somewhat, I mean, of what I could accomplish
Speaker 5: if I applied myself outside of Goodie Mob.
Speaker 6: I mean, like you think the Santana record kind of
Speaker 6: helped you get it?
Speaker 3: Did?
Speaker 5: Oh?
Speaker 2: It?
Speaker 5: Did it? Did? I gotta I gotta give thanks and
Speaker 5: praise to miss Lauren Hill, you know, I mean, like
Speaker 5: who reached out to me. We all befriended each other
Speaker 5: on those first tours roots you know, uh, Goody Mob
Speaker 5: and the Foujis. You know what I'm saying, Like you know,
Speaker 5: it's so so with that she came and got me,
Speaker 5: you know, and I didn't even really. I knew that
Speaker 5: I had a I knew that I could sing, but
Speaker 5: I wasn't really tripping, you know, but you know it
Speaker 5: was her. Joy and Erica bad are the first. You know,
Speaker 5: that's like the holy Trinity, right man? And I'm saying,
Speaker 5: you feel me like I worked with them separately. I
Speaker 5: remember going to to New York when Erica wants and
Speaker 5: she and she wanted me to come out on stage
Speaker 5: and just sing something. And I said, okay, well what
Speaker 5: you want me to do? She said, just just do
Speaker 5: whatever you want to do? And I just hommed and
Speaker 5: moaned and wailed and then and then I sung background
Speaker 5: vocals for Joy too.
Speaker 2: So still, have you done any so in your in
Speaker 2: your evolution as a singer, have you done any maintenance
Speaker 2: on your voice, any kind of coach like, because it
Speaker 2: seems like as you evolved, got into that Narls bag
Speaker 2: and stuff, and you started experimenting with the different things
Speaker 2: in your voice that you know, it was shouting.
Speaker 5: Starting to come out. Well, damn question, What was your question? Again?
Speaker 5: I just want to make sure I get it, you
Speaker 5: know what I mean?
Speaker 3: How did you quit the group?
Speaker 5: It was? It was, it was agreed upon, we all
Speaker 5: had an understanding. Now how it digressed into you know
Speaker 5: what I mean, like a lot of a lot of
Speaker 5: the internal riffings and you know, you know they kind
Speaker 5: of you know, spilled over into the street. I really
Speaker 5: don't know what I mean, Like I really wasn't emotionally
Speaker 5: vested in that way. I mean, like because it was
Speaker 5: my understanding that there was an understand I mean, like
Speaker 5: you know, I was defaulted and I mean, like, you know,
Speaker 5: like out of the group because I had always felt like, yo,
Speaker 5: like we're gonna try these other things and then we'll
Speaker 5: come back, you know, as we ultimately end up you know, doing.
Speaker 3: But yeah, me too, come back.
Speaker 5: And come back to it. And I mean so so
Speaker 5: with that, you know what I mean, I just knew
Speaker 5: that it was time for me to make a move.
Speaker 5: And it's funny that man get talking about this recently.
Speaker 5: He said, Man, well, you know you were right. I mean,
Speaker 5: like it's not something that we could have foresaw, you
Speaker 5: know what I mean, like, you know and give answers
Speaker 5: that the best. On the episode of Unsong, he said,
Speaker 5: I knew that, you know, that time would ultimately come
Speaker 5: at some point, he said, But no matter when that
Speaker 5: time came, it most likely wasn't gonna ever be the
Speaker 5: right time for me, you know what I'm saying. And
Speaker 5: I didn't. I didn't know that they cared that much.
Speaker 5: You know what I'm saying. You feel me like, you know,
Speaker 5: because I also looked at music as recreation. So when
Speaker 5: I came out with Closet Freaking did that album, that's
Speaker 5: just me, you know, having fun, just kind of like
Speaker 5: peacocking and showing people. Hey, man, like I got other
Speaker 5: stuff in me, you know what I'm saying. I could
Speaker 5: do all other kind of shit.
Speaker 6: Me my favorite record, oh, my favorite song on that album,
Speaker 6: Like it wasn't even like a full song, but I
Speaker 6: love it to death.
Speaker 3: Base head Jazz. Yeah, I love that fucking song.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 3: That was the one for me. I played that shit
Speaker 3: on repeat for hours.
Speaker 5: You want to know something double about bassa jazz And
Speaker 5: a lot of people say that, man, like the reason
Speaker 5: why the beat keeps cutting off because it got it
Speaker 5: got erased and I just left it like that, like
Speaker 5: you know, so uh, you know me because I produced
Speaker 5: all of that stuff and a lot of people don't
Speaker 5: know you know what I mean?
Speaker 3: Your own Well, it's that thing.
Speaker 5: It's that thing, bro, And I'm gonna tell you question.
Speaker 5: I know you're trying to get me to dig into it.
Speaker 5: It's like I will say, around that time, I didn't
Speaker 5: really I didn't really ask for help. I just kind
Speaker 5: of thought that help should be volunteered. And I thought that,
Speaker 5: you know, at some point, everybody would want me to
Speaker 5: realize my own potential. I mean, like you know, because
Speaker 5: again I didn't really feel like I was diminishing myself
Speaker 5: in any kind of way. I thought that it was
Speaker 5: just a you know, a vetting process or like or
Speaker 5: like a preliminary you know what I mean, like you know,
Speaker 5: like you know, you know or you know some sort
Speaker 5: some some type of you know, incubation kind of process
Speaker 5: that I was going through to get to a certain point.
Speaker 5: And that's not to discount or you know, be condescended
Speaker 5: toward what we did or do collectively. Soing like I
Speaker 5: love the crew our Lonely show, I only ever show solidarity.
Speaker 5: And I'm saying you feel me like I'm built like that,
Speaker 5: Like I'm a team I'm a team kind of guy
Speaker 5: just like you. Anytime I look at Jimmy Fallon quest,
Speaker 5: I love y'all because I've known y'all for so long,
Speaker 5: and I'm like, I'm like, look at that man knowing
Speaker 5: like that that man you know, his team trust him.
Speaker 5: You know what I'm saying. You feel me like they
Speaker 5: honor his word. I mean like they really need to
Speaker 5: go in to battle with him when lose a draw.
Speaker 5: You know what I'm saying, You feel me. And when
Speaker 5: you ask who's that alpha male? I could? I could
Speaker 5: you know that alpha individual? You know what I'm saying,
Speaker 5: Like and our collective, no one wants to assume that position,
Speaker 5: you know what I'm saying. Like, so therefore I will
Speaker 5: say this honestly and transparence to just so I can
Speaker 5: give you something wrong. You know what I mean, Like
Speaker 5: there's a great deal of appeasement that goes on internally.
Speaker 5: You know what I mean, Like, you know, to make
Speaker 5: sure that everybody you know that no equilibrium is offset.
Speaker 5: So I even I put my accomplishments on the shelf,
Speaker 5: you know what I mean, Like when I come home
Speaker 5: to the collective. You know what I mean, Like you know,
Speaker 5: like I'm I'm I'm low. I'm saying like I'm baby brother,
Speaker 5: I'm a little bro. All that you say you feel
Speaker 5: me and I love that And I'm saying, like, because
Speaker 5: I like having og. I'm saying like, you know, I'm
Speaker 5: a luck that's just that's my hardwinery. You know what
Speaker 5: I'm saying. You feel soul. I really don't mind, you
Speaker 5: know what I'm saying, Like, because I know at the moments, notice,
Speaker 5: I can go elsewhere and behold on command. I can
Speaker 5: be whole, you know what I'm saying. And I'm only
Speaker 5: whole because because because I because crew is inclusive, and
Speaker 5: let me say that too, so the benefit of it
Speaker 5: is bilateral. I'm not whole without the collective. I love
Speaker 5: my guys.
Speaker 4: So in the time that you leave the group and
Speaker 4: you start your solo career, of course you know outcasts,
Speaker 4: you know, they create this this monstrous diamond album that's
Speaker 4: in its capable to the world as far as an eclipse,
Speaker 4: and then what happens with you is like, in my
Speaker 4: mind at least in two thousand and three, thought hey,
Speaker 4: I would just be a defining moment and that that
Speaker 4: would eclipse everything. Yeah, and then you come here with
Speaker 4: a new project with like the most I mean, I
Speaker 4: would borderline say that the rival of crazy and the
Speaker 4: the kind of the term viral, viral moments viral like Crazy,
Speaker 4: I almost feel is the first viral song, at least
Speaker 4: in the terms of which the word viral started to
Speaker 4: be used in everyone's lexicon.
Speaker 5: And I'm not going to argue with.
Speaker 4: Me to the point where like where I mean, even
Speaker 4: Paris Hilton had her her cover of it. How uncomfortable
Speaker 4: was it for you to accept what I assume is
Speaker 4: a very unexpected moment where I would assume that, like
Speaker 4: Nols Barkley was just like, hey, let's just do a
Speaker 4: little QT side project with my weirdo friend Brian here
Speaker 4: and then I'll go do my third record, which, incidentally,
Speaker 4: I mean, if anything, fuck you probably.
Speaker 3: Surpassed Crazy.
Speaker 4: I don't know, like numbers wise, what was more inescapable
Speaker 4: as far as the bigger song.
Speaker 3: Was it uncomfortable for.
Speaker 7: You to finally get like the overdue kind of accolades
Speaker 7: due to you, especially from the environment you came from?
Speaker 3: Yeah, because you.
Speaker 6: Were pretty much Andreeine, I.
Speaker 3: Like for real, you know, I mean, yes.
Speaker 5: I love it. No, but look man, okay, so no,
Speaker 5: I thought that it was dope, you know what I mean?
Speaker 5: Like you know that you know, those two dynamics could
Speaker 5: come out come out of one crew. So therefore I
Speaker 5: had always felt like it was, you know, it was faded,
Speaker 5: you know what i mean, Like and it was and
Speaker 5: we were favored, you know what I mean, Like you know,
Speaker 5: I would love you know, I can appreciate more and
Speaker 5: can benefit more with having him as an alliance as
Speaker 5: opposed to an opponent, you know what I mean. Like
Speaker 5: at least we were, you know, alongside of each other,
Speaker 5: you know what I mean, like pushing our agenda forward,
Speaker 5: you know, and waving our flag, you know what I mean,
Speaker 5: Like you know, we shared the same flag. So like
Speaker 5: it's just like you know, and I know that it's
Speaker 5: typically just kind of one standout person. I mean, like
Speaker 5: you got one Jordan on the on the ninety whatever
Speaker 5: year fucking bulls, the ninety three bull or whatever, you
Speaker 5: know what I'm saying. And I definitely don't didn't. I
Speaker 5: didn't consider myself a Pippin, you know what I'm saying, Like,
Speaker 5: and that's no insult, and so to him, so very seldom,
Speaker 5: you know what I mean, Like you know, it seems
Speaker 5: like chemically it would almost kind of blow up in
Speaker 5: your face to have a Kobe, you know, And can
Speaker 5: you imagine Kobe and Jordan on the same team. You know, yeah,
Speaker 5: I think so. I think so. And even when we
Speaker 5: talk about Outcast being a trio, I kind of actually
Speaker 5: I could be rational and saying to myself like that
Speaker 5: might be too much. What I'm saying, you feel me,
Speaker 5: it might have been too much, you know, And so
Speaker 5: I'm glad that whatever I could contribute was just enough
Speaker 5: to signify Goodie Mob in the way that I hated it,
Speaker 5: know what I'm saying, you know, because I did my partner,
Speaker 5: and that's all that I'm there to do. So in
Speaker 5: going forward, you know what I mean, Like, no, I didn't.
Speaker 5: I felt like everything was happening kind of right on time,
Speaker 5: you know what I mean. I feel like, you know,
Speaker 5: as long as I could be a success at being myself,
Speaker 5: I've got my whole life to do it. It didn't
Speaker 5: have to be you know, it didn't have to be
Speaker 5: a facade. I mean, like all a freak of nature,
Speaker 5: you know what I mean. Like it's like, you know,
Speaker 5: I got a chance to just you know, be that
Speaker 5: genuine article, you know, individual account of interpretive arts. You
Speaker 5: know what I'm saying, You I mean, like that that's it.
Speaker 5: And what I mean, like you know I got with
Speaker 5: Danger Mouse and I knew that he was, you know,
Speaker 5: peculiar and eccentric, you know, much like myself, you know
Speaker 5: what I mean, like in private, and I knew that.
Speaker 5: You know, our misery gave each other company, you know
Speaker 5: what I'm saying. You know, when I heard his music,
Speaker 5: I think my only misery was the fact that you know,
Speaker 5: I had not addressed this emotion sooner, you know what
Speaker 5: I mean, Like you know in my repertoire get Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 5: you know what I'm saying. But it but it was
Speaker 5: the timing was you know, impeccable, you know what I mean,
Speaker 5: because like, but how was the.
Speaker 4: Feeling of achieving a zenith and being number one? Like
Speaker 4: is it a be careful for what you asked for
Speaker 4: a moment? Like I'm certain that by week eighteen you
Speaker 4: were tired or seeing that damn song?
Speaker 5: Well, I tell I tell you this, it happened because
Speaker 5: you're right, it's one of those first viral moments, you
Speaker 5: know what I mean, Like, uh, the first song to
Speaker 5: go to number one by digital download. I mean, like
Speaker 5: it's got it's got a Guinness World record. You know
Speaker 5: what I'm saying, This record, You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5: And to be totally honest, it was it was it
Speaker 5: was utterly uh calming uh and gratifying uh and relieving,
Speaker 5: you know what I'm saying, like, you know, because the
Speaker 5: the the the motive, the inspiration for the song was,
Speaker 5: you know, all of those traumatic you know times that
Speaker 5: I could recall of being treated and seen and perceived,
Speaker 5: you know what I mean, like you know, as different
Speaker 5: or crazy or you know, like all of that kind
Speaker 5: of stuff, you know what I mean. And and and
Speaker 5: then I could reflect on how it you know, uh
Speaker 5: translated you know in my you know behavior at a time,
Speaker 5: you know what I mean, Like you know, because us
Speaker 5: that the video for Crazy is the raw shot test. Yes,
Speaker 5: so I Sir Robert Hale, the director, I had a
Speaker 5: conversation with him, and this is where it came from.
Speaker 5: I was telling him about those times when I was
Speaker 5: in elementary school, middle school, and I would get pulled
Speaker 5: out of the class and taken into you know, an
Speaker 5: office or empty room and they would do those tests
Speaker 5: on me, you know what I mean, Like I didn't
Speaker 5: know what it means. I wasn't really paying attention, you know,
Speaker 5: and I didn't know if I don't know if and
Speaker 5: I honestly can't recall it if I was pleasuling academically,
Speaker 5: I don't know what I was doing besides the behavior
Speaker 5: that I can recall that would make motherfucker think that
Speaker 5: I was, you know, I mean like needed to be
Speaker 5: prescribed writtling. I'm saying, Yes, so crazy. The reason why
Speaker 5: it resonated in such a way because it was so
Speaker 5: real and the resent was so deep in me. I
Speaker 5: hated being, you know, like called crazy, you know, I mean,
Speaker 5: like you feel me or considered crazy, and so therefore
Speaker 5: that's why it cuts so deep for me, and I
Speaker 5: meant it so much, and I was so sincere, you
Speaker 5: know what I mean, And at that point I was relieved.
Speaker 5: It's almost like I could have died, you know what
Speaker 5: I'm saying.
Speaker 4: Well, then I'll ask you, did it sort of irk
Speaker 4: you a little bit? Once the song ran out of
Speaker 4: control and everybody in their mom had to cover it.
Speaker 4: I mean there was country versions and Charactis version and
Speaker 4: like all these like did it take away from the
Speaker 4: from the specialness to well, like.
Speaker 5: Like Dangel Mouse, he's what's the word, he's neurotic in
Speaker 5: that way, he's uh what they call it? A purist,
Speaker 5: you know what I'm saying, Like there's certain things he
Speaker 5: won't do, like you know, he will take a picture
Speaker 5: sitting on the left side of the you know, it's
Speaker 5: he's really pocket protector type, like you know what I mean,
Speaker 5: Like we're both kind of nerves in our own way,
Speaker 5: but like like you know, he's he's he's he's a
Speaker 5: specimen of a person.
Speaker 3: Like you know, so what lesson did you learn?
Speaker 4: And being in a group with him that you didn't
Speaker 4: utilize and being with goodie mob that serves you better?
Speaker 5: Can I tell you he told me the greatest I
Speaker 5: got two or three different things that he's told me.
Speaker 5: That's the end. But he's a sweet guy, and you know,
Speaker 5: you would think he was like some dude that sucking
Speaker 5: is a vegan or something like that. But now, like
Speaker 5: all he eats his pizza and hamburgers. It's so you know,
Speaker 5: I mean, like right now he lives on the former Connecticut. Okay,
Speaker 5: but I tell you what he told me when I
Speaker 5: opened up the door, he said, Hey, so before we
Speaker 5: get started, I want to say this, Hey, I am
Speaker 5: you know, I'm obviously a fan of of you know,
Speaker 5: most of the work that you do you know what
Speaker 5: I mean? And he's he's that's that's what he says.
Speaker 5: I'm most of what you do. He said, so, but
Speaker 5: what I've noticed is there there's a reoccurring thing that
Speaker 5: runs throughout your work, and there's this this person trying
Speaker 5: to do uh and say so much good you know,
Speaker 5: I mean, it's it's it's almost like you're trying to,
Speaker 5: uh be redemptive for something. He said, so he said
Speaker 5: it said, so, it's my thinking that anybody trying to
Speaker 5: do that much good has done an equal amount of bad.
Speaker 5: And I want you to talk about that. He called
Speaker 5: me out. He called me out, and I said, oh, okay,
Speaker 5: you know what I'm saying, and I just let it spill.
Speaker 5: And I just felt like, Okay, he's a perceptive guy.
Speaker 5: And I remember when he was first playing me the
Speaker 5: tracks that ended up becoming Saint Elsewhere.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 5: North Barkley debut album A partner, good friend of mine
Speaker 5: who I use as a baramo, the.
Speaker 3: Two Stam's minte. What's going on with He's still home?
Speaker 5: He with me, you know what I'm saying. Okay, but
Speaker 5: but he he walked in the room to get something.
Speaker 5: He said, excuse me, guys grab this recuse. I think
Speaker 5: he got some keys or his phone or something in
Speaker 5: the studio. And then you know, in his in his
Speaker 5: own unique way, his personality, as he was walking out
Speaker 5: the door, he didn't look back, and the door was
Speaker 5: kind of slowly. You know those studio doors, they will
Speaker 5: go back hard and they'll come back soft. So the
Speaker 5: door was softly closed behind him. He said, By the way,
Speaker 5: whoever produced that track is crazy, you know. Basically he
Speaker 5: could feel the controlled uh chaos in that production. Because
Speaker 5: I felt like that, I said, God, damn, you know,
Speaker 5: I didn't say it to him. I said, but damn
Speaker 5: this this guy is damaged in a genuine way, you know.
Speaker 5: I mean, like I can tell. I'm like, who makes
Speaker 5: this stuff? You know? And then why is it speaking
Speaker 5: to me? So it spoke to my internal you know dialogue,
Speaker 5: you know, I mean, my internal chaos, and I was
Speaker 5: able to make some sense out of it, you know
Speaker 5: what I mean, like, you know, alongside him, and I
Speaker 5: just felt like he's like a real partner in crime.
Speaker 4: So one of my favorite songs in that record, which
Speaker 4: I always wanted to know, if you'll ever explore more
Speaker 4: singing in your baritone voice, I was on the line
Speaker 4: and like, how come you haven't decided to explore your
Speaker 4: your your little your little voice. When I heard that
Speaker 4: there's a song that I did with Blow. Since I
Speaker 4: heard that, I ran to bloud like I was going
Speaker 4: to get with him in the studio and I played.
Speaker 3: It for him.
Speaker 4: I said, Yo, dude, like I want you to do
Speaker 4: this song on your little register because it's just something
Speaker 4: you never explored before, because everyone expects you to lose
Speaker 4: your mind on every song that you do. That's right,
Speaker 4: like a controlled song in your baritune. But yeah, like,
Speaker 4: how but.
Speaker 5: Will you ever my favorite singers? He can sing so
Speaker 5: goddamn good. He's so he's so trippy. I got just
Speaker 5: to be out on a couple of different occasions, and
Speaker 5: I told him. I was like, Yo, sometimes it's my
Speaker 5: favorite record from you.
Speaker 2: Yes, all right, yeah.
Speaker 5: Anyway, yeah, I'm just shouting yes. No. So I was
Speaker 5: just I was just trying to amuse us because I
Speaker 5: tell you the story and it's not long, you know.
Speaker 5: He he came to Atlanta. We had about eight days
Speaker 5: to go in out of pocket independently, you know, and
Speaker 5: amuse ourselves. And that's what those sessions were like. You know,
Speaker 5: we're going through different tracks and this, that and the third.
Speaker 5: You know, so if I couldn't get anything, like I
Speaker 5: said that first day I came, I said, let me
Speaker 5: hear this, blah blah blah blah. And I went home
Speaker 5: and I wrote something, and then I wrote I think
Speaker 5: just the thought and Necromancer and something else, and I
Speaker 5: went back in and and and he would only have
Speaker 5: these two minute loops, and I was trying to see,
Speaker 5: can I can I can I complete a thought? Or
Speaker 5: can I get to a point of realization within those confines?
Speaker 5: You know what I mean? So that was I had
Speaker 5: tasked myself in that way, but you know, he had
Speaker 5: to go off to Iceland, so we were a little rushed,
Speaker 5: not not really knowing really what to expect of each other,
Speaker 5: just trying to hope him to get something. I mean, like,
Speaker 5: you know.
Speaker 6: So the whole record in eight days, the whole album much, you.
Speaker 4: Know, I mean, like you know, sometimes the best work
Speaker 4: is done without thinking it, and you just just.
Speaker 5: Didn't think, didn't didn't think about it, you know what
Speaker 5: I mean. Like it was completely and totally unpretentious. I
Speaker 5: promise it's the most honest, organic thing I've ever done.
Speaker 5: What I'm saying that worked as well as it did.
Speaker 3: Were you a violent fin fin or was he a
Speaker 3: violent fifth fin Well? I that shocked me. I was like, oh, ship,
Speaker 3: that was.
Speaker 5: Definitely his idea. I was familiar with with with violent
Speaker 5: him from Blistering the Sun. And then more more recently
Speaker 5: around that time was a song they had put out
Speaker 5: called breaking Up. You know, breaking Up right? Yeah? So
Speaker 5: I like that record. So I don't know what got
Speaker 5: in him to make him think that that. I don't
Speaker 5: know what he was doing, but I trusted him in
Speaker 5: a very uh uncanny way. He said what he said
Speaker 5: to me, I knew that I could trust him. On
Speaker 5: another occasion, he told me something else, great he said,
Speaker 5: he said low. I guess because he was dealing with
Speaker 5: the executives, and you know, people felt like you know,
Speaker 5: sometimes when people are dealing with the producer, they think
Speaker 5: they're dealing with the the texts and balances the math
Speaker 5: of a situation. Like you know, songwriting is science, and
Speaker 5: science is subject to interpretation. Math as a matter of fact,
Speaker 5: it's exact. So therefore they'd rather talk to him than me.
Speaker 5: Uh So he was dealing with them, and I think
Speaker 5: he got a notion to say. He said, low, man,
Speaker 5: everybody seems to be scared of you. I'm saying, like,
Speaker 5: you know, because I was writing these songs and people
Speaker 5: not knowing how genuine they are and me like it's
Speaker 5: like goddamn, Like you know, like this got cool? Is
Speaker 5: he all right? What I'm saying? You know what I mean? Like, uh,
Speaker 5: he said, he said, everybody seems to be scared of you,
Speaker 5: he said, but I'm not scared of you, he said,
Speaker 5: as a matter of fact, when I'm with you, I'm
Speaker 5: not scared of anything.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 5: You know what I'm saying. So that's that's the you know,
Speaker 5: that's that's I want to quote him out loud in
Speaker 5: the world with that. I want that to reverberate. And
Speaker 5: I'm saying like, you know, like all over because that's
Speaker 5: one of the sweetest things anybody ever told me. You
Speaker 5: know what I'm saying, Like and you know, I'm like,
Speaker 5: I'm like Shrek in my own little way, you know
Speaker 5: what I'm saying. You feel me like this? You know,
Speaker 5: I'm like people have taken me to be because because
Speaker 5: at certain at a certain point, like when we got
Speaker 5: to the second Nolge Rock the album, you know, then
Speaker 5: his ego started to kick in a little bit, and
Speaker 5: he kind of felt like he was doctor Frankenstein, and
Speaker 5: I was, of course Frankenstein, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5: And I'm like, well, no, you know what I'm saying, like,
Speaker 5: you know, like you know, I'm smarter than that, you know,
Speaker 5: he says. And then then I then I always find
Speaker 5: myself having to assert myself. And then then when I
Speaker 5: get then when we got a problem.
Speaker 3: Was it made the opposite way?
Speaker 4: Did you guys spend more time thinking it over and
Speaker 4: and kind of less the approach that you did with
Speaker 4: the first record?
Speaker 5: Okay, let me say this. He had to leave through
Speaker 5: through one of those sessions we were doing. We were
Speaker 5: doing something else where. He came in the studio. He
Speaker 5: gave me like two copies of the Gray album, which
Speaker 5: was the mash up, and when that and when that
Speaker 5: went out, it was like boom. You know what I'm
Speaker 5: saying Like, it was like wow, And then on then
Speaker 5: on the on, then on the other side. I ended
Speaker 5: up writing and producing Don't You for the Pussycat Dogs?
Speaker 3: So we gotta get that story.
Speaker 6: I've never I always wanted to ask, Yeah, we gotta
Speaker 6: get that story.
Speaker 3: Man like at that time.
Speaker 5: Well you know, after I remember and I had the two.
Speaker 5: I had perfectin Perfections, I had Sole Machine. You know,
Speaker 5: they were critically acclaimed. Perfect Perfections was nominated for a Grammy.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 5: Any Ir ended up beating me out of that Grammy
Speaker 5: that year. I was dominated for a Grammy for that album.
Speaker 5: Uh And she's my sister, so like it was a
Speaker 5: good but I was kind of ready to walk away.
Speaker 5: I'll fin yo, like because I'm never really tripping about
Speaker 5: scene being seen or anything like that. Like you know,
Speaker 5: as as extroverted as I am, I really I don't
Speaker 5: really care rolling. I mean, like you know, like I
Speaker 5: could just I could write songs and you know and
Speaker 5: get quiet money and and checking up. You know, like
Speaker 5: I don't know, I'm not shifting.
Speaker 3: Necessary for Brandy. I love that.
Speaker 6: I just wanted to say, for I forget the joint.
Speaker 6: You wrote necessary Nigga, I love.
Speaker 3: That's my face.
Speaker 5: Hell yeah, So you know, I'm surprised that she loved
Speaker 5: that record, but like you I mean, like you know
Speaker 5: that that's something that I would sentimentally, I would write
Speaker 5: for myself, but like she that record spoke to her,
Speaker 5: and I'm like Brandy she's one of the greatest. Say
Speaker 5: she's I love her voice. Ray J is my man,
Speaker 5: so like I've known them for years and say, anyway,
Speaker 5: that's that story. But no, you're right. So like I
Speaker 5: so I went, I slipped into a songwriting kind of
Speaker 5: space and I was like, well, I'll just do that
Speaker 5: what I'm saying you feel me and I won't trip. Uh.
Speaker 5: But the narge Rocky, I didn't know if it would work,
Speaker 5: but again, it was just something recreational. I didn't really
Speaker 5: you know, I didn't care. I mean, like you know,
Speaker 5: and I wasn't as concerned, you know, But when you're
Speaker 5: not looking for it, that's when you find it, you
Speaker 5: know what I mean. And then y'all.
Speaker 2: Perfected y'all Live show to like levels of because I
Speaker 2: remember y'all did the Roofs Picnic and it was amazing, Like.
Speaker 5: Yo, we started kicking ass y'all, like you know, and
Speaker 5: that's what happened, you know, like that that journey that
Speaker 5: took me on the journey of ten years, you know,
Speaker 5: between those two albums and touring like you know, and
Speaker 5: you know, then you're supplying you find it, and then
Speaker 5: then it's not a dream anymore. It's reality. But then
Speaker 5: you become you know, preoccupied with the with the demand,
Speaker 5: you end up having to supply such a large demand.
Speaker 5: You know. It's ironic in a way of like, you know,
Speaker 5: you're working hard to kind of make that connection, you know,
Speaker 5: and then once you make it, you got work three
Speaker 5: times it was hard to supply. I mean, you feel
Speaker 5: me like so anyway, no complaints.
Speaker 4: I believe you're the only human being I know that.
Speaker 4: I don't know if it was at the height of
Speaker 4: crazy or not? Where is it? Did spell this rumor?
Speaker 4: Were you not in a room with both Prince and
Speaker 4: Michael Jackson at the same time?
Speaker 5: Yes, heard the story? Did you hear what I am telling?
Speaker 4: No, I I don't. I don't know where I heard.
Speaker 4: Maybe I read a blurb or something. But I heard
Speaker 4: a rumor and I was like, no, impossible.
Speaker 5: Of course, I think what happened. You're probably the only
Speaker 5: bigger Prince fan than me than I. Then I can
Speaker 5: acknowledge if I have any knowledge of But yes, like
Speaker 5: you know, princess, like my fairy godfather, Like, yeah, okay,
Speaker 5: So the story goes, we were in Las Vegas doing something.
Speaker 5: I don't know what we were doing. Maybe we were
Speaker 5: on tour, but we ended up at a club and
Speaker 5: there was this beautiful woman there. She was dressed like
Speaker 5: what do you call those ladies in the courtroom who's
Speaker 5: typing and stuff? Okay, she was dressed like a stenographer,
Speaker 5: half back in a type bond and she was gorgeous
Speaker 5: and like she didn't fit in whatsoever. Right, So we
Speaker 5: walked to the back of the club and we're sitting there,
Speaker 5: you know, Eroding City comes on, boom boom, and we're like,
Speaker 5: oh shit, Prince, here we go, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5: Next thing, you know, Prince walks through there and we're like,
Speaker 5: oh shit, that was Prince. And if you know Prince,
Speaker 5: like I know that, you know, he always does this
Speaker 5: little smirk like you know what I'm saying, Like, it's
Speaker 5: just a little smirk and that he does. And I
Speaker 5: was like, damn, you know, like at first, the girl
Speaker 5: seems so out of place, I'm like, what is she
Speaker 5: doing here? So so anyway, it turns out that she
Speaker 5: was with him and she was some artist that he
Speaker 5: ended up putting a record out of her. She was gorgeous.
Speaker 5: I don't remember her name though, but but but but yeah,
Speaker 5: something like that like, so he he uh, he called me,
Speaker 5: so he sent the security over. They called me over,
Speaker 5: and he said that he loved Crazy. He said he
Speaker 5: listened to the album and uh, he listened to the
Speaker 5: same else where. He said it, he said, he said,
Speaker 5: he said, must admit though it scared me a little,
Speaker 5: and I said, it scared you. And I'm like, I
Speaker 5: thought that that was so amazing because I'm like, that's
Speaker 5: how I got into Prins because he scared the she
Speaker 5: out of me when I was a kid, like you
Speaker 5: know what I mean. Like, but I was drawn to him.
Speaker 5: There's a song called Annie Christian that's scared Death. It
Speaker 5: does thank you right, you know what I'm saying. So
Speaker 5: that song was unnerving to me. I don't know why,
Speaker 5: but you know, that's him. That's the that's the magic
Speaker 5: of him. But anyway, so anyway, we changed contacts. He
Speaker 5: gets it. He gets in contact with me, and he's
Speaker 5: doing his Vegas residency at the Rio Hotel in the
Speaker 5: round room. So this room is made like a circle. Okay,
Speaker 5: so I'm there. I get invited down there to perform
Speaker 5: Crazy with him at his residency. Me and Will were
Speaker 5: cool too at the time. We were talking a lot
Speaker 5: more frequently, and he said that he was going to
Speaker 5: be there. So we got there and you know, Will
Speaker 5: was in Vegas working with Michael Jackson, you know, doing something.
Speaker 5: So we're there, we do you know, I do crazy
Speaker 5: with Prince and Will does whatever he does. And I
Speaker 5: don't know what it was. I don't know if I
Speaker 5: can't remember what record. It was, just maybe some vamp
Speaker 5: that they were doing. Prince gets on the base and
Speaker 5: it looks like the longest neck bass I've ever seen,
Speaker 5: Like it was funny.
Speaker 3: Prince is also like five foot zero, so exactly.
Speaker 5: So he walks out into the room and this is
Speaker 5: before I knew Michael Jackson was there. So he walks
Speaker 5: out and the spotlight is on him and he gets
Speaker 5: right in front of Michael Jackson's table, and I promise
Speaker 5: you the the tip of that base was touching Michael
Speaker 5: Jackson's nose. And he said, there he slapped that base
Speaker 5: by two or three minute. Bank bank bank bank bank.
Speaker 5: Michael ain't no pump. And so that was that.
Speaker 2: But what did Michael's face look like? Because he ain't
Speaker 2: no pump.
Speaker 3: He like, I'm Joe Jackson's son.
Speaker 5: Hold up, Michael Jackson ain't no pump and that's a fact,
Speaker 5: you know what I'm saying. Like, but I guess he
Speaker 5: was kind of looking like he was like, Yo, this
Speaker 5: dude just won't quit. Man. You know this has been years, Prince.
Speaker 5: I don't got no problem with you. I don't want
Speaker 5: no smoke with you, little man. But I met you know,
Speaker 5: so that was like my second physical time meeting Prince.
Speaker 5: The first time at that club. That like the meeting,
Speaker 5: the meeting agreement with him at the show. But that
Speaker 5: was my first and only time meeting Michael Jackson and
Speaker 5: Michael Jackson when he stood up Michael Jackson. For those
Speaker 5: who don't know, he's like ten feet tall.
Speaker 3: He's tall.
Speaker 5: He's tall with huge hands. He's like an alien dude
Speaker 5: like you, I mean like he looks like the Predator. This
Speaker 5: is a big dude. I got another crazy for Surry too.
Speaker 3: I tell you it, run it.
Speaker 5: Oh no dude, Okay. So one time it was you know,
Speaker 5: he would do these after Grammy parties and so you know,
Speaker 5: this was this was the year that I did the
Speaker 5: I did fuck you, Uh. I did it with Gwyneth
Speaker 5: foul Trail and had on the chicken suit.
Speaker 3: You remember, like.
Speaker 5: I was. I was my homage to the el Joint. Okay.
Speaker 5: So I was sitting on the audience watching the rest
Speaker 5: of the show, and he had somebody come around tapping
Speaker 5: different people who he felt like, you know, he wanted
Speaker 5: to invite to the house. So we ended up we
Speaker 5: got we got the address. Yeah, so we got the
Speaker 5: address and we ended up going over there. Like I
Speaker 5: remember Maxwell was there, Dave Chappelle was there, and you know,
Speaker 5: so you can hear the music downstairs, and we were
Speaker 5: just kind of talking, you know. I didn't rush right downstairs,
Speaker 5: and I'm looking around and see Prince. He's like, well,
Speaker 5: he's down there playing music. So we get go downstairs.
Speaker 5: And as soon as I come in the door, it's
Speaker 5: like a path that's made for me and Princess directly
Speaker 5: in front of me. But he's playing bass. He's like,
Speaker 5: come here. He's justice to me to come here. He says,
Speaker 5: pick us. So anytime he's ever been depicted a certain
Speaker 5: kind of way, like Dave Chappelle doing him on on show,
Speaker 5: that's exactly how he is, you know what I mean.
Speaker 5: Like she said pick a song, I'm like, okay. So
Speaker 5: it's this big book, this big book of song lyrics
Speaker 5: printed out, and you know, I picked something easier that
Speaker 5: I knew, and it was Superstition. So I sang Stevie
Speaker 5: Wonders Superstition, you know. And so in the process of
Speaker 5: me you know, that song was four minutes long, you
Speaker 5: know what I mean, like, you know, give or take.
Speaker 5: And in that process, he got off the base, got
Speaker 5: on the drums when it mixed my vocal, and did
Speaker 5: some other shit. What I'm saying, you feel me? So
Speaker 5: I was like, damn, you know what I'm saying. And
Speaker 5: so so I had some friends with me and he
Speaker 5: was gracious enough to have us there. So as the
Speaker 5: night went on, we're partying, you know, and you know,
Speaker 5: people kind of started thinning out. So we ended up
Speaker 5: staying all night, you know what I mean. Like, so
Speaker 5: I sat and talked with him and blah blah blah
Speaker 5: and you.
Speaker 3: Know, convert you to to hand down jo Joel Witness. Yeah,
Speaker 3: you fell on the track. Whenever he starts that, I'm like,
Speaker 3: I'm out.
Speaker 5: That's what. We sat there and talking about Jehovah's Witness.
Speaker 5: I said, okay, you know, so so that was that.
Speaker 5: And then look, so this is run of the time question.
Speaker 5: I'm sure you'll know. He had that little two door
Speaker 5: black Cadillac, look like the black the Batmobile, remember that one.
Speaker 5: It's it's it's six or seven o'clock in the morning.
Speaker 5: It's that it's that real hazy looking like Hotel California.
Speaker 5: You know what I'm saying, Like coming out, you know,
Speaker 5: we drunk and been high and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 5: You know what I'm saying. So not not him but us.
Speaker 3: Yes, I know, trust me, everyone knows.
Speaker 5: So with that, we're coming out of the door. And
Speaker 5: then my homeboy says, yo, did y'all see Prince? I said, no,
Speaker 5: where is he? He was jumping into the car. So
Speaker 5: the garage door was up. You could see the car,
Speaker 5: the Cadillac he gets, he said, he said, he just
Speaker 5: got their Cadade right there. Okay, so imagine if we're
Speaker 5: parking immediately across the street, so the driveway is here,
Speaker 5: you know, the car is right there, the mailboxes right here.
Speaker 5: He takes off out of the garage. He almost runs
Speaker 5: us over. Man, Look, I wish it could be it's
Speaker 5: kind of crazy that I'm saying it, but like it
Speaker 5: was funny for us then because it was just amazing,
Speaker 5: like what is he doing? Where's he going? In this
Speaker 5: his house? Where's he going?
Speaker 2: It's all right?
Speaker 5: So but he wasn't trying to hear the us. But
Speaker 5: so he cuts out of the driver real quick. Woo.
Speaker 5: He makes a left, and we're parked like facing up
Speaker 5: the hill because we only know of one interest into
Speaker 5: that subdivision, right we I don't know what he was going,
Speaker 5: if he was gonna make if he was making.
Speaker 3: A left, you know what I'm saying, like, right, where
Speaker 3: could you go?
Speaker 5: Where are you going? Man?
Speaker 3: The right? Why is he going to the left?
Speaker 5: I just think the reason why. It's just cool because
Speaker 5: I just think that it was just to give us
Speaker 5: kind of something to be talking about right now, you know,
Speaker 5: twelve years later. I mean like he just he just
Speaker 5: gave us a little question mark, a little mystery. It
Speaker 5: was great.
Speaker 3: He always does that, does weird ship just to I
Speaker 3: know it'll be a story later.
Speaker 4: He did a shit to us once where I think
Speaker 4: the last time I saw him he changed his outfit twice?
Speaker 3: Did he for no reason?
Speaker 4: It was literally just he had one outfit on, came
Speaker 4: back in, had another outfit on, and then like ten
Speaker 4: minutes later, came back with another outfit on as if
Speaker 4: as if it were nothing, and yeah, that was the
Speaker 4: strangest ship to me. So he's going to get you
Speaker 4: your your newest album. Okay, now you this this is
Speaker 4: produced by From the first of all, I hear a
Speaker 4: lot about Memphis, Tennessee. Brian Danger Mouse himself has try
Speaker 4: to sell me on how amazing it is in Tennessee
Speaker 4: and how there's a music community down there and how
Speaker 4: there's all this, you know, the songwriting community and musicianship
Speaker 4: and studios and vintage studios.
Speaker 3: So yeah, why why the the move to record in Tennessee.
Speaker 5: Well it's Nashville actually, and uh he we befriended each
Speaker 5: other because they they came and supported us and checked
Speaker 5: out the show. One year we were doing south By
Speaker 5: Southwest in Austin, Texas, and that's how we befriended the
Speaker 5: Black Kids. And then and then shortly thereafter, uh, Danger
Speaker 5: ended up producing their album Brothers Alone. Uh you know,
Speaker 5: so that he produced that album with them or for
Speaker 5: them or something like that. So anyway, I ended up
Speaker 5: bumping into him some years later in London. We both
Speaker 5: were performing on Jules Holland if you're familiar, Yeah, so
Speaker 5: we were doing that and we exchanged numbers because his
Speaker 5: set was so cool. He had this all female mariachi
Speaker 5: band and I was like, great, yes, I befriended them too,
Speaker 5: you know what I mean. So so with that, then
Speaker 5: he reached out to me maybe like you know, six
Speaker 5: months or four months something later, and just asked me
Speaker 5: to come to Nashville, you know, to write, he said,
Speaker 5: He said, I really I appreciate you as a songwriter,
Speaker 5: you know what I mean, and maybe we can get together,
Speaker 5: get in the room, collaborate on some stuff. And you
Speaker 5: know that's basically you know, the gist of it. And
Speaker 5: then I said, okay, cool, this is this is damn
Speaker 5: from the black kids. I mean, like I dig them.
Speaker 5: You know. You know, the time was right, I was available.
Speaker 5: You know, it's a thirty minute flight from Atlanta. I
Speaker 5: was like cool. I mean, like, so I went and
Speaker 5: it was strange because I wasn't really sure, like you know,
Speaker 5: but you know, everybody was there at it.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 5: Check in was like eleven o'clock in the morning, of
Speaker 5: which I've never recorded anything that early in the day,
Speaker 5: you know what I mean. Like, you know, so I'm like, okay,
Speaker 5: eleven o'clock. But we will only go from like eleven
Speaker 5: to four, you know what I'm saying, eleven to four
Speaker 5: or five. And I didn't understand, you know what I mean,
Speaker 5: And I kind of was getting a little little irritated
Speaker 5: with it for the first few days. I'm like, I
Speaker 5: don't really know what's going on. We just kind of,
Speaker 5: you know, so we would sit around the table and
Speaker 5: you know, of writing songs and recording voice memos into
Speaker 5: the phone and you know, with either with a ukulele
Speaker 5: or an acoustic guitar or warletton, you know. So you know,
Speaker 5: it was really quaint, you know, I mean, like you
Speaker 5: know and simple, you know, country living. What was the approach,
Speaker 5: you know, and so so over the over six months,
Speaker 5: I would make maybe like a week about four weeks total,
Speaker 5: so maybe like a month out of the six months.
Speaker 5: I went and sat and went down there for a
Speaker 5: week and I asked him, I said, yo, I said
Speaker 5: what I said? What I said, what's what eleven o'clock
Speaker 5: in the day, And like, I said that like the
Speaker 5: magic hour or like what's that? Then he was like no,
Speaker 5: he said, well, all of these musicians, man, you know,
Speaker 5: they're in there the seventies. You know what I mean,
Speaker 5: he said, so like you know, he said, man, he said,
Speaker 5: they're quite frankly man, like you know, they like to
Speaker 5: be done early. And uh, you know, I kind of
Speaker 5: got to, you know, need to try to get as
Speaker 5: much as I can get out of them. Man, you know,
Speaker 5: we don't have them forever, I'm saying. I was like, God, damn,
Speaker 5: I didn't realize that because I didn't really realize who
Speaker 5: they were, because he didn't really give me any disclaimer
Speaker 5: that in his mind he was recording the greatest soul
Speaker 5: album of all time on se Lo Green. You know,
Speaker 5: so he only told me that he wanted to write songs.
Speaker 5: So I'm thinking, I'm like, yeah, we're gonna get some
Speaker 5: of this country music money and blah blah blah. You know,
Speaker 5: I'm thinking of it like I'm thinking of it like that,
Speaker 5: you know. And and again I was again at another
Speaker 5: point in my career where like, I don't want to
Speaker 5: be I'm tired of being Selo Green. I just kind
Speaker 5: of want to be me. I mean, like you know,
Speaker 5: like you know, I'm older, I'm an older statesman, you know,
Speaker 5: you know, I want to be refined in a way
Speaker 5: of where now you know, I could just go by
Speaker 5: my name. So I had contemplated doing the Prince and
Speaker 5: not being referred to as Selo Green anymore. I'm like,
Speaker 5: I'll just be I just be Calaway and said, look
Speaker 5: the way that my granddaddy was called, like you know,
Speaker 5: I mean Thomas Caliway, I said, because you know, it's
Speaker 5: about legacy. Now, anything I do from this point on
Speaker 5: is about legacy. And you know the legacy isn't last name,
Speaker 5: you know what I mean. So I've been telling press
Speaker 5: that Thomas Calloway writes the songs that CeeLo Green sings.
Speaker 5: So I only went as Thomas Callaway to be a writer.
Speaker 5: And then so that last week he said, hey, man,
Speaker 5: I was thinking, you know, we've got some good ideas.
Speaker 5: You know, you think maybe you could come back and maybe,
Speaker 5: like you know, cut cut a few of them, just
Speaker 5: kind of see how your voice sounds on him. And
Speaker 5: I was like, you know, that's not really what we discussed,
Speaker 5: but I'm like, cool, you know, I'll sing them. And
Speaker 5: I'm saying, you know, why not. You know, I mean,
Speaker 5: I went down and unbeannoys to me. He's got a
Speaker 5: studio full of all of these great legendary Nashville muscle shows,
Speaker 5: you know, musicians who played on all of this wonderful music,
Speaker 5: you know what I mean. And I really didn't know
Speaker 5: because he didn't give me any disclaimer you know, about
Speaker 5: who they were, nor did he give me a disclaimer
Speaker 5: about that he was secretly recording an album on me.
Speaker 4: David Rode, Bobby Wood, you know, I know Bobby Wood
Speaker 4: played on Chris Yeah exactly stuff and uh yeah, Russ
Speaker 4: yeah as well.
Speaker 5: Yep, yep, yep. So so with that, you know, that
Speaker 5: was my first time recording with charts. So I was
Speaker 5: I was familiar with all of the songs that we
Speaker 5: had written over the last three weeks, you know, but
Speaker 5: I had never sung them besides those kind of voice
Speaker 5: references you know, in his phone. But you know, he
Speaker 5: had went and printed out sheet music, I mean, charts
Speaker 5: and everything. I mean, like, so by the time I
Speaker 5: got there, you know, I'm looking at the songs, I'm like, okay,
Speaker 5: look I remember this one. And then so I got
Speaker 5: one eye on the on the paper, the lyrics sheet,
Speaker 5: and then I got one eye on watching them play
Speaker 5: it all down flawlessly, you know what I mean. So
Speaker 5: it gave me my disposition was really humbled. You know,
Speaker 5: as opposed to going in there with any airs or
Speaker 5: any ego. I mean, so, like, you know, this album
Speaker 5: is completely unpretentious. That's why I like it so much,
Speaker 5: you know what I mean. So it's basically like Dan,
Speaker 5: our best gift to me.
Speaker 3: So you made it down without knowing you were making
Speaker 3: a record.
Speaker 5: Absolutely, and I recorded that album in two days because
Speaker 5: I just sung the songs we had. It was just
Speaker 5: like do I wish I could do everything like that?
Speaker 3: Man?
Speaker 6: I wanted to ask you always about Straight Bullets. That's
Speaker 6: one of my favorite projects of yours.
Speaker 5: Man, come on, bro, you knowing about that?
Speaker 3: Come on man? You singing over the Stero ship the like, dude,
Speaker 3: man talk about that? What was record?
Speaker 5: I was just talking to my management. I said, like, yo,
Speaker 5: I need to re release Straight Bullets.
Speaker 6: Yes, like people didn't hear it, okay, So what it
Speaker 6: was where I found out that Zelo I mean that
Speaker 6: see that, uh, that Kujo could play the sacks because
Speaker 6: you had him.
Speaker 3: Anymore?
Speaker 5: Well, I got I got to ruin it for you
Speaker 5: because I was just teasing. I said that because at
Speaker 5: that time, you know, we were kind of all estranged
Speaker 5: from each other, and Kujo was just dealing with the accident,
Speaker 5: you know what I mean. Yeah, So I just was
Speaker 5: I was loving on him in that way who's wild
Speaker 5: sack sy'all, you know what I'm saying. So I went
Speaker 5: to London to do Lady Killer, that record, you know,
Speaker 5: and it was all of this northern blue eyed soul,
Speaker 5: you know what I mean, the kind of like sold
Speaker 5: by numbers. I didn't particularly enjoy it, nor did I
Speaker 5: really you know, did I think it was good?
Speaker 3: I mean, like you know, but the biggest hits came
Speaker 3: from it.
Speaker 5: No, absolutely, No, I was wrong.
Speaker 3: I was totally wrong, by the way, like like, what
Speaker 3: was the impetus of that? You just said? I got
Speaker 3: a great song type of fuck you, and the label
Speaker 3: was like, yes, we see it, this is a hit.
Speaker 5: Okay, now I'm gonna tell you. I wanna tell you
Speaker 5: about that too, so check this out, all right. So
Speaker 5: I tell the first story. You know, I was trying
Speaker 5: were recorded for like three years trying to get that record,
Speaker 5: you know what I'm saying. And I had done all
Speaker 5: of that stuff. So when I was like straight bullets,
Speaker 5: I got that idea from a a Devo album called
Speaker 5: Greatest Missus instead of Greatest Hits. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5: And Straight Bullets was just like, Yo, I'm just gonna
Speaker 5: bust these off, you know, like and they hit somebody.
Speaker 5: You know what I'm saying. You feel me? But I
Speaker 5: had I had done a lot of music and I
Speaker 5: really wasn't getting that. I wasn't having it reciprocated. I mean,
Speaker 5: like by the label the way that I wanted. And
Speaker 5: I'm just like, damn, y'all ain't fucking with none of this.
Speaker 5: And so I put that mixtape out to spike them
Speaker 5: of all of that material because it was the last
Speaker 5: album it was supposedly you know at that time with Atlantic,
Speaker 5: you know what I mean, But they ended up kicking
Speaker 5: up the option. I ended up doing one more album
Speaker 5: with them, heart Blunch. So I just said like, well, yo,
Speaker 5: I mean like I just do a mixtape and I
Speaker 5: just leaked it. You know what I'm saying. You feel me?
Speaker 5: And that's why I didn't really get any kind of
Speaker 5: That's why I'm surprised you even mentioning it. But Tyler,
Speaker 5: the creator loves it too, you know what I mean, Like,
Speaker 5: that's one of the dopest projects I ever did. So
Speaker 5: I found all of this public domain library music, you
Speaker 5: know what I mean, like to why it wasn't really
Speaker 5: you can really have any copyright in friends with like
Speaker 5: causes and something like that. So I just did songs
Speaker 5: to that stuff, and just you know, they're just amusing myself,
Speaker 5: no different than I put out a project called TV
Speaker 5: on the radio to.
Speaker 3: The ship you sung over the Peanuts thing.
Speaker 5: I love that your quest I'll send it to you man,
Speaker 5: Like you know, some of it is out there like
Speaker 5: on YouTube, but they snatched it down because of course
Speaker 5: you know, I didn't clear it or nothing like that.
Speaker 5: And I'm saying, like it was just ingenious, you know
Speaker 5: what I mean. Like I just and sometimes I have
Speaker 5: to almost like that's my little sparring match with myself
Speaker 5: to kind of get something out before I try to,
Speaker 5: you know, be so subservient to what they you know,
Speaker 5: all of the many cooks in the kitchen with the
Speaker 5: major label ship, Like I didn't enjoy it. So I'm
Speaker 5: much happier, you know, being an independent artist again. Last
Speaker 5: time I was independent, you know, Narls and don't you
Speaker 5: and all that kind of stuff came from being able
Speaker 5: to have enough space, you know what I mean, like
Speaker 5: to do what I want to do.
Speaker 3: What happened with the record.
Speaker 6: So you had a project, You had a bunch of
Speaker 6: other side projects that I won't ask you about. You
Speaker 6: had the heart Attack, a heart attack heart Attack with
Speaker 6: Jack Splash, but then the Jazzy Faye record.
Speaker 3: The I had it. It was the Happy Hour, had
Speaker 3: the joint to enjoy yourself with you, Jazzy and Nate Dog.
Speaker 5: Yeah, look that project is. I love that album so much.
Speaker 3: I told him them today.
Speaker 8: I called and I said, you like yo, since everybody
Speaker 8: is going on zoom and ship, I said, like, let's.
Speaker 5: Do Let's go on and call it out the Happy
Speaker 5: Hour and just play the unreleased album. You know what
Speaker 5: I mean we're supposed to do. He might he may
Speaker 5: still be up for it, but we didn't do it.
Speaker 5: But anyway, I'll tell you what happened with that. I
Speaker 5: was recording that at the same time as I was
Speaker 5: recording Narles Barkley.
Speaker 3: Oh okay.
Speaker 5: So he had to deal with Capitol Records. That was
Speaker 5: supposed to be for a solo album with him or
Speaker 5: accompliation album Jazzy Fair and Friends. And then we met
Speaker 5: up in Miami and we did a couple of songs.
Speaker 5: He was like, oh, shit, like, no, this is the
Speaker 5: this is the move. So he switched it out and said,
Speaker 5: like now I'm gonna do a Selo you know, Me
Speaker 5: and Celo album or this, that and the third. So
Speaker 5: the album is so dope, it still holds up even
Speaker 5: after all of these years. But what he did was,
Speaker 5: you know, we recorded it all just at our leisure,
Speaker 5: but we never signed it. We never signed a deal
Speaker 5: for it, you know what I mean, Like, you know,
Speaker 5: by the time we had a whole album done, we
Speaker 5: wanted a promo tour, We did sol trained, we shot
Speaker 5: a video, you know, but we never signed a deal.
Speaker 5: And but and so, so I'm going across the street.
Speaker 5: I'm leaving those sessions like going to see see Danger
Speaker 5: Mouse for a couple of hours, you know. And I
Speaker 5: always get a little get a little irritated with it because,
Speaker 5: like you know, after a while, you want to go
Speaker 5: into it optimistically and diplomatically, but like you know, sometimes
Speaker 5: I'm just like like yo, like I don't know what
Speaker 5: I'm saying. You feel me like, you know, I don't
Speaker 5: want to you know whatever I mean.
Speaker 3: Like, So that was that.
Speaker 5: But when when Narlsbrocky hit because it remember it just
Speaker 5: hit all of a sudden, it was like boom, and
Speaker 5: then they had they had to shelf the project because
Speaker 5: it was no deal, you know what I mean, Like
Speaker 5: and quite frankly, it just couldn't compare. I mean like
Speaker 5: that now to ask a question about fuck you? All right,
Speaker 5: So what happened was when I was in La, I
Speaker 5: recorded Lady Killer in Miami, La and London. They gave
Speaker 5: me a blank check to do whatever I wanted to
Speaker 5: do after crazy. So I was everywhere trying to get
Speaker 5: that record and we ended up getting it, you know
Speaker 5: what saying. Like, So Mike Karen introduced me to who's
Speaker 5: now known famously as Bruno Mars. At the time, they
Speaker 5: were introduce to me as Phil and Bruno. That was
Speaker 5: how they were kind of circulating. Phil Lawrence was his
Speaker 5: writing partner at that time, you know what I mean.
Speaker 5: So I was working at night Bird Studios at the
Speaker 5: Sunset Marquis in LA. They came over and I'm like,
Speaker 5: what's up, you know what I mean? Like, you know,
Speaker 5: I didn't really know them, I didn't know what they did,
Speaker 5: and I just was kind of let them hear some
Speaker 5: of the stuff that I was working on. My brother.
Speaker 5: They're like you know, maybe you could try this. So
Speaker 5: this sir, blah blah blah, I'm like, man, who the
Speaker 5: fuck is yall that sound like? You?
Speaker 3: See?
Speaker 5: So I told him, I said, you know what, bro,
Speaker 5: I'd be right back. I'm gonna good, I'm i gotta
Speaker 5: use restroom. So I went upstairs to the room and
Speaker 5: I just never came back. And I just left him
Speaker 5: in the studio. And I've said, I've said this a
Speaker 5: couple of times because I was being really rude. I
Speaker 5: didn't really know. I didn't know them, I didn't know
Speaker 5: them to respect them. But but then we rectified that
Speaker 5: we got back together. Brue had a lot of love
Speaker 5: for me, and you know, kind of looked at me
Speaker 5: as a mentor. And if you guys pay attention, you
Speaker 5: will realize that, you know, he was kind of built
Speaker 5: off of my back. You know what I'm saying. You know,
Speaker 5: because you know he wrote just the way that you
Speaker 5: are for me? Well, yeah, because I didn't. I didn't,
Speaker 5: you know, I didn't. I didn't think it was for me,
Speaker 5: but but I didn't see it for me, no different
Speaker 5: than you know, he started to fuck you. And then
Speaker 5: we we ultimately, you know, me and Phil came in
Speaker 5: because he had to the the're the session, and we
Speaker 5: went over and saying like, yo, I got this idea.
Speaker 5: He said, Man, you know it's a little little crazy,
Speaker 5: but just bear with me. And it was like, you know,
Speaker 5: it was just a hook. I see you driving around
Speaker 5: time with the good I love and I'm like fuck you,
Speaker 5: and I'm like okay, But see, at that time, this
Speaker 5: is bring straight bullets back into the conversation. At this time,
Speaker 5: I was trying to piss this three years later and
Speaker 5: I'm like, yo, I can't get no satisfaction. I'm so
Speaker 5: ready to say fuck you to the label, to everybody.
Speaker 5: So to me, fuck you was essentially a protest song
Speaker 5: to the label. You know what I mean?
Speaker 3: I thought it was.
Speaker 5: I thought it was ridiculous enough for them to drop me.
Speaker 5: That's why I was so enthusiastic. It was. Can I
Speaker 5: tell y'all how quick it worked, bro, I'm gonna tell you.
Speaker 5: We had to go to London to do some fucking
Speaker 5: promo or something. They and I think you may have
Speaker 5: been the first song to introduce lyric sheets with printing
Speaker 5: out the lyrics at the with the music. I had
Speaker 5: never seen it. Yeah, so so with that I think.
Speaker 5: I want to say it was the first one, Brom.
Speaker 5: You know, I'm not tripping, but but.
Speaker 6: It came, it came fast, and it came so fast, Bro,
Speaker 6: it came like okay, so we had to get on
Speaker 6: a plane and go to London.
Speaker 5: By the time we landed in London, it was a hit.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 5: So that's eight hours. So like basically like in eight hours,
Speaker 5: that ship was a hit.
Speaker 6: When you talk about songs that you you know that
Speaker 6: you didn't think were for you, is there a version
Speaker 6: of you singing happy but for real?
Speaker 5: It is? Okay? So we were you know.
Speaker 3: Yeah, my homie Amir a mere Wyndham, he was working
Speaker 3: with for other time.
Speaker 6: But I heard that I wasn't heard that it was
Speaker 6: originally Pharrell wrote it for you, and so I always
Speaker 6: wondered if if there was a version of you singing
Speaker 6: it of a reference or whatever.
Speaker 5: I tell you the story man Pharrell been friends and collaboratives,
Speaker 5: collaborators for a long time.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he was on the second album, he was on
Speaker 3: the on the Machine so with that, he he.
Speaker 5: Was doing Despicable Me Too. And I was in the
Speaker 5: Bahamas in Eluthra recording heart Blunch. That's I think Lenny
Speaker 5: Kravitz owns that island because he was there. He came
Speaker 5: by the house.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I know, I know he lives there.
Speaker 5: I don't know if he owns it, but so we
Speaker 5: was there and he came down on his own dime,
Speaker 5: you know, to to kick it and be a part
Speaker 5: of it. And he played it for me, and you
Speaker 5: know me, it was just he played for me with
Speaker 5: the disclaimer that it was about to be a part
Speaker 5: of a Disney Pixar movie, you know what I mean, Like,
Speaker 5: you know, I wasn't really I didn't see it like
Speaker 5: for what it became. But there is a version of
Speaker 5: where I sang it, you know, and the and the
Speaker 5: version that you hear is the demo that he made
Speaker 5: basically his emulation of my voice.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 5: So I don't know if I sound like that, but
Speaker 5: maybe I do, maybe, you know whatever. So yeah, we
Speaker 5: got that version. Yeah, but I said, you know, in
Speaker 5: the press, I was just like, I know that for
Speaker 5: real has had a you know, some solo success as
Speaker 5: an artist, but you know, mainly as a producer. But
Speaker 5: for what that record ultimately end up becoming, I'm like,
Speaker 5: you know, and he was about to be generous enough
Speaker 5: to give that record away, I said, So I believe
Speaker 5: that that's the universe rewarding his selflessness, you know what
Speaker 5: I'm saying, you know, because he was you know, he
Speaker 5: was definitely pushing forward for to be my record and
Speaker 5: the late. But the politics behind it, I tell you,
Speaker 5: Atlanta Records they wouldn't clear it for whatever reason. I
Speaker 5: think because we were about to go with another single,
Speaker 5: and you know, I think Despicable Me wanted single rights
Speaker 5: for it at the time, and they didn't want it
Speaker 5: to conflict. So you know that it was logical their decision,
Speaker 5: but of course you can't you can't win them all,
Speaker 5: you know what I mean. Like, and that's really what happened,
Speaker 5: you know what I mean. And so I guess he
Speaker 5: decided to just put it out and then it kind
Speaker 5: of you know, it worked as a record on the soundtrack,
Speaker 5: But then I guess when he shot I think he
Speaker 5: said when he shot the visual, that's when the record
Speaker 5: it came.
Speaker 6: That's when because he had had and then he had
Speaker 6: people all over like the world kind of doing it like.
Speaker 3: Twenty four hour video that's for our joint. Yeah yeah, man,
Speaker 3: yo yo, it was a record. I wanted to ask
Speaker 3: you that is the ship record that.
Speaker 5: Had been mine. Oh by the way, you think so,
Speaker 5: it would.
Speaker 3: Have been over killed.
Speaker 5: It would have been oh thank you.
Speaker 2: I wanted to hear that much happiness from se Loan.
Speaker 5: They would have hated me.
Speaker 3: I knew it.
Speaker 5: I knew. I'm so glad. I'm so glad. I just
Speaker 5: remember to say that I said, I said, I'm glad
Speaker 5: it's not mine. I said, that's his record, that's his record.
Speaker 2: The things that Pharrell had to do around that record,
Speaker 2: like the promo, the stage that he had, I was.
Speaker 3: Like, he was a lot, a lot.
Speaker 5: I'm sure he probably doesn't enjoy doing that record to
Speaker 5: this day. I'm sure he.
Speaker 3: Record.
Speaker 6: Yo, man, tell us about the record you did with
Speaker 6: it just came out. I think like last year intentions
Speaker 6: you big boy and uh sleepy.
Speaker 3: Man. Dude, all right, I need more of that. I
Speaker 3: love that fucking song.
Speaker 5: Okay, so check this out. We were all in the room,
Speaker 5: the entire Dungeon Family, dre three thousand included. You know,
Speaker 5: he was about to come on board to do another
Speaker 5: Dungeon Family album and we were going to do it.
Speaker 5: But exactly we were even like fingers crossed, Like really,
Speaker 5: Trey so after that, La read and everybody we want
Speaker 5: to do LA read and hit call. So I'm telling,
Speaker 5: I'm telling. I'm telling this story for the first time.
Speaker 5: So we were all that everybody's there, you know, and
Speaker 5: so just to you know, on good faith, you know,
Speaker 5: after La left the meeting, you know, Ray organized started
Speaker 5: pulling up some tracks like we all at the studio,
Speaker 5: we all up at stink only you like playing some tracks.
Speaker 5: And I said, oh, what's that like the Stueper Brown
Speaker 5: said me yo? He said, actually, I got a I
Speaker 5: already got come like a little idea today that he
Speaker 5: got in my ear, like yo.
Speaker 8: Right, So I said, okay, I said, I like that.
Speaker 8: I said, like I said, let me let me, let
Speaker 8: me let me dance with you on it.
Speaker 5: Know what I'm saying.
Speaker 8: That said, I got I got something someone going to
Speaker 8: just just rock real quick. So just off the top
Speaker 8: of the head because it felt like loose ends.
Speaker 3: To me, you know what I mean, cold blooded by
Speaker 3: Rick James like that, right.
Speaker 5: So that's how I ended up having those two parts
Speaker 5: on there. I had the uh, the top part and
Speaker 5: then the end verse. Yeah, we but we thought that
Speaker 5: it would probably just kind of it was a little
Speaker 5: instant to for the Dungeon Family project. I'm saying, like,
Speaker 5: you know, but Sleepy Brown and Big Boy were working
Speaker 5: on the project simultaneously called The Big Sleepover at the time,
Speaker 5: and that's where that's where the original idea came from.
Speaker 5: So all of a sudden in days times, you're like, yo,
Speaker 5: were gonna shoot the vehicle to make this to say,
Speaker 5: I'm like really, I'm like, then we've just sucking around.
Speaker 5: But I'm like, but okay, I'm glad y'all like it.
Speaker 5: And that's kind of where it came from. And then
Speaker 5: we were we were we were slated to do the
Speaker 5: Dungeon Family album. But then again, you know, I think
Speaker 5: Drake ended up having to go off and film It's
Speaker 5: a show that he's that he's.
Speaker 3: Doing dispatches from everywhere.
Speaker 5: Yeah. Yeah, they kind of that took the It kind
Speaker 5: of took the win out of the sales. I gotta
Speaker 5: say that.
Speaker 2: But he was already slated to do it, you know
Speaker 2: what I'm saying, the Sleepy Brown understand that people want
Speaker 2: more to be Brown in their life. Does he really
Speaker 2: understand that? Like because he put that one album out
Speaker 2: and maybe he didn't get the response he wanted, but
Speaker 2: like people fucking love Sleepy Brown.
Speaker 5: No, for sure, he's a leisend man. Like you know,
Speaker 5: he's he's a part of so many iconic things. Pretending
Speaker 5: to Goodie I mean, excuse me, pretending to dungeon like you.
Speaker 5: I mean, like that's big grow what I mean, Like,
Speaker 5: you know, I loved it. But he's one of my
Speaker 5: close friends.
Speaker 2: But he just needs to know tell him the people
Speaker 2: want it. I'm just saying I'm.
Speaker 5: Gonna tell you, I'm gonna let him know.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, all right.
Speaker 4: I'm going to tread on very careful ground with this
Speaker 4: last question, okay, because this is sort of a comeback
Speaker 4: for you, and yes, not to mention, I guess the
Speaker 4: motif of your life is kind of series of second
Speaker 4: chances or another chance or another you know, like you
Speaker 4: escaping situations because we live in a time right now
Speaker 4: with what's going on in the world today, and you know,
Speaker 4: we live in the era of cancel culture. Yes, and
Speaker 4: it's almost it's almost like what it seems is though,
Speaker 4: Like I guess the idea of cancel culture is like, well,
Speaker 4: you can never come back or you can never redeem yourself,
Speaker 4: where you could never return to your your prominence to
Speaker 4: what it once was.
Speaker 3: How are you able to navigate the last ten years
Speaker 3: of your life?
Speaker 4: Just in terms of because usually when when a person
Speaker 4: has to go through that process, and it's a nightmare,
Speaker 4: Like even now, I wake up every morning at five
Speaker 4: am just to look at trending top is to make
Speaker 4: sure I'm not on that list, Like.
Speaker 3: No, because I'm thinking, like this, is there an interview
Speaker 3: I did? Is something that you know? And I know
Speaker 3: you know, but that's literally how you.
Speaker 4: Know I'm not exaggerating when I'll say at least five
Speaker 4: times a day, I gotta.
Speaker 3: Check this to make sure, Okay, no, I got you,
Speaker 3: I got you good, got you so and.
Speaker 4: And and it's and it's stressful and it's stressful, but
Speaker 4: it's it's very real.
Speaker 3: How are you how are you able.
Speaker 4: To navigate your life in the last ten years with
Speaker 4: your loved ones, with your family, with yourself.
Speaker 3: To get to this place? Like what have you learned
Speaker 3: in the last ten years?
Speaker 5: I've learned the circumstance of celebrity and fame and fortune.
Speaker 5: All of these things are very fragile and precious. You know,
Speaker 5: it must be handled with care and consideration and cognizance
Speaker 5: that I mean, And so it is an intoxicating experience
Speaker 5: all throughout, especially to succeed in that space. And it's
Speaker 5: a surreal it's a surreal experience, and you know, it
Speaker 5: could be dizzying, and you can oversite things that are
Speaker 5: you know, or things that could very well possibly put
Speaker 5: you in commiser positions, you know, because you know, famous
Speaker 5: celebrity is a compromising position, you know what I mean.
Speaker 5: That's what that's what it qualifies as you know. What
Speaker 5: I've learned, you know, over the last several to ten
Speaker 5: years is to be still, you know what I mean, Like,
Speaker 5: you know, I reconnected, you know, with community. I reconnected
Speaker 5: with the these social conscious themes and and aspects of
Speaker 5: myself that were purifying and refining, you know, and I
Speaker 5: realized that success had taken me so far away from
Speaker 5: those things. You know, I spend an awful lot of time.
Speaker 5: But my son, you know what I mean, Like you know,
Speaker 5: I'm I'm really making up for a lot of lost
Speaker 5: time with him because you know, soils he's nineteen, wow man, Yeah,
Speaker 5: you know, so the spoil, the spoils of success, you
Speaker 5: can share in the wealth, you know what I mean,
Speaker 5: Like monetarily materially, you know, but it does not equate
Speaker 5: to tangible time, you know what I mean. And so
Speaker 5: I just got close to family, I got close to
Speaker 5: calls uh philanthropists, you know, philanthropy and charity, and associated
Speaker 5: myself with different causes that I was passionate about, and
Speaker 5: started to lose sight of myself uh or the or
Speaker 5: share the celebrity skin, you know what I'm saying, and
Speaker 5: give myself away to those things that I deemed to
Speaker 5: be greater than what I had even accomplished, because you know,
Speaker 5: it's not it's not an end all, be all to
Speaker 5: be alone, you know what I'm saying, Like to be
Speaker 5: you know, accomplished, or the loan and alienated, you know
Speaker 5: what I mean, Like I did not. I did not
Speaker 5: start out on this journey to look back and no
Speaker 5: one be there and no one to share it with,
Speaker 5: you know what I mean. If anything, if anything, I
Speaker 5: had experienced, you know, far too much alienation as an adolescent,
Speaker 5: and the music was a way to express and and
Speaker 5: make and make myself relative, to connect to people, to
Speaker 5: be to finally be counted as a part of a collective,
Speaker 5: you know what I mean, like or a community and
Speaker 5: belong you know, you know what I'm saying, because I
Speaker 5: wouldn't really make me feel like that as a kid. Yeah,
Speaker 5: you know what I'm saying. So I just I just
Speaker 5: reconnected with those things and was really and and and
Speaker 5: if you know, like even with we mentioned beautiful skin earlier,
Speaker 5: you know what I'm saying, like in a way that
Speaker 5: that was effective in Philly. It's like I was really
Speaker 5: expecting people to know me and know my history and
Speaker 5: where I'm coming from and know that like I don't
Speaker 5: got nothing but love in my heart and decency, you
Speaker 5: know what I'm saying, and humanity and humility. I'm one
Speaker 5: of the most well rounded and grounded people you'll ever meet.
Speaker 5: You know what I'm saying, Like loving and generous and selfless.
Speaker 5: You know what I mean. And I could only hope
Speaker 5: that it translates in song. You know what I mean,
Speaker 5: Like you know, and then I'll go in the extra
Speaker 5: mile what I mean, like you know, for good measure
Speaker 5: to make sure you know that I'm under the skin.
Speaker 5: I mean, like you know of those that you know
Speaker 5: to whom it may concern, I mean, like all of
Speaker 5: my music has just been a love letter to those
Speaker 5: to whom it may concern, you know what I mean.
Speaker 5: So I'm glad for and I'm very fortunate for it
Speaker 5: to start off as a you know, pretty much a
Speaker 5: black nationalist, you know what I mean, Like damn near
Speaker 5: borderline racist, you know what I'm saying, Like with goodie mob,
Speaker 5: you know what I mean, Yes, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 5: you know, but to ultimately uh evolve into a you know,
Speaker 5: that universal appeal, you know what I mean, Like you know,
Speaker 5: like and I'm telling you it's not it's it's almost impossible,
Speaker 5: you know, to to fake it, like to you know,
Speaker 5: to fake that. Then. So like with these audiences that
Speaker 5: I've encountered and that I've acquired, you know what I mean,
Speaker 5: like your.
Speaker 2: Good you feel like your goodie mob audience holds you
Speaker 2: accountable for things in a way because probably the Noll
Speaker 2: Barkley audiences a you got different audience.
Speaker 5: Yeah, Well, the thing, the thing of it was I
Speaker 5: just should have just dealt with I should have just
Speaker 5: worked in double shifts like that's that's kind of That's
Speaker 5: kind of what I was meaning earlier when I said
Speaker 5: I had to go out into the world and supply
Speaker 5: that large demand. You're talking about I could have moved
Speaker 5: to London. If you go to London, you know all
Speaker 5: they gonna all you're gonna hear is you know, from
Speaker 5: everything from Amy wine House to Edda James on just
Speaker 5: regular radio and not even categorized like all in one mix.
Speaker 5: It's just like open format radio. Chus knows I'm right,
Speaker 5: he knows I'm telling the truth. So so I love it.
Speaker 5: I loved it it in London. And when I got
Speaker 5: there and I got a chance to spend a considerable
Speaker 5: amount of time there, I understood why they loved me.
Speaker 5: And I said, God damn it, like this is where
Speaker 5: I belong. And I heard Lenny Kravitt say years ago
Speaker 5: in an interview, he said, Man, like I know that
Speaker 5: I've accomplished a great deal. He said, but if there's
Speaker 5: any one thing that I can say that I truly
Speaker 5: wanted that would make me happy is to make music
Speaker 5: that my own people. And I'm saying I can appreciate,
Speaker 5: you know what I'm saying. And that's what I felt like,
Speaker 5: I mean, like because when it was time to be black,
Speaker 5: you know what I mean? Like, you know, I felt
Speaker 5: like I would me goodie mob, you know, beautiful skin,
Speaker 5: I feel like we was making the blackest music you
Speaker 5: can make.
Speaker 2: I was about to say, but don't you feel like
Speaker 2: you had that privilege over Lenny in a way because
Speaker 2: you usher in your goodie mob audience to everything that
Speaker 2: you did. Everybody didn't come, but a lot of people did,
Speaker 2: which is the difference between you and Lenny in that way, right,
Speaker 2: because they have no audience evolved with you.
Speaker 5: It's true, it wasn't. It wasn't a definitive separation of
Speaker 5: church and state. It was a bridge between church and state.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, and I'm fortunate for that.
Speaker 5: I'm very fortunate for that. So it's no different than
Speaker 5: fuck You is the leadoff single. But I got two
Speaker 5: Grammys for Food for You with Melandy.
Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5: That's the big homie salam Remy, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5: So the way back album started it was it was
Speaker 5: it's supposed to be my big black R and B record,
Speaker 5: Fuck you bodies, Uh, you know, food for You and
Speaker 5: I get some of the stuff that you heard on
Speaker 5: you know, That's that's what it would have been like,
Speaker 5: you know what I mean. But again, I don't have
Speaker 5: any regrets in retrospect because like it all worked out
Speaker 5: so well, you know what I mean, And I and
Speaker 5: even questions to to to cap off the question, you know,
Speaker 5: like even with everything that I've been doing through you
Speaker 5: know what I mean, like, you know, good, bad, and indifferent,
Speaker 5: I have very few complaints something like because there's truly
Speaker 5: no testimony without the test.
Speaker 2: Not even marriage boot camp what about.
Speaker 5: Well, you know what, guess what though, Marriage boot Camp
Speaker 5: was almost kind of like a re entry point for me,
Speaker 5: and people got a chance to see me, you know,
Speaker 5: in a light that they had not them saying like
Speaker 5: you know, like you know me domestically and with my woman.
Speaker 5: Like you know, I'm gonna say this straight up to y'all,
Speaker 5: like you know, there was a period of time when
Speaker 5: people maybe I was gay or something, you know what
Speaker 5: I'm saying, you know, like because of the outfits and
Speaker 5: the wigs and you know, stuff like that.
Speaker 2: The over masculinity of hip hopa yeah, over massiminization of
Speaker 2: hip hop, yes.
Speaker 5: But.
Speaker 6: A little bit a little bit no, I mean because
Speaker 6: it's well, I mean for starters, I never thought that
Speaker 6: Selo was gay, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3: But to me, when I saw the big outfits, it
Speaker 3: was just like you know, it was like you know,
Speaker 3: earth wind and fire.
Speaker 2: With different people. He might have had a moment like
Speaker 2: what the fuck that ain't you know, but see the
Speaker 2: thing of.
Speaker 5: It was, it was just like people. And that's the
Speaker 5: love and affinity people have for Goodie Mom and that
Speaker 5: era of my career. And it's like, you know, they
Speaker 5: ain't letting that ship go easily because we were affected.
Speaker 5: We touched people, and that's why, you know, that's why
Speaker 5: I always return to it, you know what I mean?
Speaker 5: Like I could never I could never sleep easy, arrest well,
Speaker 5: and letting any any any of my extended family down.
Speaker 5: I got to just do it all, you know what
Speaker 5: I'm saying. And that goes back to what I was
Speaker 5: saying basically, like I just the only thing I didn't
Speaker 5: do right is just work double ships. Make sure that
Speaker 5: both sides of the brain what tended to and both
Speaker 5: sides of the spectrum were satisfied. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5: You know, because I got so overwhelmed and preoccupied with
Speaker 5: such a big deal on one side of it that
Speaker 5: it just took the scale one way. And that's what
Speaker 5: happened with me.
Speaker 2: Well from a family sectim, I'm gonna tell you. We
Speaker 2: just happy to hear that you admit to that, like
Speaker 2: that's the absolute Oh, I was just was.
Speaker 3: That an alienating time for you?
Speaker 6: Like how like when you have an incident and then
Speaker 6: you know everyone is just you know, you kind of
Speaker 6: go through the cancel culture thing when you're by yourself,
Speaker 6: you know what's going through your mind like during all
Speaker 6: of that.
Speaker 5: To be totally honest, I mean, you know, I didn't
Speaker 5: really it was embarrassing what I'm saying. Like, you know,
Speaker 5: I mean like I wasn't completely overwhelmed because I was innocent.
Speaker 3: For one, and what I'm saying you feel me, gotcha.
Speaker 5: But I was always you know, I was humbled and
Speaker 5: appreciative for such a grounding experience, you know what I mean. Like,
Speaker 5: and I just felt I just felt renewed in my
Speaker 5: faith in feeling like, Okay, I have deliberately and intentionally
Speaker 5: done the good I have done, you know, I mean, uh,
Speaker 5: to guarantee in some regard, you know, I mean a victory,
Speaker 5: a greater victory in my personal life and professional life,
Speaker 5: and be a means of motivation and inspiration and other
Speaker 5: people of whom are my passion and whom I care
Speaker 5: about what I'm saying, you feel me more so than myself,
Speaker 5: you know what I'm saying. I you know, that's why
Speaker 5: I said I was all willing to die a revolutionary
Speaker 5: because I wouldn't given my life.
Speaker 8: I did not I didn't value my own life in
Speaker 8: that way I value you know, I'm saying, the legacy
Speaker 8: of a people, you know what I mean, Like you
Speaker 8: feel me dis enfranchised? I mean like you know, and
Speaker 8: I just felt like those things that were put on
Speaker 8: my heart and on my spirit to speak on, you know,
Speaker 8: and and the fact just the real fact that I
Speaker 8: was being affected and people.
Speaker 5: Were listening, and people were being changed because of it.
Speaker 5: You know. I felt like you know, when my when
Speaker 5: my my mothers and fathers, the associate pastors would say
Speaker 5: to me as a child, you're going to be a minister.
Speaker 5: You know. I felt like prophecy was coming to pass
Speaker 5: because of music, you know what I'm saying. So I
Speaker 5: felt like I was doing Yeah, I felt like I
Speaker 5: was doing what I was always meant to do, you
Speaker 5: know what I mean, Like you know, I just wanted,
Speaker 5: you know, I wish it was just some kind of
Speaker 5: way that I could remind people to refer them back
Speaker 5: to what I had done. I'm like, man, please don't
Speaker 5: please y'all, don't forget about what I did. I did this,
Speaker 5: you know, like for no money. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5: You feel me want no money? And what we were
Speaker 5: doing as good as mind we we were writing songs
Speaker 5: about Marshal Law in nineteen ninety five.
Speaker 2: What are you doing that I talk about Atlanta?
Speaker 3: Oh shit, you are in Atlanta.
Speaker 5: Yes. I wasn't trying to say nothing, you know what
Speaker 5: I'm saying, Like, we weren't doing nothing. We're trying to share,
Speaker 5: you know what I'm saying, Like and be out and
Speaker 5: be our highest selves. You know what I mean with
Speaker 5: that opportunity because we all had a deep sense of appreciation.
Speaker 5: H And you know, hey, man, I was married to
Speaker 5: a black woman, got a black son. You know what
Speaker 5: I'm saying, Like you know my mother was one of
Speaker 5: the first several black firefighter fire women in Atlanta, Georgia.
Speaker 5: And I got some wonderful, some gigantic women around me
Speaker 5: who I come from, you know what I mean, Like then,
Speaker 5: I would never do such a thing, you know what
Speaker 5: I'm saying.
Speaker 3: How did you the conversation with your son?
Speaker 6: Because I get Well, he's nineteen now, but I mean
Speaker 6: he was, you know, a little younger at the time.
Speaker 6: How how do y'all have that conversation in terms of
Speaker 6: what it was you know, just you know, it was hard, man.
Speaker 5: It was hard than when they were younger, man, because
Speaker 5: they become victimized. And I'm saying, like you know, and
Speaker 5: and the guilt by association, just the embarrassment man, Like
Speaker 5: you know, you can you can't even I can't even
Speaker 5: really put that into words. It's just to time, you
Speaker 5: know what I'm saying, Like you know what I mean,
Speaker 5: like time and and tangibility of just me being there
Speaker 5: me we haven't been able to touch and feel what
Speaker 5: I'm saying, like you know. And you know a lot
Speaker 5: of people would say that, you know, hey, man, my
Speaker 5: kids know me, but you gotta gotta.
Speaker 3: They really don't.
Speaker 6: And they've been watching you to think I've learned just
Speaker 6: in fatherhood, Like they've been watching the things, the things
Speaker 6: that you don't think they see or like like you've
Speaker 6: been telling them one thing whatever, but they've been watching
Speaker 6: everything else. And they've been picking up on stuff that
Speaker 6: you might not even think that they was looking at.
Speaker 6: And it's like damn you absolutely, you know what I'm saying, No, no, man,
Speaker 6: but but my son, y'all, y'all watch for him too.
Speaker 5: Man, Like he's been producing me, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 5: like as of Blake and he is he is. Uh
Speaker 5: you know we we we did. We did on my
Speaker 5: I G you can check it out. We did like
Speaker 5: some Callaway Family band posts, you know, like he taught
Speaker 5: my fiance Sean how to play bass and guitar. Wow,
Speaker 5: we would. We were doing that a lot throughout the quarantine.
Speaker 5: So no, he's accomplished and he's dope. And I mean
Speaker 5: like so like he's like me when I was a kid,
Speaker 5: Like I like Judas Priests and Motley Crue and Black
Speaker 5: Sabbath when I was a kid. So he's like he
Speaker 5: likes System of a Down and Slip Knot and stuff
Speaker 5: like that.
Speaker 2: Just produce their name.
Speaker 5: His producer name is Points Setup. His I is Points
Speaker 5: center Guard And he doesn't he don't really post a lot.
Speaker 5: But you know, like he's a quiet kid and he's reserved,
Speaker 5: but like he's a he's really talented.
Speaker 3: So is he with you? Like full time? He's with
Speaker 3: his mom? Like how do y'all work that out.
Speaker 5: You know, any place I got, he got you know
Speaker 5: what I'm saying, So like you know any you know,
Speaker 5: I would never get a one bed room somewhere. Like
Speaker 5: it's like I'm make sure I got to so he
Speaker 5: got some.
Speaker 3: U how that go?
Speaker 5: Hey?
Speaker 4: So well, anything can happen in hours. That's that's the
Speaker 4: times that we live in right now, anything could happen.
Speaker 4: How what do you feel like right now seeing what's
Speaker 4: happening in Atlanta, Georgia.
Speaker 5: Man, it's kind of like what we was talking about,
Speaker 5: you know earlier, men, just like with the music and
Speaker 5: the way that you know, activism had always been, you know,
Speaker 5: our unified front. You know what I mean. I feel saddened,
Speaker 5: and I feel disappointed, and I feel angered, and I
Speaker 5: feel but I feel impassioned, and I do feel like
Speaker 5: you know, you know, you know we're worked against you
Speaker 5: know what I mean when I said when I say we,
Speaker 5: I mean in terms of like conscious music, you know
Speaker 5: what I mean, Like there's really no outlet, there's no platform,
Speaker 5: you know, I mean, like you know for it. It's
Speaker 5: like but but that's what we're supposed to be thriving,
Speaker 5: you know, I mean, like there hasn't there hasn't been
Speaker 5: a movement, you know, of an era of a generation
Speaker 5: where the music didn't reflect the sign of the times,
Speaker 5: you know what I'm saying. And I believe that there's
Speaker 5: just a large disconnect, you know what I mean. It's like,
Speaker 5: but how can we make not only those protest songs,
Speaker 5: but like those those historical timeless songs, you know what
Speaker 5: I mean, like that that last you know, uh, that last,
Speaker 5: you know? And going forward? I mean like because I
Speaker 5: do see that people addressing the issues with sound bites
Speaker 5: and uh, montages of the current events and things of
Speaker 5: that nature. You know, you know what I mean. But
Speaker 5: like sometimes it's a little disheartening to me because like
Speaker 5: you know, I hate for any of us as as
Speaker 5: as artists to have to be you know, conveniently black
Speaker 5: or you know what I mean, Like you know, you know,
Speaker 5: you know, in any kind of way, man, Like I
Speaker 5: really would like for that to be you know, our disposition,
Speaker 5: you know what I mean, Like in our narrative, you know,
Speaker 5: going forward, you know what I mean, Like, you know,
Speaker 5: we've got to we've got to create counterbalances, you know
Speaker 5: what I mean, Like you know, like for our culture
Speaker 5: or else we will be defined you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 5: like you know, like you know, as it stands, you
Speaker 5: know what I mean, And so I have my opinions,
Speaker 5: but you know, like it's it's it's it's sometimes it's
Speaker 5: you know, I hate to cop out and by saying
Speaker 5: like it's ultimately what the people want, you know what
Speaker 5: I mean, like you know, giving people what they want,
Speaker 5: you know what I mean, it's just like just.
Speaker 2: Because I think people are looking at it here as
Speaker 2: you talk about you know, you have a nineteen year
Speaker 2: old son, and you a black man, and you were
Speaker 2: in Atlanta and we just saw what happened with Raynard,
Speaker 2: and that's you thought that George Floyd was going to be.
Speaker 5: The you know, do y'all know that I was coming
Speaker 5: home from a meeting, and you know, I just saw
Speaker 5: that the traffic was grid locked, and I knew, I mean,
Speaker 5: like I know it now in the traffic, I'm like this,
Speaker 5: I said this same movement, But I didn't realize what
Speaker 5: had happened until I got home because I was coming
Speaker 5: through the city and I still had like another forty
Speaker 5: five minutes to travel to get home. And then I
Speaker 5: realized the incident, you know, in the tragedy that had
Speaker 5: just taken place and they were rioting right there. So
Speaker 5: like you know, I mean seventy yeah, you know what
Speaker 5: I mean, Like university, Yeah, man, like you know that's
Speaker 5: you know, that's that's damn it. You know, that's home
Speaker 5: for me, you know what I mean, Like I'm from here,
Speaker 5: you know what I mean, So like you're seeing it firsthand.
Speaker 5: You know, we've had you know, even going back, you
Speaker 5: know a few weeks to COVID in March, you know,
Speaker 5: since Shanni and my fiancees, you know, her her father
Speaker 5: and her uncle passed within days apart. You know what
Speaker 5: I mean, due to unrelated health issues. But we took
Speaker 5: I mean, like we've taken real losses. You know what
Speaker 5: I'm saying. We continue to take losses.
Speaker 2: Amount of time right now.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I'm just like, damn, you know what I mean.
Speaker 5: So like we can't go back to perpetuating and celebrating
Speaker 5: our stereotypes and our and reveling in our ignorance and
Speaker 5: our you know, inaccountability. You know what I mean. You
Speaker 5: feel me like we've got to be responsible, you know
Speaker 5: what I mean, Like you I mean, like about the
Speaker 5: things we say and the images we portray and going forward.
Speaker 5: I mean like and you know, I don't know we needed,
Speaker 5: but like you know that kind of music, that kind
Speaker 5: of content, you know what I mean, Like that's that's
Speaker 5: independent action. I mean, like it's apost certainly not affirmative action.
Speaker 5: So we have to we have to support you know,
Speaker 5: that balance, you know, I mean, like you know, and
Speaker 5: sustain that balance for ourselves because I mean literally our
Speaker 5: lives are depending on it. I mean, because music is
Speaker 5: you know, it is in my opinion me being an artist,
Speaker 5: I consider it to be a central work, you know
Speaker 5: what I mean, Like I believe that should be considered
Speaker 5: as a central workers.
Speaker 6: DJs have been getting people through this shift like all that,
Speaker 6: like for real, for real, you know, well, thank you,
Speaker 6: uh brother brother, see, thank you very much for your time.
Speaker 3: This is epic, all of your time the year.
Speaker 6: Appreciate that, amazing man and just as and as just
Speaker 6: from MC to m C and just you know, you
Speaker 6: were just a huge inspiration and still are, you know,
Speaker 6: Huger inserration for me just to transition to using your
Speaker 6: singing voice and just hearing you talk about it like
Speaker 6: it's it's so many parallels to my career and I
Speaker 6: just thank you just for the inspiration and for the
Speaker 6: work brothers for real.
Speaker 5: Well, you've callted me so many times in this interview. Man,
Speaker 5: I really can't believe it. Man, I had no idea
Speaker 5: that you you know you you you cut that as
Speaker 5: we said, you cut that hard for me. Man, I
Speaker 5: really it was a pleasure to meet. Sure, you look
Speaker 5: just like a good friend of mine named Kim Uh Steve,
Speaker 5: you know, and and of course the almighty Quest Love.
Speaker 5: You know what I mean. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 5: You know. Thank I got more bluff of y'all. So
Speaker 5: I hope you know that the content that we got
Speaker 5: here is of some of you. It's not just an.
Speaker 3: This is a typical episode, but not so much because
Speaker 3: it's you.
Speaker 2: And I hope that you enjoyed your experience too.
Speaker 3: I hope you did.
Speaker 5: I did. I thank you'all for having me. Man, I didn't.
Speaker 5: I didn't have no idea. I just knew I was
Speaker 5: talking to Quest.
Speaker 4: Today, so I will say she will. Thank you very much,
Speaker 4: uh for doing our show. This has been long overdue.
Speaker 4: I hope you enjoyed this. Yes, so on behalf of
Speaker 4: sugar Steve, you cool sugar Steve.
Speaker 3: Yes, Yes, I am thank you exactly. Bill.
Speaker 4: Bill's over there, just yeah, I'm doing pretty Cain over there.
Speaker 3: Pretty great, yo, y'all. We will see you on the
Speaker 3: next proground of Quest Love Supreme. We appreciate you. Stay safe,
Speaker 3: all right, see aladays.
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