Speaker 1: Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio, Ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 1: What's up?
Speaker 2: This is Quest Love another episode of Course Love Supreme.
Speaker 2: Here with my my crew, my team Supreme in the house.
Speaker 3: Uh like you, how are you today? I am doing?
Speaker 1: I know you know yo, even waiting today? It was
Speaker 1: here first. Yeah, my day was here first.
Speaker 4: I've been waiting on this one.
Speaker 5: Man.
Speaker 1: I know how you doing, Steve? How's life? I'm doing great?
Speaker 1: Life is great.
Speaker 5: I love this podcast. I love you and hello.
Speaker 1: Hey, you love you too? Absolutely love.
Speaker 4: Yeah. Colon man, Colon man, this is one for the
Speaker 4: record books. Man, listen, I'm good man, I'm good on chilling.
Speaker 4: I'm really excited about this episode today. This is gonna
Speaker 4: be a lot of fun.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: You know, I was thinking about it this morning and
Speaker 2: I realized that this podcast is probably the anecdote to
Speaker 2: my Instagram account, which, of course, you know, my Instagram
Speaker 2: account could be another person's obituary. It's like, you don't
Speaker 2: like my Instagram? Is you don't want to be on
Speaker 2: that Summer Jams screen, Like, well, I be there next?
Speaker 2: Is he going to be right about me?
Speaker 1: You know? Next?
Speaker 2: And the life I lived? And you know my death.
Speaker 2: But you know, Fante actually brought up a point. You know,
Speaker 2: sometimes we just need to give people their flowers. And
Speaker 2: I think it's rather I think it's rather apropos that
Speaker 2: we're taping this episode, especially after what I dubbed the
Speaker 2: versus Comedy Hour. For real, I honestly feel like if
Speaker 2: there ever was a paradigm shift or a kind of
Speaker 2: kind of a sea change and just in the process
Speaker 2: of of what art is, you could probably say that
Speaker 2: our guest today was probably the last Mohican. And this
Speaker 2: is not to you know, this is not to you know,
Speaker 2: call out other singers that came after our guests and whatnot.
Speaker 2: But I just feel as though just the level of
Speaker 2: taking your craft seriously, especially for black music, is you know,
Speaker 2: it's it's I feel as though it's it's kind of
Speaker 2: in danger or at least at least in a deaf
Speaker 2: Con five situation, if you if you know, y'all just
Speaker 2: got to read between the line. Like our our our
Speaker 2: guest today is definitely master master vocalist. I mean, he's
Speaker 2: been our favorite for so long and we've been dying
Speaker 2: to get him on the show. Without further ado, Ladies
Speaker 2: and gentlemen, please welcome fricking Tevin Campbell.
Speaker 1: It's on Quest Love Supreme.
Speaker 5: Indeed, Kavian Campbell is honored to be.
Speaker 1: I actually thought this was I don't know why.
Speaker 2: I just thought you'd be unobtainable or just not interested
Speaker 2: in doing it. I don't even know how we started.
Speaker 2: I think I just you know, shot my shot and
Speaker 2: d MS is like, yo, yeah you got this.
Speaker 6: We got you know, like you sent a text like
Speaker 6: I got it.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I didn't answer. I was just like, here, he's
Speaker 1: not going to answer this.
Speaker 5: First of all, we know each other. We run into
Speaker 5: each other all the time.
Speaker 7: Rights and uh no, I don't usually do interviews and
Speaker 7: stuff like that.
Speaker 1: But you know what, Chris, thank you man, thank you.
Speaker 5: I'm really honored.
Speaker 4: I'm honored you're a family today.
Speaker 8: Bro.
Speaker 4: We just talk. We're just talking ship. So let's know,
Speaker 4: you know, you know.
Speaker 1: It's weird.
Speaker 2: Okay, So when I was looking up just like your
Speaker 2: basic information, it's kind of weird how perception is, you know,
Speaker 2: like throughout the years because like, okay, me sitting in
Speaker 2: the movie theater watching Graffiti Bridge, like watching you at
Speaker 2: or just like even on the Freshman Sive like generally
Speaker 2: just knowing you, like whatever your videos or whatever. I
Speaker 2: think in my mind from this perspective me as a
Speaker 2: fifty one year older I would say like probably like
Speaker 2: twenty almost thirty years older than him.
Speaker 1: And it's so weird.
Speaker 2: How Like, I know you were born in seventy six,
Speaker 2: which basically you're just five years younger than me.
Speaker 1: But it's so weird.
Speaker 2: Like at twenty, I felt you were like like, in
Speaker 2: my mind, I'm like, oh, he must have been four
Speaker 2: years old or five years old, even though you're just
Speaker 2: five years younger than.
Speaker 8: Me, because he was living a grown ass life. Remember,
Speaker 8: we was like, wow, look his life must be awesome.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Man, So it's just weird how like we're actually like
Speaker 2: closer in age and peer wise.
Speaker 1: But I don't know. My perception back when I was
Speaker 1: twenty was.
Speaker 2: Like you were way, way, way young younger than me,
Speaker 2: which is now is like, okay, you're kind of four
Speaker 2: or five years younger than me, which is kind of
Speaker 2: like we're the same age.
Speaker 7: No, it did a lot of people say that, But
Speaker 7: I think that's the power of the childhood started phenomena,
Speaker 7: you know. I mean, to this day, I get you know,
Speaker 7: people come to me, they're like, you know, oh you're
Speaker 7: telling Camell, but you look older, you.
Speaker 1: Have great hair, you know, like everyone still to me.
Speaker 7: But that's just the way the brain works, you know,
Speaker 7: like people who are introduced as a child, everybody's going
Speaker 7: to especially if you made some sort of impact. You know,
Speaker 7: I was blessed to have made an impact as a kid.
Speaker 7: People remember that, and so to this day I get
Speaker 7: that same thing.
Speaker 5: So you're not the only one.
Speaker 2: Thank you again for doing this for us. Where you
Speaker 2: talking to us now? From where are you?
Speaker 5: I am in New York?
Speaker 1: Well, first of all, do you what was your first
Speaker 1: musical memory in life?
Speaker 7: My aunt giving me the Amazing Grace album, the Franklin
Speaker 7: Madon Grace album on the vinyl.
Speaker 5: She gave it to me when I was I think
Speaker 5: I was.
Speaker 7: That was the first album that I listened to continuously.
Speaker 5: I think I was maybe eight or nine. She gave
Speaker 5: it to you.
Speaker 4: So her version of Holy Holy is just like, come on, man,
Speaker 4: what were we talking about?
Speaker 5: Well, her version of a Mazing Grace is, Yeah, it's incredible.
Speaker 7: I mean though the song was written by Amon, I
Speaker 7: didn't know that till years after a couple of years
Speaker 7: ago I learned that.
Speaker 5: But anyway, She like, no, yeah, yeah, it does, it does.
Speaker 2: What was it like for you to see the film
Speaker 2: version of that after having lived with it so long?
Speaker 2: You mean you mean the her Refa's film version. She
Speaker 2: you know, when she was alive. She they tried to
Speaker 2: bring it out maybe like you know, like twenty years ago,
Speaker 2: and because of some sort of contractual dispute, she didn't
Speaker 2: allow it, so of course she had to pass away.
Speaker 1: Were you able to see the documentary or the concert
Speaker 1: the film.
Speaker 9: Which the Amazing Grace the Life? Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, sorry, Yeah.
Speaker 9: I thought it was beautiful in a point in her
Speaker 9: life where she was very happy, not that she wasn't
Speaker 9: happy at any point in her life, but she was glowing,
Speaker 9: and she was she had this afro and it was
Speaker 9: just beautiful, man, And you know, seeing her in her element,
Speaker 9: I think it was.
Speaker 7: The most beautiful thing. I think that people were touched
Speaker 7: by seeing that film because you don't a lot of
Speaker 7: people don't know that she sat and played that pi
Speaker 7: piano a lot of the songs that she did, and
Speaker 7: a lot of songs on an Amazing Grace album to so
Speaker 7: to see her sitting there in her element, playing at
Speaker 7: behind her and singing. It's just amazing all the time.
Speaker 7: So that was.
Speaker 2: Most people don't know that she's like just as good
Speaker 2: as a piano player.
Speaker 5: She is sid Yeah, it's important for.
Speaker 1: People to see that. So can you tell me about
Speaker 1: your Where were you born?
Speaker 5: I was born in Dallas, Texas a hospital.
Speaker 7: Yes, okay, okay, yes, yes, I'm a country boy trying
Speaker 7: to hide an accident. But it's actually gonna start coming out.
Speaker 7: This my first class wine. So once I get on
Speaker 7: the second class of wine.
Speaker 5: Well I'm a wine god.
Speaker 1: Didn't your episode.
Speaker 3: Let me go get my box.
Speaker 5: I'm trying to start. No problems, all.
Speaker 1: Right, So you grew up in Dallas?
Speaker 2: Just in general, what was your you know, your formative
Speaker 2: years like as far as like how you discovered music
Speaker 2: and did you discover with that album or were you
Speaker 2: coming out the womb singing it?
Speaker 5: Oh?
Speaker 4: No, I was my mom.
Speaker 7: I was coming out the woom singing. I was singing
Speaker 7: since I was three years old. My mom said, I
Speaker 7: used to go to the speaker and just hold my
Speaker 7: hair up to the speaker and sort of like just
Speaker 7: imitating anything that was coming out of speaker.
Speaker 5: I was into cars and singing.
Speaker 7: I remember when I was little, I used to run
Speaker 7: my hands on the side of cars, like my hand
Speaker 7: was a car. That was how infactuated I was with
Speaker 7: cards and singing was just a part of my I
Speaker 7: didn't that was just what I knew how to do.
Speaker 7: I mean, you know, people would give me fifty cents
Speaker 7: or a dollar, two dollars the same for them.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 7: That was I didn't think of it as anything particularly special.
Speaker 5: It was just something that that was. I just how
Speaker 5: to do it.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 7: I could see the effect I had on people, but
Speaker 7: I grew to love it as I grew older. I
Speaker 7: didn't really it was just a part of me. It
Speaker 7: was just something that I could do. I didn't see
Speaker 7: it as a talent or anything like that.
Speaker 5: I was. It was just I was a kid.
Speaker 1: How old would you say you were?
Speaker 2: When what age do you consider you actually starting your
Speaker 2: your craft?
Speaker 7: Well, it definitely wasn't while I was a kid. It
Speaker 7: was it was I didn't see it as a craft.
Speaker 7: I just I was just doing what I knew how
Speaker 7: to do.
Speaker 5: I didn't see it as something. I took it for granted,
Speaker 5: I was a kid.
Speaker 3: So did your mother see it first?
Speaker 6: Then?
Speaker 3: Is that what happened?
Speaker 7: My mom grew up singing also, so yeah she she yeah,
Speaker 7: she saw it. She saw it for everybody saw it.
Speaker 7: But like I like, like I said, like, you know,
Speaker 7: I did talent shows at school and stuff like that.
Speaker 7: But I didn't walk around like thinking that I was
Speaker 7: a good I didn't.
Speaker 5: I was just singing like it wasn't something special it was.
Speaker 5: I wasn't. I didn't consider it.
Speaker 2: Special, like did everyone know, Like I like, were you
Speaker 2: waking up at like out of sleep like sing for
Speaker 2: the people?
Speaker 7: Or I think I was thrown into the business so
Speaker 7: fast that like so early that I didn't really get
Speaker 7: a chance to understand like talent and alledg I didn't
Speaker 7: really understand what that meant. I was just doing something
Speaker 7: that I love to do, right. I didn't think that
Speaker 7: I was talented because of it at the time. I
Speaker 7: didn't understand what that man. I didn't understand what that
Speaker 7: man until probably well when I started with Quincy and
Speaker 7: and started singing for Quincy and like I realized who
Speaker 7: he was because I didn't know I met him, I
Speaker 7: didn't know who he was, but didn't you know Saravan
Speaker 7: and Ela Fitzgerald, all these people. I started to realize hmmm.
Speaker 7: You know, I knew I could sing. I just didn't
Speaker 7: think of it as it was just something that was
Speaker 7: just a part of me.
Speaker 1: That's probably good, that's.
Speaker 5: Probably think it was a good thing.
Speaker 1: For your first talent show. Do you know what you're saying?
Speaker 7: Oh my god, I did Whitney Houston's Greatest Love of All.
Speaker 7: It was absolutely god awful because it was too high.
Speaker 7: So I was so I was so nervous and I
Speaker 7: was shaking the whole time I was singing it, and
Speaker 7: my coach did pee coaches like, dude, why did you
Speaker 7: sing it so high?
Speaker 5: I was like, I want to do an original key.
Speaker 5: I was like nine years old, you know, so when
Speaker 5: you modulate, it's you just I don't know if you
Speaker 5: called a modulation. Uh, it was. It was horrible. It
Speaker 5: was horrible.
Speaker 7: I wish I know somebody recorded that. But yeah, that
Speaker 7: was bad. I wasn't good at talent shows or anything
Speaker 7: like that. I wasn't good at that.
Speaker 1: But that was your go to song.
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, Whitney.
Speaker 7: Whitney was my go to artist when I was growing up,
Speaker 7: fall into my adulthood, young adulthood and everything.
Speaker 2: She was one who would like the three artists that
Speaker 2: are your north stars as far as like who at
Speaker 2: least when you're singing that you're gravitating towards them.
Speaker 1: Besides Whitney.
Speaker 5: When I was.
Speaker 7: Younger, I definitely gravitated toward towards the Whitney. Everything I
Speaker 7: did it was Whitney. I literally idolized the lady, her
Speaker 7: stage movements and everything it was. She was literally everything
Speaker 7: to me. But now it changes every.
Speaker 5: Couple of years.
Speaker 7: I discovered new singers like Patsy Klein to me is
Speaker 7: one of the best singers. Like her voice moves me
Speaker 7: more than a lot of other voices that she would
Speaker 7: think would move me more than hers. You know what
Speaker 7: I'm saying, like or not? I told my brother Patty
Speaker 7: Klein she could sing. He was like, she, all right,
Speaker 7: she ain't doing no risks and nothing. She's just staying
Speaker 7: in one tone. But it's not It's not all about that.
Speaker 7: It's about what is behind the boys.
Speaker 5: I hear all that. I'm very sensitive to that.
Speaker 7: So but Donny Hathaway, Aretha Franklin, and Whitney Houston definitely
Speaker 7: other three for me?
Speaker 1: What is it?
Speaker 2: Because I find that as an interesting answer. I actually
Speaker 2: I like singers who sort of don't come out the
Speaker 2: gate flexing. I mean nothing against Christina Aguilera, but you
Speaker 2: know she goes from zero to autobone in like one seconds.
Speaker 2: You know, whatever is But you know, I just for
Speaker 2: you though, what is it? Because I often like singers
Speaker 2: that have that ability, but often hold back what they
Speaker 2: have because I think that's a gift to to sort
Speaker 2: of sing it flat and then you know, sort of
Speaker 2: rise to the occasion. What is it about a singer
Speaker 2: like Patsy climate you look for, like when you hear
Speaker 2: a singer, how do you know, okay, they have a
Speaker 2: good voice, or what is it that you Is this
Speaker 2: something scientific that you can actually explain or is it
Speaker 2: just like what you feel?
Speaker 7: Yeah, well, it's not all about what you feel, and
Speaker 7: it's not about how good they sing. It's about how
Speaker 7: they interpret a song. Every song is not meant for
Speaker 7: runs and things like that. So being a great singer
Speaker 7: is not all about how your voice sounds when you're
Speaker 7: singing a song. It's about how you're feeling a song
Speaker 7: and how you're living the song as you're singing a song.
Speaker 7: I could name you a couple of the singers that
Speaker 7: have actually great technical voices, but they're not good at
Speaker 7: exuding the emotion and the life of the song, you know.
Speaker 7: So it's there's definitely some science to that.
Speaker 4: For me, it's like the Mary versus Faith argument, Like
Speaker 4: Faith is technically like the better singer. And I'm putting
Speaker 4: that in big quotation marks. But Mary the material Mary,
Speaker 4: Yeah you feel married?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 5: I would. I would, totally. I would.
Speaker 7: I wouldn't say that one is better than the other one,
Speaker 7: but I would say that Mary is definitely more broad
Speaker 7: than Faith. It's just like I mean, and I can,
Speaker 7: like I said before, I can name you various singers
Speaker 7: that have these amazing voices but display no emotion. I
Speaker 7: and you know, it's it's not something that you learn,
Speaker 7: it's something that you embody. And you don't have to
Speaker 7: actually have went through these songs subject the subject of
Speaker 7: the song. It's just about how you take it and
Speaker 7: make it your own. It's like an actor does when
Speaker 7: he plays a role.
Speaker 5: You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 7: You have to take it and use it in a
Speaker 7: way that you can understand it.
Speaker 1: All right.
Speaker 2: So I have a question, now that I know that
Speaker 2: you live in this area, asking are you you know,
Speaker 2: are you familiar with the borough of Harlem, specifically a
Speaker 2: restaurant called Red Rooster. And I'm only specifically asking because
Speaker 2: if you are a New York resident and you decide
Speaker 2: to go to Red Rooster on a Sunday, they kind
Speaker 2: of do something very different up there.
Speaker 1: They're now doing something different.
Speaker 2: With like a gospel choir, but like the first five
Speaker 2: years of that restaurant often jazz flout ists.
Speaker 1: Bobby Humphrey used to host kind of the Sunday brunch thing,
Speaker 1: which is kind of.
Speaker 2: Cool, but it's also a thing where you know, if
Speaker 2: you're like knee deep and smothered chicken or something, she'll
Speaker 2: have a microphone in front of your face, like you know,
Speaker 2: Dinah Ross like puts you on the spot to sing,
Speaker 2: reach out and touch someone's hands, and oh god, Bobby
Speaker 2: Humphrey's like, am I facing it with a microphone? I
Speaker 2: believe that I heard the story that when you were younger,
Speaker 2: she's the one that sort of started the ball rolling.
Speaker 2: He explained, like her her position in your life because
Speaker 2: you know, for a lot of hip hop fans, Bobby Humphrey,
Speaker 2: my brothers, yeah, the Masel Brothers, like the seventies Blue
Speaker 2: Note Catalog, Many of hip hop samples have come from her.
Speaker 2: First of all, were you familiar with who she was
Speaker 2: when you first met or was just like, oh, this
Speaker 2: lady was in the business once.
Speaker 5: And no, eleven, I didn't. I was eleven. I know
Speaker 5: where she was.
Speaker 7: So what happened was her brother and my mother were
Speaker 7: good friends. I think they went to work together at
Speaker 7: the post office. My mom used to work at the
Speaker 7: post office, Okay, And he knew I could say, so
Speaker 7: she lived here in New York. And he called her
Speaker 7: up on the phone and I singing for her on
Speaker 7: the phone, and I think it was you bring me
Speaker 7: Joey be the Baker. And she had this club called
Speaker 7: Sweetwaters in New York, and she flew me out. And
Speaker 7: I wore this white tuxedo code and this tux and
Speaker 7: it's bow tie. And I was eleven years old and
Speaker 7: I did once twice three times. I think by Howard Hewitt.
Speaker 7: I think that's the song I did.
Speaker 1: I was like, that's a mature song.
Speaker 5: No, they're not kids. Well that was how he was.
Speaker 3: That's the ship.
Speaker 4: I was.
Speaker 5: I was in front of all these grown people drinking
Speaker 5: at this and I did.
Speaker 3: I thinking you had no idea, no, but I knew.
Speaker 5: The songs though.
Speaker 7: That's what I meant about saying before, like you know,
Speaker 7: uh so anyway, yeah, Bobby on free and she shot
Speaker 7: and she sent that video tape to like numerous record
Speaker 7: companies and numerous I mean I met everybody, lost it,
Speaker 7: I met everybody. Kenny Gee was aristed. He gave me
Speaker 7: a saxophone.
Speaker 1: Anyway, Wait, you got you gotta understand the type of
Speaker 1: show that this is, Like we're less about We're less
Speaker 1: about like gotcha journalism and more about like the craft
Speaker 1: of of how your art is.
Speaker 2: So we're trying to nerd ship. Yeah, we're kind of
Speaker 2: into that nerd sort of stuff. So you're you're basically
Speaker 2: saying that you were eleven at the time, and well,
Speaker 2: I know you got your deal with twelve, So basically
Speaker 2: took a year to get that ball rolling.
Speaker 7: Yeah, because we met a lot of different people, and
Speaker 7: Quincy was a lot.
Speaker 5: He was the one that got me.
Speaker 2: Wait, first of all, why did he give you a saxophone?
Speaker 2: I don't even I didn't even get the Kenny g
Speaker 2: Home game.
Speaker 7: At least he gave me a saxophone that, you know.
Speaker 7: I think that's probably when I started to realize, you know,
Speaker 7: because I knew who he was.
Speaker 5: I knew that I knew that song he had a
Speaker 5: huge hit at the.
Speaker 7: Time, and I knew it right, Yeah, yeah, so it
Speaker 7: was really cool and.
Speaker 5: Anyway, yeah so she she she was the reason why.
Speaker 7: I I was signed to Quest Warner Bros. I mean,
Speaker 7: she was the reason why that tape got to Quincy.
Speaker 7: That was a tape that Quincy actually saw. He was like, yeah, sis, kids, Wow,
Speaker 7: actually Ben and Medina saw at first. And then.
Speaker 2: Of course, so can you walk us through the process
Speaker 2: or at least what you remember the process of, Like
Speaker 2: I assume first coming to LA and meeting these people, like,
Speaker 2: you know, you're meeting all these legends, and I'm certain
Speaker 2: that you wouldn't know half of them. Who's the first
Speaker 2: person that made an impression on you? Like, I know
Speaker 2: who this person is and I can't believe I'm meeting
Speaker 2: them as opposed to Michael Sarah Vaughn.
Speaker 1: Who are you right?
Speaker 7: Michael Jackson was the first person that I've met that
Speaker 7: like I knew who he was, but not even it
Speaker 7: wasn't even Prince, you know, Prince did really I know
Speaker 7: who Prince was, but.
Speaker 5: I knew who he was, you know, But Michael. Wow,
Speaker 5: Michael Jackson, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: Wow, All right, wait, I got I have a Back
Speaker 2: on the Block question, and hopefully you go offer just
Speaker 2: a tiny bit of insight because I don't even think
Speaker 2: we asked this on the Quincy Jones episode that's never
Speaker 2: ever coming out. Yes, we talked to We talked to
Speaker 2: Quincy for four hours in Quinn.
Speaker 1: Speaking of the wine.
Speaker 5: So well, I'm not going to.
Speaker 1: No no, no no, it's not no no, it's not
Speaker 1: even silatious. It's not even silatious.
Speaker 2: But I pretty much I think we all basically know
Speaker 2: that he was the missing link on Back on the
Speaker 2: Block as far as not being on the Secret Garden.
Speaker 2: And you know, I'll be sure told us that you
Speaker 2: know that Michael was supposed to be on Secret Garden instead,
Speaker 2: I'll be sure got the spot. Were you at all
Speaker 2: privy to the situation in eighty eight, eighty nine when
Speaker 2: he might show up, might not show up? That ugliese
Speaker 2: sort of kind of share.
Speaker 5: I was a kid.
Speaker 7: No, I didn't know anything about that none, trust me
Speaker 7: if I.
Speaker 5: Did, I tell you, But I was a kid. I
Speaker 5: was just in awe of everything.
Speaker 2: So you know, there's a curious moment on BT where
Speaker 2: Quincy and Sarah Vaughan are sitting with Donnie Simpson. And
Speaker 2: you know, as a person that often talks like inside
Speaker 2: baseball to like people like I could say something one
Speaker 2: of my band members that none of the audience would
Speaker 2: know anything, And I guess Donnie Simpson had asked like, well,
Speaker 2: why isn't Michael Jackson on the record, And Sarah Vaughan
Speaker 2: sort of shot a look at Quincy and said something
Speaker 2: encoded speak and Quincy and heard just started laughing, and
Speaker 2: you know, like Donnie's like, let me in on the joke.
Speaker 1: He's like, no, it's best we not do that.
Speaker 2: So I you know, I just generally wanted to know
Speaker 2: if you.
Speaker 5: I mean, I do know that there was a falling
Speaker 5: out between the two. That's all I know.
Speaker 3: I'm just glad you was able to be a kid.
Speaker 7: Well it wasn't a normal childhood, but I was. We
Speaker 7: were able to be uh it's cheefus, it's cheeesus sometimes.
Speaker 5: But it was mostly working. So you know that's what.
Speaker 8: I did, because you were out of the classroom setting
Speaker 8: by this time, right, Like as a.
Speaker 5: Kid, Yeah, well I went to a private school.
Speaker 3: I love the what you said at private school?
Speaker 5: All right, I did say that it was private school.
Speaker 5: I said that very snobby. Why that's the why I went.
Speaker 5: I went to a private school.
Speaker 7: No, it was not like when I moved to l A.
Speaker 7: I went to a private school and uh, but I
Speaker 7: was never there.
Speaker 2: I was never there, so you weren't able to have
Speaker 2: like bonding or just like regular.
Speaker 5: Bunding friendships and stuff like that.
Speaker 2: Walk us through that because we often hear like, hey,
Speaker 2: we had tutors or whatever. But okay, so you're in school,
Speaker 2: which I assumed that at the age of twelve, you're
Speaker 2: kind of in eighth grade, maybe seventh grade or eighth grade.
Speaker 2: Can you walk us through a daily ritual like do
Speaker 2: you have to show up at eight in the morning
Speaker 2: or is it just.
Speaker 7: It was very rare that I was in school consistently
Speaker 7: for like weeks and months.
Speaker 5: So uh.
Speaker 7: But the school that I attended a lot of celebrity
Speaker 7: kids went to, so like Rod Stewart's Starter and all
Speaker 7: the Jackson all the Jackson kids went there, and Rashida
Speaker 7: and Candada everybody went there. So it was one of
Speaker 7: those one of those private schools. But I was a
Speaker 7: kid from Texas. So this is this is new for me.
Speaker 5: But I was never there.
Speaker 7: But when I was there, I got in trouble and
Speaker 7: got detention every other day because I never came in uniform.
Speaker 7: When I came in uniform, my tie wasn't done all
Speaker 7: the way or my my shirt was untucked. I was
Speaker 7: always causing problems at that school, but I was allowed
Speaker 7: to because I was.
Speaker 5: I was on.
Speaker 1: A lot of stuff.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 6: Yeah, he was just on Fresh Prince last week.
Speaker 3: Calm down.
Speaker 5: Oh wow, I keep showing that episode. It's really cool
Speaker 5: though that they keep showing that. That's great.
Speaker 2: At the top of this episode, when I was talking
Speaker 2: about being a seasoned singer at this point, is you
Speaker 2: know seth Riggs a part of your exercise or I
Speaker 2: mean I would assume that someone must have suggested, like, okay,
Speaker 2: you gotta warm your voice up and all that stuff.
Speaker 2: Did you Were you a student of the great seth
Speaker 2: Riggs as a vocal trainer?
Speaker 1: Oh?
Speaker 5: I mean I thought you'd now.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I did go to seth Griggs where my voice
Speaker 7: was changing to the point where I couldn't I could
Speaker 7: like there was no control, like the puberty part when
Speaker 7: that hit, So I had to literally do, tell me
Speaker 7: what you want me to do live and that's when
Speaker 7: it hit.
Speaker 5: So I couldn't hit this.
Speaker 1: So you started lowering the key, modulating the key down today.
Speaker 7: No, no, we couldn't do that, not when you're not
Speaker 7: when you're fourteen years old, you can't know the key.
Speaker 7: You gotta do it, you know. So that's whe I started. Yeah,
Speaker 7: there's no thing I can do that. Now I'm forty five.
Speaker 5: You know, it makes sense to lord the key to
Speaker 5: that's all right, But when you're fourteen.
Speaker 7: No, So I had to go to Seth Griggs for
Speaker 7: I went for the whole lot like a summer because
Speaker 7: it was really bad. I had no control over that break,
Speaker 7: and he taught me how to sort of control it.
Speaker 5: After that, There's no I didn't go back to it.
Speaker 2: How many so when you're training, how many hours? What's
Speaker 2: the daily regiment? I mean how many hours? Is it
Speaker 2: a day or is it just once a week or.
Speaker 7: Well, first of all, you go into his office and
Speaker 7: you do a whole bunch of exercises. So you mean
Speaker 7: for me at for a show or just.
Speaker 1: For you for you and Seth Griggs.
Speaker 7: Okay, yeah, you just go in and here you just
Speaker 7: get your exercises to do for like thirty minutes, you
Speaker 7: to pay for it hour he do an hour.
Speaker 5: He used to charge like two thousand per hour. It
Speaker 5: was it was ridiculous.
Speaker 7: It was something ridiculous. And he used to talk half
Speaker 7: the time. He used to talk time, and he did
Speaker 7: that consistently. He was a great He was a great teacher.
Speaker 7: I learned a lot from him that I used to
Speaker 7: this day, like warm up exercises and all constant.
Speaker 2: For our listeners out there, Michael Jackson's two hour tutorial
Speaker 2: is still surprisingly still on YouTube, which is basically two
Speaker 2: hours of hearing Michael Jackson do all the scales.
Speaker 1: Yeah no, no, no, no, no no no, like all the like.
Speaker 2: That's probably one of the greatest vocal exercise educations that
Speaker 2: you can get for free.
Speaker 1: While it's oh.
Speaker 5: Nice and it works, I mean that's all said.
Speaker 1: He was.
Speaker 7: He was an avid student. The set had a lot
Speaker 7: of great a lot of great u great clients. But yeah,
Speaker 7: like I said, yeah that stuff works, man, man, man, man,
Speaker 7: all that stuff works. All that stuff it works. It's
Speaker 7: all it's doing is just you know, sort of warming
Speaker 7: that out.
Speaker 1: You know. We were introduced to you via back on
Speaker 1: the block. But when you were when you were brought
Speaker 1: out there, did you immediately start working on your debut
Speaker 1: album or was it just back on the block. Let's
Speaker 1: see what happens first.
Speaker 2: Okay, now you get a record deal or was it
Speaker 2: just like out the gate, You're going to work on
Speaker 2: your album and subsequently get introduced from Quincy.
Speaker 3: I'm trying to remember thirty years like well I was.
Speaker 5: I was twelve years old. I know, I know that.
Speaker 7: After the introduction to Prince when being introduced, Bennie Bedinna
Speaker 7: introduced me to Prince and I did the confiniti bridge
Speaker 7: round around, round and around. I know that he wanted
Speaker 7: to be on the first album. I remember that and
Speaker 7: Warner Brothers, uh, Warner Brothers would oh my god, there's
Speaker 7: all kinds of crazy stuff.
Speaker 1: I'm glad you brought that up.
Speaker 2: Everyone knows that I'm a Prince Stan and you know,
Speaker 2: and also the Prince what I call the Orgers, the
Speaker 2: Prince dot Orgers is sort of they always side eye
Speaker 2: me when I start, you know, talking, my my, my,
Speaker 2: my trash.
Speaker 1: Now, I mean, this is the thing.
Speaker 2: Everyone knows that he's my north star as far as
Speaker 2: creativity is concerned.
Speaker 1: But you know it.
Speaker 2: It's to a lot of prince people that are very
Speaker 2: honest with themselves. They would also know that that period
Speaker 2: was a rather questionable period of his life. And I
Speaker 2: got to hear the p the song that you you demo?
Speaker 2: Did he demo in the way that you're smiling right now.
Speaker 5: I don't even remember. I don't even remember doing that.
Speaker 5: Where did God tell you?
Speaker 7: I don't remember where we were, I don't remember what
Speaker 7: year that was.
Speaker 5: But all I know is that I was in the
Speaker 5: middle of that.
Speaker 7: I was in the middle of that whole thing, and
Speaker 7: that didn't stop until after I'm.
Speaker 2: Ready based on what I can tell, because you know,
Speaker 2: I heard his I heard his demo, guy, and I
Speaker 2: heard your version, and you literally followed everything to a t.
Speaker 2: So I would basically say that if you're working with him,
Speaker 2: is it just assume that, Okay, do exactly what I
Speaker 2: do on this track and follow it to it?
Speaker 1: Is either coaching you or is it just smell? No,
Speaker 1: he's not.
Speaker 5: It's just me. That's me.
Speaker 7: I wasn't very experiment a lot when it came to him.
Speaker 5: I kind of sing it like the demo.
Speaker 7: The only songs I drifted away from the demo was
Speaker 7: sort of was can we talk and I'm ready all
Speaker 7: those songs, uh yeah.
Speaker 3: And Tomorrow night at all because it was.
Speaker 7: Just that Tomorrow was all me, that was me, because
Speaker 7: it wasn't it wasn't no that song. So she wrote
Speaker 7: that literally in the studio.
Speaker 8: I was just going to ask, when you got Tomorrow
Speaker 8: as a fan of Whitney, did you feel like that
Speaker 8: was kind of like your Whitney song in a way?
Speaker 3: Did you feel you remember how you felt as a kid.
Speaker 7: I didn't think that then, but I wasn't processed. My
Speaker 7: brain wasn't processing us to think like that because I
Speaker 7: was too I was too self conscious in the studio.
Speaker 7: But I do think that sort of now, like when
Speaker 7: I listen to Tomorrow on one song, the sort of
Speaker 7: inspirational songs that I have a couple that.
Speaker 5: I do have. I have some more, but they're not
Speaker 5: on my albums. But anyway, I do think that now.
Speaker 1: Well, eventually I assume that you got to meet her,
Speaker 1: What was it like for you to be or where
Speaker 1: did you meet her?
Speaker 7: The first time I met Whitney Houston, she invited me
Speaker 7: to her listening party or her after party was some
Speaker 7: sort of party. But the second time, which is more percival,
Speaker 7: was when I were It was a hotel called the
Speaker 7: Riga Royal which is now the London for the contract.
Speaker 5: But oh yeah, yal you remember it was her.
Speaker 7: And Bobby and I was coming out of my room
Speaker 7: and stuff and they were coming down the hall and
Speaker 7: we had this whole long conversation.
Speaker 5: She was like, how you do it? I was like
Speaker 5: I do how you do? We used to do fight
Speaker 5: and Bobby was there.
Speaker 7: You know, it was like it just us. Street didn't
Speaker 7: have any bodyguards anybody around him. It was just us
Speaker 7: to you having a conversation. I was like fifteen sixteen,
Speaker 7: and that was the last time that I saw Whitney Houston.
Speaker 7: It was a second time that I met her. I
Speaker 7: never knew her personally, like we were never friends or
Speaker 7: I never called her, talked to her phone anything like that.
Speaker 7: The only the closest connection I had with her was
Speaker 7: the nard of Michael Walden Uh. He used to call
Speaker 7: her from the studio, but I never talked to her.
Speaker 7: But he used to call it from Steven let her
Speaker 7: here because I used to say just I used to
Speaker 7: try to imitate her, so he would let her.
Speaker 5: He would let her here like tell me much, want
Speaker 5: me to do and stuff like.
Speaker 1: So she never knew, she never knew that you were
Speaker 1: that she was your hero.
Speaker 5: Yes, oh yeah, she knew.
Speaker 1: And it was too overwhelming for you to strike a friendship.
Speaker 7: I was a kid kid, you know, but she knew,
Speaker 7: she knew that I freaking loved her. I told her
Speaker 7: when I saw her, especially that time in the hall.
Speaker 7: I mean, you know, it was her and Aretha. I
Speaker 7: could never act normally when I saw these two women.
Speaker 7: I remember seeing Aretha on Broadway. We were some Broadway show, right,
Speaker 7: and she she comes with these you know her what
Speaker 7: she was with and these ten just huge entourage.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and she knows me.
Speaker 5: I've seen her many times since I was twelve years old.
Speaker 5: I even came to sing for her. She invited me
Speaker 5: to sing Always in My Heart, which was one of
Speaker 5: her favorite songs. She invited me to sing that for
Speaker 5: her at some event. I think it was a birthday party.
Speaker 7: And so I saw her and I couldn't even leave.
Speaker 7: You know how you do this this thing when.
Speaker 2: You call Mariah, but.
Speaker 1: You know, you know you listen.
Speaker 5: I couldn't even I just I couldn't do that. I
Speaker 5: couldn't do the cheeks just touched I be She was like,
Speaker 5: what the hell is wrong with this?
Speaker 7: But I was so nervous to even like like, but
Speaker 7: she could tell.
Speaker 5: She could just she knows she ever teached yourself. It's like,
Speaker 5: how's your mom? How's your mom? She used today she
Speaker 5: was I digress.
Speaker 2: Were you able to bond with a circle of people?
Speaker 2: Like who would you consider?
Speaker 1: You know?
Speaker 8: Like?
Speaker 1: Okay, So when I came into business, then I became
Speaker 1: friends with common and we became friends and started hanging
Speaker 1: Like did you have peers that you regularly hung with?
Speaker 7: And no, because I was twelve, so there was nobody
Speaker 7: else my age, okay doing what I was doing.
Speaker 8: In our minds, you were real friends with Tatiana Ali
Speaker 8: in our teenage mind was like.
Speaker 7: No, not really we we we we were friends. Yeah,
Speaker 7: But you know I hung out a lot with the boys.
Speaker 5: Remember the group of the boys.
Speaker 2: I can.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 7: We broke a lot of lamps in the hotel rooms
Speaker 7: and stuff, and me and my brother and the boys
Speaker 7: used to hang out a lot. So the boys, but
Speaker 7: I didn't bond with them like we were just so.
Speaker 7: But the sixteen, seventeen, eighteen nineteen, those years now, I
Speaker 7: was pretty much a loner, haven't was. There was a
Speaker 7: lot going on. There was a lot going on. I
Speaker 7: don't think I even realized how much was going on
Speaker 7: until a couple of years ago when I actually start
Speaker 7: to process everything. So, I mean, like I said, I
Speaker 7: don't regret anything, but there's a lot of they're more
Speaker 7: pros than thera cons to being a child a childhood star,
Speaker 7: former child star, you know. I mean, it's it's an
Speaker 7: amazing thing to be able to say that and survive.
Speaker 1: How long, on average does it take you.
Speaker 2: To get through a take where you're satisfied with it,
Speaker 2: and the producers satisfied with it, and all parties involved
Speaker 2: are satisfied.
Speaker 5: That depends. They used to call me one take, Tevin.
Speaker 1: Okay, talk your shit.
Speaker 5: I'm not I didn't make that up. I did not
Speaker 5: make that up. I swear to God, that's Babyface gave
Speaker 5: me that name.
Speaker 8: Uh.
Speaker 7: I don't remember how many takes I became we talked.
Speaker 7: It wasn't a lot back then. I just went in
Speaker 7: and I hated actually being in the studio. I went
Speaker 7: to be in the streets.
Speaker 5: I wouldn't want to play. I wanted to play.
Speaker 7: I wanted to go driving around in my car and
Speaker 7: just be say. You know, it was like work to me.
Speaker 7: If I had to do it more than three or
Speaker 7: four times, you know, I was a brad so but
Speaker 7: with baby Face it was all about the feeling. It
Speaker 7: wasn't about necessarily the technicalities of it.
Speaker 5: But with Narada Michael Walden, it.
Speaker 7: Was all about the technicalities and the notes and they
Speaker 7: can't be sharp and they can't and the feelings, so
Speaker 7: you got to have both.
Speaker 5: So I think Narada really I had the most fun
Speaker 5: working with him because I worked.
Speaker 7: He made me work and I and I didn't warm
Speaker 7: up really and to this day, I don't warm up
Speaker 7: until hours after I start singing. So you have to
Speaker 7: keep singing, you know that. You know I had to
Speaker 7: learn that about myself too. But Narda was the best
Speaker 7: heat I had the most nurturing working relationship.
Speaker 1: I think with Narda, Okay, can I ask a question?
Speaker 2: Is because you know, we've been doing the show for
Speaker 2: five years and literally no singer or at least singer
Speaker 2: singers has given me the dream answer that I want
Speaker 2: to hear. It's like, yes, you know, before I do
Speaker 2: a song, I sit and do me me met me
Speaker 2: like three hours and you drink all this tea and
Speaker 2: like everyone basically says, hey, man, I showed up, I
Speaker 2: sang it, and then I went home. So is the
Speaker 2: idea of warming up just a myth that non singers
Speaker 2: like myself think that an artist has to go through
Speaker 2: to do their craft, or like even for you Fante,
Speaker 2: like even when you're doing your records, Like I think, it.
Speaker 4: Just depends on the song. I think if it's you know,
Speaker 4: if it's something where because I've had takes where you know,
Speaker 4: you'll write something and then sing it and I'm like, Okay,
Speaker 4: this sounds cool, but I can do it better, and
Speaker 4: then you'll come back and do it quote unquote better.
Speaker 4: But there's just there may be just some vulnerability in
Speaker 4: the first take because you're just now learning the song,
Speaker 4: you know what I mean, and you don't know it
Speaker 4: know it versus singing it when you know it. It
Speaker 4: may you know, it just may not fit the song.
Speaker 4: If the song you're singing has to have a hint
Speaker 4: of vulnerability or uncertainty, if that's the character you're playing
Speaker 4: quote unquote, then the first take generally for me, you know,
Speaker 4: those early takes, that's kind of where the magic is.
Speaker 4: Once you get to go back to what TeV And said.
Speaker 4: Once you get like three four times, at that point
Speaker 4: you're just just kind of regurgitating the same things. It's
Speaker 4: kind of like a rehearsal at that point, and the
Speaker 4: magic is lost in my experience.
Speaker 1: Once you overdo it and keep going doing it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, you kind of sing the life out of it,
Speaker 4: you know what I mean. So a lot of times
Speaker 4: the first ones, those are the ones, if they may
Speaker 4: not be the most technically great, they are the ones
Speaker 4: that are the most honest and may fit the song better.
Speaker 4: Is that kind of for you, TeV? And is that
Speaker 4: the same thing? What's similar to?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 7: I think you are right on that, and I think
Speaker 7: it depicts on the song and actually the singer also,
Speaker 7: every singer has this whole different way of approaching the
Speaker 7: song and approaching performances.
Speaker 5: So some singers can.
Speaker 7: Walk into the studio and give a great performance without
Speaker 7: you can form it up, you know what I mean.
Speaker 5: There are singers that can do that. There's a lot
Speaker 5: of excuse me, there are a lot of songs that
Speaker 5: Aretha did that. She did warm up, She just walked
Speaker 5: in and she just did some people, you know what
Speaker 5: I'm saying.
Speaker 1: She won't go more than two takes, like that's it,
Speaker 1: And I don't think.
Speaker 7: I think that's the way it's always been that she
Speaker 7: can do that, you know, Uh, some singers can't do that,
Speaker 7: and she can deliver all the things that need to
Speaker 7: be in the song in those two takes.
Speaker 5: So, but it's definitely those first takes.
Speaker 7: Think, and I think if you ask a movie director also, uh,
Speaker 7: like Frank Sinatra didn't like to doing more than one
Speaker 7: take on the scene. He liked to just do it,
Speaker 7: wouldn't take because he felt like that was the most
Speaker 7: natural and the most real.
Speaker 5: Word. He felt like if you did it over and
Speaker 5: over again, it would lose his magic. Like you said, so,
Speaker 5: I agree.
Speaker 2: Your first album, which is the spelling of your name,
Speaker 2: was that supposed to be an acronym for something.
Speaker 1: T E V I Or were you just spelling it?
Speaker 1: Or first of all, what you say, I made up.
Speaker 1: I made up.
Speaker 4: Transmitting every vocal immaculately nigga. Twitter, it was like it
Speaker 4: was somebody. It was on Twitter. This was like Twitter,
Speaker 4: like years ago. I think it was when you know,
Speaker 4: I think somebody they tried to like come for you
Speaker 4: something on Twitter and everybody was just like, nah, fuck
Speaker 4: that that's seven Campbell, And that was one of the
Speaker 4: things I fust It went on from I know what.
Speaker 5: You're talking about.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we had your back though, bro, like we had
Speaker 4: your back Twitter.
Speaker 10: Yes, yes, I was like, oh it was really sad.
Speaker 5: I love it.
Speaker 2: I love sorry, Fante, let me go, let me go
Speaker 2: to the other side, because let me go to the
Speaker 2: other side because I believe you two were kind of
Speaker 2: the same age.
Speaker 4: Or yeah, I'm seventy eight, so yeah we right, yeah, okay,
Speaker 4: so what was it.
Speaker 5: Like seventy eight, I'm seventy six, so you you are.
Speaker 4: I am elder man man ship in seventh grade man.
Speaker 2: So Fante, as a listener, did that make an impression
Speaker 2: on you to see someone your age doing that the
Speaker 2: same way that I saw the Jackson five or Janet Like,
Speaker 2: oh kids, my age, you know that.
Speaker 4: Nah, that's exactly what it was. Yeah, even though like
Speaker 4: again we were only with two years apart. He was older,
Speaker 4: but it definitely felt like, uh, you know he felt
Speaker 4: tell me him. It felt like one of the homies
Speaker 4: like I went to school with, or like that homie
Speaker 4: that like sing in church and you just know, Okay,
Speaker 4: that's a singing homie and like he gonna win every
Speaker 4: time show, you know what I mean. Like it was
Speaker 4: it was like that, It's like he got singing homie.
Speaker 4: They're just like gonna buy everybody in the talent show
Speaker 4: and that's what it is. So yeah, the first album, man,
Speaker 4: that was something that uh, it definitely felt like it
Speaker 4: was And I always talk about this for songwriters, it
Speaker 4: is very hard to write for kids, you know what
Speaker 4: I'm saying, because you have to write something that's age
Speaker 4: appropriate but also have something that you know adults can
Speaker 4: jam to, you know, record like a Dial in my
Speaker 4: Heart or Around and Round or can we Talk? I
Speaker 4: mean those are really hard songs to pull off, and
Speaker 4: I don't think people understand how hard that shit is.
Speaker 1: What about us break it down?
Speaker 11: Yeah, So that one that was the one like in
Speaker 11: home room, like because they were playing on the radio
Speaker 11: like they woul playing at Joan the radio and it
Speaker 11: was almost like, oh man, that is that Tavin Campbell joint?
Speaker 4: And so in home room we were talking about, yo,
Speaker 4: you hear the joint? Do you have to school like
Speaker 4: some homework?
Speaker 3: Like what yes? Are you getting? Yes? I am yes, but.
Speaker 4: But I while we're here while were on the first album,
Speaker 4: I have to say my favorite one, like my probably
Speaker 4: like my favorite. If I had to peat one, let
Speaker 4: it be the same as me. Come on, man, along
Speaker 4: with you, dude, like alone with you, what we talk about.
Speaker 1: So my question for you on that one, bro.
Speaker 4: So I did not know. I actually lost a bet
Speaker 4: to this all over this to a friend like years ago,
Speaker 4: like she she wanted back, here's this thing. Yeah, she
Speaker 4: totally won. So I did not know. I had the
Speaker 4: album Casey and Joe George seeing backs on that the
Speaker 4: INSTI in the credits. Now back to credit.
Speaker 5: Okay, well then you're right.
Speaker 4: I don't know if you have memories back.
Speaker 5: Yeah. They did all the demos for all those songs,
Speaker 5: so all the that I'll be produced.
Speaker 7: Casey and Chose Will did all those demos, which is
Speaker 7: why I'm singing all those lick, all those ran That's
Speaker 7: not me.
Speaker 5: I'm doing whatever they did on the demo.
Speaker 1: Do you still have those demos?
Speaker 5: Oh my god, I wish I could.
Speaker 1: Always I wish I did.
Speaker 3: Maybe maybe Al has them.
Speaker 8: He got all the tapes. I thought I thought he
Speaker 8: was gonna say, just asked me to. I always thought
Speaker 8: that was a soundtrack, John, but I didn't know that
Speaker 8: was on.
Speaker 5: It was on Boys in the Hood that they decided
Speaker 5: to put it in.
Speaker 1: On the album.
Speaker 7: I thought that was interesting what you said, though, because
Speaker 7: Warner Brothers didn't care about that. They they what they
Speaker 7: had was a kid that could that had to And
Speaker 7: I realize it now, I didn't realize it back.
Speaker 5: It Uh, that.
Speaker 7: Had this voice that was a mature voice that they
Speaker 7: could sell to a whole bunch of adults. And I
Speaker 7: was actually and I think it's actually kind of cool
Speaker 7: that I was being used as like abuse, like all
Speaker 7: these love songs that Jesus got Babyface and and.
Speaker 4: Songs.
Speaker 7: No, but he was going through stuff with his wife
Speaker 7: and at the time, And so I realized now that
Speaker 7: they were writing and I was singing their.
Speaker 1: Expert channeling through you.
Speaker 7: Wow.
Speaker 5: Yes, because I didn't know anybody any think about that stuff.
Speaker 5: Come on, tell me what you love to do.
Speaker 8: And and then that knowing that we were using it
Speaker 8: to make out with.
Speaker 3: It on mixtapes.
Speaker 4: You know, Listen along with You was a staple on
Speaker 4: my Slow Jam mixtape. Man, listen that record will never
Speaker 4: really like your work with Alba Man. I gotta say,
Speaker 4: like that one Goodbye like I love love that song.
Speaker 5: Man, I love that stuff too. I think he did
Speaker 5: a great job.
Speaker 2: Like on the first album, it had to be five
Speaker 2: or six singles, correct, Yeah, I tell me what you
Speaker 2: want to do?
Speaker 5: Uh?
Speaker 1: Round and round?
Speaker 4: Confused? Gotused one song?
Speaker 2: Like, there's at least six singles off this joint. And
Speaker 2: so who was the ringleader that said Okay, I'm like,
Speaker 2: I'm what I say goes as far as like your head,
Speaker 2: is it Benny that's driving the wheels?
Speaker 3: Excuse me?
Speaker 5: I really was.
Speaker 7: No, I'm telling you the truth. I mean, Bennie Medeena
Speaker 7: was was the Yeah, I mean I'm the one that
Speaker 7: got to choose the songs. Yeah, they worked me, they
Speaker 7: sent me everywhere. So yeah, Warner Brothers was responsible for.
Speaker 2: On the other side of that question, are there any
Speaker 2: notable songs that were submitted to you that you passed
Speaker 2: on that someone else took and did something?
Speaker 7: Oh?
Speaker 5: No, I can't. I can't.
Speaker 7: No, you took not any famous, not anything that you No, No,
Speaker 7: I take the hits.
Speaker 1: I gotta are you? Are you familiar with the Usher story.
Speaker 5: With I think that's actually a true story.
Speaker 7: I think that I think that's in l a read's book.
Speaker 7: From my understanding, I think la Reid wanted Sure to
Speaker 7: have can We Talk? But he wanted me to have
Speaker 7: can we Talk? And uh, but I had it. You know,
Speaker 7: I don't even listen. Sure, I love him. I actually
Speaker 7: just did a gig with him, okay in Atlanta. Yeah,
Speaker 7: Tyler Perry, so we should.
Speaker 5: At the save stage. I love USh, I always have
Speaker 5: loved USh.
Speaker 3: Birth the well that was not why that was?
Speaker 5: It was you? That was?
Speaker 6: That was my wine you started. It's a cool and
Speaker 6: it's a luminous over here.
Speaker 7: No, but I don't believe that can we can we talk?
Speaker 7: First of all, it's a great so I'm not saying
Speaker 7: that it's so well written. And I said this on
Speaker 7: something else somebody asked me about it. I could never
Speaker 7: I Got It Bad as one of my favorite R
Speaker 7: and b mm hmmm ballads.
Speaker 5: It always has been.
Speaker 7: I could never sing I Got It Bad like Usher,
Speaker 7: And I don't believe USh you could sing?
Speaker 5: Can we talk like I could?
Speaker 3: You know as you got it bad?
Speaker 1: But that's okay.
Speaker 3: I know you ain't being shady.
Speaker 7: No, it's it's yeah, you got it bad, you got
Speaker 7: it bad, You got it you got it bad?
Speaker 1: No, I know I.
Speaker 7: Wasn't being shaked. I do have a song called there
Speaker 7: you Go. No, I swear to God, no, no, that
Speaker 7: son sucks. No, there's nothing compair to know you got
Speaker 7: it bad. But that was my favorite and it still
Speaker 7: is one of my favorite RMB songs about that's when
Speaker 7: I hear it, i'd be like, okay, yeah, no, no, no,
Speaker 7: but anyway, yeah, And I read the thing he said
Speaker 7: about the can't We No, it was my song.
Speaker 5: Let me have it, I mean, you know, let me
Speaker 5: have my song. It's my song.
Speaker 3: That was your song, your song.
Speaker 7: Yeah, that's my song. I'm blessed to have it. It's
Speaker 7: a it's an amazing song. It it's crazy, it's crazy,
Speaker 7: it's crazy. It's a beautiful song. And I love it,
Speaker 7: you know, And I love that it's mine. And I
Speaker 7: didn't used to be like this. I used to be like, oh,
Speaker 7: I don't want to hear it, But now I listen
Speaker 7: to it. I actually will listen to you like, you
Speaker 7: know what. That's a good thing. I'm actually embracing my
Speaker 7: my art, you know. So I'm very very blessing on
Speaker 7: it to have that song in my work.
Speaker 4: Question regarding your work with not to Michael Walton because
Speaker 4: two of the records that I really loved on I'm
Speaker 4: Ready was Don't Say good Bye Girl and Brown Eye Girl.
Speaker 4: Like you have any memories of like recording those two?
Speaker 1: I really, I really love those records.
Speaker 5: Oh thank you. I co wrote bl Hey, you know
Speaker 5: Nardi is it?
Speaker 7: I remember he likes to sit down and just start
Speaker 7: playing on the piano and he would just he'd just say,
Speaker 7: start saying whatever comes to mind, Just start saying. That's
Speaker 7: how he came up with told me which one me
Speaker 7: to do, That's how we came up with Brown Eye Girl.
Speaker 7: Don't Say Goodbye Girl was a song that he had
Speaker 7: written already. Though I loved Don't Say Goodbye Girl.
Speaker 4: That's the one for Yeah, I love that song.
Speaker 7: That's one of my favorite of my vocal performances. You know,
Speaker 7: because that's what I mean.
Speaker 5: He works. He worked me, man, like I had to
Speaker 5: work to get those notes.
Speaker 4: You know what I'm saying. I didn't hear it.
Speaker 5: Yeah, And there's no.
Speaker 7: Kind of there's no sort of alterations or anything on that.
Speaker 7: That's all me getting that out. Like he do it again,
Speaker 7: do it again? He would stop, he would get your
Speaker 7: break it again, do it again again and coffee. That's
Speaker 7: how I got to think to coffee.
Speaker 10: But anyway, wait, let me ask you because the Narda
Speaker 10: Michael that I know because because of his him being
Speaker 10: Buddhist and everything, is he like that?
Speaker 1: Is he like that in the studio or visus.
Speaker 5: Like coming down and give me some feeling? Yes, and
Speaker 5: he gets all the incense and everywhere. Yeah, that's wow.
Speaker 1: I think it's the ultimate Jedi mind trick because I
Speaker 1: know there's a there's another person who's a Buddhist in
Speaker 1: my life and she has the ability. She'll start here,
Speaker 1: but somehow she'll.
Speaker 2: Calm me down and she'll talk very low and then
Speaker 2: the next thing I know, and I realized that's a
Speaker 2: Jedi mind trick. So yeah, I always wanted to know
Speaker 2: with Narada, especially that the fact that Narda has what
Speaker 2: I call going into the lines, then like you have
Speaker 2: to have a level of social wisdom if you're producing
Speaker 2: a Refa and Whitney Houston and like, you know, his
Speaker 2: his entire canon of people that he's produced, singer singer,
Speaker 2: So I know that he has to have some sort
Speaker 2: of Jedi mind trick that gets you guys to trust him.
Speaker 1: And I always wanted to know what that.
Speaker 5: Was like, it's his spirit, you know what. You just
Speaker 5: described his whole.
Speaker 7: So when you walk to stew that's the that's the
Speaker 7: vibe that you get, you know, so you don't mind working,
Speaker 7: but you know what it's It was the coffee for me,
Speaker 7: and it was just him being and he would record
Speaker 7: all the sessions, so I knew the Karen was right
Speaker 7: on me.
Speaker 5: So I would literally try to sound my best, you know.
Speaker 4: Oh he would like like video like library, you.
Speaker 7: Got library, don't say nothing now, So I'm sure he
Speaker 7: did with that way.
Speaker 5: I'm sure he did.
Speaker 1: Damn. We definitely give on the shoe.
Speaker 5: Man, you gotta get out.
Speaker 7: She has some great stories. But he creates an atmosphere
Speaker 7: and it's due to Tarpan Studios.
Speaker 5: It really helps.
Speaker 7: Man, when you walk into that atmosphere, you ready to work,
Speaker 7: and he makes you believe that you can do it better.
Speaker 5: You can do it better, do all more time, you
Speaker 5: can do it better? And did you do it?
Speaker 2: Like, at what point in your career as far as
Speaker 2: your your albums are concerned, where you feel as though
Speaker 2: as an artist you have ideas that you want to
Speaker 2: express and production that you want and a certain sound
Speaker 2: that you want, like, are are they letting you get
Speaker 2: a word in edge wise or is it still like
Speaker 2: here work with this person, here with that person?
Speaker 7: And I had no interest in anything in that sort.
Speaker 7: I was too busy trying to figure out life. Yeah,
Speaker 7: and I had no time to figure out life because
Speaker 7: I was working, so I didn't care all.
Speaker 5: You know. I got to choose the songs. That's it.
Speaker 7: I wouldn't sing anything that I didn't like that no
Speaker 7: one made me sing anything I didn't like. I had
Speaker 7: to last digs on the songs. But as far as
Speaker 7: trying to say something or do it please, no, I
Speaker 7: didn't think of anything.
Speaker 2: I mean, besides like the radio shows where they would
Speaker 2: do like a summer jams or powerhouse or you come
Speaker 2: and just do your two joints, Like did you ever
Speaker 2: have an actual touring experience at least similar to the
Speaker 2: one like when you did Round and Round on our
Speaker 2: Sinio Princess band, What's your backup?
Speaker 1: And that shit was perfect to me?
Speaker 2: But like, how often did you really get to go
Speaker 2: out on the road with a band and tour and
Speaker 2: that sort of thing? Did that happen at all? Was
Speaker 2: just like spot dates?
Speaker 7: Yeah, I know that that didn't happen a lot. So
Speaker 7: my mom didn't didn't allow a lot of that stuff.
Speaker 5: She because I was already traveling doing.
Speaker 2: You have an option to say no, I don't want
Speaker 2: to tour, because I would figure, like in the nineties,
Speaker 2: you got a tour, right, because.
Speaker 3: Mama had that option.
Speaker 7: My mom was she didn't play. I went on one
Speaker 7: tour with Boys to Man and Babyface. I opened up
Speaker 7: for that tour and that was for I think three weeks,
Speaker 7: and that was on.
Speaker 5: My Christmas break, and that's it. My mom didn't allow.
Speaker 7: But I was working so much already, I don't that's why.
Speaker 7: I think that's probably why she didn't allow it. I
Speaker 7: was always traveling promoting the album.
Speaker 6: But that's the money, right, Touring is like the money
Speaker 6: though really right?
Speaker 5: Oh okay, it wasn't the same as it was now.
Speaker 5: I mean, I don't think I mean it.
Speaker 7: No, I can't think of Vidy and plus I was
Speaker 7: one of the only kids doing it.
Speaker 5: But I think the boy groups went on tour, so
Speaker 5: maybe like the New Kids on the Blox.
Speaker 7: And New Addition, they probably went onto it.
Speaker 1: But so it would have been hard to pair you
Speaker 1: with someone.
Speaker 5: Yeah, exactly, that. Yeah, but iway was one of that because.
Speaker 1: With Tracy Spencer and Brandy, like Spencer would.
Speaker 3: Have been good yeah, Marian or something.
Speaker 5: Oh wow, that's pretty cool thought.
Speaker 2: Someone told me that she does like, uh, like spot
Speaker 2: commercials where like I mean, you don't know that that's
Speaker 2: the mom in the supermarket or that sort of thing.
Speaker 1: I believe that that's like her lane, Like she's done.
Speaker 3: A bunch of we did assume they all knew each other,
Speaker 3: right a mirror.
Speaker 8: I'm like, so timing you knew Tracy, right, Yeah, But
Speaker 8: I really think that my mom.
Speaker 7: I know, my mom was very protective with me when
Speaker 7: I was When I was a kid in the business,
Speaker 7: she didn't you can ask anybody, you know, she didn't.
Speaker 5: She was very protective. So I was that she couldn't
Speaker 5: stop me from being a.
Speaker 7: Pest, but when it came to like like just working
Speaker 7: and she had to make sure who was gonna be
Speaker 7: around me. And I had these people from Warner Broths,
Speaker 7: Karen Baker and Jean Shelton. It was always the ones
Speaker 7: that would travel with me. When she was with me,
Speaker 7: you know, she was very protective for me. So I
Speaker 7: think that's probably a lot of the reasons why I
Speaker 7: didn't go out on tour, I.
Speaker 3: Would explain no hip hop collaborations.
Speaker 2: I got questions about Back to the World because to me,
Speaker 2: that was such a shift, at least working with the
Speaker 2: hit Man and whatnot. Can you talk about that experience with.
Speaker 5: Working actually the world.
Speaker 7: Yeah, that was a confusing time of my life because
Speaker 7: I didn't really understand what was going on with the
Speaker 7: whole Warner brother situation. I didn't understand why why Back
Speaker 7: to the World wasn't It was sort of like they
Speaker 7: sort of like just forgot about me.
Speaker 2: But it's like you had all the pieces in place,
Speaker 2: at least I know, Chucky did stuff on it, and.
Speaker 1: Like the hit Man Stevie j I don't you know.
Speaker 1: And I don't know what Puff's role is as far
Speaker 1: as like.
Speaker 5: He was there, I'm not gonna he was.
Speaker 7: He was there, was there, and Puffy's great, we both scorpios,
Speaker 7: and he was there and then and you know, he
Speaker 7: wasn't there, and then he was there again.
Speaker 5: So let's just put it that way. But that wasn't
Speaker 5: that wasn't it.
Speaker 7: It was there was just a shift in the whole
Speaker 7: Warner Brothers makeup. So Bo Austin Hanks, Van ray Ereris,
Speaker 7: all those guys left left. Yeah, Ditri was not on
Speaker 7: Black music anymore. It wasn't no me anymore. It was
Speaker 7: on some other thing. And so, I mean, and I
Speaker 7: didn't understand it at the time. Understand it now it's
Speaker 7: a business, but at the time I did not understand it.
Speaker 7: So that was sort of a weird time for me.
Speaker 7: And so I showed up at the photo session for
Speaker 7: that album with twists.
Speaker 5: And twists and they were like, what the hell did
Speaker 5: you do?
Speaker 7: I was like, yeah, I got twist. Yeah, just just rebelling,
Speaker 7: you know, being mad. So yeah, that was that was
Speaker 7: not a good.
Speaker 5: Time for me.
Speaker 4: My favorite record on that album was the I don't
Speaker 4: know if it was a single, but could it be,
Speaker 4: like that's still thank you?
Speaker 5: That's the one record too.
Speaker 4: Do you remember recording you have any memories of it
Speaker 4: with work?
Speaker 7: Remember its being in the studio with resigned because he
Speaker 7: wrote all that stuff, He wrote all this stuff.
Speaker 1: Did you work with Keith Crouch as well or he.
Speaker 5: Was on that album?
Speaker 1: Jazz okay jazz?
Speaker 5: Yes, it was a great It was fun recording it.
Speaker 5: I had a great time recording the album. It was just.
Speaker 7: When they were trying to prepare him for the release
Speaker 7: of the album. I was trying to rebel against one
Speaker 7: and brother.
Speaker 2: In hindsight, did you feel as though like you just
Speaker 2: wanted to break because you've basically been doing this since
Speaker 2: you were twelve, like without any breaks or whatsoever.
Speaker 5: Maybe that's what it was subconsciously, Maybe I wanted to break.
Speaker 5: I don't know.
Speaker 2: Maybe that's because there were three years between Ready and
Speaker 2: Back to the World, Like, what was what we were you.
Speaker 1: Doing in that? What was that?
Speaker 3: I love? It ain't nothing wrong with I had.
Speaker 7: I graduated high school in ninety five, okay, and I
Speaker 7: think we started probably recordingated ninety six. I'm Ready came
Speaker 7: out in ninety three, yeah, right, so.
Speaker 4: Oh and then we got the Goofy movie that was
Speaker 4: ninety five, and I.
Speaker 7: Did a lot of stuff in between us, a lot
Speaker 7: of soundtracks and a lot of stuff I did it
Speaker 7: between that.
Speaker 1: Hey, Joe, we're forgetting something. We're forgetting something. What is it? Dude?
Speaker 1: Can you please talk about Black Men United? Yeah? Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4: We would have staled ourselves.
Speaker 2: There was always that one moment when the interviews over,
Speaker 2: We're kicking ourselves because we forgot to ask something, and
Speaker 2: I was like, I know we're forgetting something.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 4: Hell yeah, yeah he's on the first you sunk leadoff
Speaker 4: or no, let's go.
Speaker 12: Man, Yeah you would know. I mean yeah, I just
Speaker 12: remember the video shoot again being the past, and I
Speaker 12: showed up at the video shoot. I think I got
Speaker 12: into the argument with somebody and I left the video shoot.
Speaker 12: That's why you see me in the booth on the
Speaker 12: video by myself, not with everybody else.
Speaker 5: I know there's another accident after the fact, yep. But
Speaker 5: yeah it was bad.
Speaker 3: How old were you? How old town?
Speaker 5: How were you? I don't know what was that?
Speaker 1: Well you were? It came out in ninety five.
Speaker 5: Four, it was eighteen nineteen. Such a bread. That was
Speaker 5: such a bread.
Speaker 7: But that's a great song. That's a great song. I
Speaker 7: liked the live performance better than I liked the record.
Speaker 7: But the live performance were all on stage.
Speaker 1: So you guys did at the American Music Awards, And
Speaker 1: did you do it on our Sinio as well?
Speaker 5: I don't think so.
Speaker 1: I remember the American Music Awards.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, I could be wrong about our Senior though.
Speaker 1: But okay, well I know I've seen it once.
Speaker 2: So it was the thing where they just sort of
Speaker 2: gathered all the people on that song at different places
Speaker 2: and they did their parts.
Speaker 1: And it wasn't like I left.
Speaker 5: Yeah I was. I was something else.
Speaker 1: I left.
Speaker 5: I got into with somebody because I was late, and
Speaker 5: I just left.
Speaker 6: You got into it with somebody because you was late,
Speaker 6: You got it?
Speaker 7: Yeah, I was.
Speaker 1: It wasn't so I was right. Oh, I'm playing D.
Speaker 1: I'm playing D. Don't don't kick man.
Speaker 8: But somewhere there's that elder who's been watching you from
Speaker 8: the jump and they're like, yeah, that stage, it's Heaven's life.
Speaker 3: Wasn't my favorite. He was a little bit of an asshole.
Speaker 5: There's somewhere I had angels watching over me. I'm telling
Speaker 5: you that much.
Speaker 3: But I was.
Speaker 5: I was a kid.
Speaker 7: I had to I had a lot of authority. So yeah,
Speaker 7: you know when you give kids to authority sometimes, So wait.
Speaker 3: To that question.
Speaker 8: It's interesting because you were you were one of the
Speaker 8: first of an era in that way. So do do
Speaker 8: the other young guys who kind of followed in your footsteps?
Speaker 8: Does anybody ever go do you know what?
Speaker 3: Let me call Tevin. I know he been through this.
Speaker 5: I hope they don't. I don't have anything.
Speaker 3: You ain't got nothing for him.
Speaker 5: I have nothing for you have to sort of go
Speaker 5: through life, your whole life, and learn.
Speaker 1: From unless I'm under a rock somewhere, it's not like.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 1: Of course you came right right before social media was.
Speaker 5: Even the thing.
Speaker 3: Lucky for you.
Speaker 5: Yeah, thank god. I lucky for my childhood on social media.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I mean, you know, it's crazy, you know, the
Speaker 7: nineties and stuff that we did back in the night.
Speaker 1: But anyway, sorry, all right, I got to ask, did
Speaker 1: you crash your car or something?
Speaker 5: Oh? Yeah, I crashed it plenty times. Me me can
Speaker 5: crash several cars.
Speaker 1: Oh wow, what was your first car? Since you were
Speaker 1: a car person, what was your car fleet?
Speaker 7: Like?
Speaker 1: What was your scars?
Speaker 8: Like?
Speaker 5: What was my first car?
Speaker 3: Yeah, because you love them so much too.
Speaker 5: I only had a couple of cars. It was the
Speaker 5: big Long Mercedings.
Speaker 3: Oh, the West African Join the S five.
Speaker 5: Hundred back then it was ninety two after Long Grade.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and.
Speaker 3: We call them Nigerian Benzies.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they're coming to America, America, Joff Joe fo All right,
Speaker 2: my god, y'all.
Speaker 5: Will bringing back some crazy memories right now.
Speaker 7: Turned myself riding around that John, I did some drunk
Speaker 7: driving and all that stuff, like I did bad things.
Speaker 7: I did bad crash.
Speaker 3: They are so lucky.
Speaker 2: Oh they I'm only asking because like I just generally
Speaker 2: never just it wasn't like you. I don't think that
Speaker 2: you were in that Britney Spears Lane. Were sort of like, man,
Speaker 2: I don't think he's gonna make it.
Speaker 1: He came sort of thing.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it wasn't like train wreck. I don't remember it.
Speaker 5: Well, she's white.
Speaker 7: When you when you were white and in the business,
Speaker 7: I didn't have to worry about paparazzi and stuff like that.
Speaker 5: That's not something that I don't know how. I'm not
Speaker 5: trying to be racist.
Speaker 2: Or anything like that, but this is the one benefits
Speaker 2: where beings versus white.
Speaker 4: Yeah, don't worry.
Speaker 1: Damn Steve, you're you're really on the twelve four right now.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's the one they went to the grocery store. Listen,
Speaker 3: go ahead.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was gonna say this is probably the rare
Speaker 2: situation where being black benefits you, and the fact that
Speaker 2: if you were white, you will probably have been on
Speaker 2: the globes whatnot as far as the mentor is concerned, Like,
Speaker 2: who would you say, was there anyone that could get
Speaker 2: through to you, like as far as being a mentor
Speaker 2: a quincy figure or whatever.
Speaker 5: At that time though.
Speaker 3: Listening to Miss Rond or your mama, yep.
Speaker 5: And then when I didn't, I fell on my ass
Speaker 5: hard too, So my mom was pretty much on a
Speaker 5: person like getch to me.
Speaker 2: That's kind of the lesson that I'm learning now, Like
Speaker 2: oftentimes the universe of life will present a situation to
Speaker 2: you in which you can either heed the call or continuous,
Speaker 2: you know, sort of be hard headed. And oftentimes people
Speaker 2: only learn the lessons when they hit.
Speaker 1: A rock rock rock bottom.
Speaker 8: And it felt like the Hairspray period of time too,
Speaker 8: was a turnaround, Like I felt like Hairspray was a
Speaker 8: whole lifting, like it was a.
Speaker 1: Well I had.
Speaker 8: I have.
Speaker 7: I've had many turnarounds, but most of them I didn't
Speaker 7: listen And too, why didn't pay attention.
Speaker 1: To I mean, you see what's happening with mainly with
Speaker 1: younger rappers or whatever.
Speaker 2: But I mean, first of all, do you think that
Speaker 2: you're even in a space in life from which you
Speaker 2: could actually like mentor someone to be like yo, like.
Speaker 5: I was you in the situation, And nah, I don't
Speaker 5: really believe in that.
Speaker 7: I really don't because you everybody's excuse me. Life is different, everybody,
Speaker 7: every experience is different. And if you ask me my
Speaker 7: advice on something, I'll give it to you. But I
Speaker 7: don't believe in mentoring. I never believed in that.
Speaker 10: I know, I know.
Speaker 5: That's where I just don't believe in it. I just
Speaker 5: don't believe.
Speaker 8: It's just fascinating because you come from so many mentors
Speaker 8: in a way, so people perceive mentors.
Speaker 7: Well even their words that the even advice that I
Speaker 7: got from them didn't work. Until you have to understand
Speaker 7: life in your own way. I don't care what advice
Speaker 7: someone gives you, you know, you know what I'm saying, Like,
Speaker 7: you have to go through life in.
Speaker 5: Your own way and understand stuff your own way. That's
Speaker 5: what I realized.
Speaker 1: I don't know, you gotta learn, You got to learn
Speaker 1: on your own.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, there are things that I remember my
Speaker 5: great aunt saying when I was little.
Speaker 1: You know, you know.
Speaker 7: When I used to talk back to my mom, she
Speaker 7: used to say, and I used to tell her what
Speaker 7: she annoys me. She used to say that there were
Speaker 7: things after you died, there are worst things that that
Speaker 7: could happen to you. If you talk to you, mom,
Speaker 7: I'll never forget that. Like she's saying, you're gonna burn
Speaker 7: in hell, and you keep talking.
Speaker 3: To you back to your words, I'm like, you ain't
Speaker 3: get no whoopings. That's what that was.
Speaker 4: Like, Little things like that, You're the last album it was.
Speaker 4: It was self titled, but I remember reading a review
Speaker 4: of that one, and I think the original title was Dandylion,
Speaker 4: So was that the title album? Probably?
Speaker 1: Probably?
Speaker 4: Another way I really loved that song. Like another way
Speaker 4: was I thought that was really gonna go up. You
Speaker 4: know what I'm saying, I don't.
Speaker 5: I don't like I don't like it at all.
Speaker 1: I I.
Speaker 5: Don't hate it.
Speaker 7: But it was a point in my life where I
Speaker 7: did not care about the album. I didn't care about
Speaker 7: any I did not care about that. I didn't care
Speaker 7: about that. I didn't care about that. There's a couple
Speaker 7: of songs that I like, but that whole period was
Speaker 7: just just confusion.
Speaker 1: Damn. I got a question about the Cocoa song.
Speaker 5: Oh, that's a lovely song. I liked that song. I
Speaker 5: like that.
Speaker 2: I was going to say I went to school with
Speaker 2: one of the songwriters on that song. But did you like,
Speaker 2: did Susan Charles just submit that song to you or I.
Speaker 5: Don't remember how it happened. I mean I remember going
Speaker 5: down to Darryl Simmons studio and we recorded it being
Speaker 5: me and Coco okay, and it was a lot of fun.
Speaker 5: But I don't remember how I was submitted. I'm shoot
Speaker 5: submitted through Warner Brothers or something like that. But it's
Speaker 5: a beautiful song. I love that song.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Susette is the young lady. I went to school
Speaker 1: with her in elementary.
Speaker 2: But she was the young lady who replaced Vanessa Williams
Speaker 2: when she had to give.
Speaker 1: Up a crown for Miss America.
Speaker 2: Oh wow, Oh first place was Miss Jersey, who was
Speaker 2: also a black woman.
Speaker 3: Dang untold stories.
Speaker 1: Wow she was. She was best friends with my sister
Speaker 1: doing so, you know, I kind of grew up with
Speaker 1: Susette and I know that she did some songwriting.
Speaker 8: Whatever, Keavin, do you do you mind talking about the
Speaker 8: Broadway thing and like what made you make that transition
Speaker 8: into theater?
Speaker 1: Don't?
Speaker 5: I don't mind talking about it now. Someone just got
Speaker 5: a call Quest.
Speaker 7: They were trying to find me, and they called Quest
Speaker 7: Records and they finally located me and they asked me
Speaker 7: to come out and read for this part. So it
Speaker 7: was Matt Lynz, who was the assistant director. His partner
Speaker 7: recommended me for the part of Seaweed. He was like,
Speaker 7: where's Tevin Campbell And they found me. Wow, And I
Speaker 7: came out and I auditioned in front of all the people,
Speaker 7: the directors and everybody, and then I walked out and
Speaker 7: they didn't call me back in and told me we
Speaker 7: got the part. So I played the Seaweed in Hairspray
Speaker 7: for like on Broadway for like four years, and then
Speaker 7: I went to Australia and lived out there for two
Speaker 7: years and did it with a whole different cast and directors.
Speaker 5: So it was a lot of fun. Yeah, So I
Speaker 5: played Seaweed for like six years on the Broadway on
Speaker 5: the theater stage.
Speaker 1: All right, can you answer something for me Australia. And
Speaker 1: I keep trying to tell people this that you know,
Speaker 1: I come from Philadelphia, which was you know, at one point,
Speaker 1: you know they held the torch for a certain type
Speaker 1: of soul music.
Speaker 2: Okay, I'll say it, Neil sol I don't see neo
Speaker 2: soul as a four letter word, but oftentimes, like you know,
Speaker 2: on social media, whatever, just the amount of soul singers
Speaker 2: that I see in Australia is staggering. So Ruwan one
Speaker 2: of my managers when I was DJ and during the pandemic,
Speaker 2: he's kind of like my DJ manager, tech guy. He's
Speaker 2: from Australia, and he explained to me that's similar to
Speaker 2: the UK. You know, like we live in America where
Speaker 2: basically corporate radio controls the music that you're listening to.
Speaker 2: Six six months from now, you know, a clear channel
Speaker 2: will have already pre programmed, you know, the next little
Speaker 2: Baby song or the next Doja Cat song, like we're
Speaker 2: gonna play this fifty times, and you know, they have monopolies,
Speaker 2: which is why we hear the same songs over and
Speaker 2: over and over and over and over, whereas government radio
Speaker 2: I e BBC one, BBC two, and the same with Australia.
Speaker 2: It's still kind of like nineteen seventy eight or seventy
Speaker 2: nine in America, where they actually trust the DJ to
Speaker 2: be like this is.
Speaker 1: Cool, this is not cool this.
Speaker 2: And so as a result, rue explained to me, because
Speaker 2: I was trying to it's like suddenly out of nowhere
Speaker 2: to start hearing like music that I would have gravitated
Speaker 2: towards but by these Australian musicians. I mean you see it,
Speaker 2: No Hiatus, Coyote and all that. But Rue was basically
Speaker 2: explaining to me that on mainstream radio, you know, Eric
Speaker 2: Abadu got equal time you know to Justin Timberlake or
Speaker 2: Christina Aguilera or whatever, like it wasn't like pop radios
Speaker 2: here and black radios here, Like.
Speaker 3: They don't got black radio in Australia.
Speaker 2: Right, No, But that's the thing, and that's why a
Speaker 2: festival there's there's a there's a soul festival that's almost
Speaker 2: like three times the size of Coachella, in which the
Speaker 2: lineup is basically like the roots picnic on steroids. Like
Speaker 2: every time you see the lineup, I think it's a
Speaker 2: gag or like not true, it'll be like Maxwell DiAngelo,
Speaker 2: you know as WV that like imagine seeing that sort
Speaker 2: of lineup. But just with every black actor you ever loved.
Speaker 1: And I my old thing was, when you were living
Speaker 1: down there, did you notice a love for black music
Speaker 1: or even your catalog that you weren't finding in the
Speaker 1: States at all?
Speaker 5: Well yeah, yeah, and both on the radio and from
Speaker 5: the cast I was working with.
Speaker 7: So the girl that played the lead Park, who was
Speaker 7: like twenty, I don't know, six twenty five.
Speaker 5: She started singing good Times by Retha Franklin.
Speaker 7: I literally almost had hers breakdown because I never heard
Speaker 7: of white girl singing good Times by Rutha Franklin literally,
Speaker 7: and she had this amazing voice.
Speaker 5: She could really sing. She knew all of the oldies.
Speaker 7: And so we were riding around they would be playing
Speaker 7: stuff that I had never heard in America by these artists,
Speaker 7: these R and B artists that I had never heard,
Speaker 7: and that kind of surprised me. And it wasn't You're right,
Speaker 7: they don't have black station white stations. They just kind
Speaker 7: of blade it all together. But they have a huge
Speaker 7: appreciation for us, right.
Speaker 8: I was just trying to understand Australia as a content anyway,
Speaker 8: Like do they have black people outside of the natives
Speaker 8: Aboriginal people?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 8: I'm like, is they they have the concept of black
Speaker 8: America and where these lyrics come from and all of
Speaker 8: these things, or is it just like white people listening
Speaker 8: to us so old.
Speaker 7: They they have more of a concept of us than
Speaker 7: we do of ourselves. Because let me tell you something
Speaker 7: about Australia, and you speak to anyone over there. They
Speaker 7: can do an American accent easy. You can speak to
Speaker 7: an eight year old and they can do an American
Speaker 7: accent because they study.
Speaker 6: Us, right, that's an American accents telling it.
Speaker 5: What I'm saying is they know our culture. They know
Speaker 5: our culture.
Speaker 7: They know they can tell you about hip hop and
Speaker 7: you I'm telling you it's some hip hopsters over there.
Speaker 1: They that true like music.
Speaker 5: I lived there for two years. I'm telling you it's
Speaker 5: like that. Now. Not all of the white people are
Speaker 5: like that in Australia, but I was. I was surprised
Speaker 5: by the knowledge.
Speaker 7: I was surprised by the knowledge that some of these
Speaker 7: people that I have met had a black music past
Speaker 7: and present.
Speaker 3: Wow, so they're better students than the Japanese.
Speaker 2: Like there was a point where I'll say, like in
Speaker 2: ninety six ninety seven, where pre ferg EPs or group
Speaker 2: like the Jurassic Five, or even like.
Speaker 1: Ben Ben Harper, Ben Harm. I mean selling out like
Speaker 1: yank Can you imagine?
Speaker 2: Like literally the first thing was like I call my
Speaker 2: boys up, like yo, man, we're we are actually open
Speaker 2: up for the Dieraxic five and we're playing like a
Speaker 2: Yankee Stadium type of venue, Like we couldn't believe like
Speaker 2: that was the big industry that basically like underground black
Speaker 2: acts get treated like gods over there.
Speaker 5: That's what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: We couldn't, we couldn't fathom it, and simply because they're
Speaker 2: really wasn't in apartheid with radio yet you know, like
Speaker 2: they all got equal billing, which is like imagine like
Speaker 2: listen to smells like teen Spirit and then like a
Speaker 2: second lady, they're playing like chicken grease like an album cut,
Speaker 2: not like, oh, here's the single, but it's just it's
Speaker 2: crazy like that over there.
Speaker 3: This culture is definitely too Yeah, it's cool. I'm glad
Speaker 3: y'all liked it.
Speaker 6: I just didn't love it was as much many black
Speaker 6: people to you know, enjoy their culture.
Speaker 3: Okay, good stuff.
Speaker 7: There's some black people over there over there, but they
Speaker 7: don't live in the same area as as that. You know,
Speaker 7: it depends on where you go. You go to Melbourne,
Speaker 7: you get their African stead there.
Speaker 2: I also say this much, most most of the underground,
Speaker 2: like hip hopper is like you know, I can name
Speaker 2: I mean, I can't rattle off names right now, but
Speaker 2: I'll say a good ten to twenty of them have
Speaker 2: made their homes in.
Speaker 1: Australia now, which is just like.
Speaker 2: You know, basically like America, just there's there's almost no
Speaker 2: future here if you're trying to make a living or
Speaker 2: make a splash as far as culture is concerned.
Speaker 8: I'm listening. I'm like, you know, ro versus way. God,
Speaker 8: motherfuckers think a difference. So I'm listening in places to go.
Speaker 7: So where they regular, where they regulate a woman's body
Speaker 7: more than they regulate guns.
Speaker 5: And that's what we're doing. It is my god, it's insane,
Speaker 5: you know, for you.
Speaker 2: To have this illustrious career and you're like, in your
Speaker 2: your thirtieth year, what are your top five seven Campbell's
Speaker 2: songs as far as like songs that you like and
Speaker 2: don't give me that every song's my kid.
Speaker 5: Like I'll give you. I'll give you some good songs.
Speaker 3: Because you're appreciating them now, said I do.
Speaker 5: I appreciate my work now more than I ever have. Okay,
Speaker 5: so I'm gonna give you some real answers.
Speaker 6: I love.
Speaker 5: I know my Redeemer lived. I did that on the
Speaker 5: Hammle's Sosiah soundtrack. Heard it, No, never heard that. I
Speaker 5: can we talk? I like my vocal performance on there.
Speaker 5: I think it's one of the best.
Speaker 7: Holy Night, all right, holy Night. I like a perfect
Speaker 7: World from the first album.
Speaker 5: It's just it's I love it. Trying to think of
Speaker 5: a really good one.
Speaker 7: Then I listened to Weekly, Oh yeah, Tomorrow, Tomorrow, Yeah, tomorrow, definitely.
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's one of the gains.
Speaker 7: I enjoy listening to that because I sound totally different,
Speaker 7: and it's when I its my first record. This is
Speaker 7: so cute, you know, like you know, I will never
Speaker 7: ever sounds like that ever again, and it's the first one.
Speaker 7: So yeah, that's really special to me.
Speaker 5: I like that one.
Speaker 2: So for you in your your future, is there are
Speaker 2: there any other bucket list things that you would like
Speaker 2: it to accomplish?
Speaker 3: Return to the stage. I returned to the theatrical stage.
Speaker 3: Are there any be our way with performances? Are you
Speaker 3: ever going to return to the stage.
Speaker 5: I would love to go back to Broadway, but I
Speaker 5: really I.
Speaker 7: Wouldn't be happy until I wanted Grammy. So it all
Speaker 7: it takes is one song to win a Grammy, so
Speaker 7: I really do. I'm working on that album and I
Speaker 7: really really want to release another album.
Speaker 5: I just need a Grammy. I'll be happy when I
Speaker 5: went with my Grammy. I would love to act. I
Speaker 5: would love to do film and team. I've always wanted
Speaker 5: to do that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, how was Queen Sugar Man? You did the Queen
Speaker 4: Sugar for.
Speaker 5: How I wasn't I should have? I need to do
Speaker 5: it again because I was like not ready to catch up?
Speaker 3: What season.
Speaker 5: Years ago?
Speaker 3: No it wasn't.
Speaker 1: No it wasn't. I didn't get the season four yet.
Speaker 1: I'm still years ago.
Speaker 5: But no acting.
Speaker 7: And I would like to write a book when I'm
Speaker 7: like sixty. I would like to write a book. I
Speaker 7: wanted to do a podcast and talk about the pros
Speaker 7: and cons of childhood starting.
Speaker 3: But okay, so what's on?
Speaker 5: A whole bunch of childhood form and childhood stars are there?
Speaker 1: But that network.
Speaker 5: I really would like to do, like an album like
Speaker 5: Barry Manilow did, like classic songs.
Speaker 7: I've always wanted to do an album like that because
Speaker 7: I love classic songs like Frank Sinatra songs and stuff
Speaker 7: like that.
Speaker 5: But I'm just thinking out loud, have.
Speaker 3: You been saying a feature requests happen?
Speaker 8: Because I feel like a lot of these young kids
Speaker 8: they have to hit you up for the for the
Speaker 8: Tevin sound like they've.
Speaker 3: Been You've been saying no, You've been saying no, I have.
Speaker 5: Been saying no. But nobody asked me nothing like that.
Speaker 3: Man, I can't believe to.
Speaker 5: Call them. I don't believe.
Speaker 3: I'm like with all of this, you know everybody.
Speaker 5: You know what.
Speaker 1: That's the question I avoid the most because I hate
Speaker 1: when I'm asked that question. Like people always be like
Speaker 1: anybody that you like.
Speaker 2: I didn't have that no, no, no no, And I
Speaker 2: never asked that, but I was just ask in general,
Speaker 2: is there anyone that's made a record in the last
Speaker 2: ten years?
Speaker 1: Is something that like really touched you? Like, Okay, I
Speaker 1: like that record or that song, or.
Speaker 5: I like Jazzmine Sullivan. When I heard her, uh that
Speaker 5: makes sense Hotels really sort of.
Speaker 3: Talk about it.
Speaker 5: It was interesting how she just.
Speaker 7: Put her whole life, that story into the hour, because
Speaker 7: that's kind of what I want to do with my
Speaker 7: story that I'm trying to tell. And I think I
Speaker 7: was very pressed at how she did that and made
Speaker 7: it relatable and made it enjoyable and entertaining at.
Speaker 5: The same time.
Speaker 3: Oh so Jasmine can make the call and you would
Speaker 3: say yes, okay.
Speaker 5: Oh, and I love her voice.
Speaker 2: You know, I think she's great saying I think we
Speaker 2: have an end of Jasmine, do we I think we
Speaker 2: got a little something some song.
Speaker 1: I think we haven't endo her.
Speaker 7: I like Lord too. I think she's very talented. I
Speaker 7: heard her songwriting and the way she tells stories the album.
Speaker 7: That album influenced me. I think it was her last
Speaker 7: album that she released. So those two albums, I think
Speaker 7: really got me thinking how I want to write my
Speaker 7: album because it's not gonna be.
Speaker 5: Can we talk? It's not gonna be. I'm ready.
Speaker 7: I kind of want to tell my story in a
Speaker 7: way that everybody can relate to, though, so I don't
Speaker 7: want to stir people too far away from the formula.
Speaker 7: But I do have a story to tell, you know,
Speaker 7: I have story is to tell. I can't just think
Speaker 7: about love.
Speaker 1: So this this has been a long time coming.
Speaker 2: I think at first like two years ago, and I'm
Speaker 2: so glad that we finally got to have this conversation.
Speaker 1: All right, Well on.
Speaker 2: Behalf of you know Sugar, Steve Unpaid, Bill like yeah
Speaker 2: and front Tikolo.
Speaker 1: This is Quest Love. Another great episode of quts Love.
Speaker 1: We will see you good people on the next go round.
Speaker 1: Quest Loove Supreme c LA. Thank You Must Love. Supreme
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