Speaker 1: Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. This classic
Speaker 1: episode was produced by the team at Pandora.
Speaker 2: What up, y'all is Layah from Team Supreme. Okay, So
Speaker 2: it's June, and you know it is Black Music Month. Now,
Speaker 2: This month and its cause was started by my godmother,
Speaker 2: Dianna Williams, the legendary Kenny Gamble, and the great and
Speaker 2: right back in nineteen seventy nine after being invited to
Speaker 2: the White House along with the Black Music Association. Now,
Speaker 2: the Black Music Association was a group of black folks
Speaker 2: that were the best of the best of the music industry.
Speaker 2: I'm talking record execs, I'm talking radio people, I'm talking artists.
Speaker 2: I'm talking to everybody from Clarence Avon and Frankie Crocker
Speaker 2: to Percy Sutton, everybody in the middle right. So they
Speaker 2: all get invited to this big party on the White
Speaker 2: House lawn June seventh, nineteen seventy nine. And before the
Speaker 2: performances started, President Carter said many things addressing and reminding
Speaker 2: people of the importance of Black Music Month, and one
Speaker 2: of the things he said was end quote in many ways,
Speaker 2: the feelings of our own black citizens throughout the history
Speaker 2: of our country has been accurately expressed in the music,
Speaker 2: and it presents a kind of history of our nation
Speaker 2: when you go back and see.
Speaker 3: The evolution of black music words.
Speaker 2: So we've spoken a lot about Black Music Month on
Speaker 2: Questlove Supreme, and this June we are running a different
Speaker 2: episode from the QLs archives every single day in the name,
Speaker 2: Spirit and Cause of Black Music Month. We're kicking things
Speaker 2: off with the Godmother, herself, mine and yours. I'm talking
Speaker 2: about Miss Dianna Williams.
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 2: This is from our twenty nineteen conversation live in person
Speaker 2: at Larry Gold Studios.
Speaker 5: Enjoy Suprima Sun Sun Supremo Role called Subprima Sun sub
Speaker 5: Prie Mo Role call Supremeau Sun Suprema roll call Supremo
Speaker 5: Sun Sun Up Breme my roll.
Speaker 4: What's love in the place?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 4: With the end and the fan Yeah, is that so cool?
Speaker 6: Yeah?
Speaker 4: I am Supreme, Roll came up, Brave Up Supremo role.
Speaker 4: My name is Fante, Yeah, and I can say our
Speaker 4: hung Yeah with that beautiful lady. Yeah from Unsung Roll Up.
Speaker 5: Brave Son Supreme roll called Suprema Sun Sun.
Speaker 7: Supreme A roll call.
Speaker 8: My name is Sugar, Yeah, and I hope that one day. Yeah,
Speaker 8: I can be a guest. Yeah on Soulful Sunday Up.
Speaker 5: Brave Supreme Roll Supreme, Supreme Role.
Speaker 9: My name is Bill, Yeah to the extreme. Yeah, oh
Speaker 9: well that's with Yeah every moonbeas.
Speaker 4: Suprema Son Supremo.
Speaker 5: Roll called Suprema Son Son Supremo.
Speaker 4: Roll called Bill.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: And here's the thing.
Speaker 8: Yeah, last night, Yeah, too many Chicken.
Speaker 4: Supremo. Roll call Suprema So Supremo.
Speaker 3: Roll call.
Speaker 2: It's like yeah, and my god mother Dianna, Yeah mother
Speaker 2: black music mom.
Speaker 3: Yeah, nobody knows it better.
Speaker 5: Roll call Suprema Son Sign Supremo. Roll call Suprema Son
Speaker 5: Son Supremo.
Speaker 9: Roll call.
Speaker 10: My name is Dianna, Yeah, not Banana. Yeah, light skinning
Speaker 10: like one. Yeah, but I'm Danna.
Speaker 5: Roll So Supremo, roll Suprema So So Suprevo. Roll call
Speaker 5: Suprema Son Son Supremo.
Speaker 4: Roll Nice, nice one. Ladies and gentlemen, Welcome to another
Speaker 4: episode of Questlove Supreme. We are officially back home. We
Speaker 4: are back home, Steve. We are back Steve, back where
Speaker 4: we below? How do you feel to be bad?
Speaker 10: Ladies?
Speaker 4: We are live, okay, we are recording right, We are
Speaker 4: recording right now at Milk Boy Studio formerly known and
Speaker 4: still sort of conduct currently known as the Studio. We
Speaker 4: are actually in the room where the lyrics of You
Speaker 4: Got Me, the Song that Changed My Life was was recorded.
Speaker 4: The vocals were done all the things while a part
Speaker 4: vocals were done here, as subsequently every Roots album afterwards,
Speaker 4: from Phrenology on down to Rising Down. But we are
Speaker 4: in studio A a lot of a lot of Philadelphia history. Wow. Yeah,
Speaker 4: in this room smells like yeah PTSD Steve Man.
Speaker 8: I'm telling you, it's gritty here, it's got the grit.
Speaker 9: And this is one of the places that Rich made
Speaker 9: me cut vocals like verse like thirty damn times.
Speaker 4: Like it was. Yeah. I told like this it's all
Speaker 4: Rich Nichols here.
Speaker 7: Yeah, yeah, this is this is the spirit of the Rich.
Speaker 2: Nichols episode showed me poring in the room. Next you're
Speaker 2: first born, not my first, but my first Rich Nichols.
Speaker 7: Oh no, wow, okay, Nate Saturday morning.
Speaker 4: Can we do this right now? We have yes in
Speaker 4: the room.
Speaker 7: Oh wait a minute, would you like the honor?
Speaker 2: Ya?
Speaker 10: Don't do that to me.
Speaker 3: You prepared and you wrote it down.
Speaker 4: I'd have to see.
Speaker 7: I'll come like like, uh what do you call it?
Speaker 10: Uh, you can do the cleanup?
Speaker 3: Can I do it?
Speaker 10: But you have to do the No.
Speaker 4: I think this. I think it's only apropos and and
Speaker 4: for you, I agree to introduce our guest today. Okay,
Speaker 4: if i'm if, i'm if I'm based on you're talking,
Speaker 4: I feel like I feel like this is the chip
Speaker 4: off the old block here.
Speaker 3: So yeah, it's a it's a small chip of a
Speaker 3: big block.
Speaker 10: How about it.
Speaker 2: I'm the small ship of a blick box. You're gonna
Speaker 2: make me be boxes, all right? So, ladies and gentlemen,
Speaker 2: boys and girls. The woman who wait, you know what
Speaker 2: it is, Deanna.
Speaker 4: You have a way. You have a way to make
Speaker 4: everyone who lose their cool. Yo, I'm good over here.
Speaker 3: What it's just me and a mirror.
Speaker 4: I'm literally I feel I can be in the room
Speaker 4: with any human being and just be like, no big deal,
Speaker 4: President Obama, Michael Jordan's whatever, Stevie and I'll be down
Speaker 4: on the second like. But with Deanna, there's there's a
Speaker 4: very regal like I always sit up stravery regal collegemen.
Speaker 4: All right, So that yeah, this this we we are
Speaker 4: in the presence of royalty right now. This is gonna
Speaker 4: be the longest introduction ever, the most eloquent when I've
Speaker 4: ever done in the.
Speaker 7: History of the show. Yes, exactly from the No.
Speaker 4: Seriously, this woman has history in the city of Philadelphia.
Speaker 4: I've I'm in my career took uh uh a. I
Speaker 4: can't even talk. It's hard to describe. Have some barriers
Speaker 4: and relax, listen, start with your you can start with
Speaker 4: that way. I will. Yeah, I will say that I first,
Speaker 4: my my first real entrance into the non nepotism Le
Speaker 4: Andrews world that I came from, really started with I
Speaker 4: am and interning.
Speaker 2: And network International Association of African American Music.
Speaker 4: Yes, she wow, she is about No one know what
Speaker 4: I am. You're talking about NAS album?
Speaker 7: Yes, where is this going?
Speaker 4: Oh my god, I'm not gonna let it be ten
Speaker 4: minutes before I say, Ladies and jon.
Speaker 10: I'm thrilled and honored to be with you and Radio
Speaker 10: Legend officially welcome you to the city of brotherly love
Speaker 10: sisterly affects.
Speaker 3: So she also coined that term.
Speaker 2: I forgot to mention that the sisterly affection part. Yes,
Speaker 2: animations and things like that.
Speaker 10: Yeah, inclusion right, women have been part of the fabric
Speaker 10: of Philadelphia and everywhere every place for as long as.
Speaker 7: I've listened to Philly radio. Right now, her voice is
Speaker 7: very soothing.
Speaker 4: Yeah it is.
Speaker 7: I feel like she's going to turn around and interview
Speaker 7: us any moments.
Speaker 10: It's discourse, it's conversation with human exchange.
Speaker 4: Always spoke. I was about to say, the one area
Speaker 4: that you have not affected is because sometimes you clean
Speaker 4: up for a company and then you're like the Lenny
Speaker 4: Kravits episode, which yeah, god for we did get which
Speaker 4: we did that one episode.
Speaker 7: You cleaned up nicely, you know. But I'm just saying that.
Speaker 2: It was.
Speaker 6: Right.
Speaker 10: Sound like whatever I raised right there, she.
Speaker 4: Knew when when this voice come to be? When did you?
Speaker 4: I feel like you're always in regal honey milk. I
Speaker 4: feel like the term honey milk or whatever.
Speaker 10: No, that's not what my lover says when we're fighting,
Speaker 10: not at all.
Speaker 2: No.
Speaker 10: I grew up, first of all. I'll take you back
Speaker 10: to the beginning. I was born in Queens, raised as
Speaker 10: a small young girl in the Bronx and ten my
Speaker 10: family moved to Puerto Rico. My mother's Puerto Rican. I'm
Speaker 10: half Puerto Rican, so my mother was a college professor
Speaker 10: So we moved to pr to bayamong which is where
Speaker 10: a lot of my family is, and I spent two
Speaker 10: years perfecting my non Spanish, my new Yurekan Spanish.
Speaker 4: So you had a new Yurekan voice.
Speaker 10: Uh well, well no, just no accent if you're talking
Speaker 10: about I read it, write it, and speak it. And
Speaker 10: I learned to do that. I learned how to speak it.
Speaker 10: I learned Spanish before I learned English because my mother
Speaker 10: was in school, my father was working, but my grandmother,
Speaker 10: who spoke no English whatsoever, was my caretaker. So I
Speaker 10: learned Spanish before I learned English, or probably simultaneously. And
Speaker 10: it's mom, my mother's mom. My maternal side of the
Speaker 10: family is Puerto Rican. My father's from Culpeper. My father
Speaker 10: has transitioned, but my people were from Culpeper, Virginia. So yeah, Spanish, English,
Speaker 10: but New York. And then when we moved back to
Speaker 10: the States, I grew up in Harlem as a teenager.
Speaker 10: So I was informed by this amazing upbringing that I
Speaker 10: had in New York, a cosmopolitan city with people from
Speaker 10: all you know, spectrums, all parts of the world, and
Speaker 10: all social economic backgrounds. So my, when I consider my formulation,
Speaker 10: my development. It's as a result of being in this
Speaker 10: gumbo of humanity in New York City.
Speaker 7: You were how old when you came back to I
Speaker 7: was about.
Speaker 10: Twelve twelve, So I spent my formative teenage years in Harlem,
Speaker 10: the Schomberg And I have a.
Speaker 4: Question the hollow. Yes, okay, I'm curbly I have I'm
Speaker 4: currently working on a project right now that I didn't
Speaker 4: even know existed until about a year ago. But the
Speaker 4: world doesn't seem to know.
Speaker 2: That.
Speaker 4: On the summer of nineteen sixty nine, a festival was
Speaker 4: thrown in Harlem with I mean, in short, we called
Speaker 4: it black Woodstock. It was Nina Simone, sly On, the
Speaker 4: Family Stone, the Stables, singers, Jesse Jackson. Literally like when
Speaker 4: you see the footage, it's forty thousand people in a
Speaker 4: Harlem park in the summer of sixty nine.
Speaker 10: Was it Mount Morris Park?
Speaker 4: Yep?
Speaker 10: Mount Morris Park?
Speaker 4: Yes, okay, I recollection of Mount Morris Park that period.
Speaker 10: And well no, sixty nine, No, but Mount Morris Park absolutely,
Speaker 10: because I spent many times there for free concerts. Really yeah, absolutely?
Speaker 4: What was the environment musically in Harlem? Like, because I
Speaker 4: mean as much as I hear about the folklore of Harlem,
Speaker 4: not even in the jazz since but post jazz, I
Speaker 4: don't have a feel of what the culture was like
Speaker 4: it was.
Speaker 10: I mean, we're talking about the birthplace of the Harlem Renaissance.
Speaker 10: Harlem has always been a capital, a mecca of music
Speaker 10: and culture. So I grew up hearing music everywhere in Harlem.
Speaker 10: It was blasting out of people's radios, in their cars
Speaker 10: and their homes, the free concerts. I had a program
Speaker 10: in Harlem called Jazzmobile that was founded by are you
Speaker 10: familiar with this doctor? Billy Taylor was the founder of
Speaker 10: Jazzmobile and it provided free lessons to inner city youth.
Speaker 10: So for me, I studied the flute and my teacher
Speaker 10: was the legendary Jimmy Heath. What yes, Yes, Jimmy Heath
Speaker 10: was my flute teacher. And ironically, years later I ran
Speaker 10: into him in Saint Louis. He was with his brothers,
Speaker 10: the Heath brothers. Yeah, and he was We were in
Speaker 10: the Ritz Carlton. I was there to attend Steve mckeever's wedding.
Speaker 10: Steve mckever, the founder of Hidden Beach who signed Jill
Speaker 10: Scott and many others from Philadelphia.
Speaker 4: Kindred such a radio person, I wouldn't have trying to
Speaker 4: get you there.
Speaker 10: That's okay. So anyway, I saw Jimmy, and Jimmy calls
Speaker 10: me over and he says to his brothers, Deanna was
Speaker 10: my best student.
Speaker 2: I wanted to bore a whole go through the floor
Speaker 2: because I am so bad, horrible, talent less. You probably
Speaker 2: was the prettiest, well lovely, but honey, I could not.
Speaker 2: You know, you have to be able to improvise, and
Speaker 2: I just did not have those skills.
Speaker 10: I had an appreciation of sensitivity, a passion for the music,
Speaker 10: but I just don't have any talent.
Speaker 7: So I always hear about.
Speaker 4: Maybe like from the generation that came before I came up,
Speaker 4: and I guess, like, I'm I'm one of the last
Speaker 4: people that like the idea of like music appreciation and
Speaker 4: who knows what this uh instrument it is? And oh,
Speaker 4: I want to try that a viola, you know that
Speaker 4: sort of thing. But was it just expected even if
Speaker 4: you didn't have musical talent. Was it just expected like
Speaker 4: for a non musical person you just saw the flute
Speaker 4: and was like, okay, No.
Speaker 10: Actually, my first boyfriend that I lost my virginity too,
Speaker 10: from Brooklyn, Lethal he played the flute. So as a
Speaker 10: result of being around him in intimate circumstances, one day
Speaker 10: I just picked up his instrument. I'mad and I.
Speaker 3: Started remember super class and.
Speaker 10: I'm telling you what happened anyway, That's how I came
Speaker 10: to study the flute. Yeah, but interesting, So to your question,
Speaker 10: a mirror the question about music. Music and Harlem was everywhere,
Speaker 10: and even people who did not have talent or could
Speaker 10: play an instrument had an appreciation. We used to when
Speaker 10: we got music, we would sit together in a group
Speaker 10: and devour an album. We would read the liner notes,
Speaker 10: because back in the day everybody did liner notes for
Speaker 10: their music. We would read where it was recorded, who
Speaker 10: was the engineer, where everything, all of the details the
Speaker 10: minutia of a record. Not just did we absorb the music.
Speaker 10: Of course, we were smoking weed at that time, okay,
Speaker 10: all right, yeah, and we would just we were very
Speaker 10: knowledgeable when it came to music. That was expected of us,
Speaker 10: especially growing up in Harlem. That was the expectation that
Speaker 10: you were down whatever was new coming out, that you
Speaker 10: were going to their shows, that you were up on
Speaker 10: what was happening musically.
Speaker 4: Do you have any siblings.
Speaker 10: I'm an only child.
Speaker 4: What yeah, cousins.
Speaker 10: Exactly, I've got tons of cousins.
Speaker 4: So how did now this is unusual because usually, uh,
Speaker 4: it's the trickle cultural trickle down, a system of the
Speaker 4: older sibling puts the youngest one onto something and you
Speaker 4: absorb it. So who was your jaddy?
Speaker 8: My father?
Speaker 10: My father played the radio all the time. We listened
Speaker 10: to w ABC, the good Guys, and we also listened
Speaker 10: to w w r L, which was the African American
Speaker 10: AM station. So I grew up hearing, you know, all
Speaker 10: the mixed sounds because back in the day when I
Speaker 10: grew up, they played black and white artist on w ABC.
Speaker 10: But then wwr L only all black music. So that's
Speaker 10: where I got my ears. My daddy big on music.
Speaker 2: But the only all black station was the AMWWRL, Yeah,
Speaker 2: the AM station.
Speaker 11: Who were the personalities of the day, Well, Enoch Gregory,
Speaker 11: just you know, the good guys.
Speaker 10: I can't remember all the names, cousin Bruce. I mean,
Speaker 10: there were a ton of radio personalities. But the first
Speaker 10: woman that I ever heard on the radio, Vy Higginson.
Speaker 10: Vy Higginson, Well, she was on WBLS. Frankie Crocker and
Speaker 10: we're talking early seventies because I graduated from high school
Speaker 10: seventy one, the year that Marvin Gay released What's Going
Speaker 10: On That That is the soundtrack to My Life. That's
Speaker 10: the musica Franklin.
Speaker 7: That's what I just came out as you regret because
Speaker 7: that was yeah, yeah, yeah, it did.
Speaker 10: That's when it came out.
Speaker 4: Can you imagine going out into the world and wow.
Speaker 4: So yeah.
Speaker 10: Then w l I b FM became WBLS and that's
Speaker 10: where I heard Vy Higginson. And when I heard her,
Speaker 10: I just fell in love. I was enamored with her voice,
Speaker 10: her her style. It sounded like you were in her bedroom.
Speaker 10: It sounded very intimate, and that's what I went back to.
Speaker 10: Absolutely absolutely she.
Speaker 4: Was on air personality.
Speaker 10: Like she was an on air personality. She's still on
Speaker 10: the radio now on the station that's online in New
Speaker 10: York and what but she was Doris Troy's sister her
Speaker 10: and she did the play Mama I Want to Sing.
Speaker 10: That's by Higginson who produced it, and Doris Troy just
Speaker 10: well and look that was her sister Higginson. Okay, yeah,
Speaker 10: And Frankie Crocker. I'm a graduate of Frankie Crocker University,
Speaker 10: but I kind.
Speaker 7: Of want to go to school the Frankie Crocker School.
Speaker 4: Okay, So besplaying the magnitude of the power that Frankie
Speaker 4: Crocker had on New York and nationwide.
Speaker 10: Frankie Crocker was a radio personality and a programmer. I
Speaker 10: would say he was the dean of FM Black Radio
Speaker 10: at its at the beginning, and he programmed WBLS one
Speaker 10: oh seven point five in New York and later other
Speaker 10: stations around the country. But he had the most effortless style,
Speaker 10: very commanding presence on the radio, and he introduced New
Speaker 10: York audiences to Barry White disco, the sound of Philadelphia.
Speaker 10: But he would all so mix and maybe he would
Speaker 10: throw in some Frank Sinatra. He could do that because
Speaker 10: he was the program director. But it was an eclectic sound,
Speaker 10: and he said it was three hundred and sixty degrees
Speaker 10: of the total experience of black music. So Frankie Crocker
Speaker 10: hired me after I spent two years in Washington, DC
Speaker 10: at w h u R ninety six point three, which
Speaker 10: is also a very important radio station in the history
Speaker 10: of music and black radio because it was the home
Speaker 10: of the original Quiet Storm as created by Kathy Hughes,
Speaker 10: who is my best friend. Also the founder of Radio one,
Speaker 10: TV one Interactive one Urban one. Melvin Lindsay was He
Speaker 10: wasn't the first host, but he became. Yeah, there was some.
Speaker 2: There were I think two other hosts. Yeah, also from
Speaker 2: BT exactly Video Soul, like our.
Speaker 3: First black celebrities who passed from HIV exactly.
Speaker 10: That's very true, Layah. But Melvioyn was also my protege
Speaker 10: because he was a student. Howard University owned the radio station,
Speaker 10: but it was a commercial outlet in the middle of
Speaker 10: the dial, and Frankie Crocker liberally borrowed from what we
Speaker 10: were doing in Washington d C. Okay GC, Yeah, that's
Speaker 10: true after a while, but that's where I started as
Speaker 10: Ebony Moonbeams at w h U R and d C.
Speaker 10: I did not go to Howard. I was very very silly.
Speaker 10: I was very caught up. I was hired on the
Speaker 10: eve of my nineteenth birthday by a gentleman named Bob
Speaker 10: Nighthawk Terry, who's also another legendary if you saw the
Speaker 10: movie Talk to Me Labasaid's character. But that was the
Speaker 10: gentleman who hired me and gave me my break in
Speaker 10: radio in d C. So two years after being Ebny
Speaker 10: Moonbeams and being in DC, I got a call on
Speaker 10: the hotline from Frankie Crocker offering me a job first
Speaker 10: in Saint Louis. That didn't work out too well. I
Speaker 10: went to Saint Louis. In all due respect to Saint Louis,
Speaker 10: it was just too small for me. Okay, it just wasn't.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 10: My mama went with me and she was like, oh,
Speaker 10: not too much culture here. We gotta go. We have
Speaker 10: to go someplace else. It's true, it is. My mom
Speaker 10: is from there.
Speaker 3: I used to get my Oh my god, no Jerry
Speaker 3: Curls until like two thousands.
Speaker 10: Yeah, that wasn't That wasn't working for me. And then
Speaker 10: he offered me a job in Chicago. That didn't work
Speaker 10: either because the owners called me and said the money
Speaker 10: that mister Crocker offered you, we cannot afford to pay you.
Speaker 10: And I was like, okay, deuces. And then he called
Speaker 10: me again on the hotline at w h R. At
Speaker 10: this point I was doing mid days and he said,
Speaker 10: come come to New York, come come to be La,
Speaker 10: come home, come home.
Speaker 4: Wow, this is this is the episode I've been waiting
Speaker 4: for and all the questions I've had about every city,
Speaker 4: Can you explain why DC is such an important mecca
Speaker 4: for black music and being the Chocolate City and even
Speaker 4: even now to day like shows that we do in
Speaker 4: DC are way different. Maybe Detroit comes in a comes
Speaker 4: in a close second, But what is it about d C?
Speaker 4: So I'm assuming that the musical diet that the city
Speaker 4: is raised on that determines the the caliber of artists that.
Speaker 7: That come through the city.
Speaker 4: Am I correct?
Speaker 10: Yeah, you mentioned Chocolate City. It was definitively Chocolate City
Speaker 10: when I was there. It's been ultra gentified gentrified now,
Speaker 10: so it is no longer Chocolate City. But the DC
Speaker 10: that you're referring to, you know, it's the DMV, so
Speaker 10: it's the district of Columbia, Virginia and Maryland. But this
Speaker 10: you had the migration.
Speaker 2: You have people coming from the South, even the Midwest,
Speaker 2: moving to d C for government jobs.
Speaker 10: It's a government city. It's the you know, the nation's capital,
Speaker 10: largest black middle class in the country. There you go,
Speaker 10: So it created this middle class, but it people who
Speaker 10: had disposable income, and you know, music is at the
Speaker 10: core of our DNA for black folks, all due respect
Speaker 10: to everybody else, but for us, I think we're born
Speaker 10: in our DNA with a sponge that can absorb all
Speaker 10: the genres of our creation. And so in DC you
Speaker 10: had this middle class, You had people who had disposable income.
Speaker 10: They bought tickets to every show, they went to the clubs.
Speaker 10: You know, it was just part of our culture to
Speaker 10: embrace music and the artists that came through town. Not
Speaker 10: to mention Go Go, well, Go Go of course the
Speaker 10: genre that was born exclusively in DC and Chuck Brown,
Speaker 10: all of those people were my friends.
Speaker 4: Can we finally have this conversation about go Go? Yes?
Speaker 12: Yes, yeah, you know what point I'm about to bring up? Well,
Speaker 12: I just wanted to what year would you say was
Speaker 12: the origin the beginning of Go Go?
Speaker 10: Early seventies. By the time I got to d C
Speaker 10: in nineteen seventy three, when I got there, it was
Speaker 10: in full swing. Trouble fun, all of that was in
Speaker 10: full swing.
Speaker 4: I think the thing is is that, Okay, I know
Speaker 4: that early soul searcher forty five's I have for more breakbeat, traditional,
Speaker 4: right and all that stuff that that Chuck Brown did before.
Speaker 7: Like, Okay, this is authentic Go Go.
Speaker 4: However, I truly believe and this is where this my
Speaker 4: This is a very unpopular take on the history of
Speaker 4: Go Go, but I believe the DNA of Go Go
Speaker 4: starts with Grover Washington Junior's Mister Magic.
Speaker 7: I've heard that.
Speaker 4: I've heard that before. I've heard that before. The rhythm
Speaker 4: palette of Go Go is.
Speaker 3: Ye, Mister Magic seventy three, And so.
Speaker 4: I'm just saying that I I would assume that with
Speaker 4: that sort of backdrop, we definitely played it a lot. Fact,
Speaker 4: many bands have played it and played it and played
Speaker 4: and put it into the repertoire.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was about ship in DC.
Speaker 4: So I wonder if any DC music historians will back
Speaker 4: me up in the fact.
Speaker 2: That they're gonna do what I did with it. I
Speaker 2: started in seventy two, right there, that's possible. But when
Speaker 2: I got there in seventy three, it was it was
Speaker 2: everybody everywhere. I mean, you could not go to a
Speaker 2: club and not hear Go Go music.
Speaker 3: It was just so could they have been an influence
Speaker 3: on him? Could possibly?
Speaker 4: You know what I mean?
Speaker 10: In the reverse though?
Speaker 4: I okay, I'm just saying that most Go Go that
Speaker 4: I know of, like The first example that it was
Speaker 4: truly played to me was around seventy eight, seventy nine.
Speaker 4: But I've investigated, I've investigated many of those DC funk
Speaker 4: bands and all my record collections, and that kind of
Speaker 4: the music was still post soul, post p funk ish,
Speaker 4: that sort of thing. And so I'm just saying I'm
Speaker 4: putting it out there. I'm going to find somebody the best.
Speaker 10: But we're also talking about the home of Marvin Gay,
Speaker 10: Boom drop to Ellington, Duke Ellington.
Speaker 4: I mean, just ye, that's right, when Marvin Gay got
Speaker 4: his band, Who do you come to Philadelphia again?
Speaker 3: But when you want to play weekend shows?
Speaker 10: Where you go DC?
Speaker 4: When you want to do a Saturday and a Sundakay, Okay, okay,
Speaker 4: I'm I'm not going to find anybody back up this argument.
Speaker 4: So of your formative years, what city, what city do
Speaker 4: you feel I had the most culture as far as
Speaker 4: impact in richness in black music? Is it DC? Is
Speaker 4: it New York?
Speaker 10: Philadelphi is a combination. So again, I grew up in Harlem,
Speaker 10: I spent radio formative years in DC in Chocolate City
Speaker 10: with black folks, and then I came to Philadelphia and
Speaker 10: Philadelphia at the point when I came to Philadelphia, I
Speaker 10: came because I started dating Kenny Gamble and instantly fell
Speaker 10: in love with him. So when I came to Philadelphia,
Speaker 10: the sound of Philly was in full throttle, and we're
Speaker 10: talking Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes. Teddy was still
Speaker 10: in the group when I came. He started as the
Speaker 10: drummer and then moved into the lead position. But it
Speaker 10: was Patti LaBelle and the People's Choice and the tramps
Speaker 10: and the Delphonics and the stylistics and all of that
Speaker 10: was going on when I initially came to Philly in
Speaker 10: the mid seventies, And the first time I really came
Speaker 10: here was with Gene Karn, who is the godmother to
Speaker 10: my oldest son, Khalif Jane was about to sign her
Speaker 10: deal with Gamble. But I had met Gamble a year
Speaker 10: earlier in DC when I was hosting an OJ's concert
Speaker 10: and we formed our friendship. But when I first visited Philadelphia,
Speaker 10: international was with Gene when she signed her deal.
Speaker 4: Was it always on three thirteen Broad Street?
Speaker 10: It was three or nine?
Speaker 4: I'm sorry, Yeah, three thirteen was my high school. Oh, okay,
Speaker 4: performing arts.
Speaker 12: Yeah, just to go back to the Chuck Brown, go go,
Speaker 12: mister Matcha think I found a quote from Chuck Brown
Speaker 12: about that. Yes, and he basically admits that he got
Speaker 12: it from Grover, but says it Grover they both got
Speaker 12: it from somewhere else. And the quote is all I
Speaker 12: did was break the beat in half. I got it
Speaker 12: from Grover, for sure, but we really both got that
Speaker 12: from the spirit from gospel. It's an old church beat.
Speaker 10: Oh sucks, look at that.
Speaker 7: I'll give you half a Okay, all right, okay, I'll let.
Speaker 4: That one go.
Speaker 10: Thank you for that clarificationtimes.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I gotta get the truth out there.
Speaker 7: Yeah, So Philadelphia in in the well really at the
Speaker 7: height of it.
Speaker 4: First of all, do you credit Gamble and Huff for
Speaker 4: being the proprietors of disco? Many have said that absolutely. Well,
Speaker 4: Isaac started first because he had strings, and very white
Speaker 4: because he's the first to go to one hundred and
Speaker 4: twenty and b bms. But you know, as far as
Speaker 4: the thechine and the class, and plus you know young Earl,
Speaker 4: young young, I don't get you.
Speaker 10: Earl will not let you get out of a room
Speaker 10: without giving him his pops the drum to the second
Speaker 10: it was very second and forever and Earl Young the
Speaker 10: founder of the Tramps and the drummer but also the
Speaker 10: studio drummer for many, not all, of the Gamble Hooff songs.
Speaker 10: So I definitely give them credit acknowledge he did. He
Speaker 10: played with everybody, but he was a primary drummer for
Speaker 10: many of the Gamble Hoff sessions. So yeah, So when
Speaker 10: I came here, initially it was hetty because there was
Speaker 10: all kinds of music. It was jazz. It wasn't just
Speaker 10: Gamble and huff on what they were doing. It was
Speaker 10: you know, I knew of the tradition of great gospel artists,
Speaker 10: the Dixie Hummingbirds. I met Ira Tucker when I first
Speaker 10: moved here. Ira Tucker Senior. You know that we're talking
Speaker 10: about the Ward Singers, all of that. Rosetta Thorpe, you know,
Speaker 10: Fonte and I were talking about that yesterday. Rosetta Thorpe,
Speaker 10: the mother of rock and roll here Philadelphia.
Speaker 4: Really, yes, did not know that what no I help
Speaker 4: inducted in a rock and roll I did not know that,
Speaker 4: don't you know? King Britt and he was on his
Speaker 4: Big Sister.
Speaker 10: Yeah project project on. She wasn't born here, but she
Speaker 10: lived here lived, she lived here, and she died here.
Speaker 4: So yes, each one teacher, while we're at it, to
Speaker 4: the person that keeps on putting Beachy Thompson from the
Speaker 4: Dixie Hummingbirds as my great grandfather, he is not true,
Speaker 4: and I'm the one that keeps erasing it. So yeah, Like,
Speaker 4: I just want to put that out there too, Wikipedia,
Speaker 4: because every journalist is like, you know, three generations and
Speaker 4: I'm like, no, Beachie Thompson is not my grandfather.
Speaker 7: So I just want to put that out there. That's important.
Speaker 4: So any like, are there any notable historical Philadelphia h
Speaker 4: musical stories that you've seen firsthand? That so many? Oh?
Speaker 10: Well, Teddy was my neighbor. He was my physical borrow
Speaker 10: cup of sugar neighbor and also one of my closest
Speaker 10: friends to his transition. In fact, I delivered the obituary
Speaker 10: at his memorial watching Teddy Pendergrass leave the situation with
Speaker 10: Harold because they were fighting. They were duking it out.
Speaker 10: I mean, they were having physical fights. It was abusive
Speaker 10: and out of control by the time he left the group.
Speaker 10: But to see Teddy Pendergrass go from being with the
Speaker 10: group and then becoming one of the biggest artists in
Speaker 10: soul music and and he was crossing over pop. He
Speaker 10: was going to become a movie star. He had a
Speaker 10: Teddy Jeans line. Gambell, Yes, Teddy Jeans. But to witness
Speaker 10: that was pretty spectacular. Just to see the energy that
Speaker 10: happened as a result of the sound of Philadelphia worldwide,
Speaker 10: that was pretty heady. I mean, I have tons of
Speaker 10: stories with the jelly artists.
Speaker 4: Did you have any influence in getting him to finally
Speaker 4: settle down with a natural as opposed.
Speaker 10: To what Teddy? No, absolutely not. Teddy had many hairstyles
Speaker 10: during the duration. Yeah, that was before me, And had
Speaker 10: I known him at the time, I would have said,
Speaker 10: your hair prettier than mine.
Speaker 4: You need to all that.
Speaker 10: No, Teddy, Teddy was quite something, quite extraordinary. You met
Speaker 10: him a mirror. Yeah, yeah, you were in the room
Speaker 10: with him. You know, he had a magnetic energy unlike
Speaker 10: which same thing that Marvin had. There's only a few people.
Speaker 10: Sam Cook had it that, that Jennison Qua, Miles Davis
Speaker 10: had it. Miles Davis, my good friend, Miles Davis. He
Speaker 10: definitely hasty. Okay, okay, we're talking early seventies when I
Speaker 10: was in d C and am to May who is
Speaker 10: a beloved of mine, a connection another Heath. Well, that's
Speaker 10: how I met him through his father, Jimmy Heath. But
Speaker 10: he was playing percussions. He was playing conga's with Miles
Speaker 10: and they came to d C and I was on
Speaker 10: the air at w HR. He said, come by check
Speaker 10: out the show. So after the set, he introduces me
Speaker 10: to Miles and he says, Miles me Deanna. Deanna, meet Miles,
Speaker 10: and Miles says, marry me. I'm standing there looking at
Speaker 10: him like no, and he says, well why not? And
Speaker 10: I said, because I just met you. I don't know
Speaker 10: you like that. But I had on this long white
Speaker 10: dress and a white gaylea my head wrap. And he
Speaker 10: says to me, but you look like a motherfuck can bribe.
Speaker 10: So from there we developed a very dear friendship and
Speaker 10: went on for years until I started dating Kenny Gamble
Speaker 10: and Gamble was like, I'm not having Miles Davis around
Speaker 10: my woman, and it's not happening. It's not going down
Speaker 10: like that. So but we we stayed friends for years.
Speaker 4: You were the original coffee shop check. That's what what
Speaker 4: is that? The the the the the Nubian goddess that
Speaker 4: we would think of head wraps and since Yeah, but
Speaker 4: she was ne It was like me, but I was after.
Speaker 4: It was a mirror.
Speaker 10: It was the post civil rights era. It was say
Speaker 10: it loud, I'm black and I'm proud. So that, Yeah,
Speaker 10: it was that period of awakening with black folks when
Speaker 10: we were like, you know, no more, no more dogs
Speaker 10: biting us, no more. It was past Montgomery and the
Speaker 10: boycotts where we were like, we recognize our economic power
Speaker 10: and our beauty and strength. We know whence we came from.
Speaker 4: But once the Nixting era sort of set in, and
Speaker 4: you know the leaders were killed in sixty eight, a
Speaker 4: lot of that just cools off. And you know the
Speaker 4: seventies was mad hedonism.
Speaker 10: Oh I.
Speaker 4: Disagree.
Speaker 10: It was Mina Simone, Aretha Franklin, say it loud, I'm
Speaker 10: black and I'm proud. That happened in the seventies. James Brown,
Speaker 10: All of that was the seventies.
Speaker 7: So you know my uncle Butcher who stole my Grandma'm Stevien.
Speaker 10: Yeah, but here we go. You had you had brothers
Speaker 10: coming back from Vietnam. Okay, they were distressed, and many
Speaker 10: of them came back with habits heroin. I mean you know,
Speaker 10: so we were starting to deal with the crack and
Speaker 10: all of that happening in our communities. So it was
Speaker 10: a lot going on.
Speaker 4: Were you discouraged at all with as I will say
Speaker 4: that afro centricity had its second way eighty six eighty
Speaker 4: seven with the hip hop generation. But was there a
Speaker 4: period between yeah, seventy nine eighty post disco, between eighty
Speaker 4: and eighty five where you just felt like, oh, okay,
Speaker 4: we're we're done this and now we're bourgeois, we're getting jobs,
Speaker 4: we're perming our hair, nose stopping now. Yeah.
Speaker 10: No, because I recognize that we're not monolithic. We're all
Speaker 10: we're shades and variations, We're not all one thing.
Speaker 2: So and Deana's always been this black so I know,
Speaker 2: I mean black music moms started in the seventies and
Speaker 2: it continues on.
Speaker 10: So that's a whole you know, that's a yeah, not
Speaker 10: the thing. No, we're not monolithic. So I saw all
Speaker 10: type Some folks were bougie, some were still wearing their
Speaker 10: hair natural, some were wearing braids. It was a whole
Speaker 10: lot of stuff going.
Speaker 4: On, right, But I'm just saying that you are unapologetically black,
Speaker 4: and what else could I be.
Speaker 7: But that's the thing for some people to.
Speaker 4: Kind of spook that sat by the door their way
Speaker 4: into society. They might have to change clothes a little bit.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 10: First of all, remember so for me, I talked about
Speaker 10: graduating from Frankie Crocker University. But then I was greatly
Speaker 10: influenced by one of the blackest people I know, Kenny Gamble.
Speaker 10: He was my man. So I was raised up as
Speaker 10: a woman by a strong black man. That was my education.
Speaker 10: And then again my parents, my family. I'm very clear
Speaker 10: where I come from and who I am and so,
Speaker 10: and it was very black. And my mother, although she
Speaker 10: was poored, she recognized that she's an African woman. First
Speaker 10: time I went to Africa, I went with my mama.
Speaker 10: We went to Senegal to Ghana, and my mother disappeared
Speaker 10: one day and we were like, where's Nancy, where's Nancy. Well,
Speaker 10: my mother went to the marketplace and got her garb,
Speaker 10: she got some sisters to meet, and she came back
Speaker 10: garbed up okay, and had several outfits. And my mother
Speaker 10: was like, yo, I'm an African woman. I know this,
Speaker 10: And that's the spirit in which I was raised. I
Speaker 10: was raised with a great deal of consciousness and exposure
Speaker 10: to black folks. So growing up in Harlem, for me,
Speaker 10: it was the Schomberg, it was Langston Hughes, it was
Speaker 10: the Negro Ensemble Company. It was all this great energy
Speaker 10: about blackness around me.
Speaker 2: Do you think that's a little bit of a some
Speaker 2: Northeast privilege when it comes to black folks in a
Speaker 2: way too to be able to continue that because I
Speaker 2: see what Amir is saying, and sometimes it depends on.
Speaker 10: Where you are too physically.
Speaker 2: Possibly, Yeah, I mean me and have that black conversation
Speaker 2: all the time about the difference between the South and
Speaker 2: the Northeast, And no.
Speaker 10: There are differences, were definitely, but I celebrate our commonalities.
Speaker 10: I recognize the differences. But you know, I just came
Speaker 10: from a wellspring of black culture growing up in Harlem
Speaker 10: and the Bronx, the home of hip hop a rap,
Speaker 10: so you know for me early so let me tell
Speaker 10: you this too. Also, when I was a teenager, I
Speaker 10: met Royeers. I met a woman named Myrna Williams who
Speaker 10: managed Royers. So I was fifteen meeting Royeers and hanging
Speaker 10: out with people like Royeers and then Jimmy Heath, who
Speaker 10: I mentioned to you, and then when I was about seventeen,
Speaker 10: a girlfriend of mine named Brenda introduced me to Stevie Wonder.
Speaker 10: So I met Stevie. I call him Stevelan. I met
Speaker 10: Stevelan before I even got into radio, and he invited
Speaker 10: me into the studio. He was doing music of my Mind. Yeah,
Speaker 10: music of my Mind. So I was exposed.
Speaker 4: And then I.
Speaker 10: Mentioned the flute. I decided to take flute lessons because
Speaker 10: I still was trying to trying to develop my talent
Speaker 10: as a musician, and I met Bobby. I met Bobby,
Speaker 10: but then I approached a gentleman to take flute lessons.
Speaker 10: And his name is Hubert Laws all the greatest floutest
Speaker 10: of all time. I will tell you that I never
Speaker 10: got a flute lesson, but he taught me a lot.
Speaker 10: So I started dating Hubert laws and as a result
Speaker 10: of that relationship, I was exposed even greater too. He
Speaker 10: would take me to Rudy Van Gelder's studio in Jersey.
Speaker 10: I was signed to c t I at the time.
Speaker 10: So who did I meet?
Speaker 7: My favorite?
Speaker 10: You love Pree Taylor. So I met Cree Taylor, Rudy
Speaker 10: Van Gelder, Hank Crawford, Esther Phillips, Grover Washington Junior Freddie Hubbard, right,
Speaker 10: and they performed with each other, they recorded with each other,
Speaker 10: So I would go with Hubert to the sessions. But
Speaker 10: one of my favorite sessions I think you can all
Speaker 10: appreciate this is one day Hubert said he had a
Speaker 10: session and he took me, deposited me in the control room.
Speaker 10: And who was in the control room Quincy Jones and
Speaker 10: Donnie Hathaway. Wow, so it was my first time meeting
Speaker 10: Donnie and Charleston Blue is what they were recording. And
Speaker 10: Hubert was on that session. So I sat in the
Speaker 10: control room with them, and of course at that point
Speaker 10: I knew who Donnie was. He was very shy, demure, quiet,
Speaker 10: and Quincy calls Aretha Franklin and introduces Donnie to Aretha
Speaker 10: on the phone and he tells Aretha you got to
Speaker 10: hear him, you know, Donnie Hathaway. And of course he
Speaker 10: was signed to Atlantic Records. So yeah, at this life,
Speaker 10: these things aren't phasing you like I'm young. I'm young.
Speaker 10: I'm taking it.
Speaker 4: All in righteous Forrest Gump. But you know what I say,
Speaker 4: it set the bar for me.
Speaker 10: It set an appetite for me because what I have
Speaker 10: discovered over time is that I am most intrigued and
Speaker 10: attracted to the exceptional. And that's what I have had
Speaker 10: all of my life. I have been involved friendships, romances
Speaker 10: with people who are supremely gifted. I would say, that's
Speaker 10: what I like.
Speaker 4: I've to hear your opinion on life in twenty nineteen.
Speaker 10: And where music is going, well, I say, never a
Speaker 10: dull moment. That's how I approach life daily.
Speaker 4: With human beings.
Speaker 10: There's seven billion of us, right, Fante. We were talking
Speaker 10: about this last night, but sliin the family Stone said,
Speaker 10: everybody is a star. We all have our unique shine,
Speaker 10: we have our individuality. We contribute to this energy that
Speaker 10: keeps our planet around.
Speaker 8: The song, I don't have to tell me I'm sugar, Steve.
Speaker 2: You know that sugar and that Deanna is already You're
Speaker 2: already forced to listen to everything from twenty eighteen and
Speaker 2: back because she's a media coach.
Speaker 4: So when you are going to say are you going
Speaker 4: to be blue faces media, you know, it's like she
Speaker 4: walked out on ya.
Speaker 10: I did not so what so what was well? He
Speaker 10: was disrespect You're still doing media coaching?
Speaker 4: Yeah, and it's hardest development.
Speaker 9: Yes, can you talk about that all entails because I
Speaker 9: don't think a lot of people know. Could you teach
Speaker 9: I had this this?
Speaker 4: Okay, you just didn't you?
Speaker 7: I got media coach?
Speaker 2: Uh?
Speaker 10: Did they not keep yourself in the mouth?
Speaker 7: Yeah, because I was.
Speaker 2: I was.
Speaker 6: I did this thing for NBC, uh Sunday morning and
Speaker 6: then immediately there afterwards.
Speaker 7: But they told the guy.
Speaker 4: He told me it did a good job.
Speaker 7: But it's it's a lot. I'll be honest with you guys.
Speaker 4: After episode ten, was like, nah, man, you say it
Speaker 4: too much like Obama. I'm gonna get you. You were
Speaker 4: you were, you were so like there was there was
Speaker 4: actually a point back then when I was editing out
Speaker 4: all of the us.
Speaker 10: Those are called fillers. I call those fillers. They're all
Speaker 10: part of natural conversation. But yeah, the overuse of it
Speaker 10: is like all of us.
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying interesting because it's not a
Speaker 2: lot of media coaches. I'm like, dang, who'd you get
Speaker 2: great guy?
Speaker 10: Mother?
Speaker 3: Because really there's it's a handful of people who do.
Speaker 10: It's a very niche part of the industry, but I do.
Speaker 10: I call it artists development, human development with an emphasis
Speaker 10: on media. But for me, it's I get a lot
Speaker 10: of young artists, so I'm schooling them on what I
Speaker 10: feel are the rudiments of things they need to know.
Speaker 10: Going to Kanye's tea teach Kanye, Kanye, Kanye was one
Speaker 10: of your students. She had to lead that one too. Yeah,
Speaker 10: that was.
Speaker 4: That was.
Speaker 10: I was approached by Lee or Cohen called me directly
Speaker 10: after the Taylor Swift incident and asked me. He said,
Speaker 10: my friend needs help. Can you meet with Kanye. This
Speaker 10: was months after he had already gone to Hawaii he
Speaker 10: was recording. He came back and I met with him
Speaker 10: at his home in New York, and he really didn't well.
Speaker 10: First of all, I was approached to coach him when
Speaker 10: his first album was coming out, and he didn't want
Speaker 10: any coaching. And I ran into him someplace and I said,
Speaker 10: I was supposed to coach you. He says, Oh, I
Speaker 10: know how to handle the media.
Speaker 2: I know what to do.
Speaker 10: I got this. I don't need any any I was like,
Speaker 10: I'll do this back, brother, I love your music, piece
Speaker 10: and blessings. But later I went to his home and
Speaker 10: spent the afternoon with him and we talked about Taylor Swift.
Speaker 10: We talked about life in general. I took him a
Speaker 10: black obelisk and I gave that to him as a gift,
Speaker 10: and he was like, well, what is this? I said,
Speaker 10: it's an oblisk and it's Egyptian and you'll see it
Speaker 10: in Rome, and you'll see it in Europe, in South America,
Speaker 10: you'll see it everywhere. But it's Egyptian.
Speaker 7: I'm looking at up right now.
Speaker 10: The obliss. Yes, okay, d C. Washington Monument.
Speaker 2: Okay, Yeah, like symbol, it's a fact.
Speaker 10: But we wound up not working together. He really did
Speaker 10: not want it. It was le Or who wanted it
Speaker 10: for him and felt that he needed it. But Kanye
Speaker 10: is the type of artist you don't. He's yeah, you don't, right.
Speaker 4: All right, so can you give us?
Speaker 2: Uh?
Speaker 4: What do I do? Never does this? But I hope
Speaker 4: you do. Yeah, because even now I still feel like
Speaker 4: an amateur and doing this. We're gonna have to give
Speaker 4: her a check after we'd done.
Speaker 7: You know that, right, thank you. It's like a mere
Speaker 7: drum on my record for free.
Speaker 4: I do that.
Speaker 7: I never charged for drummy.
Speaker 4: Oh for really, you shouldn't have said that on the end.
Speaker 4: Come on, my son, I literally.
Speaker 10: Don't what do you whether is there something else you
Speaker 10: charge for walking in or not?
Speaker 4: I mean when you I'm at a place now where
Speaker 4: you know, like druman is my passion, DJing is my
Speaker 4: passion showing. Won't let me dj for free? But like
Speaker 4: you know, if I like the person, I'll drummer. And
Speaker 4: I think about it.
Speaker 7: Okay, what am I going to do with the two
Speaker 7: thousand bucks?
Speaker 10: Like, yeah, two thousand bucks for the average person, there's
Speaker 10: a whole lot of money in there. Thinking about it,
Speaker 10: I see.
Speaker 4: What he said. Let's also say that half of my
Speaker 4: salary and this show is going to the staff.
Speaker 7: So I'm huge just saying.
Speaker 9: I like, for you, that would not be a lot
Speaker 9: of money, but to the person that's giving it, it
Speaker 9: would be a lot. So it's like, yeah, I just
Speaker 9: keep your money. Yeah, I get I'm saying, But so,
Speaker 9: what would be a better way Deanna to clean that up?
Speaker 4: It's already done.
Speaker 2: Diana worked with t I since the beginning, so I
Speaker 2: know you know how to clean after the fact as well.
Speaker 10: It's different with every artist. It's different. I tailor. I
Speaker 10: have a program. I call it the influence system, and
Speaker 10: it's influenced, meaning the ability to prevail upon the thoughts
Speaker 10: and feelings of others, and that's what artists do. And
Speaker 10: I don't just work with artists. I've also worked with
Speaker 10: athletes like Alan Iverson, heavyweight boxer Roy Jones Junior. I
Speaker 10: worked with executives. I worked with Michael Vick as well
Speaker 10: when he came out of prison, and that was t
Speaker 10: I called me one day and had Michael Vick on
Speaker 10: the phone and said, Deanna is my person. You need
Speaker 10: to get with Deanna. But Michael was not very happy
Speaker 10: when he came out of jail because everybody kept asking
Speaker 10: about the dog fighting and he was like, look, I
Speaker 10: just served two years in jail. I don't want to
Speaker 10: talk about this anymore. And I was like, Michael, let
Speaker 10: me bring you to reality. You will be talking about
Speaker 10: this for the rest of your life. It doesn't matter
Speaker 10: even though you went to prison. This is part of
Speaker 10: your story now. And you know people are very attached
Speaker 10: to their dogs, and you were involved in the situation.
Speaker 7: I hate dogs.
Speaker 10: People. One of the many so different people Taylor, for instance,
Speaker 10: I'll give you the Little Kim story. So Little Kim
Speaker 10: was on the red carpet and Howard Stern asked her
Speaker 10: what was it like to have sex with a big, fat,
Speaker 10: ugly guy like big and small.
Speaker 4: Now Kim is from the Brooks.
Speaker 10: She wanted she just wanted to fight him, but she
Speaker 10: was on the red carpet. It was I think the
Speaker 10: MTV Music Awards, and so she kept it moving, but
Speaker 10: she was very upset, very angry. At this time. She
Speaker 10: was signed to Atlantic a little later and they said,
Speaker 10: you have to do Howard Stern. This is when he
Speaker 10: was still doing terrestrial radio before Sirius XM. And Kim
Speaker 10: didn't want to do it, and they said, okay, we've
Speaker 10: got the perfect person to help prep you for the
Speaker 10: interview with Howard Stern. I went to the Trump Tower.
Speaker 10: She was getting her face beat at five in the morning,
Speaker 10: and we sat and worked on how to approach Howard,
Speaker 10: what to say me anticipating the questions that he would
Speaker 10: ask her, and and also I protected her. I was like,
Speaker 10: if we're not going to let him ask you about Biggie,
Speaker 10: you're going to bring up Biggie before he does, providing
Speaker 10: control the narrative and providing the strategy and how we
Speaker 10: were going to deal with that. So very early in
Speaker 10: the interview, she says to Howard, you know you and
Speaker 10: Biggie would have been boys. I think y'all would have
Speaker 10: been friends. And he says, really, like, why why do
Speaker 10: you say that? And she said, because you have a
Speaker 10: big personality, and so did it big and I could
Speaker 10: see the two of you being boys. So at that
Speaker 10: point she disarmed him. Yeah, he did not say anything
Speaker 10: negative about him, and that was her concern because she
Speaker 10: was like, if he attacks my man one more time,
Speaker 10: we're going to be fighting up in that studio. And
Speaker 10: she just took control of the interview and the narrative
Speaker 10: and she just had Howard Stern purring and in the
Speaker 10: palm of her hand. That's because we prepared for him.
Speaker 10: In fact, on that particular album, she had done a
Speaker 10: song where she shouted him out and she said, Howard,
Speaker 10: you paid the way for me as an artist who
Speaker 10: deals with sexual issues. You paid the way with your
Speaker 10: fights with the FCC, talking about sex all of that.
Speaker 10: So Howard, thank you. That is part of how we prepped.
Speaker 10: And when we left, I was in the green room,
Speaker 10: Kim came in, hugged me high five. She was happy
Speaker 10: with the results. Atlantic was happy. She was pleased Howard also,
Speaker 10: So yeah, so it depends when Charlie Wilson came out
Speaker 10: of rehab. I worked with him on how to talk
Speaker 10: about the rehab experience and his path moving forward. Usher
Speaker 10: I only worked with him on he wanted to talk
Speaker 10: about being dyslexic. He had never discussed it publicly. Yeah,
Speaker 10: and that's what we worked on. He was a big
Speaker 10: star at the point where I worked with him, So
Speaker 10: it varies. But I also work with new up and
Speaker 10: coming emerging artists, and they don't know anything about how
Speaker 10: to go to radio, how to go to television, they
Speaker 10: don't know. They know how to create, they know how
Speaker 10: to perform, but oftentimes they can't talk about what they do.
Speaker 10: So back to your question, there was a woman at
Speaker 10: Motown named Missus Powell, Missus Maxine Powell. She did the
Speaker 10: artist development at Motown and Barry Gordy, right, Barry Gordy's
Speaker 10: sisters recommended her because she had an etiquette charm school
Speaker 10: in Detroit and prepared people to be models and what
Speaker 10: have you. But remember many of the artists that Barry
Speaker 10: Gordy signed out of Motown came straight from the hood,
Speaker 10: from the projects, and they didn't know which fork to use.
Speaker 10: They didn't have any idea of what to expect especially
Speaker 10: with Barry taking them all over the world. So Missus
Speaker 10: Powell prepped them, so I consider her the mother of
Speaker 10: artist development and coaching. And then Suzanne DePass came in
Speaker 10: later and took over from Missus Powell, and she worked
Speaker 10: on prepping the Jackson five specifically, So I also credit
Speaker 10: Suzanne to pass as being another mother of artist development.
Speaker 10: So I studied everything that they did.
Speaker 4: Who do you feel your greatest student was. I'm really
Speaker 4: impressed with Yeah, that's where he got. I'm very impressed with.
Speaker 10: Tip. But I give Tip a lot of credit. I mean,
Speaker 10: he we worked together for eight years. Anytime he released
Speaker 10: a record, anytime he did a book, a film, TV show, whatever,
Speaker 10: he would call me go to Atlanta to his home.
Speaker 10: We would lock up, or I'd go on the road
Speaker 10: wherever he was and we would sit lock up talk
Speaker 10: and just what I do what I did with Tip
Speaker 10: is I would give him language and thoughts. I would
Speaker 10: let him talk to me first express how he felt
Speaker 10: about whatever it was, the music, the book, the film,
Speaker 10: and then I would give a some language and ways
Speaker 10: to discuss what he had done.
Speaker 2: Because you're also proud of the Dave Matthews work too, right,
Speaker 2: But I didn't work with Dave.
Speaker 10: I worked with the band. I worked with the rest
Speaker 10: of the band. Yes, they do talk. And this was
Speaker 10: in preparation for the Sunday Morning show that you did
Speaker 10: CBS Sunday Morning. They were doing a special one of
Speaker 10: their members had died in a tragic accent. Remember that
Speaker 10: they did not know how to talk about the passing
Speaker 10: of their member even with each other. They had not
Speaker 10: discussed the death with each other. So when I came in,
Speaker 10: I've met with the members individually and then collectively. So yeah,
Speaker 10: and so it varies.
Speaker 9: What is something that you would say to an artist
Speaker 9: that is an absolutely like talking dues and don'ts of
Speaker 9: interviewing or whatever. What are the things that you would
Speaker 9: say to artists like okay, absolutely, like do not.
Speaker 10: Do this, Yeah, don't be on your phone, don't be disrespectful,
Speaker 10: don't make do not not make eye contact. First of all,
Speaker 10: I encourage my clients to do their homework, just like
Speaker 10: I did with you, guys. I read up on you individually.
Speaker 7: No, what did you find on.
Speaker 10: You know, I'm scared, No, nothing to be scared of.
Speaker 10: But you know, you do your homework. That's the beginning.
Speaker 10: And that's the first tenant that I teach his preparation.
Speaker 10: So do your homework, know where you're going, know who
Speaker 10: you're speaking with. I'll listen to what they've done. If
Speaker 10: they're a print journalist, read something they've written. So I
Speaker 10: give them basic humnn ectquette and respect.
Speaker 7: So how do you did?
Speaker 12: You pretty much prepare for your first meeting with a
Speaker 12: client the same way you do. You do your research,
Speaker 12: you know, find out everything, you watch old interviews and
Speaker 12: like do you come up with like a list of
Speaker 12: you know, I saw this interview, I didn't like what
Speaker 12: you said here.
Speaker 10: Yeah, I'll sit with them. It depends on how many
Speaker 10: interviews they've done. Some artists i'll sit For instance, bow
Speaker 10: Wow bow Wow started, as you know, as a teenager.
Speaker 10: Chat He started as a teenager, and by the time
Speaker 10: his mother, who was his managed and his publicist, Patty
Speaker 10: Webster at the time, brought me in. He was angry
Speaker 10: with Jermaine Dupree and every interview that he was doing
Speaker 10: he was hostile, angry, upset, and so they brought me
Speaker 10: in to calm him down and to give him a
Speaker 10: way to express his disappointment and his love for Jermaine
Speaker 10: so initially he was like, I don't need I'm a star,
Speaker 10: I don't need any coaching. The very first time I
Speaker 10: went to his home and he just wasn't in the
Speaker 10: frame of mind. So I won't work with someone if
Speaker 10: they're not willing, if they're not open to the process,
Speaker 10: and so I left. However, the next time I saw
Speaker 10: him was up at the Sony Building, and when I
Speaker 10: got off the elevator, he was standing there and he
Speaker 10: ran away. I never had a man run away from me.
Speaker 10: But when he came back, I said, give me fifteen minutes,
Speaker 10: fifteen minutes and then you can leave. And I had
Speaker 10: ordered all of his interviews, and we sat and watched
Speaker 10: his interviews, and I said, all we're gonna do today
Speaker 10: is count how many times you say you know what
Speaker 10: I mean, you know what I'm saying, and then.
Speaker 7: Watch a video of yourself.
Speaker 10: There you go.
Speaker 6: Because when I did the media training, he made me
Speaker 6: watch me. He filmed me having an interview with this guy,
Speaker 6: and then we watched it, and it's really uncomfortable and
Speaker 6: it's really hard to watch yourself. And then you stop
Speaker 6: because I kept on like not dropping my eyes and
Speaker 6: like playing with my hands and looking like an idiot,
Speaker 6: and I was like, oh, I look like an idiot.
Speaker 10: Yeah yeah, So watching yourself, hearing yourself you're absolutely correct,
Speaker 10: allows you to. But Rome wasn't built in a day,
Speaker 10: so you don't change overnight. But mindfulness, being aware of
Speaker 10: your tics, of your body language, of your lack of
Speaker 10: eye contact, whatever it is, So studying it, if you
Speaker 10: really applying yourself, will help. So that day we watch,
Speaker 10: I said, just count. That's all I want you to
Speaker 10: do is count how many times you say you know
Speaker 10: what I mean, you know what I'm saying. And of
Speaker 10: course when he counted up to about fifty after watching
Speaker 10: all of these things, that was right minutes, he turns
Speaker 10: around and says, okay, Deanna help me. He recognized at
Speaker 10: that point that he had a problem and an issue,
Speaker 10: and he was amenable to the process issues.
Speaker 4: Valid question, Yes, how did you get into doing this?
Speaker 10: Well, my background is radio. As I said, I started,
Speaker 10: what was the is it?
Speaker 4: Because rappers are known as rappers.
Speaker 10: I've worked with heavy metal artists. I've worked with pop
Speaker 10: artist I mean, I worked with Justin Bieber on his
Speaker 10: first album. I worked with Rihanna on her very first album.
Speaker 10: So I've worked with artists and all genres. Yeah, we all,
Speaker 10: I mean we all need help you. Influence Entertainment is
Speaker 10: my company, and it is me. I am the one
Speaker 10: that does the coaching. People are hiring me for my
Speaker 10: expertise and my ability and must success getting people to
Speaker 10: be better. I am about inspiration. I am constantly drawing
Speaker 10: inspiration everywhere, and I like helping people be their best
Speaker 10: because that's what I aspired to be.
Speaker 2: But follow up on what Bill said. What was the
Speaker 2: moment though, god mother, because even I don't know when
Speaker 2: you were like, I'm.
Speaker 10: Going to do this all right? So I was managing
Speaker 10: an artist named Gary Taylor. He's a songwriter, just gets
Speaker 10: better with That's right exactly. I was managing asshole Gary.
Speaker 4: Gets the fact that in the coolest manner, I'm just being.
Speaker 10: Yeah, I.
Speaker 7: Want to be your friend.
Speaker 10: Okay, we can work.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 10: I offered to appreciate your wedding. I've officiated two weddings,
Speaker 10: so yeah, well, well.
Speaker 4: Get married.
Speaker 6: A ride or die ceremony, not to get meiciate our rider.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 10: So where were we helped me? Although you know I
Speaker 10: will tell you. So I managed him and I got
Speaker 10: dragged into managing I don't like management. It's just not
Speaker 10: my skill set is not you did Carol. I managed
Speaker 10: Carol Ritick as well Philadelphia's own Carol Ritick. But with Gary,
Speaker 10: it was just hard talking with him. In fact, we
Speaker 10: were in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in the back of his limousine
Speaker 10: on a promo tour. We couldn't afford a road manager
Speaker 10: road manager, so I went out with him and he
Speaker 10: was so difficult the entire trip. And I said to him,
Speaker 10: you know, Gary, you write these great love songs. Part
Speaker 10: of your problem is you you need good love.
Speaker 4: You need some loving.
Speaker 10: You need somebody to you really.
Speaker 4: Do, because you're lacking asshole.
Speaker 10: And you're an asshole. And you know how, He goes
Speaker 10: to the record label says, I don't want to work
Speaker 10: with her anymore. She reminds me of my ex wife
Speaker 10: all stuff. I'm like, okay, well, I don't want to
Speaker 10: work with you either. And furthermore, here's the number four,
Speaker 10: not a psychologist, but a psychiatristic medicine. And then my
Speaker 10: partner at the time plays a tape for me. Gary
Speaker 10: sent this to you. He wants to make up. And
Speaker 10: she puts a cassette in the car and it's Anita Baker.
Speaker 8: Good Love Wow.
Speaker 10: And he wrote the song inspired by me telling him
Speaker 10: because in the song he says, I want to know
Speaker 10: what good love feels like, good love, good love, good
Speaker 10: morning to night. So yeah, Gary Taylor, but he was
Speaker 10: signed to Virgin Music. I'm sorry Virgin.
Speaker 4: Yes.
Speaker 10: And the woman who was the head of the Black
Speaker 10: music division, Sharon Haywood, why.
Speaker 7: Do I know that?
Speaker 4: Yes, yeah, I think that.
Speaker 10: Encyclopedia. Sharon Haywood takes me to lunch one day and
Speaker 10: she says, this is after the Gary Taylor debacle. She says,
Speaker 10: you get along with artists, you overstand them. Well, I
Speaker 10: use the word overstand. She said, you get them, they
Speaker 10: get you. You should do artist development. I have never
Speaker 10: considered it until that day when Sharon says to me,
Speaker 10: you should do that. And I was like, my first
Speaker 10: job Jimmy jam and Terry Lewis. I worked with a
Speaker 10: group called Solo, So Jimmy and Terry Vertical hold Stone,
Speaker 10: and my third was D'Angelo.
Speaker 4: Wow.
Speaker 10: I coached D'Angelo. He was my third artist and he
Speaker 10: remains to this day my most precious person. Yes, yeah,
Speaker 10: so that's how it started twenty five years ago. So
Speaker 10: I've been coaching twenty five years.
Speaker 7: Wait, we didn't even bring up the origins of black music.
Speaker 10: We skipped the seventies, but we went in the seventies.
Speaker 4: Let's go back in time. Okay, So you are the proprietor,
Speaker 4: the inventor of black music.
Speaker 10: Month Gamble Okay, ed wright myself.
Speaker 4: So why did you feel that it was necessary? And
Speaker 4: when when was it first officiated?
Speaker 10: Or nineteen nineteen seventy eight nine? We went to the
Speaker 10: White House, We petitioned the White House to President Jimmy
Speaker 10: Carter was in the House. White, Yeah, black music then, yes, Georgia,
Speaker 10: Georgia Farmer and so Gamble had gone to Nashville and
Speaker 10: was very impressed with Music City and the power of
Speaker 10: the CMA and what they were doing. They literally had
Speaker 10: established a geographic region and made music the core of
Speaker 10: what was going on there. So he said, we need
Speaker 10: to do that in the black music industry. So that
Speaker 10: was the beginning of the BMA, the Black Music Association,
Speaker 10: And part of that endeavor was to have a period
Speaker 10: of time where we celebrate the outstanding contributions of people
Speaker 10: in the past, this generation and ones coming up. So
Speaker 10: it was really Gamble's Brainchild, and then you know, we
Speaker 10: were together at the time, I think we were on
Speaker 10: baby number two. We'd been together for years and there
Speaker 10: were local chapters established around the country. But what happened
Speaker 10: was some years later when I was producing I am
Speaker 10: that you referenced earlier mire the International Association of African
Speaker 10: American Music, which was it is a non UH, non
Speaker 10: membership advocacy organization dedicated to the preservation promotion of black
Speaker 10: music worldwide. So I wrote President Bill Clinton asking him
Speaker 10: to host a reception very similar to what Jimmy Carter
Speaker 10: had done on the White House lawn where we had
Speaker 10: Evelyn King and tons of people. I want to do
Speaker 10: to break down that date, took some historic photos Ronla,
Speaker 10: Evelyn Champagne, King Berry, Chuck Berry was there as well.
Speaker 10: Williams was there. It was an interesting.
Speaker 9: I felt Williams Rezai yeah, yeah, yeah, it's.
Speaker 4: Got to be the same guy.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 10: So anyway, I went to Clinton. I wrote the White
Speaker 10: House and asked them to hold us some reception, and
Speaker 10: they said, well, we see where Jimmy Carter held this
Speaker 10: reception back in the seventies, but he did not sign
Speaker 10: a presidential proclamation. So just go get some legislation, come
Speaker 10: back to us, and we'll do stuff in the White
Speaker 10: House and recognize June Black Music Month. So it took
Speaker 10: me a few years. I had Senator Arlen Spector, who
Speaker 10: was a Republican from Pennsylvania. I had Congressman Shaka Fatah.
Speaker 10: I literally put my most comfortable pair of shoes, not
Speaker 10: these manolos, and walked around.
Speaker 2: Capitol Hill and petitioned and bagued and you know, brought
Speaker 2: statistics about the power of black music.
Speaker 10: That we're a multi billion dollar entity, not just feel good.
Speaker 10: You know, it's a business, it's an economy. And took
Speaker 10: a few years, but we got legislation passed saying June
Speaker 10: is Black Music Month. And then I went back to
Speaker 10: the White House. And at that point I had several
Speaker 10: private meetings in the Oval Office with Bill Clinton and
Speaker 10: took delegations of people in the industry, artist as well
Speaker 10: as executives to the White House. And so yeah, so
Speaker 10: Gamble and I and we worked together even after we separated.
Speaker 10: We are partners in life. We have three kids, we
Speaker 10: have a grandson. He's the head of my family, the
Speaker 10: love of my life. And this was part of our
Speaker 10: mission in our work. We are about making people aware
Speaker 10: of black music and its potency not just economically, but
Speaker 10: how it informs everything and everybody change your life.
Speaker 9: How about that I want to ask you was in
Speaker 9: regards to unsung because that was how I first came
Speaker 9: about your work, and I told you about it when
Speaker 9: we were speaking last night. How I just kept seeing
Speaker 9: you pop up in every unsung and I was like, Wow,
Speaker 9: I gotta figure out who she is. Yes, she was
Speaker 9: the Unsung lady.
Speaker 7: That was really well.
Speaker 4: I was like, oh, yeah, that's the Unsung lady.
Speaker 9: So when we first met at World Cafe Live after
Speaker 9: Things after Foreign Shange show and Nick brought you backstage,
Speaker 9: I was like, oh it's done, Sung lady.
Speaker 4: Oh shit, so one thing, yeah.
Speaker 9: Right, so it's even crazy one thing and every unsung
Speaker 9: like every every storyline and unsung is and then hip
Speaker 9: hop they were doing so great and then hip hop.
Speaker 9: So what were your personal feelings and when rap started,
Speaker 9: you know, dominating? Uh, what was your personal feelings on
Speaker 9: on rap music and how did you make that transition?
Speaker 9: Whereas maybe some of your other peers was just like, ah,
Speaker 9: this is this is bullshit. You seem just from you know,
Speaker 9: our conversations, you seem to be really open to not
Speaker 9: just working with rappers, but also just really embracing the
Speaker 9: culture and you know, and accepting it.
Speaker 4: So what was like for you.
Speaker 10: I grew up in the Boogie Dann Bronx. I come
Speaker 10: from where rap music was born, and furthermore, growing up
Speaker 10: in the late sixties seventies in New York in Harlem.
Speaker 10: Who did I hear? I heard the last poets. I
Speaker 10: heard the last poets.
Speaker 2: And for folks who are not up on the last poets,
Speaker 2: listen to them and you will hear the seeds, the.
Speaker 10: Beginnings Nikki Giovanni.
Speaker 2: That's what I grew up on, in addition to hearing
Speaker 2: rap in the Bronx and then of course the Sugar
Speaker 2: Hill Gang.
Speaker 10: That was revolutionary. So I embraced it, and as it evolved,
Speaker 10: as a rap evolved, I kept up with it.
Speaker 2: And a lot of the people that I worked with
Speaker 2: in the industry came out of rap. They came out
Speaker 2: of that, so it was never difficult for me. And
Speaker 2: as far as Unsung is concerned, it started in two
Speaker 2: thousand and eight.
Speaker 10: The first season was the Donnie Hathaway Phyllis High, then
Speaker 10: the Clark Sisters. I didn't do the Clark sisters, but
Speaker 10: I did the other ones. Well. First of all, I
Speaker 10: knew Philip Symon, I'd met Donnie Hathaway. I played his
Speaker 10: music from the beginning of him releasing music. So oftentimes
Speaker 10: in these stories that are shared on UNSUNG, I have
Speaker 10: first hand knowledge of these people, and I'm able and
Speaker 10: many of them my friends.
Speaker 3: Philip Symon was there, Mr. She was there to year
Speaker 3: you intern and I am. Do you remember that? Do
Speaker 3: you remember seeing Philip Symon walking around?
Speaker 7: I remember, yes, that was ninety one.
Speaker 10: Yeah, ninety one is when we did the first I
Speaker 10: AM celebration. Yeah, what were your remembrances? What are your
Speaker 10: recollections of me in ninety one? Amir umm?
Speaker 4: Because I was frantic to see everything I learned early. Well,
Speaker 4: now I kind of make the I always used the
Speaker 4: Ray Kroc Ronald McDonald example of Ray Kroc is the
Speaker 4: power behind the movement, whereas people knew Ronald McDonald and
Speaker 4: think that he runs McDonald's, but it's really the person
Speaker 4: in power. So I knew you were the person in power.
Speaker 4: And I've just always been one to observe from afar.
Speaker 7: So I was about to say, this is.
Speaker 4: Probably the most we've ever been in a room together
Speaker 4: speaking in our decade's history.
Speaker 10: So usually.
Speaker 4: Hands down, you scare the ship out.
Speaker 10: No, I.
Speaker 4: Study people. I'm getting truth be told. I'm working on that.
Speaker 4: I'm so insular and in my shell that I don't
Speaker 4: even with Stevie one. I mean, they're they're luminaries who like, hey,
Speaker 4: let's go out to dinner, let's hang it. I'm like,
Speaker 4: I'm cool.
Speaker 3: I'm cool.
Speaker 4: I've been that way for a long time. I'm just
Speaker 4: slowly getting out of that that that that Rapunzel protective
Speaker 4: phase of my life.
Speaker 7: So but no, back then, I.
Speaker 4: Used it for everything it was worth. I mean I
Speaker 4: made I think that was the day that I became
Speaker 4: friends with Chuck and Hank Uh Chuck d and Hank
Speaker 4: Shockley of Public Enemy Public.
Speaker 10: I am yeah, oh really I was off. Yeah, okay, yeah.
Speaker 2: I tried to explain that because Meir, you like what
Speaker 2: every year I am, you like evolved and matriculated like
Speaker 2: you was intern one year, then I remember you did
Speaker 2: like the Showcase. Another year you went the Roots. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and then next year you did a tribute to like
Speaker 2: Jazzy Jeff or something.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 10: You remember when when I had the Roots at the
Speaker 10: Kennedy Center.
Speaker 4: Do you remember, Yes, I remember that was speaking to
Speaker 4: a group.
Speaker 10: You performed and talked to a group of kids.
Speaker 4: I think that was the Public Enemy performing thing. Yes,
Speaker 4: I remember all four of my I ams. They were crucial.
Speaker 4: I will say, probably the greatest night of my life. Okay,
Speaker 4: I've seen you.
Speaker 10: And where did you meet? Where did you meet? In
Speaker 10: my in your penthouse suite? And was on the piano.
Speaker 10: It was post an event that I honored.
Speaker 4: I was going to say that was probably the first
Speaker 4: magical night for for a career at that point where
Speaker 4: it was sort of like, uh, I don't belong in
Speaker 4: the room, that sort of thing that was. That was
Speaker 4: a moment where the best part of that night was
Speaker 4: sitting with Andre Fisher UH drummer of Rufus and uh
Speaker 4: married and then later Nat he was there with Natalie,
Speaker 4: so I sat. I basically had my first quest love
Speaker 4: Supreme with Andre Fisher and Natalie Cole while Stevie Wonders
Speaker 4: is casually going through his calvic o hits in the
Speaker 4: in the in the piano in this week it was
Speaker 4: like three hours, like to the point where you go
Speaker 4: all the boy like, hey, he's doing creeping when you
Speaker 4: go sit down. When I come back, maybe he'll.
Speaker 10: Be on the sirt Duke, and I think we should explain.
Speaker 8: I am did.
Speaker 10: I produced an annual music celebration, a conference that had panels, luncheons,
Speaker 10: and gala, a gala where we honored everybody from Little
Speaker 10: Jimmy Scott to Shaka Khan, Stevie Wonder, Babyface La Read
Speaker 10: New Edition, tons of people and this went on for
Speaker 10: sixteen years.
Speaker 4: I gotta ask, Okay, how hard is it to organize?
Speaker 4: Because I don't feel like you're the peron. I don't
Speaker 4: feel like you're the Ray Crock in the position of
Speaker 4: they got this. I feel like your hands on you
Speaker 4: talk to people, I mean you talk to us, and
Speaker 4: we were not through, you know, like then, so I
Speaker 4: felt as though you had your imprint on literally every
Speaker 4: aspect of from the smallest talking session to the networking
Speaker 4: part of the night to the big gallad dinner. How
Speaker 4: hard was it to manage, micromanage whatever? How hard was
Speaker 4: it to organize that event?
Speaker 10: It was challenging, but I also had a lot of
Speaker 10: energy and again the passion and commitment to preserve and
Speaker 10: promote our music. And like you said, I wasn't even
Speaker 10: aware that Hank Shockley was there.
Speaker 2: I mean there was so everybody came, Teddy Wiley, every
Speaker 2: Jimmy Caster, everybody came.
Speaker 10: It was just the magnet for artist. And again because
Speaker 10: of me being on the radio one two, because of
Speaker 10: my relationship with Gamble three. My partner at the time
Speaker 10: also had a lot of relationships, so it facilitated. And
Speaker 10: I'm a passionate letter writer. I'm a letter writing motherfucker. Okay,
Speaker 10: So my letters just again the passion that I have
Speaker 10: for our culture music. So I got all those people.
Speaker 10: I paid no one. All the years that people came
Speaker 10: in and distributes, I did not pay anybody.
Speaker 4: Is it important to remember names and make connections?
Speaker 10: Absolutely, it's you know this, it's a relationship business. Think
Speaker 10: of all of us. It's all about your.
Speaker 2: Relationships and how you connect with people. It's a give
Speaker 2: and take.
Speaker 9: So relationships can get you places sometimes where even money can't.
Speaker 10: Absolutely, at the end of the day, it is how
Speaker 10: you feel about another.
Speaker 4: You don't want to fuck with somebody, it don't even
Speaker 4: matter the check is so good.
Speaker 10: So with for instance, with the Roots, I mean, you know,
Speaker 10: and you know, Rich was a tough one, but I
Speaker 10: went passionately, and I thought you guys were very talented.
Speaker 10: I recognize that's the other thing. I have a good year,
Speaker 10: and I for talent. Back to m two May, who
Speaker 10: I know that you guys have had on the show,
Speaker 10: and too. May introduced me to Spike Lee. We were
Speaker 10: at a party in Brooklyn. He had just finished shooting
Speaker 10: She's Got to Have It Wow, just finished and I
Speaker 10: met Spike and I love cinema, so immediately I was
Speaker 10: interested in his film and him, and that's when we
Speaker 10: started developing our friendship. And then at one point he's like,
Speaker 10: you and Stevie Wonder are friends. I was like, yeah,
Speaker 10: he said, I would love to meet Stevie.
Speaker 4: You hook him up.
Speaker 10: He wrote about it in his books. I introduced Spike
Speaker 10: Lee to Stevie Wander, I wrote, Stevie and I said,
Speaker 10: I called him. I said, Steve Lan talented filmmaker. I
Speaker 10: think he is going to be one of the most
Speaker 10: brilliant directors of our time. And of course that has
Speaker 10: come to pass. So yes, I'm very proud of that introduction.
Speaker 4: So you are a bridge. What other bridge connections have you?
Speaker 10: Many? Many, many many many? Really, I mean, I'm I
Speaker 10: want I just I like us connecting. I like us
Speaker 10: being productive from the energy that we create. I love that.
Speaker 10: Like I said, I think what makes me a great
Speaker 10: artist development coach is that I'm interested in seeing people
Speaker 10: reach their maximum potential. So a lot of connections. I mean,
Speaker 10: I feel, as I mentioned earlier in our conversation, I
Speaker 10: am attracted to the gifted. I am attracted to the talented.
Speaker 10: Tenth I'm attracted to people who are exceptional, and I
Speaker 10: have been blessed to have had relationships with these people
Speaker 10: through the course of my experience, and it feeds me.
Speaker 10: It gives me the energy to propel me further to
Speaker 10: help others. I believe I was put on this planet
Speaker 10: to inspire. I'm amused. I'm real clear on what I am.
Speaker 10: I am immused.
Speaker 3: Somebody Donald Doland, baby, what does that well?
Speaker 10: I've been told that that was written for me.
Speaker 4: That's the version of.
Speaker 10: Just crushed a lot, Yeah, yeah, lots of songs. I mean,
Speaker 10: George Cables wrote Ebony Moonbeams. He's a piano player, and
Speaker 10: I was told that he heard my saw my my
Speaker 10: show and wrote it. And then Bobby Hutchison recorded Ebony Moonbeams,
Speaker 10: and then Freddie Hubbard, who was a friend recorded Ebony Moonbeams. So,
Speaker 10: uh yeah, so where's that name Moonbeams come from? I
Speaker 10: was walking down the street in New York. I was
Speaker 10: starting a TV show while I was at City College
Speaker 10: in New York. I went in as a major. Had
Speaker 10: to change that real quick, I told you, because that
Speaker 10: wasn't working. And I saw a spotlight going through the
Speaker 10: moon and I needed a name for my show, and
Speaker 10: I was like, ooh, there's a moonbeam, and everything at
Speaker 10: that time was black, right ebony, So I just put
Speaker 10: Ebony Moonbeams together and that was the birth of my
Speaker 10: radio handle while I was in DC, and it's just
Speaker 10: kind of followed me all my life. In fact, Gamble
Speaker 10: calls me Moonbeams to this day, so that's kind of
Speaker 10: like his name for me. But yeah, and you know,
Speaker 10: I always wanted and I've met presidents and leaders and
Speaker 10: all manner of celebrity and people, but the person that
Speaker 10: I wanted to meet the most was Gordon Parks. As
Speaker 10: a young girl, I saw an exhibition called Harlem on
Speaker 10: My Mind at the Metropolitan Museum and that just I
Speaker 10: saw the photographs of Gordon Parks for the first time,
Speaker 10: and James Vandersey and I just became totally enamored with
Speaker 10: their narrative and how they document it, not just black people,
Speaker 10: but people period. And so for me, my mission became
Speaker 10: meeting Gordon Parks. And I spent an inordinate amount of
Speaker 10: time trying to figure out who I knew, who could
Speaker 10: introduce me to him and what have you. And I
Speaker 10: was not very successful. Yes, yes, absolutely absolutely did you
Speaker 10: ever get to meet him? Well, again I told told
Speaker 10: you I'm a passionate letter writer. Yes, I kept writing him.
Speaker 10: I kept writing until one day he had a vicious gatekeeper.
Speaker 10: Her name is Joanna Fiora Fiori. She is a photographer,
Speaker 10: but she was his assistant as well, and she was like, well,
Speaker 10: mister Parks is busy, mister Parks is sick. Mister It
Speaker 10: was always an excuse. And then finally one day, because
Speaker 10: I never stopped writing him, kept writing him, telling him
Speaker 10: how his photography, his art. For many who do not know,
Speaker 10: Gordon Parks directed Chaff The Learning Tree. He's he was
Speaker 10: a great director in addition to being a fabulous photographer
Speaker 10: and a writer. And then one day I got the call,
Speaker 10: mister Parks would like to invite you to his home
Speaker 10: for lunch and so, needless to say, the day he
Speaker 10: opened the door and I saw him just is pinching myself.
Speaker 3: And wearing a white button down as she sure was.
Speaker 10: Yeah, he sure was. His shirt was kind of open.
Speaker 10: He was just looking real sexy.
Speaker 2: And we became really good friends, to the point where
Speaker 2: the day of his memorial service, I went and his
Speaker 2: daughter came over to me and said, you know, my
Speaker 2: father spoke very fondly of you, and that meant everything
Speaker 2: to me because he was very dear to me.
Speaker 10: We were very very close friends.
Speaker 4: Gordon Park's hip hop historians. You shouldn't know that Gordon
Speaker 4: Parks shot the Great Day in Harlem.
Speaker 3: Yes, did he shoot you All Remix? No, was the
Speaker 3: Double Remix?
Speaker 4: Yeah he shot that.
Speaker 10: Wow, that one he did.
Speaker 7: Yeah, that was wow.
Speaker 4: That was his shot. It was really weird, like it
Speaker 4: was that day September twenty eighth, nineteen ninety eight, the
Speaker 4: whatever a Kum and I Day, Black Star, Black and
Speaker 4: Love movement, Like that day was such a surreal day
Speaker 4: in hip hop history, and he just stayed he first
Speaker 4: of all, I think the camera at the time. Sheena
Speaker 4: Lester was still editor at Double Excel, so you know,
Speaker 4: again you want to mean miss wart No, I just
Speaker 4: want to watch him. So I just like watched him
Speaker 4: from Afar and it was so chaotic that day because
Speaker 4: that was really the day that classic hip hop and
Speaker 4: kind of current hip hop was meeting for the first time.
Speaker 4: So you're watching like rock him, rock Him losing over
Speaker 4: Tarik was one of the weirdest things in my life
Speaker 4: ever seeing and like the Locks meeting, like all these
Speaker 4: grand Master Flash and all them. But he just stood
Speaker 4: there so cool and behind a camera that was easily
Speaker 4: I forget, I forget what Brandon was like.
Speaker 10: That's what I was just about to say.
Speaker 6: I like her.
Speaker 7: Yeah, it was a seventy one.
Speaker 10: I believe it was large format, yeah camera, and.
Speaker 4: He just he took eight shots and then walked. He
Speaker 4: packed his things and walked off in the sunset.
Speaker 10: He was one of the most humble people that I
Speaker 10: ever met for being put him in the genus category
Speaker 10: for real. I mean he could play the piano, he did,
Speaker 10: he did orchestrations, wrote symphonies.
Speaker 4: What was it about his work that attracted you?
Speaker 7: Because in what particular area?
Speaker 4: Because he did so many things.
Speaker 10: Photography again, I saw Harlem on my mind as a
Speaker 10: young girl the photographs captured what I what I knew,
Speaker 10: what I could relate to seeing our people. I just
Speaker 10: think he had a tremendous eye for capturing the pain,
Speaker 10: the sorrow, the love, the tenderness, all of that I
Speaker 10: just got from him. It was just so black, you know,
Speaker 10: just so black and so Yeah.
Speaker 9: One question I had, going back to just your artist
Speaker 9: development work, how in twenty nineteen with Twitter?
Speaker 4: Who how do you manage that?
Speaker 9: It being a time where artists can literally I can
Speaker 9: be three o'clock in the morning, drunk off my ass
Speaker 9: at home in my.
Speaker 4: Not me personal get drunk. Well, let me be let
Speaker 4: me good.
Speaker 7: I ain't gonna get drunk.
Speaker 4: And go on Twitter.
Speaker 7: Let's say that.
Speaker 10: There you go.
Speaker 9: But you know where people can artists can literally get canceled,
Speaker 9: say what they want and get canceled with no filter,
Speaker 9: and there's a direct line from them to the rest
Speaker 9: of the world.
Speaker 4: How do you manage that in twenty nineteen?
Speaker 9: And what is your advice to artists in this era
Speaker 9: where one tweet can get your shaky down?
Speaker 4: You ot it?
Speaker 10: Yeah, I review my client's Twitter, their's social media before
Speaker 10: I work with them, and I'll go in very early
Speaker 10: and say to them, you need to stay off of
Speaker 10: social media. I had to do that with Nikki Gilbert.
Speaker 10: She was doing the show and she was fighting with everybody.
Speaker 10: It was a constant fight in her social media, and
Speaker 10: I said, you need to stay off social media thirty days.
Speaker 10: That's all I'm asking is stay off. And she she
Speaker 10: later told me, she said, thank you for that. You
Speaker 10: saved my life because she was so stressed out fighting
Speaker 10: with people and bickering and arguing. So I'll review. Some
Speaker 10: people are really good with their social media, but I
Speaker 10: warned them, and I tell them, as you just said, Fante,
Speaker 10: you can ruin your career in one tweet. So when
Speaker 10: you write it, look at it. I've had to do
Speaker 10: that many many times, haven't you. Where you write something
Speaker 10: and you're like, what are the implications or consequences? You
Speaker 10: end up not hitting sins. I don't just delete that shit.
Speaker 10: Soy ya.
Speaker 6: Wow.
Speaker 2: Speaking of twenty nineteen, that's where we are. I was
Speaker 2: going to ask you about being in a me Too era,
Speaker 2: current Joe Biden era, where you have relationships with men
Speaker 2: of all different kind of eras and for women, I
Speaker 2: was going to ask you advice on that, because especially
Speaker 2: post Joe Biden where we're trying to figure out what's appropriate. Yes, yeah, yes,
Speaker 2: and you've been through it all because you know you
Speaker 2: are made. Yeah, you have to gauge and check people.
Speaker 2: If you are not that person that likes a hug,
Speaker 2: just extend your hand. Be real clear, this is not
Speaker 2: a hug. This is a handshake.
Speaker 10: You know, your body language tells volumes, speaks volumes about
Speaker 10: you know, you can set boundaries with people, and you
Speaker 10: have to do that sometimes. But sometimes people do not
Speaker 10: respect the boundaries.
Speaker 2: And they'll come in for a hug, and if you
Speaker 2: don't want it at that point, you just have to
Speaker 2: you know, you have to speak up and be very honest.
Speaker 2: You just cannot if you feel that you're being offended
Speaker 2: or people are doing something that is disturbing to you. Hey,
Speaker 2: the closed mouth does not get fed.
Speaker 10: You got to speak up.
Speaker 7: They're gonna get the point.
Speaker 9: Yeah, you have to let them know too, because you
Speaker 9: can't assume that a you can't assume they know and
Speaker 9: then be I think it's unfair to assume that they're
Speaker 9: doing it with bad intentions. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 9: If someone comes in for a hug and you're not
Speaker 9: with it, you. I feel like you just have to
Speaker 9: say that.
Speaker 10: Because exactly speak up. Like today, you know, when I
Speaker 10: arrived at the studio, Fante gave me a hug that
Speaker 10: I did not want to release. I mean, who does
Speaker 10: not want that kind of hug? I mean you feel
Speaker 10: like you're being hugged? Okay, I accepted it.
Speaker 4: Definitely. People know, I can't place it boomerang.
Speaker 10: See how they have cut together the Biden videos. It
Speaker 10: looks creepy. You know, he's like this touching the child's forehead,
Speaker 10: the chin, under the.
Speaker 3: Neck and he's still the and it's still he was
Speaker 3: the vice president.
Speaker 2: So it's also for some women who don't say stuff,
Speaker 2: it's like, well, can he affect my life?
Speaker 3: If I tell this motherfucker to get off me? Is
Speaker 3: he gonna be like hey?
Speaker 10: Right again? You have to decide your what, your space
Speaker 10: and you and if you don't speak up, then that's
Speaker 10: kind of on you. If you are feeling uncomfortable with
Speaker 10: some wanted any.
Speaker 2: Time man woman anything like I went over to a
Speaker 2: girlfriend's house recently and her dog kept humping me, you know,
Speaker 2: and I had to be like, yo, get your dog,
Speaker 2: get your dog, and she put the dog in the cage.
Speaker 10: You know, Michael big Point, I would.
Speaker 4: Just like to.
Speaker 7: Dog was your din on the the Beyonce kiss.
Speaker 10: The Mari's a friend?
Speaker 4: I was like, opened, was that some awards show and
Speaker 4: double a.
Speaker 9: Uh?
Speaker 7: MARII Hardwick.
Speaker 9: He greeted Beyonce and first he came in and he
Speaker 9: gave her kiss on the cheek, hugged and it was
Speaker 9: like no problem, and then he went back for the
Speaker 9: double tap.
Speaker 4: He kissed her again and it looked kind of.
Speaker 3: Addressed Jay Z right who was sitting.
Speaker 10: That is not accurate. It started with jay Z he
Speaker 10: first and then walked around him to Beyonce, hugged her,
Speaker 10: kissed her.
Speaker 7: Were they in the movie together?
Speaker 4: No? I don't think so.
Speaker 10: No, I don't think so, but.
Speaker 4: I don't know.
Speaker 10: Maybe they know each other some kind obviously. But it
Speaker 10: was a double kiss and the double to the double tap.
Speaker 10: But you know what happened she I think she kind
Speaker 10: of moved so it almost when he kissed her, it
Speaker 10: looked like he was kissing her close to her mouth.
Speaker 2: So I think a black woman says power. Yeah, yeah, no,
Speaker 2: I think it just but he people the Beehive came
Speaker 2: for him. They were like, yo, you're wrong, that's about.
Speaker 2: But our man was standing right there. He is not
Speaker 2: a disrespectful person.
Speaker 10: I know, Amari. He's a good guy. And Layah, that
Speaker 10: wasn't nice. It wasn't but it wasn't.
Speaker 11: And I got it from her, Okay, get it from Okay.
Speaker 11: So before we wrap, Yes, what is next for you?
Speaker 4: You've she's going to media coach Bill Sherman.
Speaker 3: At Harvard. You've traveled to South Africa for.
Speaker 2: What do you?
Speaker 4: Isn't pict next?
Speaker 10: No, not at all, not at all. That's just too confining.
Speaker 10: That's not a book.
Speaker 8: You haven't written books, but I've approached.
Speaker 10: Yeah, write letters, I should collective letters.
Speaker 4: But if you write a book, well people feel certain.
Speaker 10: Nois well, you know, I respect that. Like even the
Speaker 10: stories I shared with you there, there's I didn't tell
Speaker 10: you anything super private and nothing that I don't think
Speaker 10: my clients would be adverse to me sharing. But I
Speaker 10: have been approached to write a book. I'm interested in documentaries.
Speaker 10: My long game always was producing documentaries. So that's why
Speaker 10: Fante being on Unsung suits me. I did executive produce,
Speaker 10: the co executive produce the episode on Teddy Pendergrass.
Speaker 4: And that was your thoughts on the Teddy documentary.
Speaker 7: Mm hmm, oh, hit me. I just watched because I
Speaker 7: watched it, and I mean.
Speaker 10: Nothing lest I watched it. I think I should give
Speaker 10: you contexts. I watched it with his widow, Joan Pendergrass,
Speaker 10: who is a dear friend. I watched it with Olivia Linchenstein,
Speaker 10: who is the director, her associate Tyreese and the sister
Speaker 10: who runs his company, and Charlie Mack. We had a
Speaker 10: private screening. Yes, absolutely well. He was like a son
Speaker 10: to Teddy and Teddy had picked him. Charlie Mack is
Speaker 10: the one who approached Teddy and said, need to do
Speaker 10: your biopic, and he introduced Tyreese to Teddy. Tyrees slept
Speaker 10: in the room in the hospital. Teddy was in the
Speaker 10: hospital nine months in intensive care before his passing. Tyrese
Speaker 10: came from California slept in the room with him. I
Speaker 10: will forever love him for his devotion, his dedication to Teddy.
Speaker 10: It was more than a movie. They developed a very
Speaker 10: strong bond and Teddy gave his blessings to have Tyrese
Speaker 10: portray him in the biopic, which is now official Lee
Speaker 10: Daniels as directing. But back to the documentary, I watched it,
Speaker 10: and I was extremely happy to hear my friend's voice,
Speaker 10: to see him when he was able body walking. All
Speaker 10: of that, there was footage that I had never previously seen.
Speaker 10: But at the end of the day I read Olivia.
Speaker 10: At the end of the documentary, I felt very disrespected
Speaker 10: for my ex Kenny Gamble. I felt that Shep Gordon
Speaker 10: made comments suggesting that Gamble and Huff abandoned Teddy, which
Speaker 10: is the furthest thing from the truth. Teddy did not
Speaker 10: think he could sing anymore. Teddy didn't want to live.
Speaker 10: Teddy wanted to commit suicide. So when Gamble and Hoffs
Speaker 10: severed their relationship recording wise with Teddy, what what The
Speaker 10: man was on the edge of life and didn't think
Speaker 10: he could sing, So that's what happened. But the way
Speaker 10: Sheep was representing it and the way she was representing
Speaker 10: I also didn't like the amount of time they spent
Speaker 10: on the taz Lang murder. That was bothering bothersome because Teddy.
Speaker 7: It left.
Speaker 2: A little inference here that Teddy was involved or who
Speaker 2: had the most to gain from her death.
Speaker 4: So what were your feelings on Sonny Hopson's comments.
Speaker 2: About the same thing, Same thing, Sonny's been running around
Speaker 2: for years making allegations in the windows or suggestions that
Speaker 2: Teddy was involved and that, so of course I have
Speaker 2: problems with that as well, And.
Speaker 10: So you know, I let her know, and Joan Pendergrass
Speaker 10: opened up her husband's archives to Olivia. They made three
Speaker 10: separate trips to Boston, which is where Teddy's widow lives,
Speaker 10: where she opened up the archives. So it was nice
Speaker 10: to hear Teddy's voice because he pretty much guided the documentary.
Speaker 10: He narrated it because she had access to those tapes.
Speaker 10: She did not mention Joan. She interviewed Joan, but decided
Speaker 10: to exclude reference to Joan. And meanwhile, I saw I
Speaker 10: didn't know all of Teddy's girlfriends, but I knew the
Speaker 10: main ones, and I saw a bunch of random chicks
Speaker 10: up in that documentary that Joan never knew of. I
Speaker 10: didn't know anything about. It was crazy. So at the
Speaker 10: end of the day, it had value because it did
Speaker 10: tell some of his story. But I felt disrespected because
Speaker 10: of how she treated Joan and the inferences or suggestions
Speaker 10: that Teddy was involved in Tazz's murder, and that Gamble
Speaker 10: and Huff abandoned Teddy Gamble helped pay for Teddy's funeral.
Speaker 10: Gamble went to the hospital. I would bump into Gamble
Speaker 10: with our children in Brynmar hospital. I never once saw
Speaker 10: Shep Gordon, nor did I ever see Danny Marcus in
Speaker 10: the hospital. However, Danny knew how to find his way
Speaker 10: to a telephone to ask Joan when Teddy died, could
Speaker 10: he represent the estate the same person Danny Marcus was
Speaker 10: manager a manager with Shep Gordon of ty Yeah, and
Speaker 10: when Teddy needed financial help and went to Danny, but
Speaker 10: when he died they wanted to be in control of
Speaker 10: the estate. I have problems with those people, and I'm
Speaker 10: happy to have this opportunity to go on the record
Speaker 10: and say again parts of the documentary had value and
Speaker 10: were good, and then the parts just negated a lot
Speaker 10: of it. To me and with Joan. I told the director,
Speaker 10: I said, you could have kirnned at the end, because
Speaker 10: they kirned at the end of the film that Teddy
Speaker 10: went on to have four gold albums. But not only
Speaker 10: did Teddy go on to have four albums, he got
Speaker 10: his ged, he went to Drexel University, he fell in
Speaker 10: love again and he married Joan. Yes, sir, he went
Speaker 10: to college. He did not graduate, but he attended at
Speaker 10: Trexel University. She could have chir on that. And he
Speaker 10: established a foundation to help other paralygics and quads. He
Speaker 10: was a quadriplegic. So I just felt like, you know,
Speaker 10: she said, oh, we decided to ended it Live Aid.
Speaker 10: By the way, I went with him that day to
Speaker 10: Live Aid. That was his first public performance post his accident.
Speaker 10: He was terrified, but he got through it. So I
Speaker 10: encourage people to still see the doc.
Speaker 2: But at the same time, you know, now you're hearing
Speaker 2: my notes, there's a lot of behind the scenes.
Speaker 7: Wait ask you.
Speaker 4: Okay, since we kind of brought up Tesz, is there
Speaker 4: anything can you explain what the environment was like in
Speaker 4: Philadelphia at least with the legend of was the was
Speaker 4: the junior Black Mafia trying to get in the music
Speaker 4: business or like I mean again, I'm I only hear
Speaker 4: things in hindsight, like thirty years forty years after the fact,
Speaker 4: But what was the presence of them in Philadelphia at all?
Speaker 4: Is there anything you can speak on?
Speaker 10: No, I just I mean everywhere you got Black Mafia's,
Speaker 10: you got them. You got the Mafia everywhere you got
Speaker 10: organized crime, involved in unorganized and organized living.
Speaker 4: But I'm just saying that it was so different back
Speaker 4: especially Okay Joe and Sylvia Robinson. Yeah, I was.
Speaker 10: Pretty sheltered from all of that a mirror. I just didn't.
Speaker 4: I didn't so even in Dillian radio and stuff.
Speaker 10: Yeah, but I didn't. They didn't mess with me. I
Speaker 10: was kind of Gamble's woman. I didn't. I was insulated
Speaker 10: from that. I didn't have to deal with that.
Speaker 4: But I mean, was there, it was.
Speaker 10: I'm saying it was there, it is, it is here,
Speaker 10: it is everywhere. Yes, yeah, but I was a little,
Speaker 10: as I said, protected and insular. Oh okay, it's just
Speaker 10: part of life. Good answer.
Speaker 7: I don't know.
Speaker 10: That's real talk, actual good You don't you know what
Speaker 10: I'm saying, but you know what I mean. I want
Speaker 10: to take a moment to thank you all for having
Speaker 10: me today because I respect what you do. Having an
Speaker 10: opportunity to have long form discussions about the history and
Speaker 10: the culture is significant. So the role that each of
Speaker 10: you play with this broadcast, with your podcast is significant.
Speaker 10: And personally, I'm so very proud of Laiah because I
Speaker 10: changed her diapers.
Speaker 4: I was.
Speaker 10: The fact that she holds her own with you, gentlemen,
Speaker 10: because you're all formidable, as is she.
Speaker 4: But you do it, but you do it.
Speaker 10: And I'm very proud of her because in the entertainment game,
Speaker 10: she has so many capacities as a woman in this business,
Speaker 10: as a professional, and I love her. I love listening
Speaker 10: to her on the radio, I love watching her on TV.
Speaker 10: And I think that's promise. Well you guys, yeah, well
Speaker 10: that's fine, And I'll take some of the credit because
Speaker 10: I support her. I believe in her. She represents the
Speaker 10: now in the future for me as a woman in
Speaker 10: this game. So I'm very proud of you. I love
Speaker 10: you dearly, and all.
Speaker 7: Guest has done the sign.
Speaker 2: I can't wait to officiate your wedding. I'm available, amir
Speaker 2: if you should ever get married. I'm willing to do
Speaker 2: that last already.
Speaker 4: Oh you mean.
Speaker 10: How about that?
Speaker 2: I love Fontage and when he was talking about Nicola
Speaker 2: because I loved the foreign exchange, and so I developed
Speaker 2: a friendship with Nicole and that's how I met Fontage.
Speaker 4: Him back crazy, did you?
Speaker 10: So?
Speaker 4: Can I tell the DM story? Is that or just that?
Speaker 10: Go ahead?
Speaker 4: This is the moment I really met Diana Williams.
Speaker 9: Okay, and she revealed more about me, revealed more about
Speaker 9: her than any interview, any anything.
Speaker 7: Okay.
Speaker 9: So we had met backstage at the at the World
Speaker 9: Cafe Live thing, and so from that point on, like
Speaker 9: we follow each other on Twitter and everything. So we're
Speaker 9: talking on Twitter one night and it was late one night,
Speaker 9: and I don't remember what we were talking about, but
Speaker 9: it was talking about something on the timeline and then
Speaker 9: we like we got into the d MS and so
Speaker 9: we were laughing about something.
Speaker 7: So I just said her.
Speaker 9: I was like, oh, sorry, you been It was good
Speaker 9: meets everything, and she was like, fante, I'm tired, and
Speaker 9: I you know, immediately I was just saying, I said, okay, well,
Speaker 9: I'm thinking, I'm Eve been working so hard, you know,
Speaker 9: like what's what's going on? And she gives me the
Speaker 9: greatest response that let me know that she was the illest.
Speaker 9: She said, I'm tired of niggas.
Speaker 5: I said.
Speaker 3: I said, I am to.
Speaker 4: Say so much that let me know.
Speaker 9: I said, yo, yo, she the realers one out. From
Speaker 9: that point on, we've been cool. I said, listen because
Speaker 9: she's so eloquent, and so you know, because you said,
Speaker 9: like her alreadyything, she just said, I'm tired of niggas.
Speaker 4: Boy, I felt that ship in my soul on behalf
Speaker 4: of Light Fante, Boss Bill, Unpaid Bill, Sugar, Steve and myself. Niggas.
Speaker 4: Thank you coming on the shelf. You's been a long
Speaker 4: time this Quests Loves Supreme only on Pandora. We will
Speaker 4: see you on the next go round. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. This classic
Speaker 1: episode was produced.
Speaker 4: By the team at Pandora.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.