Speaker 1: R and Beats Money.
Speaker 2: We are.
Speaker 3: Thank Valati. We are the authority on all R and
Speaker 3: B ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 1: My name is Tank Ja.
Speaker 3: Valentine, and this, yeah, is the R and B Money
Speaker 3: podcast on the authority on all things R and B.
Speaker 1: It just got legendary.
Speaker 4: What I wore his Beatle shirt for a reason. It
Speaker 4: just got his Tell me, why is the man we
Speaker 4: have here tonight?
Speaker 1: Huh? He beat the Beatles and knocked off the Beatles.
Speaker 1: So that's why I wore this shirt because I knew
Speaker 1: my partner was coming knocked off the Beatles. Yeah we
Speaker 1: know this, Nick.
Speaker 3: Well with this Well grew up with this, Nick yay,
Speaker 3: one of the callsts, one of the greatest of all times,
Speaker 3: saying your full name, Brian Mico.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, yeah, So we the fuck up. We've been
Speaker 2: talking about this for a minute. I'm so glad matter
Speaker 2: we are in the building.
Speaker 1: We're here.
Speaker 3: We brother, we cannot be the authority unless you come.
Speaker 2: Here, Tank man. I appreciate you, Jake, my people's man.
Speaker 2: We we go about to see how far back we
Speaker 2: go for real real, This is this is real family, tad,
Speaker 2: this is royal fam talk right here. Listen back, you
Speaker 2: know back in the noontime buildings. It was nine five seven,
Speaker 2: nine five seven West may Hada Bad on the railroad track.
Speaker 5: Yes, when we was all right behind the building, he
Speaker 5: was just trying hold on, let the train pass and
Speaker 5: we get we get the next vocals for absolutely, we
Speaker 5: was all just trying.
Speaker 2: Just coming up, kids, trying to come up, man of it.
Speaker 2: It was me, you, Donny Scans, the Twins, Eric Robertson,
Speaker 2: John Tay. It was just it was a it was
Speaker 2: a house full Jazzy Faye, Teddy, Bishop Shade ub Dent
Speaker 2: were just trying. Man were just throwing throwing the ship
Speaker 2: at the wall man hoping someone mills stick.
Speaker 1: Every day, every day.
Speaker 4: I mean it worked everybody you just named. Yeah, it's
Speaker 4: a legendary in this and you didn't even go to
Speaker 4: the executive side.
Speaker 2: I was just about just musicians. Yeah, and we didn't
Speaker 2: get it to still doing it. Yeah. Yeah, everybody though,
Speaker 2: which is crazy. Everybody's everybody's yellant, everybody. If we could
Speaker 2: have seen the future, man like I'm gonna get I
Speaker 2: tell Chris too, if we at presidence of mind of
Speaker 2: what was happening, we would have we would have stuck together.
Speaker 2: Absolutely absolutely y'all were y'all were monstrous, we would have
Speaker 2: stuck together like I mean, some of we stuck together
Speaker 2: in fascets like Jazzy and Nooney did their things and
Speaker 2: John t people kind of separated, did their own thing.
Speaker 2: But I think that if we had known for real,
Speaker 2: for real, it was on the other side of all
Speaker 2: of this.
Speaker 4: You know what I'm saying, because part of your blueprint
Speaker 4: too is the fabric and the idea of the underdogs
Speaker 4: for us before way before the dogs, you.
Speaker 2: Know, and to and where they got the concept from.
Speaker 2: Obviously it was Puff hit Man. That's really where they
Speaker 2: got the concept from. You know what I mean, you
Speaker 2: no time got the concept. You know, they had JW
Speaker 2: and Dent and Jada mc denwell were co managed by Puff,
Speaker 2: and they basically went up there and saw how Puff
Speaker 2: was running his ship and was like, oh, we're gonna
Speaker 2: kind of duplicate that. And then they got Teddy and
Speaker 2: they got Jazzy k fam and you know, uh, Chris's
Speaker 2: brother Kevin Hicks who played guitar, and all the records
Speaker 2: records and then and then I just I came in
Speaker 2: the mix in the middle of all that. You know,
Speaker 2: John Tate was a part of it work and with
Speaker 2: Teddy Bishop, the Twins were working with dub It was
Speaker 2: just an interesting one. Twelve was coming down there at
Speaker 2: the time, I mean, Duran was working down there. It
Speaker 2: was just a really interesting time in the late nineties
Speaker 2: with that company. You know, just y'all were really like
Speaker 2: y'all were really an artist away, one artist away, artists
Speaker 2: and what's crazy is right? All executives, we say executives. Okay,
Speaker 2: we talked about the partners, but we talk about the
Speaker 2: you know, God bless Shaki Stewart, talk about Jahi Johnson,
Speaker 2: we talk about Jarell Allen. We're talking about the people
Speaker 2: who were, you know, instrumental in that situation. Ryan Glover,
Speaker 2: who was a partner who now owns Greenway Bank, who
Speaker 2: was popping.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: It's just I wish that, you know, I wish that
Speaker 2: we had the presence of mind at that time, and
Speaker 2: of course you never know what on other side. Just
Speaker 2: kind of just go, what a starting ground? What a
Speaker 2: what a fucking starting ground?
Speaker 1: Bro?
Speaker 2: You know, you have people like you know, Block was
Speaker 2: coming down, freaking t I was coming and you know it.
Speaker 4: It was just the interesting Also did many genres of music.
Speaker 4: That was the other thing. That's what the underdogs. It
Speaker 4: was very much so R and B and pop. Yeah,
Speaker 4: and that's really what it was. Everybody from Rick like
Speaker 4: your daddy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And it was just then ill combination of people
Speaker 2: Jim Crow and then you know, I mean, it's just
Speaker 2: it was just then ill you know Jim Crows where
Speaker 2: we get Polo to don Yeah.
Speaker 1: You know what I mean, I was a one stop shot.
Speaker 2: It was just then ill combination of of I mean,
Speaker 2: do you remember when what's my man from hoo the
Speaker 2: Blowfishers down there? Darius Darius, Darius was there, There's Rucker
Speaker 2: came you you was there.
Speaker 1: People who were there put up on us too. Early
Speaker 1: underdog days when it was just me, Damon and RV.
Speaker 2: There is for that R and B. Yeah, he was
Speaker 2: doing like R and B Stevie type thing and it
Speaker 2: was crazy because humph umph Wow, your hump's doing like
Speaker 2: TV film ship like he's like he's he's killing it. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so hump. I remember uh uh Daris Rutger had a
Speaker 2: deal with Bud Wiser.
Speaker 1: I heard about that.
Speaker 2: And they the fucking eighteen wheeler. But Wiser eighteen will
Speaker 2: have pulled up the noontime and Niggas was drinking beer
Speaker 2: for like five months.
Speaker 1: Bro.
Speaker 6: It was the crazy I was expecting five days, you
Speaker 6: know much beer got that truck pulled eighteen would have
Speaker 6: pulled up and he was like, yeah, man, just drop
Speaker 6: it off.
Speaker 7: I was like, what the fuck is happening?
Speaker 2: Like I never seen I don't drink beer, No Niggas,
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 1: Yeah can Niggas was drinking. Can I think it? I
Speaker 1: think it's got a long shelf like ship, not like
Speaker 1: my plastic bottles of bright Thanks thanks two years.
Speaker 2: Supply sprite expired in six months. Thanks maybe less appreciate
Speaker 2: that to give it away. Bee Cocks. Man, Man, you're
Speaker 2: you're ship. You're one of the greatest. Man. I appreciate you.
Speaker 1: Guys.
Speaker 3: Man, And we gotta we gotta turn back the hands
Speaker 3: of time and really establish how you got here, Like
Speaker 3: like when does bea Cox happen? When does when does
Speaker 3: somebody say you know this kid is special? When do
Speaker 3: you say to yourself, I found my purpose? Like talk
Speaker 3: take us back to Houston, man, you know it's back. Ultimately,
Speaker 3: I've always wanted to be a producer. I never understood
Speaker 3: what it really meant. But I knew that whatever Quincy
Speaker 3: Jones did was important, whatever Teddy Rowdy did was important,
Speaker 3: Whatever Jimmy Jame Terry Lewis did was important. Whatever La
Speaker 3: Bay Face Day was important. And these were the names
Speaker 3: I was saying on the back of my favorite albums
Speaker 3: and favor you know, you know, I mean we talk
Speaker 3: about credits off.
Speaker 2: I'm a credit reader. I mean, you know, people call
Speaker 2: me a music inside Wipedia. I know things that I
Speaker 2: shouldn't know, right, And it's because I studied these records.
Speaker 2: My mother was an avid record byer. My aunts were
Speaker 2: everybody that yes, my.
Speaker 4: Mom, yes, amazing, I want to say hello, amazing.
Speaker 7: So my mom was super just in the music heavy.
Speaker 2: My mom loved music, and I give my love of
Speaker 2: music from her and my my aunts and my uncles,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean. And they were buy records.
Speaker 2: I'm saying like specific. Every one of my aunts had
Speaker 2: different styles, like different things that they liked. Right. So
Speaker 2: when you're young, right, and you're growing up in a
Speaker 2: big family and you spend time with all your different
Speaker 2: family members, you get to get all this experience from
Speaker 2: different things.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: So like man and Jack who passed away a few
Speaker 2: years ago, her particular style of music was very eclectic,
Speaker 2: like she would listen to things like Journey, Asia Haull
Speaker 2: of Notes, but then Charla Marri was one of their favorite
Speaker 2: groups or when the Fire was in their favorite so
Speaker 2: she she had she might have been the most eclectic
Speaker 2: record collector. You know. Like my first time ever hearing
Speaker 2: Donald Fagen's My Life record was because she had it
Speaker 2: and I didn't.
Speaker 7: I didn't even know what Donald think it was.
Speaker 2: And I had to find out that he was a
Speaker 2: member of Steely Dan and she had Steely Dan records.
Speaker 2: And she was the one telling me all these different things. Yeah,
Speaker 2: like the whole the whole other thing. Right, she was
Speaker 2: the one that told me these different things. Right. My
Speaker 2: mom was just really into like super like you know,
Speaker 2: early on, like you know, funk boogie, you know what
Speaker 2: I mean, So uh that translates from you know, just
Speaker 2: part of my funkadelic to h when it translates to boogie,
Speaker 2: that goes to Kashif and goes to what Leon Silvers
Speaker 2: was doing and things of that nature. And my mother
Speaker 2: also was really in the fusion, so like Herbie Hancock
Speaker 2: funk that she was, she wasn't really into Herbie's like
Speaker 2: super jazz shit. But it was like when it got
Speaker 2: to Chameleon and when it got to records like Headhunters
Speaker 2: and Feet on Film Now and things like that, my
Speaker 2: mom was running to that shit, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 2: and that were really really like I was to my moms.
Speaker 2: I was with her a lot, so a lot of
Speaker 2: that music shaped like my mom loved d Train and
Speaker 2: loved things like that in the early eighties. I feel
Speaker 2: like my mom's The most dense era of music for
Speaker 2: my mom was like nineteen I would say nineteen seventy nine,
Speaker 2: like nineteen eighty three, right, so you have I was
Speaker 2: exposed to a lot of music during those years, and
Speaker 2: I was very young. I was like, you know, between
Speaker 2: the ages of seventy nine, I might have been one
Speaker 2: going on two. It's from two to like six, there
Speaker 2: was a lot of music that was being a lot
Speaker 2: of information that was being absorbed.
Speaker 1: Yeah, just because when did you start playing?
Speaker 2: I started playing when I was six, So.
Speaker 1: This time you're already hearing it though, Yeah, so.
Speaker 2: I've heard it. But then I went to go live
Speaker 2: with my grand my grandparents, right. My grandparents are from
Speaker 2: Bahamas in Miami, I went to my went back to Miami.
Speaker 2: I was born in Miami with my mom. My mom
Speaker 2: was in the ninety seventy nine, so I was born
Speaker 2: in Miami in seventy seven. My mom we used to
Speaker 2: seventy nine. Then I moved back to Miami live with
Speaker 2: my grandparents when I was five or six. Right, and
Speaker 2: my grandparents are you know my grandfather's a Pentecostal minister,
Speaker 2: said then I have all this I have all this information.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: Then now I go to church. The secularision was already there, right,
Speaker 2: And now I got to go back, and I got
Speaker 2: to go to church because my grandfather's not having it.
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying, We're not listening to nothing.
Speaker 2: You know, it's it's you know, it's it's really shock. Yeah,
Speaker 2: a culture shock. It's Mahelia Jackson and Malaya Jackson. It's
Speaker 2: it's you know, I mean, I'm talking about old James Cleve.
Speaker 2: I'm talking about the old time.
Speaker 1: But now you go, but now you're getting the root.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, And I'm not knowing at the time about
Speaker 2: all the things that we do exactly exactly like my grandfather,
Speaker 2: he went in with the new My grandfather went back
Speaker 2: and we're like, my grandfather's from Akland Island, the Bahamas
Speaker 2: man that you know he's he was, yeah, you know so,
Speaker 2: and my grandmother is the same. Right, So now I'm
Speaker 2: now I'm in church, and you gotta do something, right,
Speaker 2: So let me tell you what's interesting. Right, there's a
Speaker 2: guy you y'all may know him. He's a he's an
Speaker 2: amazing musician. He's put out a couple of records now
Speaker 2: but used to play with the roots. His name is
Speaker 2: Raymond Angry, right, Ray Angry. Okay, So Raymond Angry is
Speaker 2: one of my guys. Okay, So let me explain something
Speaker 2: to you about Ray, just so you know, yeah, all right, yeah, Ray,
Speaker 2: Ray and I grew up in the same church, in
Speaker 2: the same church atmosphere church got.
Speaker 7: A prophecy, right.
Speaker 2: His father was was well respected and was like a
Speaker 2: person who took me in as like a nephew and this,
Speaker 2: that and the third. And Ray was way older than us,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean. Ray, While I'm in if
Speaker 2: I was like six or seven, Ray might have been
Speaker 2: fifteen or fourteen something that right, and Ray, we y'all
Speaker 2: call him Ray. But me and Kendrick, who because of
Speaker 2: Kenrick Dean we call him Sebastian. That's his name, wow,
Speaker 2: because he's Ray Angry junior. So at church his dad's
Speaker 2: big Ray, we called him Sebastian, so I know him
Speaker 2: at Sebastian and very angry. It is the first person
Speaker 2: that I ever saw that made me want to play piano,
Speaker 2: like for real, Like he was like he was no
Speaker 2: for real. He was one of those people. He was
Speaker 2: like an anomaly, like.
Speaker 1: He was a super snark fourteen though.
Speaker 2: At fourteen organ ridiculous, like he was like he was
Speaker 2: the best already. He was the best already. He's the
Speaker 2: first person I seen move his hips while playing keyboard
Speaker 2: two keyboard at the same time at Rankin Chapel at
Speaker 2: Howard University, and he was not saying all the keyboards
Speaker 2: like yeah, he's dancing.
Speaker 7: No.
Speaker 2: The way he was raised rais different. Different. When we
Speaker 2: were kids, me and Henrick were little, and was just
Speaker 2: always all of him, and he woul always let us
Speaker 2: sit by him, you know, he would, he was him
Speaker 2: and we just, you know what I mean, sit behind
Speaker 2: him and watch him, you know what I mean, And
Speaker 2: that always And it's crazy because I hadn't thought about
Speaker 2: this in a long time. To me, me and my
Speaker 2: mother was talking about this recently, and I hadn't thought
Speaker 2: about it in a while. My almost like, SA, like
Speaker 2: that's where you that's where it started for you. And
Speaker 2: I remember my grandmother put me in panel lessons because
Speaker 2: of him. I did not know we had that income. Yep,
Speaker 2: I've known him, little gang of stuff. I was a
Speaker 2: little guy. I was in high school. He was at
Speaker 2: Howard University killing everything.
Speaker 1: He was shy. All of them was up there like.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's that was the era. Yeah, that was the era.
Speaker 3: Everybody was up there. And we his kids from high school.
Speaker 3: We were the singing kids from high school. They would
Speaker 3: come up to Howard University and singing all the church
Speaker 3: functions and all.
Speaker 1: It was like the best group, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: We was high school kids, and Raymond Angry was like
Speaker 3: one of our heroes. Every time he got on the keyboards,
Speaker 3: it was him and then another guy named Marlon Saunders
Speaker 3: who would get on. And what's that other guy, Gordon
Speaker 3: Gordon Chamber of course, of course Gordon Chambers was like
Speaker 3: Jesus to us.
Speaker 2: Of course, Cam and Raymond.
Speaker 1: Angry it was like yeah, when they get on, when
Speaker 1: they get.
Speaker 2: Sign I said this, yea, yes man. It was like
Speaker 2: gods to us, we just watched them in awe and
Speaker 2: just why did you what did you do?
Speaker 1: Like why are your fingers? Is know?
Speaker 2: Raymond was I mean, I mean he was one of
Speaker 2: those people that we just we couldn't wait to be
Speaker 2: around Sebastian. It was like, you know, and because we
Speaker 2: spent so much time over their house, you know that
Speaker 2: they said Big Ray really brought us in. But like
Speaker 2: we spent a lot of time because Kendric's father, Kendric's grandfather,
Speaker 2: his grandfather, and my grandfather. They his grandfather was the
Speaker 2: pastor of the church. His grandfather was the pastors of
Speaker 2: My grandfather was one of the associate pastors and like
Speaker 2: you know, been to being a bishop and basically was
Speaker 2: like really involved. They were like best friends and you know,
Speaker 2: just really really an ill connection. And of course Ray's
Speaker 2: dad was like literally so involved with the church and
Speaker 2: they involved all the kids in the church. So these
Speaker 2: are things that you know, when I was in Miami
Speaker 2: living with my grandparents, there was a major like a
Speaker 2: major shift in my life, right and then my mother
Speaker 2: comes and gets me, you know, go back to Houston.
Speaker 2: But I would go to Miami every summer, so you
Speaker 2: go to my vacation Bible school, you go to you
Speaker 2: know what I mean? He did all like literally, so
Speaker 2: I was getting a proper like balance, right cause I
Speaker 2: would come back, I would go to Houston. I would
Speaker 2: go back, come back to Uston with my mom and
Speaker 2: my aunts, and you know, they was outside. You know
Speaker 2: what I'm saying. You know, my aunties was outside school.
Speaker 1: I was.
Speaker 2: I went to the elementary school for two years in Miami,
Speaker 2: but then for the rest of my time it was
Speaker 2: in Houston. So when I would come back to when
Speaker 2: I would go to Houston for school, my mom and
Speaker 2: them outside bro Thursday night, I stay at the club.
Speaker 2: Maybe they was outside. And my mom every week would
Speaker 2: go to the records so it's the record store and
Speaker 2: he used to call sound waves. She go to recorster
Speaker 2: every week get new records. If would get you know,
Speaker 2: all the new ship. So she was up on a
Speaker 2: new ship. My aunts all up on a new ship.
Speaker 2: And I was the person that was like in the
Speaker 2: middle of it all, Like that was my interest, Like
Speaker 2: none of my cousins were interested in. That was my interest,
Speaker 2: Like what new records you're getting this week? You know
Speaker 2: what I mean. And then at this point, so I
Speaker 2: would say, I mean, it's happening at a very young age.
Speaker 2: I remember specifically, this is crazy. I remember specifically. I
Speaker 2: have a really wild memory, and I have to be
Speaker 2: at this point. I couldn't have been I might have
Speaker 2: been six, right, And my mother came home with a
Speaker 2: stack of records. Yo, I'll never forget it. It was
Speaker 2: because She's first album, Prince nineteen ninety nine, Freaking Spiral Gyra,
Speaker 2: Yellowjacket's second album. It was like a bunch of just
Speaker 2: different styles of records, right, and this got it like
Speaker 2: eighty three eighty four, and my mom was just were
Speaker 2: just going through the records and that was like it's
Speaker 2: like Gap Band five, jamming the record with Party Train
Speaker 2: and then listening to these records. I was always entrance
Speaker 2: with how these records were made. And there's a record
Speaker 2: on Gap Band five specifically called I'm Ready that's like
Speaker 2: this record to this day is like one of the
Speaker 2: most amazing records to me, is like I don't know
Speaker 2: if you guys even notice record, but it's a super
Speaker 2: album company, It's a smash. It's like a record that
Speaker 2: really should have been a single, right, it's like, yeah,
Speaker 2: to this day, is that one of the records, Like
Speaker 2: you're out there, You're gonna be like, why wasn't this
Speaker 2: song or single? Like it was one of them kind
Speaker 2: of things. And for me, I always proud of myself
Speaker 2: at finding those, like listening to whole albums and finding
Speaker 2: records that it was kind of like that nobody listened
Speaker 2: to that I liked, you know what I mean, and
Speaker 2: that and I would attach myself too, you know what
Speaker 2: I mean, and like I want to learn this song,
Speaker 2: I want to play this song, sing this song, you
Speaker 2: know what I mean. So there was a record like
Speaker 2: an earth Wind and Fire's Power Light album and the
Speaker 2: shill used to make me sing all the time. It's
Speaker 2: record calls Straight from the Heart that was written by
Speaker 2: Philip Eddie del Barrio. I know that record and it
Speaker 2: was like the last song on Saturday, and it was like,
Speaker 2: you know, such a random ass. It's like almost like
Speaker 2: there's a record on earth Wind Fire seventy seven album
Speaker 2: call All in All called I Write a Song for You.
Speaker 2: Straight from the Heart is like part two of that song.
Speaker 2: Right if if you listen to books songs, it's like
Speaker 2: this is a continuation of that song, right, And music
Speaker 2: was such a major part.
Speaker 1: Of obviously like right now, yeah you're going.
Speaker 2: There, Like music was such a major part of like
Speaker 2: everything in my life, you know what I'm saying. And
Speaker 2: I remember I always tell people, like the first birthday
Speaker 2: gift I ever got when I turned six and eighty three,
Speaker 2: the first birthday I got was James Album's Cold Blooded.
Speaker 2: My mom bought me Cold Blooded. Still I still have
Speaker 2: that album.
Speaker 1: I knew I liked this.
Speaker 2: So literally that was the first album I ever got
Speaker 2: in my life. She bought me for my six six
Speaker 2: years old.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I know, my son, I was just outside, was outside,
Speaker 3: there was outside this.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's that's what it was. But she bought me
Speaker 2: the James Cold Blooded album and never forget it. You know,
Speaker 2: I remember, I remember opening the album. I remember, you know,
Speaker 2: her writing my name on the album, opening album, pulling
Speaker 2: the credits out and it was black and the Gordy label.
Speaker 2: I remember everything about it, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: I remember dropping the kneel on certain records and you know,
Speaker 2: like Ebony Eyes and you know Mary had a pimp
Speaker 2: and records like that, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: I'm six years old by Mary.
Speaker 2: Had a b I p you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 2: you know, but I remember I remember being in amber
Speaker 2: with the sound of Cold Blood, like why those those
Speaker 2: drums sound like that? Like what is that? What is
Speaker 2: the what is that? What is about that record that
Speaker 2: makes it? You know what I mean? And my mom
Speaker 2: was a huge Prince fan also, so she had every
Speaker 2: Prince album and I remember, you know, I said night time.
Speaker 2: I remember she bought nineteen and I remember opening an
Speaker 2: album and the eye on the album, and I remember
Speaker 2: everything about the process of it. And I remember they
Speaker 2: went to the concert was Triple Threat concert. I remember
Speaker 2: them like we're going to come her Aunt, just getting ready.
Speaker 2: I remember this shit vividly, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: It's like as a kid, like why why do I
Speaker 2: remember this? Yeah? You know what I mean. There was
Speaker 2: something that was out. This was something I was supposed
Speaker 2: to do. When the music is in you, it's going
Speaker 2: to like when you have those moments where the music
Speaker 2: is tapping into so I don't even know what to
Speaker 2: call it, but when the music is calling you in
Speaker 2: a certain way or trying to get your attention, there's
Speaker 2: always a moment in time that you can connect to
Speaker 2: that no matter how small you are. I have so
Speaker 2: many of those moments. I have moments like a moment
Speaker 2: where I'm sitting there watching my uncle get dressed. He
Speaker 2: getting ready to go out on the date, and he's
Speaker 2: just every time he goes from his room to the bathroom,
Speaker 2: he giving me some more game, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: So you got to make sure you shave. You know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, A shave for me? Like yeah, he
Speaker 1: really talking to himself.
Speaker 2: Yeah for you that give it to you.
Speaker 1: I'm a kid kid, and he's got magic shad you know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that's the eighties. Get that off your face
Speaker 2: for your face burn up around. He doing that, and
Speaker 2: then he got the smell. The smell good. And then
Speaker 2: you gotta make sure you smell good. You know what
Speaker 2: I'm saying That for you got to make sure. But
Speaker 2: all I hear in the background is not the side show.
Speaker 2: Can ye he got that's I can see it.
Speaker 1: I can see me sitting at my grandmother's kitchen table
Speaker 1: and watching him walk back.
Speaker 2: And forth, and he's but he's said in the tone
Speaker 2: he said, in the mood for the night gonna be
Speaker 2: for him. So he got the music going. He's like, yeah,
Speaker 2: nigg I'm about to get you know, he's about to
Speaker 2: go that I'm not used to make these keyboards that
Speaker 2: were like consumer keyboards called portasound keyboards, right and so,
Speaker 2: so okay, granted, equipment was super expensive right forever and
Speaker 2: never there back in the day, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: You know, you couldn't send clavi here. It was like
Speaker 2: fifty thousand dollars, you know what I mean. Like, so
Speaker 2: what companies started doing when they started making consumer based
Speaker 2: like instruments, you know what I mean? Versions, Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: And Yamaha was one of the first to make a
Speaker 2: consumer you know some you could buy several merchandise or
Speaker 2: you know random you know, like at a department store.
Speaker 2: They want the first to do it and PSR five.
Speaker 2: But I think my I think my keyboard was like
Speaker 2: it might have been seven hundred bucks, like six hundred
Speaker 2: bucks some of that, you know what I mean, a
Speaker 2: lot of For my mom to dropped six hundred, seven
Speaker 2: hundreds on the keyboard, It's like, okay, nigga, you better right,
Speaker 2: So so I couldn't have been on more than at
Speaker 2: the time when I got the keyboup it might have
Speaker 2: been eleven right keyboard, and I remember just breaking down
Speaker 2: this keyboard, breaking it down like reading the reading the
Speaker 2: man or breaking it down, breaking it down to what
Speaker 2: happens is that they had four I'm sorry, there are
Speaker 2: four pre set beats and the keyboards like basically showing
Speaker 2: you the sounds it would give you, like whatever. So
Speaker 2: in these four presets, I figured out a way where
Speaker 2: you can erase the presets and make your own sequences.
Speaker 4: And you wasn't supposed to do that because this was
Speaker 4: just kind of like a demo demo.
Speaker 2: It was you know, you get a keyboard as a demo,
Speaker 2: it's a demo. But I was like, nah, let's figure out.
Speaker 2: And it was a way you could erased the demo
Speaker 2: and you couldn't save it. You couldn't save your practic.
Speaker 2: But what I would do is I would just make
Speaker 2: tracks because I had to share hooked up to a
Speaker 2: little tape deck, make test paredess on the track, on
Speaker 2: order on the tape, make four tracks the race, make
Speaker 2: four new tracks race and if something, if something stuck right,
Speaker 2: something that was like oh this is okay, this is
Speaker 2: really good, right, then I would say okay, if I
Speaker 2: had to make it again, I would make it again
Speaker 2: to see if I could do it again or do
Speaker 2: it better. Right, you don't even know that you're actually
Speaker 2: fine tuning. I didn't even know. I was plying to you,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean. I'm just like, Okay, can
Speaker 2: I make this track again? You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: And what happened was in the short term, I would
Speaker 2: you know, when you're young and you want you know,
Speaker 2: at this point, it might have been maybe thirteen or
Speaker 2: fourteen when this happened, thirteen, and we'll start going to
Speaker 2: sing in groups. You know. Well, I've been in church
Speaker 2: and all everybody want to start doing groups. Was popping, shy,
Speaker 2: was out boys, some men's everybody, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: So everybody want to start having groups. So I was
Speaker 2: in a group, you know what I mean, and I
Speaker 2: was like the you know, the music guy in the group,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean. I was at a divinete
Speaker 2: or the Teddy right, and and in the midst of that,
Speaker 2: there was a there was a friend of ours. So
Speaker 2: I was in a group with my best friends at
Speaker 2: the time, uh Scooby, Troy Clark and his brother Trevor,
Speaker 2: and we uh they were they knew this guy right,
Speaker 2: who was in a group called groove View. I don't
Speaker 2: know if you guys mayor I don't know, you may
Speaker 2: remember this group. They were signed to Atlantic Records. Group
Speaker 2: called groove View. Troy Taylor wrote and produced their first
Speaker 2: single song called Old Becomes the New. They were from Houston, right.
Speaker 2: The guy in the group, his name was Tron Mitchell,
Speaker 2: and I went to school with his sister, right, Laurie
Speaker 2: and my friends they knew him, they were in a
Speaker 2: group before that. He was kind of like developing. So
Speaker 2: they told him about me the host, this kid, this
Speaker 2: guy we're working with, you know, Brian or whatever. And
Speaker 2: Laurie told him about me. Laurie's in a group of
Speaker 2: my cousin Talia. So it was like interesting. Houston was
Speaker 2: an interesting space, that interesting place that at that time,
Speaker 2: because it was like all these groups popping up. You know,
Speaker 2: girls time was pop was popping. This is pre Desate,
Speaker 2: so girl's time was popping. All these groups are popping up,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: And all y'all, all y'all going to school together too.
Speaker 2: We all know each other in an interesting way because
Speaker 2: there was this thing that kind of brought us together
Speaker 2: called the People's workshop. So the People's Workshop was like, well,
Speaker 2: all these kids will come and compete, and and like
Speaker 2: you know, between People's Workshop and a SOO and things
Speaker 2: of that nature, kids started knowing each other through these competitions.
Speaker 2: That's actually how I met Robert glasper okay, through the
Speaker 2: People's Through through the People's Workshop. That's a whole nother
Speaker 2: story that too. So so t Tryn Mitchell. He hears
Speaker 2: some of the songs or some of the tracks that
Speaker 2: was making. He was like, this, you make a track,
Speaker 2: some come on to your house. Tea had like an
Speaker 2: a SR ten all kind of shit at this house,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean. He was cooking with grease right,
Speaker 2: here's my tracks. He's like, yo, man, what you're working on?
Speaker 2: So I got this little keyboard, you know. He's like,
Speaker 2: you're making all that on that ship.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: It's like to come to my house, you know. So
Speaker 2: go to his house and he shows me it's as
Speaker 2: R ten and shows me all. I'm like, oh shit,
Speaker 2: this is some that was like that shit blew my
Speaker 2: mind next level, you know what I mean, I completely
Speaker 2: blew my mind right, And he kind of took us
Speaker 2: under his wing and was like yo, boom, you know.
Speaker 2: They would They were SCIENTI Atlantic at the time. So
Speaker 2: he would go to New York they make their records
Speaker 2: this then and the third, and he would come back
Speaker 2: and he would play us these records, you know, and
Speaker 2: like and I don't think that he even knew or
Speaker 2: maybe he knew, maybe he knew that he was what
Speaker 2: kind of energy he was putting into me personally, because
Speaker 2: I would hear these records, I'm like, damn, I records
Speaker 2: something like that. How can I remember a reconsiand like that,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean. So he was working with
Speaker 2: people like Troy Taylor. They was working with Gordon had
Speaker 2: done a bunch of stuff on him. They had a
Speaker 2: real budget. Yeah, they had a budget. They had a budget.
Speaker 2: Craig was spending money on him, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: They at the time they went in with like uh,
Speaker 2: Kenny Smooth and all these They were making some records,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean. Then they they made some
Speaker 2: records with a young Donelle Jones. This is before Donelle
Speaker 2: was Donelle was just a producer at Untouchables. And he
Speaker 2: would come back. T would come back with these demos
Speaker 2: like Yo, Donald wrote us another one playing some this
Speaker 2: shit is crazy, you know, I mean, you know what
Speaker 2: I mean. And I'd be like, yo, I gotta get
Speaker 2: my records to sound like this, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: In the midst of this, I meet who would end
Speaker 2: up becoming like my main mentor for many years, Greg Curtis.
Speaker 2: In the midst of Greg Curtis. So in the midst
Speaker 2: of all this happening with me, T in my group
Speaker 2: and this, that and the third T was managed by
Speaker 2: this guy named abd Lamar. And abid Lamar was kim
Speaker 2: Olajawana's cousin. He was the one that made the dealer
Speaker 2: at Atlantic, but he was also managing Greg Curtis. So
Speaker 2: T text me to Abby's office or my keyboard, my
Speaker 2: keyboard that speakers in this. So I just bring my
Speaker 2: keyboard to the to the fucking office. T was like, Yo, man,
Speaker 2: press play on Abbey. So press play on Abby. Is
Speaker 2: like there's African Oh shit, oh shit, oh this coming
Speaker 2: out of the keyboard. Oh, I'm gonna called Greg. Now
Speaker 2: he calls Greg. He's like, Greg, you gotta come up here, nigga,
Speaker 2: you gotta come up here. This little nigga comes. He
Speaker 2: got a little keyboard with speakers on his niggas playing.
Speaker 2: He's going crazy, right, So that Greg pulls up. Greg
Speaker 2: actually comes to the now for us, now you understand
Speaker 2: for me, I was going to HSPVA at the time
Speaker 2: I was at I was in high school. I was
Speaker 2: going to HSPVA, which is the same school Greg graduated
Speaker 2: from years before. Secondly, for us, Greg Curtis was already
Speaker 2: a legend in the city from a gospel perspective, Rochester
Speaker 2: Prailway feel on Adams. He literally had been, you know,
Speaker 2: on tour with everybody from Keith Sweat to Black Street
Speaker 2: to Tony Tony two. He was like the guy you
Speaker 2: know what I'm saying. He was just like so he's like,
Speaker 2: Greg is coming to the office on my bugging, like,
Speaker 2: oh shit, Greg is coming to the office.
Speaker 1: You know what I mean.
Speaker 2: Greg comes to the office and I pressed play on me,
Speaker 2: like you that's coming out of that. He's like, Okay,
Speaker 2: get in the car with me right now. So I
Speaker 2: take my keyboard and get a car in go to
Speaker 2: his house. Greg has this like Wold studio in his
Speaker 2: crib and he's like, Yo, I'm gonna show you. I'm
Speaker 2: gonna literally show you how to really do this. He
Speaker 2: literally showed me how to produce it. Like from that day.
Speaker 2: For it was, I was at his house down there
Speaker 2: every day, you know what I mean, Like literally.
Speaker 1: What was what was he? What was his setup?
Speaker 2: He had the Oh no he was he was the
Speaker 2: ship Greg had. Back in those days, everybody was using
Speaker 2: drum machines like NBC. He he was different. He had
Speaker 2: the fucking Mac. He had a Mac. This is in
Speaker 2: the mid nineties. He had a Mac with performing. I
Speaker 2: didn't even performed this before. It was regular performer with
Speaker 2: the mo too, you know, interface, the whole like the bridge.
Speaker 2: He had two D eighty eights. He had like you know,
Speaker 2: some outboard, some outboard reverb delay, the delayed stuff you know,
Speaker 2: going on. But he had eight eighty to ten eighty
Speaker 2: the se one you know I mean. But what was
Speaker 2: ill was that he had the ship. Like here, everything
Speaker 2: programm is his computer. The patches were in his computer.
Speaker 2: So if I wanted to go to like a No.
Speaker 2: Lone guitar, I could just go to the computer and
Speaker 2: do it. And this is about now. The ship sounds
Speaker 2: like regular, but in like nineteen ninety four, that shit
Speaker 2: was like the most and most incredible shit ever. Put
Speaker 2: a patch on you know what I mean, on the
Speaker 2: computer and actually make an eight part sequence and do
Speaker 2: double like it was ill, you know what I mean?
Speaker 2: And he basically at that point it was like yo,
Speaker 2: you with me, you know, took him in his wing
Speaker 2: and taught me everything that I needed to know before
Speaker 2: I came to Atlanta. Right, so check right in the
Speaker 2: midst of this, of all of this, my senior year
Speaker 2: high school happens ninety five coming see high school. Who
Speaker 2: fucking walks in orientation? Fucking Beyonce in LaToya walking orientation? Right,
Speaker 2: because they're freshmen at our high school. Okay, somebody to
Speaker 2: talk has been talk about them, like we knew where
Speaker 2: they were from people's workshop, but now it's been talking
Speaker 2: about them because they you know, God there got signed.
Speaker 2: They was about to get suned to Columbia, and it
Speaker 2: was like a big It was like talk about them, right,
Speaker 2: but I hadn't seen them stay It was like, you know,
Speaker 2: ten or eleven at this point that girls, yeah, like thirteen,
Speaker 2: fourteen at this point I'm seventeen. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: They walked. Beyonce is a grown ass woman. Niggas at
Speaker 2: the school is going crazy. Niggas at the school, going like, yo,
Speaker 2: I know, you don't know them.
Speaker 1: I was, I do know them freshmen.
Speaker 5: It just.
Speaker 2: Niggas at the school of.
Speaker 1: I could do two more years, Nigga that school lose.
Speaker 2: In their mind, right, But I already knew them the
Speaker 2: whole nine. So we get the talking and you know,
Speaker 2: of course there's always a common thread. We all we
Speaker 2: came up together and in that people's workshop, Vive. So
Speaker 2: she tells me like, yo, hey man, you know we
Speaker 2: we you know, we're going to Sacramento. Were working with Dwayne,
Speaker 2: Dwayne Wiggins, you know. So basically that that period when
Speaker 2: they were going doing those records with Dwayne, I would
Speaker 2: I was running my mom's phone, Villa. Basically I was
Speaker 2: calling them, like yo, play some over the phone. I
Speaker 2: was just trying to get any little bit of inspirational
Speaker 2: information that I could get. And I mean I knew them. Beyonce, Kelly,
Speaker 2: LaTavia Latoy, I knew him well. So they were they
Speaker 2: were you know, we have a caller like Brian. But
Speaker 2: listen to this song they played, you know, you know,
Speaker 2: human Nature, they played on second Nature. They played those
Speaker 2: regular regular they plays songs, and I'm just like, oh, man,
Speaker 2: I gotta fucking figure this out. You know, It's like
Speaker 2: a thing like it became a mad dash, almost like
Speaker 2: a race to figure it out.
Speaker 1: Because you keep hearing these new levels of music and
Speaker 1: you're like, but that are people that are connected to them.
Speaker 2: Know directly, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: Same friend groups, age group. I'm like, I gotta that.
Speaker 1: We've all been there where.
Speaker 4: It's like you think you're doing something and then you
Speaker 4: hear the next level and you're like, you know what
Speaker 4: they're about to ask me to play these records.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say, I got it. You know, I ain't
Speaker 1: bring thathing. Man, I just came to hang out, be skipping.
Speaker 1: It's been skipping time.
Speaker 4: You know when you're not on the level or you
Speaker 4: should you should know because where somebody didn't know and
Speaker 4: they still wanted to play it because they got excited.
Speaker 1: And I always looked at them for those records always.
Speaker 1: That's very tough.
Speaker 2: That was the That's where I learned the biggest lesson
Speaker 2: when I would hear the records like I'm not ready yet,
Speaker 2: and I was saying to myself, like you're not ready right.
Speaker 2: See what happened was I had a crazy breakthrough right
Speaker 2: one day Beyonce calls me, or that one of the girls,
Speaker 2: either Beyonce or LaToya, one of them called me like, hey,
Speaker 2: we told Matthew about the song that I would pestered
Speaker 2: them like yo, hey, come in the room, practice room.
Speaker 2: I got a song, another song. I'm playing songs for
Speaker 2: them because I was run of the one people that
Speaker 2: really knew that the deal, that their deal was done.
Speaker 1: It was like a rumor they still going to school.
Speaker 2: They was in school. But I was like one of
Speaker 2: the only people that knew that the deal was actually finished, right,
Speaker 2: And they let me know that.
Speaker 7: So I would always hand them like I got another song,
Speaker 7: you know.
Speaker 2: And one day I got a call like, hey, we
Speaker 2: want to come do that song whatever song you was singing,
Speaker 2: that they will come do that song. I was like okay,
Speaker 2: So I'm calling Greg and call the tea and like, hey,
Speaker 2: they want to come do songs, you know whatever. So
Speaker 2: they came and they did. We did two songs together.
Speaker 2: We did a song called Sweety Pine and we did
Speaker 2: a song called hey DJ right. And I think Greg
Speaker 2: actually still has actually has the song still. I believe
Speaker 2: it's still as them because if it does, I'm pretty
Speaker 2: sure he does I'm pretty sure it does because Greg
Speaker 2: is good.
Speaker 7: We're keeping ship. I'm pretty sure he does.
Speaker 2: So we made the songs and I will never forget
Speaker 2: this because this was the day that I knew. I
Speaker 2: was like, Okay, I'm fun being in the group. Fuck
Speaker 2: being you know what I'm saying, Like, that's not what
Speaker 2: I want to do. This is what I want to do.
Speaker 2: I remember, I remember it vividly. It was like, okay,
Speaker 2: you know when you have a basically like Okay, I'm
Speaker 2: in a group and we're trying to figure it out,
Speaker 2: but I want to write for this person. But it
Speaker 2: was like when I had this session, it was like, yeah, nah,
Speaker 2: this is this is it? This is it? Like I
Speaker 2: don't I don't want to be performed. I don't want
Speaker 2: to do that.
Speaker 1: What was it about the session? Was it? Was it
Speaker 1: the way that the music turned out? Was it?
Speaker 2: It was the way it turned out, but also the
Speaker 2: way that they were like the should do something out
Speaker 2: at them, the way they was giving it back. I
Speaker 2: never experienced that. It was beyond saying Kelly in the
Speaker 2: studio and I had. I never experienced giving giving somebody
Speaker 2: something like a line or giving them something and they
Speaker 2: give it back to me in a way. It was like,
Speaker 2: oh that shit was perfect, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: Like it was like I never produced, like you you're
Speaker 2: pucing in the group and you're producing yourselves, and you
Speaker 2: know you don't really you know, I don't.
Speaker 7: I thought I knew what I was doing, you know
Speaker 7: what I mean.
Speaker 2: But you know, just we just try and shit, you
Speaker 2: know what I mean, to give instruction and to hear
Speaker 2: it back the way that it was coming back to me,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean. And I'm like everything they
Speaker 2: was doing, I'm like, wait a second, and was ill,
Speaker 2: as I would tell me all the time, Like these
Speaker 2: girls were way advanced, Like they were so advanced. It
Speaker 2: was just I never experienced anything like that. I was like, okay,
Speaker 2: all right. First of all, these girls are going to
Speaker 2: be superstars. That was the first thing. Second thing, I
Speaker 2: was like, this is exactly what I want to do,
Speaker 2: because if I'm able to throw something out of somebody
Speaker 2: and then give it back to me the way that
Speaker 2: these people are giving it back to me, then I
Speaker 2: don't need to be singing because they got it, you
Speaker 2: know what I mean. It was kind of like that,
Speaker 2: like Kelly got it, like I ain't got it.
Speaker 1: But being able to identify that as a gift in itself.
Speaker 2: So fast forward when I started to come to Atlanta.
Speaker 2: I remember coming to Atlanta. What made you come to Atlanta?
Speaker 1: Man, was college just to come tolt?
Speaker 2: No, it was it was a girl. Yeah, it was
Speaker 2: a lady real R and.
Speaker 1: B R and B. I mean, I'm sure you're not
Speaker 1: with her anymore, but you know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but she's still a great friend. Was still she
Speaker 2: still get no, but no, she it's crazy.
Speaker 7: Recently we we had a reconnection.
Speaker 2: Recently. She came to the Usher Show and we talked
Speaker 2: about this and I was like, I had to give
Speaker 2: her a props, like, hey, you know, like I wouldn't
Speaker 2: have came down to have one for you. I came
Speaker 2: because of you, because I was going to New York.
Speaker 1: She lived in Atlanta, and you know she no, she
Speaker 1: was in Houston.
Speaker 2: So his deal. I graduate high school and I stayed
Speaker 2: in Houston for her stay in Houston. I didn't go
Speaker 2: I didn't go to the college house. I went to
Speaker 2: University of Houston. All that woman to stay with my
Speaker 2: woman because she was a year behind me. You know
Speaker 2: what I'm saying. She she's about to graduate and she
Speaker 2: gets set to all these schools and she's like, I'm
Speaker 2: going to Atlanta. And I'm like, well, we're going to Atlanta.
Speaker 2: You going me? We got accepted, were going to Atlanta.
Speaker 2: I did everything I could to get to give that.
Speaker 2: I got I got you. Oh yeah, got out of there.
Speaker 2: Were right to Clark. I was I was trying to
Speaker 2: go to the New School, driving Glassboro. I got graduated.
Speaker 2: He was going to the new School, and he introduced
Speaker 2: me to the dean and everything, and I was talking
Speaker 2: to her and I was going to try to go
Speaker 2: to the new school.
Speaker 1: What is the new school?
Speaker 2: What is that? Uh? The school in Manhattan is a
Speaker 2: jazz school in Manhattan.
Speaker 1: Okay, you gonna go about to fully be immersed in music.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I was going to go to the I was
Speaker 2: trying to and he had already, like I said, I
Speaker 2: already talked to the dean a few times. We were
Speaker 2: trying to figure it out. And when she told me
Speaker 2: she was going to Atlanta, I was like.
Speaker 7: Well, I want to go to New York.
Speaker 2: I'll see you, Robert, I see to Atlanta. And ultimately
Speaker 2: I remember rationalizing it because I was like, well, I
Speaker 2: mean Atlanta's where At the time, this is ninety seven.
Speaker 2: Atlanta was cracking, cracky.
Speaker 1: I'm like, it's really a it makes sense.
Speaker 2: It makes us me to go ahead because I'll be
Speaker 2: able to really follow what I'm trying to follow, you
Speaker 2: know what I mean. And the only way I get
Speaker 2: that support from my mom is if I go to school.
Speaker 2: So I was able to get a Scott Scholarship at Clark,
Speaker 2: and I was able to get grants and a kind
Speaker 2: of different things whatever I could grade, so it wasn't
Speaker 2: a problem. And ended up going to Clark and I
Speaker 2: came to Atlanta and I remember the first thing that
Speaker 2: I did was I opened up the white Pages. This
Speaker 2: is something you know, if you guys may not notice,
Speaker 2: you know, young age, I don't know about the white pages.
Speaker 2: Y'all could Google. You know, back in the day, we
Speaker 2: ain't have Google. We had the White Pages. You know
Speaker 2: what I'm saying. And be me being an avid credit reader.
Speaker 2: I knew all the studios and a new doppler. I
Speaker 2: knew Licco, I knew Purple Drag, and I knew all
Speaker 2: the like, all the names of the studios. I just
Speaker 2: opened up and highlighted all the studios and we just
Speaker 2: call try to get internships, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 2: And this is why I was going to school and
Speaker 2: still doing what I was doing. But I was like, man,
Speaker 2: I got to get on and I didn't realize how
Speaker 2: hard it was getting internship, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: It was like they had all these stipulations. I'm like,
Speaker 2: I'm like, I'm trying to work for free. Y'all got
Speaker 2: work for free, you know, But it was a lot
Speaker 2: of stipulations to get internships. And I remember, you know,
Speaker 2: I'm I called every place I could call. And then
Speaker 2: I remember on campus one day, you know, on campus
Speaker 2: they have like all of them. Yeah, so they have
Speaker 2: all of the like street promo back in the day,
Speaker 2: it was like street promotions was big, you know what
Speaker 2: I mean, all to post it was like, yeah, so
Speaker 2: it was there was it was. It was you know,
Speaker 2: trip Bunch was a big deal back then. And I
Speaker 2: remember seeing a flyer man. It was a flyer that
Speaker 2: was like you know, noontime you know music hit Man, this,
Speaker 2: that and the third Boom Boom and it was like
Speaker 2: Jake up Dan Teddy Bishop on the fly the flyer
Speaker 2: k Fan Boom. We named all the producers and it
Speaker 2: was like, yeah, we got we're doing hits for it
Speaker 2: was a puff Daddy, Brandy, all these different people and
Speaker 2: it was like looking for banging beats called this number
Speaker 2: and it was that was on a flyer. It was
Speaker 2: like on a random ass flyer. And I was like,
Speaker 2: what unless you kind of google my money? Early on,
Speaker 2: early on, I was kind of like I didn't cause
Speaker 2: I didn't know what to do. I didn't know. I
Speaker 2: was like I don't know what the fuck to do?
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying, Like, you know, I had,
Speaker 2: you know, I had a girlfriend. I was like I
Speaker 2: was spending money on her. But I wasn't like I
Speaker 2: didn't know what the fuck to do. It didn't I
Speaker 2: didn't really go crazy manute till like later later I
Speaker 2: went crazy, you've purchased? Oh man, I went, I bought
Speaker 2: a Bentley Cash. I bought, I bought, I bought a
Speaker 2: flying spread cash. I just went right to the spot.
Speaker 2: Was like yo, I called my, my, my my. I
Speaker 2: did a new publishing deal and I was on on
Speaker 2: on the you know you wait on the phone. I
Speaker 2: went on the line for the for the clearance, like
Speaker 2: I signed a contract and my mom and Chris we
Speaker 2: all worked it out. I signed a contract and I
Speaker 2: was at the Lermitage. I never forget it. I was
Speaker 2: a Rmitage hotel, just kind of in the hotel waiting
Speaker 2: for the call.
Speaker 1: It's not happening fast enough.
Speaker 2: I'm just happened just how I signed the contry this morning.
Speaker 2: I faxed it over on. They got my banking information, like.
Speaker 1: I can't afford it.
Speaker 2: I'm just sitting there waiting, waiting, and then my mom calls.
Speaker 2: She's like, Okay, you can go check that camp. And
Speaker 2: I was like she was, I said, you checked. I
Speaker 2: checked there, but you need to go check it. I'm
Speaker 2: not gonna tell you what's in there. You go check it.
Speaker 2: And I remember I wanted to go. I called the bank.
Speaker 2: I was like, hey, what's you know? They gave me
Speaker 2: the what I got, They gave me the balance. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you know what I'm saying, nigga. I called Beverly Hills Bentley.
Speaker 2: I caught a phone with them, picked the phone up,
Speaker 2: called Beverly Hills Bentley. Immediately. It wasn't even two seconds.
Speaker 2: It was like, cause that's there, and I knew the
Speaker 2: deal was hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on.
Speaker 2: I knew the deal was coming right, so we are
Speaker 2: kind of been prepping me. Christ and Jahad kind of
Speaker 2: being they kind of prepping me for the money, like
Speaker 2: yo Christ Joh, like yo cocks. All right, when the
Speaker 2: money head, you gotta chill out. And they were already
Speaker 2: kind of prepping me, and I was just like, okay, cool,
Speaker 2: you know cause I've been in LA for a few
Speaker 2: weeks working and I'm like cool, all right cause I'm
Speaker 2: like the money a day on my tripping, you know
Speaker 2: what I'm saying. So I remember JAHI it took me
Speaker 2: a few days before took me to like go test
Speaker 2: drive some cars. I just like, go test drive this
Speaker 2: Porsch'm gonna test drive this, asked him, mark, this bank, this,
Speaker 2: this band. Let me go test. I was test driving everything, right.
Speaker 2: I remember my test rode the Flying Spur and I
Speaker 2: was like, yeah, I'm gonna get this motherfucker.
Speaker 7: You don't want to show you what it's like?
Speaker 2: Man? You sure you don't want to just go get
Speaker 2: just get a nine eleven man, And just you know,
Speaker 2: I was like, i' might clean. I'm I'm to the
Speaker 2: nine eleven. I'm not telling him and my mom, I like, no, nigga,
Speaker 2: I'm about to drive three hundred and twenty five. That
Speaker 2: motherfucker cleared. I called Bentley Beverly me, Hey, hey, y'all
Speaker 2: got just that. Got that call over there. I'm on,
Speaker 2: I'm on, I'm on the way right now. I went
Speaker 2: to the bank. I went right over that nigga.
Speaker 1: Are you trying to stop you at the bank?
Speaker 2: Now, He's like, your little cash his check? Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: I was like, let me get a cash his checked
Speaker 2: that out. Yeah, let me get a cash in his check.
Speaker 2: And that was like to Bentley Motors, Bentley Hills, and
Speaker 2: I went right down there and gave him that ship.
Speaker 2: And they was like, which color do you want, mister Coss,
Speaker 2: you mister Cox, Misscotta, what's the champagne?
Speaker 1: Listen? And everything? Oh my god, the ground was out
Speaker 1: back then.
Speaker 2: Please, it was like on the car, put bow and everything.
Speaker 2: Now I was just one of them, and I remember
Speaker 2: being like, you know, I never did anything, And then
Speaker 2: I remember I did that, and then I flew to
Speaker 2: Houston and by my mama house immediately. You know when
Speaker 2: I just I you know, when you make it, when
Speaker 2: you make so many songs, you stand at that point.
Speaker 2: By the time I made that deal, I made so
Speaker 2: many songs right, the pipeline was crazy. I only I
Speaker 2: was taking I didn't take a whole lot of money
Speaker 2: every time. So like let's say that by the time uh,
Speaker 2: you got it, bad becomes a thing. Right, Like my deal,
Speaker 2: my my publishing deal was like we did like a
Speaker 2: small deal, Like we went to Warner and did like
Speaker 2: they did the joint venture. Warner and I did a deal.
Speaker 2: You know, it was a small deal. So by the
Speaker 2: time ig that deal, so because you got a bad
Speaker 2: it was huge that these records, these records were coming out.
Speaker 7: They were huge records.
Speaker 2: So by the time I was signing these deals, I
Speaker 2: would doing I would get half a million here, four hundred.
Speaker 2: I would sign off soon as I signed the deal ived,
Speaker 2: you know what I'm saying. So I was making money,
Speaker 2: but I had never did like a deal that was like,
Speaker 2: oh here is so and so on so on millions, you
Speaker 2: know what I mean. I was doing five hundred recouping.
Speaker 2: I would make my money, and I was doing well.
Speaker 2: I was you know, I was doing great, you know
Speaker 2: what I mean. But it wasn't like I got a
Speaker 2: whole like a month that was like yo, here you go, buddy.
Speaker 4: So you you went into that he said he said it,
Speaker 4: You said it, So we going there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, confessions, So confessions right, you got to badness eighty
Speaker 2: seven on one, oh.
Speaker 1: Ship, Yes I'm jumping. I'm jumping.
Speaker 2: Yes, it is seven on one and you got to yeah,
Speaker 2: you got it.
Speaker 1: Bad I immediately thought burned, but yes, okay, on.
Speaker 2: The ones you gotta back. You gotta back this one one.
Speaker 2: And what's ill is that I tell people this all
Speaker 2: the time. Out of all the artists I wanted to
Speaker 2: work with like he was, Usher was the only artist
Speaker 2: I was like, yo, I have to work with him.
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying. You need everybody else. It
Speaker 2: was cool, it was great, you know what I mean,
Speaker 2: And I mean working with all my people, all the
Speaker 2: people you know enjoyed, you know, growing up listening to
Speaker 2: I've got a chance to work with a lea Tony
Speaker 2: brats like you know, the people who phenomenal people, right,
Speaker 2: and it was just like damn, I felt like, Okay,
Speaker 2: I'm in the business. I'm doing what I'm supposed to do.
Speaker 2: You know what I mean, I'm working with all these
Speaker 2: people that are great. I'm doing what I'm supposed to do.
Speaker 2: When I'm i'm you know, I'm pushing.
Speaker 1: For are locked in at this point.
Speaker 2: Yes, I'm locking with Jamaine, but I'm also locked in
Speaker 2: with Noon Time Heavy, so that Tony Braxton Aaliyah Time.
Speaker 2: You know what I mean. I'm locked in with your
Speaker 2: man Heavy you do. Yeah, I'm locking with your man
Speaker 2: on Jagged Edge. You know, everything's so so bad. I'm
Speaker 2: locked in with him. We're doing shinting. What are we doing?
Speaker 2: You know, Mariah, We're going to have different things. And
Speaker 2: the only artist that I was like, Yo, man, I
Speaker 2: really want to write that. I want that. That's the
Speaker 2: call I want, like because he would call me for
Speaker 2: this different artist. I'm gona get cool. I'm coming down.
Speaker 2: Diana called me to Yo, can you coming do so?
Speaker 2: And so I'm coming down studio and I was like, man,
Speaker 2: I hope this thing will call me for Usher Man.
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying. I was just you know,
Speaker 2: and he called me. I was like, Yo, man, come down,
Speaker 2: you go. We're we started Usher today. I was like shit.
Speaker 2: And literally was the first day that he opened that studio.
Speaker 2: So it's the first day from the South Side. I
Speaker 2: went the South Side when they were building it, and
Speaker 2: then we were still working at the house and then
Speaker 2: one day he called me. It was like, hey, man,
Speaker 2: can you come down to the new studio. We know
Speaker 2: it was finished, we're gonna start today. And I was like,
Speaker 2: we're working on it was working on USh. I was like, shit,
Speaker 2: first day, new studio, first song, you got it bad?
Speaker 2: No bullshit? Hang up, no bullshit, new studio, first day,
Speaker 2: first song, no bullshit?
Speaker 1: What's first? What's first? The keys of the drums?
Speaker 2: Keys. So it's an incredible story about this, right, It's
Speaker 2: an incredible story. We're talking and he's like Jamaine is
Speaker 2: very specific and strategic about how he approaches things. He's like, yo, man,
Speaker 2: like we needed to do a song. It's kind of like,
Speaker 2: what what could Nice and Slow be bigger and more pop?
Speaker 1: Like?
Speaker 7: He was just like, what can how can we?
Speaker 2: Because I Slow was so niggorish and dope, but it
Speaker 2: was very very black, you know what I mean, even
Speaker 2: though ended up being a pop record, but his approach
Speaker 2: was very He was like, man, from the progressions, how
Speaker 2: can we make it be still black? You know what
Speaker 2: I mean? And churchy? But you know, how can we
Speaker 2: take it up a notch? And we were just kind
Speaker 2: of going back and forth, and I started playing some
Speaker 2: things He's like.
Speaker 7: Okay, you're going that direction whatever.
Speaker 2: So he's like, yeah, man, I'm you know, Jamaine goes
Speaker 2: in once he has an idea in his head, he'll
Speaker 2: go and he'll play video games or whatever's going to that.
Speaker 2: So it's crazy, is we were having a conversation before that,
Speaker 2: me and him and Jermaine, I mean, him and Usher
Speaker 2: having a conversation before that. And Usher's going through this
Speaker 2: thing with this girl, you know. I mean, I don't
Speaker 2: know if I called this girl's name out, but he's
Speaker 2: going he's going through this thing with this girl at
Speaker 2: the time. She's a she's a disaster. It's a disaster.
Speaker 2: And y'all you definitely know this woman is she's a
Speaker 2: disaster and we have to ban her from the studio.
Speaker 2: It's like she's like she's just out of control, you
Speaker 2: know what I mean. And jamn Is we're talking about it,
Speaker 2: and Jamain's like, man, you know, man, nigga, Yeah, she
Speaker 2: got you, man, she got you dog man. You got
Speaker 2: it bad, bro, you got it bad. He just says,
Speaker 2: he keeps saying it, and you got a bad dog
Speaker 2: like that girl ain't no good. You got it bad.
Speaker 2: And he just said keep saying, keep saying it over
Speaker 2: and over again, and then literally that's how and whatever
Speaker 2: happened with it, whatever that phrase was in his head,
Speaker 2: he was like, I'm going to stick with that. I'm
Speaker 2: going to stick to this phrase because we have to
Speaker 2: write a song about this. And when I came with
Speaker 2: the progression, he was like, So I came with the progression.
Speaker 2: I mind you, I'm coming from the school noontime the
Speaker 2: way my productions are at noon time, and very elaborate,
Speaker 2: a lot of transitions and strings and bridges and all
Speaker 2: kinds of ship, you know what I'm saying. So I'm
Speaker 2: approaching this ballot that way initially. So I'm I got
Speaker 2: all kinds of strings and lead lines and all kinds
Speaker 2: of shit going on, and I got a bridge, part
Speaker 2: changed part, when all kinds of shit going on?
Speaker 7: When all that right?
Speaker 2: All right? I got all this ship right, And so
Speaker 2: I tell ja, mane, I'm ready, man, come, come listen
Speaker 2: to what I got so far. So it comes in.
Speaker 2: He press pantal drummerchine. He's just listen to all this
Speaker 2: all this ship, you know, And he's listening. He's like,
Speaker 2: all right. So when he goes to the next sequence,
Speaker 2: He's like, we're not gonna use the next sex. I'm
Speaker 2: gonna use that bridge goes back and he's like allright,
Speaker 2: and he goes to the board and he just starts
Speaker 2: muting ship. I'm telling it's the best. It's the greatest
Speaker 2: lesson I've learned in songwriting and producing ever. I was
Speaker 2: starts muting ship, right, he's everything, and I'm like, what
Speaker 2: the fuck is he doing? Like he mean all a
Speaker 2: good ship in my mind, I was, I was, I'm
Speaker 2: in there getting my ship. Yeah, he mute all me
Speaker 2: and everything right. The only thing we have left is
Speaker 2: the ny line and the wind. He liked the wind.
Speaker 2: Keep the wind in there, but everything else right, keeping
Speaker 2: gonna start here, and I'm like, okay, goes on. He
Speaker 2: goes starts loading up sounds. Is when your man is
Speaker 2: using floppy. So you had a NI starts loading up
Speaker 2: sounds or whatever. He loads up a kick a snare
Speaker 2: I have, and he makes a drum track with that, right,
Speaker 2: and that's it, And I add a bassline, So you
Speaker 2: got the baddest kick snare, high hat now line, guitar bassline.
Speaker 2: Don't forget the win and the wind. Don't forget to
Speaker 2: win six instruments. We write the song. Okay, there's no harmonies,
Speaker 2: so you got it bad. It's only to late line
Speaker 2: the only time here harmonies in the second verse when
Speaker 2: he does I truly adore you. That's the only part
Speaker 2: of it is. It's the only problem. This is no harmonies.
Speaker 2: It's literally just vocal and I'm sitting there when we
Speaker 2: finish the song like wow, look, it was only like
Speaker 2: when we finished the song, you understand, Like, and Jamain
Speaker 2: wasn't demo and songs at this point, he has stopped
Speaker 2: demo and songs. We were writing the songs. I didn't
Speaker 2: with the song, and then Usher came and sang it.
Speaker 2: And after us just sang the song. It was kind
Speaker 2: of like Nigga, like, did we just write the best
Speaker 2: song of life?
Speaker 1: It was like you know what.
Speaker 2: It was like one of those like like it was
Speaker 2: like a moment where then La comes. Listen to the
Speaker 2: songs before the guitar solo we had. We didn't have
Speaker 2: a guitar song on that recog. Initially La comes and
Speaker 2: you listen to the song Elie, It's like, Yo, this
Speaker 2: song smash right, and Jamaine's I got a vision for it.
Speaker 2: I put a guitar solo on We're gonna get Bill
Speaker 2: oldon so Billy Old and puts guitar solo on it
Speaker 2: kills and we mix it right. Send the song in
Speaker 2: to uh le face and Arista Clive that don't like
Speaker 2: the guitar solo. He wants to take the guitar solo out,
Speaker 2: and Jermaine has to fight for the guitar solo, which
Speaker 2: obviously is the moment. Actually, the video is the moment,
Speaker 2: and the video is the moment. You didn't hear it
Speaker 2: at the time. Clyde fought song. You should have known
Speaker 2: better too. We had a guitar song and should better
Speaker 2: and you wanted to do like he just didn't fuck
Speaker 2: with us on the guitar solos on the R and
Speaker 2: B sh. I don't know why, but I just remember
Speaker 2: being like, oh man, simplicity, Like I don't have to
Speaker 2: do all of that ship to get my point across.
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4: The average person can't do anything even don't even truly
Speaker 4: understand all of it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was like, damn, I got to do all
Speaker 2: that to get my shit across. Like he was like, yo, man,
Speaker 2: take all that ship out of there. Man, you gotta
Speaker 2: leave room. And literally that's when he was like, okay,
Speaker 2: right now, you know, it was like, oh, this.
Speaker 1: Is too much, too much.
Speaker 4: We've all had beats in front of us where we're
Speaker 4: just like you can listen to it one hundred thousand times,
Speaker 4: just like I can't figure nothing out of this ship
Speaker 4: because it's just too much going on. It's too busy
Speaker 4: for me. So you need someone like Jermaine to say hey.
Speaker 1: He's like, no, nigga, you're doing too.
Speaker 2: Much, damn. And literally that's another technique that I took
Speaker 2: with me. I took from that moment. It's like, Okay,
Speaker 2: I'm taking this woman, but it's time for me to
Speaker 2: do you know whatever. I'm taking this woman.
Speaker 1: Whose idea was it to go bone thugs in harmony
Speaker 1: the bit of it inc.
Speaker 3: Body just can't keep it real, not bom bone, boom bone.
Speaker 1: We were, We.
Speaker 2: Just are huge fans of bone with that harmony. I'm
Speaker 2: gonna keep it real, you canderstand. We're coming off from
Speaker 2: Mariah we did. We did a song with Mariah right
Speaker 2: this is before the big ones, like before like shake
Speaker 2: it Off and we had them charm Bracelet. We had
Speaker 2: done a record before sung with Rainbow and Mariah is
Speaker 2: a full on like she's a Bone Dogs, a harmony fanatic,
Speaker 2: Like that's how she's full on, like full on, like no,
Speaker 2: no doubt, right, So for us, it's just an extension
Speaker 2: of that relation, this relationship, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: And we we I mean bone Thugs by far as
Speaker 2: one of my one of my favorite rap groups and
Speaker 2: one of my favorite period you know what I mean.
Speaker 7: And melodically, I just.
Speaker 2: Always felt like and Jamaine look like we just always
Speaker 2: felt like nobody ever explored it properly.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know what I mean.
Speaker 7: Like so it's like who can explore and make it.
Speaker 2: Global?
Speaker 1: But yeah, you.
Speaker 7: Know what I mean, Like that's the thing.
Speaker 2: It's like, you know, and and and I think also
Speaker 2: it's an extension of you know, think about Jermaine with
Speaker 2: uh but pop Pimp you know U s h g
Speaker 2: rr A. Like I think that that's just an extension of.
Speaker 1: It.
Speaker 7: You know, it's the same kind of concept, you know
Speaker 7: what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: So let's get to confessions confessions.
Speaker 4: We we we we got there. We got man, great story,
Speaker 4: confession confessions. It's time to do life changing ship. Oh yeah,
Speaker 4: at this point, it's time to do game changing.
Speaker 1: The pressures on. Yes, we didn't feel it thought within
Speaker 1: the industry though.
Speaker 4: Within the industry, like every everybody felt the pressure of.
Speaker 2: What's going on with Usher? What's doing next?
Speaker 1: Because of the sputter in between?
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I remember too, I was working with like
Speaker 2: a couple of artists, like you know, like younger artists
Speaker 2: in between, and a couple of antars would say things
Speaker 2: that I thought were like extremely disrespectful, like at and
Speaker 2: are telling me something? They brought me this artist and uh,
Speaker 2: they were describing him to me like yeah, you know,
Speaker 2: he's not much of a vocalist, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: And he was like usher man, you know, like he
Speaker 2: ain't really much of a vocalist, you know. And I
Speaker 2: remember being like.
Speaker 1: Wait, that's a wow? Was that?
Speaker 2: What what did you say? Because I'm like, you know
Speaker 2: that I work with him, you know, I you know,
Speaker 2: I do his vocals, Like what are you talking about?
Speaker 2: He's like, yeah, you know what's like he got sing
Speaker 2: he can't sing sing. I'm like what you know what
Speaker 2: i mean? I'm like, hold on, hold on, what.
Speaker 1: Listen chair man, swivel chair. If you're watching this, you're
Speaker 1: a goddamn fool, your motherfucking mind.
Speaker 4: I just remember, Yeah, I don't care who you are,
Speaker 4: you could be the biggest executive too, saying Usher is
Speaker 4: not much of a vocalist, You're a god damn.
Speaker 2: Fun I remember that vividly. So I remember going into
Speaker 2: making Confessions, Like I said, we didn't feel we didn't
Speaker 2: feel the pressure because we knew. We just went into
Speaker 2: it the way we would do any of any other things.
Speaker 1: Just automatic.
Speaker 2: So like that Burn was the first song we did
Speaker 2: for Confessions, Like it was the first song, the first one.
Speaker 1: Secure Steward played it for me.
Speaker 4: Hey, co, Yeah, that was the first, and I thought
Speaker 4: it was your first single, and I was like, this
Speaker 4: is out of here.
Speaker 1: This nigga's back, He's all the way back.
Speaker 2: It was the first time we wrote. So it's like
Speaker 2: let it Burn is another thing which your man is, Like,
Speaker 2: he's a person that will have like multiple conversations with people,
Speaker 2: let say, who have concled with me, with you and
Speaker 2: with you and not let us know that he had
Speaker 2: conversations with us, Right, So we think that what we're
Speaker 2: talking about is the first time we're talking about it,
Speaker 2: and that we're coming up with it right here. But really,
Speaker 2: he's already had a conversation with you and you said
Speaker 2: the same thing to him, and he's just saying to
Speaker 2: you or man, shit, let it burn, right. But literally
Speaker 2: he had the same exact conversation with Usher Nigga.
Speaker 1: So the niggas laying out of DiCaprio in inception.
Speaker 2: Like so, so everybody has different perspectives on how you
Speaker 2: know what I'm saying, Scientists, everybody's So. My perspective is
Speaker 2: I was going through something. I never played video games.
Speaker 2: I was in the room playing video games. Like, man,
Speaker 2: you're in there playing video games? What the fuck is
Speaker 2: wrong with you?
Speaker 1: You know what I mean?
Speaker 2: And I'm telling them what's going on, my lady is
Speaker 2: just bullshit going on, like man, shead Cox, Man, you
Speaker 2: let that ship burn? Man? Right? He says it right,
Speaker 2: And I'm like, Nigga, that's a song. He was like,
Speaker 2: I'm neig go write it. And I was like, what,
Speaker 2: you know what I'm saying. He was like, nigg go
Speaker 2: write it. You think it's a song, go write it?
Speaker 2: So o care cool. So going, I started making the
Speaker 2: progression to what ended up ends up becoming burned, and
Speaker 2: I say, yeah, I think I got the progression. So
Speaker 2: he comes in and I played the progression. He's like yeah,
Speaker 2: and then I literally was like it's gonna burn for
Speaker 2: me to say this coming from I started to start
Speaker 2: spewing the lyric to him. He's like, that's it, and
Speaker 2: then he just I said, I made the first four lines.
Speaker 2: Then he picks up the next like four or five lines,
Speaker 2: and then it's like, this is the first time me
Speaker 2: and him were writing songs writing a song this way,
Speaker 2: because normally it's like I make, I make the progression.
Speaker 2: I may give him a melody he made, you know
Speaker 2: what I mean. I may chime in, but he usually
Speaker 2: does the heavy lifting of the lyric, you know what
Speaker 2: I mean. With this particular time, me and him are
Speaker 2: just going like back and forth, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: I'm like trying to do my best babyface ship with it,
Speaker 2: you know, all set all with telling me why I'm
Speaker 2: stay in this place that it is like they said,
Speaker 2: when I'm going back and forth, like I'm like, this
Speaker 2: ship is like somebody to be filming this ship, you
Speaker 2: know what I mean, like in real life. So we do,
Speaker 2: we finish the song and we're like, oh, this this
Speaker 2: is the first song for the album that we're making for.
Speaker 2: You know, we don't know Confessions is coming at this point.
Speaker 2: We're just writing. We're months away from writing Confessions at
Speaker 2: this point. This is the first song. So we started
Speaker 2: writing other songs, trying to just get to the to
Speaker 2: the next song.
Speaker 7: And we go to La. We go to La.
Speaker 2: And I mind even burn is finished, the most finished Moe.
Speaker 2: We go to La. We work at bay Faber that
Speaker 2: brains way, and we kind of got writer's block, like,
Speaker 2: well we can't you know, we're not really getting it's
Speaker 2: not really coming right. I gotta I gotta go to
Speaker 2: the Dnnist. I'm gonna go to Dannist, can whatever whatever.
Speaker 2: Jaman's like, yeah, I'm gonna ride around whatever whatever. So
Speaker 2: Jermaine's riding around l A and he fucking sees the
Speaker 2: big ass Beverly Beverly Center sign, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 2: And for him, you know, uh, that was the first
Speaker 2: thing that came to his mind, like, oh shit, you
Speaker 2: know I'm in the bed List Center, like man, not
Speaker 2: giving a damn, Like that's what you know what I mean?
Speaker 2: Those things, these things start coming to him, you know
Speaker 2: what I'm saying, And we would you know, I come back.
Speaker 2: I got my teeth pulled, I'm full of Viking and
Speaker 2: I come back, you know what I mean. It's like
Speaker 2: we're gonna come up with we start coming up with
Speaker 2: this idea. Ironically, what was the predecessor of this idea
Speaker 2: was Ignition. The cognition is kind of why confessions even
Speaker 2: exist in real life.
Speaker 1: How so?
Speaker 2: Okay, so we do Confessions one, which is originally called
Speaker 2: all Bad, Right, All Bad. We do the song boom
Speaker 2: whatever this is before Ignition. All Right. Time goes by.
Speaker 2: They sleeping on the song. They're sleeping on All Bad.
Speaker 2: The label ain't really fucking with it, you know what
Speaker 2: I mean. Ignition comes out right the first version Efgnition
Speaker 2: comes out. It didn't really blow up, you know. It
Speaker 2: was kind of like some some random ship. Niggas got
Speaker 2: the single in the mail, like we got the you know,
Speaker 2: we were really super random. But its like, but we
Speaker 2: thought this ship was incredible.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 7: But at the end of the song, the end of
Speaker 7: the original version, he.
Speaker 2: Gives you the previews of the remix, right, it gives
Speaker 2: you so right, like yo, so we kept like, yo,
Speaker 2: this this I can't wait to hear what this nigga
Speaker 2: do with this song. And then next thing, you know,
Speaker 2: it comes out with part two and we're like, nigga,
Speaker 2: here bro right. So cool Ignition comes out. It's going crazy,
Speaker 2: and then Jamaine comes to me like, yo, I know
Speaker 2: how how we can save this song. We can save
Speaker 2: all bad. I was like, well, we gotta do part two.
Speaker 2: We gotta just fucking do. We gotta do a part
Speaker 2: two of the song. We gotta make it. So take
Speaker 2: some elements of whatever the first part of the song
Speaker 2: is and let's just make it. Let's make part two.
Speaker 2: Fuck it. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 7: Okay, Cool I said, what's part two about?
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 7: He was like, Nigga, I got it.
Speaker 2: The nigga gets the bitch pregnant and this that and
Speaker 2: the thing. He's going on and on. He's going on
Speaker 2: and on, and it's going about something like, oh no, nigga,
Speaker 2: this is personal.
Speaker 1: You can't fool me.
Speaker 3: It made a lot of records, broke a lot of records,
Speaker 3: broke a lot of records. You've done some people's favorite records.
Speaker 3: But now we want to know your okay.
Speaker 1: Top fave, saying your top five.
Speaker 4: Right top fa.
Speaker 7: Right now, your top five Okay, R and B.
Speaker 2: Singer R and B song like.
Speaker 8: You Got Too New, You got to shoe gots you and.
Speaker 2: He's gonna tell us he's top fire.
Speaker 8: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Ring on.
Speaker 2: To your top five five? Yeah yeah, top five R
Speaker 2: and B singers.
Speaker 1: Yea, yeah, we're gonna start there.
Speaker 2: Ship that's a good one. Let's cook. Let's cook of
Speaker 2: all time?
Speaker 1: Yours?
Speaker 2: Oh, your mind of all time?
Speaker 1: Yours? Your personal list?
Speaker 2: Luther Vandross. Why Stevie Stevie Wonder? I mean, you got
Speaker 2: to say Whitney Houston. You can't go. You have to,
Speaker 2: you can't go, you have to.
Speaker 1: I'm so surprised when when she's not mentioned.
Speaker 7: You can't not say Whitney Houston.
Speaker 2: Bro. It's hard for me because it's like I want
Speaker 2: to go shock a Colm, then I want to go
Speaker 2: to say.
Speaker 7: You cannot say r Kelly.
Speaker 1: You can'tnot say our killer man.
Speaker 2: I just you know, I know the comments gonna go crazy.
Speaker 1: Okay, talk about the music.
Speaker 4: Vocally, like in the artistry, like the songs that the
Speaker 4: reason why we're here.
Speaker 2: You just can't not do that, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: You can get into di'angelo vibe, you can get into.
Speaker 2: You can go back back and get liking to like
Speaker 2: a Marvin Gay vibe. Marmon Gay you can you know,
Speaker 2: my hey, let me tell you who's a well fucking monster.
Speaker 2: You don't talk about enough, I guess because he's way
Speaker 2: old school. But you watch you put these clips. Motherfucking
Speaker 2: David ruff Who.
Speaker 1: You talking to? Who you talking to?
Speaker 2: Like what I'm saying for David Ruffling was a fucking
Speaker 2: There's so many, man, I mean, you know, fantasious, one
Speaker 2: of my one of my favorites, Jasmine Sullivan is one
Speaker 2: of my favorites.
Speaker 1: All Right, that's it.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry. I got so many, man.
Speaker 1: Better make sure you bring it home when you're gonna
Speaker 1: get in trouble.
Speaker 2: Usher.
Speaker 7: Of course, I'm talking about what the usher is like.
Speaker 2: And I always tell people like, because I'll I spent
Speaker 2: I spent so many years defending you know, like my
Speaker 2: love for his vocal and I'm like, girl, which is
Speaker 2: crazy an rs the people who work in the music business,
Speaker 2: and I'm like, yo, like, what makes us so special
Speaker 2: is that the nigga's tone is such a one of
Speaker 2: a kind, Like it is the most familiar, most recognizable tone.
Speaker 2: I think and R and b like outside of like
Speaker 2: you know a Keith Sweat who has like a proper.
Speaker 1: Get more difficult for him now though the artist thing
Speaker 1: was one.
Speaker 2: Thing songs, So yeah, to do five, I'm gonna try
Speaker 2: the songs of all time?
Speaker 1: Ship what you're riding around to? What's like? What? What's what?
Speaker 1: Do you find yourself? What's the free what's the freeway
Speaker 1: out here? To seventy eight five? Maybe you get on
Speaker 1: the twenty.
Speaker 2: Cut gusus what I found myself listening to lately, I've
Speaker 2: been listening to a lot of Dinning by Donny Hathaway,
Speaker 2: So I've been like on like love Love Love Heavy,
Speaker 2: like that song is so special to me. It's something
Speaker 2: very beautiful and lush about that song and the production
Speaker 2: of it and his the meaningfulness and how he delivers
Speaker 2: the record, and it feels like he's you know what
Speaker 2: I mean. It feels like he means that shit late
Speaker 2: in my life. Michael Jackson is yes, yeahah, what can
Speaker 2: you say about that song? It's not you know what
Speaker 2: I'm saying. It's like literally one of the best songs
Speaker 2: ever created. Right, I Love Lady by D'Angelo. I mean, oh,
Speaker 2: you know my record I Love a lot that I
Speaker 2: co wrote that I love you got a bad Okay,
Speaker 2: you got it bad. It's just like to me, I
Speaker 2: feel like that song is like one of these songs
Speaker 2: is kind of like That's why I always reference that
Speaker 2: song because it's like I learned so much in that session.
Speaker 2: The first the first first thing so, but the second
Speaker 2: thing is it's like it's so simple, but it's so
Speaker 2: he sang it so beautifully and it was like this
Speaker 2: heard and it's like magic.
Speaker 1: Literally, it's all of those, all of those simple elements
Speaker 1: coming together. The song is.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's like from the from the beginning, from
Speaker 2: the very top when he is the like from the top,
Speaker 2: it's just like the funk is this coming on right now?
Speaker 2: The wind, the winds, the wind. There's so many, man,
Speaker 2: but I cannot. I would be remiss not to mention
Speaker 2: Mary's be without you.
Speaker 1: I mean you, I mean, I mean you know what
Speaker 1: I mean, you know I mean you can't you just
Speaker 1: you have to.
Speaker 2: I mean she didn't even sing that song. No more people,
Speaker 2: it's still the biggest record. Yeah, Mary don't sing us,
Speaker 2: so no more. I haven't seen Mary seen this song
Speaker 2: forever man.
Speaker 1: On the roll.
Speaker 2: She doesn't sing this song. I'm not she stopped singing
Speaker 2: that song a long time ago. Why, I don't know
Speaker 2: that should ever have seen a song like that? Like
Speaker 2: she just I'm one of the bats. She wouldn't seen
Speaker 2: that song in like a minimum five six years, probably longer.
Speaker 1: We need Marry on the pod talk about this.
Speaker 7: Yeah, she hadn't seen that song in a long time.
Speaker 4: We're not gonna let you out here without this stuff
Speaker 4: right now, Okay, I'm ready.
Speaker 2: I ain't saying no name.
Speaker 1: Hey, I ain't saying no name.
Speaker 2: I ain't saying no names.
Speaker 1: I ain't saying no name. We was.
Speaker 8: What you did, don't see, see, I ain't saying no
Speaker 8: I don't know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, man, man.
Speaker 4: So Brian Michael Coy, yeah too. You've been in this
Speaker 4: game for a long time. Long your mama bought you
Speaker 4: Rick James.
Speaker 2: Rick James first eighty three dude, you.
Speaker 1: Yeah at six, So you were justin for all of this.
Speaker 4: But as you were destined for all this, you had
Speaker 4: to go through all this. So with you being here now,
Speaker 4: we want you to tell us a story funny or
Speaker 4: fucked up? Are funny and fucked up the trials of
Speaker 4: Brian Michael Cox. I ain't saying no names the only
Speaker 4: road to the game.
Speaker 1: She can't say nobody name.
Speaker 2: Okay. So there was this artist. So I had a
Speaker 2: couple of encounters with this one artist, and uh, this
Speaker 2: actually was the artist I was saying that there was like, oh.
Speaker 7: Uh, you know, you know he's he's like usher, he
Speaker 7: can't really like with the same.
Speaker 2: That was the preface of the prefix of the meeting. Right,
Speaker 2: So I meet the guy right comes to the studio
Speaker 2: I was working at Larry Bie comes to the studio,
Speaker 2: comes in with a bunch of like you know, fake
Speaker 2: jewelry on like you just look, this is I've never
Speaker 2: seen anything like this. Really it was so it was
Speaker 2: super cartoon characters. I never seen nothing like this in person.
Speaker 2: He pulls up, he got the you know, he got
Speaker 2: the whole kick kaboo along like this is back when
Speaker 2: he was wearing a really baggy jean outfits.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 7: You know, so comes in, he's like, you know, really cocky.
Speaker 2: You know what I mean. I'm okay, man, let me
Speaker 2: hear something. You know, they played me some of the
Speaker 2: music is cool. Is not nothing crazy, it was you know,
Speaker 2: it's not terrible. I'm like okay, we'll cool a right,
Speaker 2: we can do something. You know, we'll figure it out. So,
Speaker 2: uh he's like, yeah, man, you know, I'm I'm I'm
Speaker 2: trying to take this ship to the next level. Man,
Speaker 2: I'm so and so and so. You know, I'm I'm
Speaker 2: gonna be bigger than everybody, and I'm gonna cat cool.
Speaker 2: I've heard this before, but you know, all right, cool,
Speaker 2: you know it's good at I have, you know, leething yourself,
Speaker 2: got myself. So then there was this girl that I
Speaker 2: was dealing with at the time who comes in. She
Speaker 2: came to visit me. She comes in and he sees
Speaker 2: her and he's like, I guess that they had like
Speaker 2: some type of interaction before. He was trying to talk
Speaker 2: to her and it didn't really pan out or whatever whatever.
Speaker 2: So she comes in and he's like, what's she doing here?
Speaker 2: And she's like, you know, I'm meant to see him
Speaker 2: right point in me. He's like, oh, you here to
Speaker 2: CP Okay, I get it, You here to see b cocks. Okay, okay,
Speaker 2: all right, right, that's cool, right whateverever Son se n
Speaker 2: he don't like it at all.
Speaker 3: He's not fucking with it, right, So I'm.
Speaker 2: Like, no, it's all good man, everything's cool man, it's
Speaker 2: just my homegirl, whatever whatever, whatever, you know, we're trying
Speaker 2: to play it cool. So as a session goes on,
Speaker 2: this guy's not really as he's not good at all.
Speaker 2: I thought he was at least decent. But every right,
Speaker 2: come with the song. So we get through the song.
Speaker 2: She's still there. So I did go to the bathroom
Speaker 2: and walk in on him talking to her right and
Speaker 2: he's like, yeah, I got money now, you know what
Speaker 2: I'm saying, Like you know what I mean, why don't
Speaker 2: you let me just you know what I'm saying, take
Speaker 2: you out, take you and take you all the time. Whatever.
Speaker 2: I got money now, I got a deal. Who I'm saying,
Speaker 2: he's just he's just and all on that. I'm like, yo,
Speaker 2: what's up. It's like hold on and I'm just you know,
Speaker 2: I caught him in the middle. In the middle, I'm.
Speaker 7: Like, Yo, what are you doing?
Speaker 1: Bro?
Speaker 7: You know what I'm saying, Like, I mean, it's all good.
Speaker 2: Whatever if she go, if she go in this whatever,
Speaker 2: handcuff cool. Fast forward. I get a call from the
Speaker 2: A I. He's like, yo, man, we want you and him,
Speaker 2: we want going you in Jamaine, Like all right, So
Speaker 2: I told your man, say, Yo, they want us to
Speaker 2: work with this kid. I tell him my name. He
Speaker 2: was like, all right, you know, bring the kid down,
Speaker 2: bring him to Atlanta. Now with in Atlanta and we
Speaker 2: write another song. Might just get this kid is not
Speaker 2: He's not good. So I know this already. I know
Speaker 2: this going into it. I'm like, Yo, this kid is
Speaker 2: not good. But this is our man and our guys.
Speaker 2: Let's make it happen. Start recording with this kid, right.
Speaker 2: I I sing enough to get my ideas out right.
Speaker 2: Whatever I can, I can carry you. I can sing
Speaker 2: a little bit, but I'm not like, I'm not an artist,
Speaker 2: you know what I'm saying. So it's like for me,
Speaker 2: I'm getting frustrated because I'm like, yo, like, bro, like
Speaker 2: I should not be able to sing this better than you.
Speaker 2: You getting paid to sing. You told me you was
Speaker 2: the best motherfucker and you ain't shown me nothing yet.
Speaker 2: You know me, taking I'm usually not like this. I'm
Speaker 2: usually super different.
Speaker 7: No no.
Speaker 2: No, no, no no no, you try trying. We're going through
Speaker 2: the sessions going terrible. So I tell the runner, yo,
Speaker 2: go get me like a bottle of Hennessy. I was
Speaker 2: drinking at the time we made bottle. I gotta get
Speaker 2: through this, right, So Jermaine knows. And once I started
Speaker 2: like going up and he's like, all right, man, you
Speaker 2: know what, dog, I'm gonna I'm gonna get up, all
Speaker 2: righty man, y'all finish up. So so I'm drinking, I'm
Speaker 2: you know, taking and he's fucking up. I'm like, yo,
Speaker 2: man again again, so drunk, I get the more belligerents.
Speaker 2: I'm kidding it right.
Speaker 7: So now for whatever that wind.
Speaker 2: It's like maybe another two hours, all right, So I'm
Speaker 2: I'm done, got halfway down the bottle, seventy five percent
Speaker 2: the battle. Next thing, when your man comes in, I'm
Speaker 2: like screaming on the top of my laws, like, yo, man,
Speaker 2: that's not the fucking no, you can't fucking sing. I'm
Speaker 2: going crazy on this kid. I'm going I'm going so
Speaker 2: crazy in this kid. This kid wants to fight me.
Speaker 2: I'm going crazy on this kid, like, yo, you know,
Speaker 2: while we wasting our time, man, time you listen your budget,
Speaker 2: you waste no gonna never get this ship right. You
Speaker 2: didn't get the last song right. I'm going crazy on
Speaker 2: this kid, like going crazy and like, Okay, that's enough.
Speaker 1: It's going to take over, take you out.
Speaker 2: He's like, yeah, yeah, that's enough. Come on out here, man,
Speaker 2: it's enough. It's enough. You're beating you're beating the kid up.
Speaker 2: It's too much. It's too much. And I was like,
Speaker 2: you know what, I'm not drinking sessions no more. I stopped,
Speaker 2: Like that's what made me stop like getting drunk in
Speaker 2: sessions because I was like, because we drink a little bit.
Speaker 2: If we're working, little drinks, cool, we could we can
Speaker 2: get past it. If you're drinking. If I'm drinking and
Speaker 2: it's bad, it's gonna go all bad. So do you
Speaker 2: do you have a nickname for this guy?
Speaker 1: Hey? Man, get out of there, Man, get out of there.
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying for who he became, you
Speaker 2: know what it should be?
Speaker 7: It should be that. But I don't drink Henessy anymore.
Speaker 7: So that that was the thing.
Speaker 2: I stopped drinking Henessy surely thereafter because I had another,
Speaker 2: uh situation that was kind of really fucked up off
Speaker 2: the Hennessy.
Speaker 7: So I was like, yeah, I'm not gonna do this
Speaker 7: no more.
Speaker 1: It's aggressive.
Speaker 2: So, uh, Henessy really makes you want to fight somebody,
Speaker 2: and I really want. I'm not really naturally that kind
Speaker 2: of a person, So I was like, yeah, I wanted
Speaker 2: to kid me. No, I was going crazy with the kid.
Speaker 2: I was like because I was just because I was like, well,
Speaker 2: a few things I don't like for me. If I'm
Speaker 2: coming into a situation and I'm like, man, let the
Speaker 2: room dictate what we're gonna do. We're gonna come in
Speaker 2: with good energy and we're gonna see what happens. You know,
Speaker 2: I'm I'm I'm personally you know, say lead it open
Speaker 2: and let God come in and whatever happens happens. I'm
Speaker 2: that person come in, got ideas. Let's get the vibe,
Speaker 2: because the vibes gotta be we gotta be bouncing.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: If you coming to room, I know that we're gonna
Speaker 2: get a lot of shit done because it's just our energy.
Speaker 2: Like if a person person coming in there like Nigga,
Speaker 2: you ain't done nothing yet, I'm not even you know
Speaker 2: what I mean. It'd be different if you were like
Speaker 2: a star, then I would or had done some things
Speaker 2: that I would be like, I gotta respect that you
Speaker 2: may be a little eclectic and you gotta get your
Speaker 2: ship off. But Bro, you ain't done nothing like I
Speaker 2: mean zero, you coming here telling me you need us
Speaker 2: right now, family, You need everything we got to give you,
Speaker 2: and you can't even deliver. So it'd be different if
Speaker 2: you was delivering and and I was just badgering you.
Speaker 2: Like bro, listening back to this ship, I would be
Speaker 2: like you listen back to that. You sign the way
Speaker 2: I sang it s beating. I was beating him down.
Speaker 2: Give him an name. I tuck him Awy because I
Speaker 2: don't trink hensy.
Speaker 1: So my question is, did he ever get a hit?
Speaker 2: He did?
Speaker 7: He actually got a record. I'm gonna give you guys
Speaker 7: a hand.
Speaker 1: I already know who it is. You know who it is.
Speaker 1: I know who it is. I know who it is.
Speaker 7: He got one record.
Speaker 4: I know exactly, and I know that people are gonna
Speaker 4: be like, Jay, tell me.
Speaker 1: Record. I know record.
Speaker 4: I know who this artist is because I'm pretty sure
Speaker 4: I came across them.
Speaker 2: He got one record off.
Speaker 1: We'll get into it. I know we not. We never asked.
Speaker 1: I don't know, Joe d m me.
Speaker 2: I don't know you got one record off? One record?
Speaker 2: Never heard from again? But he got one record?
Speaker 1: Well, brother h Elder hennessy. Elder. That's it. Start our church.
Speaker 1: We're gonna start our church, elder.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's it.
Speaker 1: And I'm gonna start the building fund.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, all the money, get the building fun, collect
Speaker 2: the money.
Speaker 1: Yeah, brother, brother, I love you.
Speaker 2: Man, I appreciate you all. You know, we could go
Speaker 2: for another quick literally all day. We could do this
Speaker 2: all day.
Speaker 1: Man.
Speaker 2: We're glad I got a chance to do this. Man,
Speaker 2: We've been trying to do this for a minute.
Speaker 1: Yeah. But we just want to make sure that people,
Speaker 1: you know, you know, we just want to make sure
Speaker 1: they celebrate shure, they celebrate you. Man, appreciate you. You
Speaker 1: should be celebrated.
Speaker 2: Appreciate your brothers.
Speaker 1: Man, not later now now, right now.
Speaker 7: I appreciate y'all.
Speaker 2: Man is amazing.
Speaker 1: My name is saying. And this is the R and
Speaker 1: B Money Podcast.
Speaker 2: The authority, Authority, the authority, Yeah, on all things R
Speaker 2: and B and in the building.
Speaker 1: We have the authority on all things R and B.
Speaker 1: One of the greatest of all times. Give it for
Speaker 1: Brian Michael.
Speaker 2: Cor R and B Money.
Speaker 4: R and B Money is a production of the Black
Speaker 4: Effect Podcast Network. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the
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Speaker 4: and you can connect with us on social media at
Speaker 4: Jay Valentine and at the Real Tank. For the extended episode,
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Speaker 4: Money