Speaker 1: Y'all. It's good as your boy, Eric Belinger, make sure
Speaker 1: you check me out on a bootleg CAV podcast, It's
Speaker 1: Easy Boulet CAV podcast. We got a special guest in here,
Speaker 1: my guy, one of the most prolific R and B
Speaker 1: singers and writers. Come on, baby B just finished this tour.
Speaker 1: Eric Bellinger is here. Yeah, man, we're here, We here.
Speaker 1: Congrats on another successful tour. Thank you, dog. I appreciate you. Dog.
Speaker 1: Always amazing. To finish up, relax and chop it up
Speaker 1: with the home. What's the first thing you do, like
Speaker 1: when you get off tour? Like? Is it like? How's
Speaker 1: that first day? Are you relaxing your kids? Very first day? Yes,
Speaker 1: very first day. I came home. When I was unpacking
Speaker 1: the trailer and unloading all the suitcases, they came home
Speaker 1: from school. Daddy got that moment off and I didn't
Speaker 1: do anything for the rest of the day. I make
Speaker 1: sure I just dedicated that night to them. But better believe,
Speaker 1: I woke up the next day back to it, back
Speaker 1: to it, multiple interviews, multiple sessions. So yesterday I went crazy,
Speaker 1: and today it's the second day off and we already
Speaker 1: back at it. At the second interview to day. You
Speaker 1: definitely you have a song you're pushing, you got an album, Yeah,
Speaker 1: so you get your your tours over. But the work,
Speaker 1: that's what I was saying, man, that's what you gotta do.
Speaker 1: You know, you got to sign up for both. And
Speaker 1: a lot of ourtists don't know that. They just like
Speaker 1: they just want to drop it and to go viral.
Speaker 1: But you really really got to go crazy with the
Speaker 1: marketing once the songs out, to let the people know
Speaker 1: it's there. Man. Yeah, I was gonna say for you, like,
Speaker 1: how do you do the work life balance with the family.
Speaker 1: And because you're a hard working guy, you're always in sessions,
Speaker 1: you're always moving around, Like what's the key to that?
Speaker 1: So I think it's like, especially you can start off
Speaker 1: with like weekends, like trying to be like, yo, weekends,
Speaker 1: we're gonna have a day where we hang aside for
Speaker 1: the kid. Yeah, set aside for the kids, wifey. Yo,
Speaker 1: We're gonna make sure we do a day night at
Speaker 1: least every two weeks or something, you know, every week
Speaker 1: is yeah, you would love that, but you gotta be
Speaker 1: real with yourself and not set too high expectations. And
Speaker 1: if you get that extra day, then you're good. But
Speaker 1: to be able to really push and not have the
Speaker 1: pressure while still having the support has been a blessing.
Speaker 1: Every two weeks. I like that minimum. I need to
Speaker 1: push that to my wife. But to go eat, you know,
Speaker 1: even if you know, we gotta get a sitter, got
Speaker 1: to get the babysitter. Man, gotta do it because it's important. Man,
Speaker 1: just keep falling in love your new album. How many
Speaker 1: records is it? Fourteen fourteen? Obviously the core day record
Speaker 1: in Fabulous record is dope. I guess actually popping on
Speaker 1: the video shoot for that you shot at super Bowl, Yeah,
Speaker 1: super Bowl weekend in AZ Yeah, man, you were, you were.
Speaker 1: I look at you like the pivotal moment for me
Speaker 1: even shooting a video, shooting the curious video, Bro, what
Speaker 1: do you mean Like JD told me that you had
Speaker 1: booked fab for the weekend. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah for
Speaker 1: the club, for your club, and I saw a window
Speaker 1: of being able to be in the same place at
Speaker 1: the same time. We had a show in a z
Speaker 1: as well around the same time. Yeah it was. It
Speaker 1: was the same week it was, yeah, yeah, So it
Speaker 1: was like, Yo, let's make it happen. Corder, can we
Speaker 1: get him there? He was down. We flew him in town,
Speaker 1: but it was started because you and you guys. Shout
Speaker 1: out to y'all for putting my club in the video.
Speaker 1: I love that. Yes, we were like yo. The club
Speaker 1: scenes are definitely from eleven eleven in Scott Still. Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: it's good times man man for you, like how because
Speaker 1: when you're an album mode and you're because you're obviously
Speaker 1: we talked about that. We did a radio interview in
Speaker 1: San Diego, but we got to kind of reflect on
Speaker 1: how many bodies of work you have at this point?
Speaker 1: How many is it now? It's like thirty eight, It's
Speaker 1: like closing of forty if you include like mixtapes and
Speaker 1: stuff like on the on the album is on just
Speaker 1: on iTunes. I have like twenty eight or something like that,
Speaker 1: but there's so many that I couldn't put on iTunes,
Speaker 1: so like Spotifyune last twenty eight. Yeah, do you damn
Speaker 1: When did you first like really dive into the full
Speaker 1: time artist grime? Yeah? When I dropped Got twenty seventeen,
Speaker 1: twenty eighteen. It doesn't feel like very long ago. I
Speaker 1: feel like you've been on that way now because I've
Speaker 1: been dropping. I would say like twenty ten twenty ten
Speaker 1: is when I put my very first mixtape out ten
Speaker 1: ten ten, and I think it just was a grind
Speaker 1: of me dropping projects just out of I create so
Speaker 1: many that I'm dropping, not knowing that they would eventually
Speaker 1: amount to streams that pay monthly royalty, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. It was just like I'm dropping. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm an independent, Damn, I should be signed to a major.
Speaker 1: I should be signed to a major. Little do I
Speaker 1: know that me owning my masters would give me a
Speaker 1: bigger piece of the pie at the end of the day. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because I can only assume when you have twenty eight
Speaker 1: projects out, it's like kind of like residual income. Just
Speaker 1: hitting that account every month. That's it. That's all it is.
Speaker 1: Once started piling, I was like, oh, why do they
Speaker 1: need it? Like what is that for? It's it's really
Speaker 1: if you need the really the label is if you
Speaker 1: need the upfront nut at that time. Yeah, you know
Speaker 1: what it is like, so you don't you don't use
Speaker 1: your own money, you know, that's time. That's fine. And also,
Speaker 1: like some artists, like you know, I think a major
Speaker 1: label system probably better suit some artists like lazier guys,
Speaker 1: you know, yeah, yeah, yeah, guys who kind of lazier guys.
Speaker 1: You know, just like if you're going to be independent,
Speaker 1: it's the work is it's strenuous, it's a lot. You
Speaker 1: gotta wear multiple hats for sure. You know, you gotta
Speaker 1: be willing to take a note and you know, flip
Speaker 1: it and be on for you Like, uh, talk to
Speaker 1: me about just like the day to day stuff that
Speaker 1: you handle being independent. Obviously you're with Empire, who's doing distribution,
Speaker 1: who helps the label services, but like what are you
Speaker 1: handling as eb Yeah? Man, so I'm tapping into the
Speaker 1: storyline of the album. So you got the writing creative
Speaker 1: in the studio, then you got the mixing process. Then
Speaker 1: it's time to think of what the artwork is gonna be,
Speaker 1: the colors, the aesthetic. Now you got single artwork, every
Speaker 1: single attached and coinciding with the previous to remind people
Speaker 1: that this is all for one body of work. Now
Speaker 1: you got a photo shoot that is intentional to take
Speaker 1: people back to a time. So I'm bringing out the leather.
Speaker 1: I'm leather headed toe with the R and B energy.
Speaker 1: Now we got to talk about music videos, and I'm
Speaker 1: on the line with the directors I'm planning, I'm picking,
Speaker 1: I'm casting, I'm looking for the for the ladies. I'm
Speaker 1: talking to emails, shout out the emails. Diddy always came through.
Speaker 1: We shot four videos with my guy and brought nothing
Speaker 1: but beautiful ladies to go crazy in the videos with
Speaker 1: us Man, the styling of the videos. Now you've got
Speaker 1: the marketing. You're putting your fingerprints on everything. Yeah, I'm not.
Speaker 1: There's nothing that I don't know that's happening. That's amazing.
Speaker 1: Do you feel like I just heard Russ say this
Speaker 1: recently that he feels like music videos aren't as effective
Speaker 1: as they used to be at this point. It's like
Speaker 1: a branding thing in terms of in terms of just
Speaker 1: like the ROI on streams, Yeah, see that. Yeah, because
Speaker 1: we spend more on music videos then you'll get from
Speaker 1: the music video stream wise. You have to stream like
Speaker 1: or it has to have like certain amounts, so many commercials. Yeah,
Speaker 1: before you can even get the return on investment. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because you can think like a good music video, like
Speaker 1: a good one, Yeah, spend at least five grand exactly. Okay,
Speaker 1: was just talking about that today. A good one, good one.
Speaker 1: You can get a decent one for like twelve. Look
Speaker 1: if you got a homie with a camera and you
Speaker 1: got some fucking aspirations and you're willing to take some
Speaker 1: for sure, you nat Yeah, get that right, lighting You
Speaker 1: know it's gonna make a difference in the long run
Speaker 1: to just do it right the first time instead of
Speaker 1: just trying to go back and shoot another music video
Speaker 1: and now the streams are you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: You gotta do it right the first time. Talk to
Speaker 1: me about your uh your just I feel like every
Speaker 1: Chris Brown album you somehow have your fingerprints on and
Speaker 1: some capacity. Yeah, how did you guys first link up
Speaker 1: and just talk about why he trusts you so much? Yeah,
Speaker 1: so he's also a great writer. He is, he is.
Speaker 1: That's why I you know, I definitely don't take it lightly,
Speaker 1: just that you know that trust. The first song we
Speaker 1: did was called Champion. It was for a London artist
Speaker 1: named Chipmunk. Harmony called me in for the session. I
Speaker 1: wrote the hook and he just recut the hook and
Speaker 1: was like, Yo, whoever did that, whoever that was singing,
Speaker 1: I want them to work on my next album. So
Speaker 1: he brought the whole team with Harmony and myself and
Speaker 1: Courtney and we all went to the man straight in
Speaker 1: with Chris Brown. You know what I mean. I was.
Speaker 1: I was actually in London working and had to get
Speaker 1: a call to come back the next day. Literally like
Speaker 1: I landed, had to go right back. I didn't do
Speaker 1: no work, and we got in with him and wrote
Speaker 1: all the songs on Fame, Oh My Love. Champion ended
Speaker 1: up going on there say It with Me and then
Speaker 1: that joint. One of his first Grammy was Fame, the
Speaker 1: first album after kind of the whole shin dig Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: with the graffiti kind of art yep. So that was
Speaker 1: like kind of his comeback. That was the one and
Speaker 1: it got a Grammy. So it's like we was involved
Speaker 1: in such a pivotal moment. I felt like it was like,
Speaker 1: let's keep doing it. Yeah, And then you did find Channa,
Speaker 1: right yeah, Find China record. Man, That's that's my favorite one.
Speaker 1: I say, when you write a song like find China,
Speaker 1: are you with him or do you send it to him?
Speaker 1: And if you send it to him, are you kind
Speaker 1: of hoping he doesn't want it so you keep it
Speaker 1: for yourself? Nah? I'm with him, Okay, Yeah, I'm with him.
Speaker 1: Any of the songs that are like the big ones
Speaker 1: like New Flame and Love More There. Yeah, but when
Speaker 1: I'm by my myself, a lot of them songs nobody,
Speaker 1: I don't be playing him for nobody, you know. For one,
Speaker 1: it's like, I'm gonna keep this and I can do
Speaker 1: whatever I want with it, and it's gonna benefit me
Speaker 1: more low key to have ownership of the song, as
Speaker 1: opposed to if I go to a session and I'm
Speaker 1: with somebody else, that's their studio time, they pay for that,
Speaker 1: that's most likely they beat. So I'll never really be
Speaker 1: too connected. I'm always like pouring all my energy into
Speaker 1: the moment. Was Usher in the session for New Flynn?
Speaker 1: Usher was not? Usher was not he's on that song? Yeah,
Speaker 1: he's on that song. Who else? Somebody else? Someone else's
Speaker 1: singing a song. Yeah, I feel like there's a rapper room. No,
Speaker 1: it wasn't Rick Cross. Somebody's on that song. It might
Speaker 1: just be him an Usher, it might be I feel
Speaker 1: like I'm missing a rapper. You're fucking no, you wouldn't.
Speaker 1: Baby bab my guy over there, big Yeat fan. Yeah,
Speaker 1: have you listened to Yeat? I've just seen his logo.
Speaker 1: He's popping this fuck just seeing it pop up on
Speaker 1: the page. I don't get it. It's not for me
Speaker 1: to get the name. Hey, it's so many things that
Speaker 1: come out now. I'm like, Wow, it's so many different
Speaker 1: names of new people and artists, and it's just like
Speaker 1: I just respect it because I remember when it was like,
Speaker 1: who's this Ic Bellinger guy? Up? All? We gotta stop
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Speaker 1: what do you feel like, because I do feel like
Speaker 1: there has been a dopeer surgence in like R and
Speaker 1: B getting respect again in terms of like, you know,
Speaker 1: traditional R and B coming back, like you know, guys
Speaker 1: like yourself, you got a girl like Lma, go on
Speaker 1: and on and on. There's so much dope R and
Speaker 1: B in the world right now, but you've been pushing
Speaker 1: through the whole wave. Yeah, And I feel like your
Speaker 1: first project comes out in twenty ten, which I refer
Speaker 1: to as the Dark Era because that's when like ed
Speaker 1: M got introduced and there's all of these R and
Speaker 1: B artists doing that is when it happened. So there
Speaker 1: was like this was like the lady guy guy and
Speaker 1: I'm the only one still Yeah, And so like you're
Speaker 1: still putting out traditional R and B. I think around
Speaker 1: that time, August was starting to come out with his mixtape.
Speaker 1: Adrian Marcel had a dope mixtape in Raphael first. But yeah,
Speaker 1: like for you, like you've been through so many eras
Speaker 1: of R and B, Like do you recall when it's like,
Speaker 1: what was it like to not be cool to be
Speaker 1: the R and B guy? Mm? Because you're thinking Neo's
Speaker 1: biggest songs are the yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean or on the floor joints. You know
Speaker 1: it was it was not only did the R and
Speaker 1: B not become as popular, but I was also I
Speaker 1: was also I was also singing at a time and
Speaker 1: was married too, you know what I mean. So like
Speaker 1: that wasn't the cool, Like everybody wasn't bowed up. That
Speaker 1: wasn't like bagels, Like we were being married and making
Speaker 1: R and B music. Yeah I was not, you feel me?
Speaker 1: But I knew like yo. Also shout out to Miguel
Speaker 1: who was holding that flag too at that time. He
Speaker 1: was he was for sure, and I wasn't. I wasn't
Speaker 1: aiming to also married at the time. Ish, we've been
Speaker 1: going big time the jump, Sure this is the big boy.
Speaker 1: When you really in there, yeah and you in there walk, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's different. Different, So the commitment was like I was dedicated.
Speaker 1: We've ribe, we've we vibed it out, and she held
Speaker 1: me up. When you once you got that woman, that
Speaker 1: queen that make you feel like you got it, you're good.
Speaker 1: So that sustained me and my fans really just let
Speaker 1: me know, like, yo, thank you for being the only
Speaker 1: one that we can listen to when it comes to
Speaker 1: positive influence and relationships when it thinks of just like
Speaker 1: R and B, like I want to love on my
Speaker 1: girl as opposed to everything being the opposite, you know,
Speaker 1: so me just giving people another option, it became the standard,
Speaker 1: and it became the new wave after people got tired
Speaker 1: of disrespecting and being disrespected. Yeah, there was also, like
Speaker 1: like you're saying, there was the super toxic R and
Speaker 1: B ship where it was like, Jesus Christ, it was
Speaker 1: really crazy. Some of the ship that was girlfriend's girlfriend.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, it was going crazy. Trey song, Yeah
Speaker 1: talks R and B of all time, Jesus Christ. It's
Speaker 1: like where the love go. God damn it, it was gone.
Speaker 1: It's gone. I was just like, yo, I'm here, and
Speaker 1: I don't do it for applause. I do it for
Speaker 1: a cause, you know what I'm saying I love that. Man.
Speaker 1: We talked about this a little bit, but okay, you
Speaker 1: did a whole album with hit Maker. He has had
Speaker 1: a friendly feud. We'll call it. It's I like it
Speaker 1: because I think it kind of you know, lets people
Speaker 1: talk about producers, you know, with hit Boy, they're two
Speaker 1: very different guys, so different. Hit Boy is obviously touching
Speaker 1: in the beat, he's secrecing the drums. He's you put
Speaker 1: an NPC in front of hip Boy, you know, Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. I look at hip Maker
Speaker 1: as more like like a like a nineties type producer,
Speaker 1: where like the way Diddy is a producer for the
Speaker 1: way like Quincy Jones. He knows how to get the
Speaker 1: people Rick Rubin, get the right people in the room,
Speaker 1: get the right writers in the room, kind of conduct
Speaker 1: a hit record. What are your thoughts on this whole thing? Yeah,
Speaker 1: hit Boy and hit Maker, Oh man, I think when
Speaker 1: you talk about that music, that's it, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. Like hit Maker is, you know, conducting the
Speaker 1: session and hit Boy is literally producing and musically engineering
Speaker 1: the session. But hit Maker's argument wasn't about the talent
Speaker 1: when it comes to musicianship. He was just like I'm
Speaker 1: on the radio, you know, that was all he's the
Speaker 1: argument was so to his argument, he won the argument,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. But to hit Boy's argument,
Speaker 1: he's not even tripping on the radio, I don't eve
Speaker 1: think he's trying to be on the radio. He's not.
Speaker 1: And also for the record, I mean, this guy's done. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that song is still you know, and hit Maker is
Speaker 1: only about your current right now, this is what we're
Speaker 1: talking about. But hit boys like Yo, I'm playing seeds,
Speaker 1: you know, for the generations to come to discover my music,
Speaker 1: not for sure. And he's like the the Nash is
Speaker 1: crazy to me. Yeah, yeah, yeah, he tapped in. That's
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. Even yeah, the music album he's going,
Speaker 1: he's going crazy and and and different styles, you know,
Speaker 1: influencing a generation of making beats like that can't go undermine.
Speaker 1: Have you ever worked with hit Boy? Yeah, a couple
Speaker 1: of times. What was the difference kind of I guess studio.
Speaker 1: So with hit Boy it was a much slower process
Speaker 1: of like take our time, like let's listen, let's let's
Speaker 1: see what we got, let's see how we're feeling. And
Speaker 1: with hit Maker, he's speedy gon solid in the studio.
Speaker 1: But we we got the next one. Okay, you got an
Speaker 1: idea going to book? Okay, next one, Okay, next one,
Speaker 1: and he's a next one, next one, next one. In
Speaker 1: three hours, you got five songs. He's worrying about it tomorrow,
Speaker 1: what we're doing tomorrow? And then a week later he
Speaker 1: has thirty songs to place artists through the studio. Hey,
Speaker 1: what you been working on? He has thirty options to play,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. So it's like it's a
Speaker 1: factory that he's intentionally doing. As opposed to hit Boy.
Speaker 1: He's selective who he's working with, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: And you know it's more of like a like a
Speaker 1: it's almost like because I've been in the studio, I've
Speaker 1: been in the studio with him, make us for a
Speaker 1: sec But hip Boy is very like intentional. That's what said.
Speaker 1: If you're going to go over to Childie and work
Speaker 1: with him, like block out the night exactly exactly were chilling,
Speaker 1: We're gonna have a loop on. We might fall in
Speaker 1: love with something and then he might be like, hold on,
Speaker 1: let me switch that idea, start something over, because you
Speaker 1: know the foundation is music, and you know I just
Speaker 1: think they they they they They stand for different things,
Speaker 1: but they both represent the same thing, a hit, and
Speaker 1: they're both very good at what they do. Yes, sir,
Speaker 1: at a high level, like when you get with hit Maker,
Speaker 1: because do you feel like you guys are like his
Speaker 1: factory process. I feel like you're kind of a go
Speaker 1: to asset for him in terms of like when you're
Speaker 1: laying hooks down for him, do you know that they're
Speaker 1: just they might end up somewhere else? Yeah, for sure,
Speaker 1: for sure, because he's shopping them actively with your hook
Speaker 1: on it tell the artists immediate. He was like, Yo,
Speaker 1: I got a tie coming by this week. I got
Speaker 1: this beat. I need you on it. This one, it
Speaker 1: got your name all over it. Boom, I come through.
Speaker 1: Let's such a great song. By the way, that album
Speaker 1: is super slept on. Yeah, my TI album was fucking raw.
Speaker 1: That's what made me be like, oh no, no, no,
Speaker 1: I'm going over there. Were about to work. What's up Chrishan,
Speaker 1: what's up? Hit Maker? What's up? Source? You know, and
Speaker 1: when you link up with them and you can add
Speaker 1: your own flavor, I think that's when you be able
Speaker 1: to differentiate it yourself and keep your uniqueness. I also
Speaker 1: think Jeremih is another one of the great songwriters of
Speaker 1: our time who don't get enough credit in that aspect.
Speaker 1: I agree, I agree. I think he's another person that's
Speaker 1: not really tripping on like the fame, the bride lights,
Speaker 1: the music videos, like the tour like he's just like, man,
Speaker 1: I love I'm from Chicago, I love making music, and
Speaker 1: all the shit that I'm spending is real and the
Speaker 1: real niggas connect with it and that's it. And you know,
Speaker 1: I think that keeps his core and his solid foundation stable.
Speaker 1: Why did you never decide to sign with a major label.
Speaker 1: I always felt like I had more that I could
Speaker 1: do on my own, you know, like I felt like
Speaker 1: I still can do this, or I haven't got all
Speaker 1: this off, or I haven't exhausted my resources, or I
Speaker 1: haven't you know, had the right timing of the right album.
Speaker 1: And I don't know. It was just never anyone that
Speaker 1: saw what I saw in myself. Was it because you
Speaker 1: never got the Because I would say that, like the
Speaker 1: deal terms got to be right. Yeah, the bread gotta
Speaker 1: be right. If you're smart, like you can just sign
Speaker 1: it's put in front of you. You You know what I'm saying. Yeah, so,
Speaker 1: and it was like we always had enough success to
Speaker 1: make me feel like we were good, Like we're good,
Speaker 1: We're good. But I don't know. We live in a
Speaker 1: new day and age. Man. I definitely feel like, you know,
Speaker 1: with where I'm at, I'm not at the same place
Speaker 1: when I was trying to break myself to gain my
Speaker 1: own fan base. You know, now that I have a
Speaker 1: fan base, now, let's market on a heavy scale, on
Speaker 1: a heavy you know scale. But before then, it's like, man,
Speaker 1: you got to build it, you know, And I was
Speaker 1: I was happy with just building the building it for
Speaker 1: the sake of leverage. You and AD did a whole
Speaker 1: album together in twenty eight nineteen. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: that was like eighteen. It was definitely like pandemic times.
Speaker 1: It was before the pandemic. It had to be yah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I was. I met to you guys released part of
Speaker 1: it was it was before. It was the last one
Speaker 1: before the pandemic. It was called nine. And I remember
Speaker 1: coming back from Mexico. We went to the session and
Speaker 1: I had all these different memorabilia from Mexico. I was
Speaker 1: wearing a poncho and h they hit you with that
Speaker 1: when you're in line waiting to get over the border.
Speaker 1: There's all those people just try selling everything. So I
Speaker 1: went to the studio, still in formed, talking Spanish, playing
Speaker 1: with them. He was like, Man, I'm calling you Pancho Belly.
Speaker 1: I'm calling Poncho Belly. And then we started like joking
Speaker 1: around and bro. We did like nine songs in two days,
Speaker 1: and it was like, I was a project. What you
Speaker 1: like to see him kind of evolve into a media
Speaker 1: personality and do his podcasting. Dope, it's the evolution of nine.
Speaker 1: I feel like when we were dropping that, we were
Speaker 1: making videos and being community characters and yeah, but now
Speaker 1: to see him with community, it's like dog, that's who
Speaker 1: he He's a character, you know. So now for him
Speaker 1: to be able to be himself make everybody laugh even
Speaker 1: in his music, I got the juice. When you hear that,
Speaker 1: you want to laugh. You know. It's a good guy.
Speaker 1: So happy for him. Who's on your mount? Rushmore of
Speaker 1: R and B music, R and B music. Let's say,
Speaker 1: let's let's say from nineteen ninety two to now. All right,
Speaker 1: you gotta go with man, that's a tough one because
Speaker 1: I want to go laugh a little bit, but you can't.
Speaker 1: You can't really avoid people like Cisco back in the day,
Speaker 1: love Cisco. Cisco big inspiration for you because you've done
Speaker 1: the other hair things. Yea completes my ship. Drew's my favorite.
Speaker 1: All is my song that I sing that at all
Speaker 1: of the fucking nineties R and B groups. Drew Hill's
Speaker 1: my personal favorite. Nice enter the dwip. Okay you you
Speaker 1: you tapped in the red joint? Yes, and then you
Speaker 1: gotta you gotta go with Usher after that? Two more
Speaker 1: man Cisco Usher? Who else? I gotta also throw Joe.
Speaker 1: I'm throwing love Joe joking blow. And I don't want
Speaker 1: to just be biased and put myself in there, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean, Like, I can't do that, don't
Speaker 1: do that. I'm trying to put like somebody who I
Speaker 1: feel like. You know, it's different from me to have
Speaker 1: the artists, but I want to also include somebody that
Speaker 1: writes their music too, you know what I mean? And
Speaker 1: I gotta say Kels, of course, say what you want.
Speaker 1: We're talking about R and B right now, we're talking
Speaker 1: about art only. I've been talking about art from the start.
Speaker 1: I love R. Kelly's music and his talents. The boy
Speaker 1: is a bad one. When it comes to the studio
Speaker 1: and the songs and the and the and the concepts
Speaker 1: and the melodies and the endless amount of hits for
Speaker 1: himself and others. I don't think a lot of people
Speaker 1: talk enough about like he wrote for so many other artists. Yeah, Seline, Dion,
Speaker 1: Michael Jackson, Aliyah, like boy B two K, like he
Speaker 1: could go on, So you gotta give him his love
Speaker 1: when it comes to the music. What's your favorite R
Speaker 1: Kelly album? TP two ah TP two dot com? That's
Speaker 1: the one I feel like was that dot com? And
Speaker 1: then was a chocolate factory after that? Oh, chocolate factory
Speaker 1: was a vibe. But you know where I gotta go
Speaker 1: after that. I love something Both worlds with jay Z.
Speaker 1: Really yo, that album is crazy, it is. It is
Speaker 1: a good album. I feel like because of the drama
Speaker 1: that's arounded that album, Like people don't really be like
Speaker 1: tapping in with it like that, but there was some
Speaker 1: ship on there. Oh my god, that it was a
Speaker 1: I love the self titled album that you remind me? Yeah,
Speaker 1: obviously a White one twelve No, it was black he was.
Speaker 1: It was the White One's twelve play okay, the White
Speaker 1: One okay, and then the the white shirt. Then r
Speaker 1: was great. Yeah, it was a double disc. It had
Speaker 1: they had the rest of the brothers on there on
Speaker 1: a baby coos. No the record, what was the record
Speaker 1: with the brothers in the music video, that's not contagious. No,
Speaker 1: he's fucking he's fucking the dude's girl behind his back. Yeah,
Speaker 1: ain't that you all containe? Oh oh oh oh oh,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm talking about. It's gonna bother me.
Speaker 1: Now he's fucking ron Eisley's girl in the video. He's like,
Speaker 1: Frank shot up. Can't you see too many that one? No, no,
Speaker 1: I'll tell you right now. No, that's still your contagious
Speaker 1: here it is. It is not half fun. Oh, when
Speaker 1: a woman's faed wait, women, when a woman's fed up?
Speaker 1: The video, Yeah, video is contagious, I'm telling you, is it?
Speaker 1: Is it contagious? It's contagious when a woman's fed up?
Speaker 1: Started it? But the story can Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 1: I'm just thinking of that music video, which was incredible.
Speaker 1: Ron Eisley playing a mafioso boss, fucking great. That's that's
Speaker 1: when I came up, you know, so you know I
Speaker 1: know my man is receiving flag. But hey, we gotta
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Speaker 1: you're wearing right now. Be a damn shame. Anyway, let's
Speaker 1: get back to the interview. What do you feel like
Speaker 1: your ideal output is on a yearly basis for dropping music,
Speaker 1: because in an album of years or two hours a
Speaker 1: year is it? I say two is good. Yeah, you
Speaker 1: know I've done up to four and five at a time.
Speaker 1: But it's just so much that people miss it. You know,
Speaker 1: they're too busy. People are too busy to tap in
Speaker 1: with you that much. And that's the reality. Is your
Speaker 1: biggest song Goat go and drive By yep which I
Speaker 1: don't want to which which is the record that we
Speaker 1: were talking about this in SD You were saying that
Speaker 1: you had a record that just kind of out of
Speaker 1: nowhere to started streaming because of TikTok or something. Oh
Speaker 1: that was because you were like you were like there
Speaker 1: was one that was like like you guys chose to
Speaker 1: be a single by yeah drive By? We Yeah, we
Speaker 1: went with Goat and you know, put all the energy
Speaker 1: and all the funds and all the ideas both to
Speaker 1: your biggest song. Yeah, but damn what, you never know,
Speaker 1: maybe we needed it too. The R and B was
Speaker 1: able to carry yourself just from it being a great song,
Speaker 1: and the other one needed a little bit of push
Speaker 1: because it was a rhythmic song. So you would mentioned
Speaker 1: to me that you have sold some of your catalog, Yeah,
Speaker 1: because everybody right now is selling catalog? Yeah, everybody, what
Speaker 1: did you decide to sell? And what did you So
Speaker 1: it's like some of the so all the writing that
Speaker 1: I've written for Chris Brown, and sure none of that
Speaker 1: has been sold, that's all. And you can just chilling.
Speaker 1: But I've I've released so many albums, like some of
Speaker 1: my older stuff. I was like, all right, cool, let's
Speaker 1: experiment because we're hearing all this stuff and it sounds crazy,
Speaker 1: it doesn't sound real, but let's give it a shot.
Speaker 1: What am I willing to gamble with to see if
Speaker 1: that really happens? And I still got a new catalog
Speaker 1: and I'm still making new catalog. So he cashed out
Speaker 1: some of the old stuff. Yeah seven figures, Yeah, bought
Speaker 1: bought crabs like it brought me my lifestyle, you know,
Speaker 1: like the music. So to me, it's like I made
Speaker 1: music that has got me able to provide for my
Speaker 1: family for real. You know that's amazing. Man. We'll listen
Speaker 1: to what is album comes out? Albums out albums out? Yeah,
Speaker 1: one hundred hit easy line to video, just drop Curious
Speaker 1: cord fab and that's that's it. Man. We finished the tour.
Speaker 1: So now it's really just about pushing the music promoting
Speaker 1: and you know, going from there. Any placement's coming up. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I got some got some heat coming with Big Sean.
Speaker 1: Yeah nice. He singles singles single with Big Sean coming.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah. I don't know if it's the first one,
Speaker 1: but it's definitely one of them ones that when you
Speaker 1: put on you just you feel good. So, you know,
Speaker 1: just happy with my aries brother. No, no, no, it's
Speaker 1: all it's all him him. I'm just we've just vibed in,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. I like it. I got
Speaker 1: to be in the vibe and it was just as
Speaker 1: on areas. What was the session like with Sean ah
Speaker 1: Man also in love? Yeah, exactly someone who's in love,
Speaker 1: I don't know, vibe. Great guy. First time I really
Speaker 1: was able to be in the studio with him, and
Speaker 1: he was warm, he was welcoming, he was open to
Speaker 1: new ideas, and I think that's what makes people great
Speaker 1: when they they know they're good enough to not have
Speaker 1: to be the only one coming up with the ideas,
Speaker 1: you know. So once we were able to piggyback and
Speaker 1: I got to see which ones he liked, like I
Speaker 1: did a couple to see like okay, which one is
Speaker 1: he gravitated towards the most. You know, I got to
Speaker 1: really tap in and my boy Childish Major. We got
Speaker 1: in and man just cooked up something real special. Uh,
Speaker 1: thank you for coming back, because the last time you
Speaker 1: tried to come on the podcast, you came with hit
Speaker 1: Maker and the Nelk boys were in the studio and
Speaker 1: they tried to prank you guys, and things went it
Speaker 1: went left. To say, things went left. Berg did not
Speaker 1: appreciate it. I feel like you were kind of like
Speaker 1: because I let Nima know that it was happening, he
Speaker 1: knew and we didn't know. I was like, wait, what
Speaker 1: haven't the dude came in? What was he was doing
Speaker 1: an interview? And the dude came in with a sand blaster? Yeah? Yeah,
Speaker 1: he can't even think it was a It's on YouTube.
Speaker 1: It's got millions of views on YouTube. But your guys'
Speaker 1: faces are blurred. I gotta see. I thought it was joking. No,
Speaker 1: that shit is online and it's it went viral. So
Speaker 1: in the comments, everyone's guessing who you got are because
Speaker 1: you guys faces were blurred. Yeah, please send me that link.
Speaker 1: Shout out to Bird, shout out of hit Maker. Yes,
Speaker 1: sir go get the album. I appreciate you man, thank you.
Speaker 1: Looking forward to the rest of the year. That what
Speaker 1: you got in store for us? Broh yeah man, yes, sir,
Speaker 1: let's go fire.