Speaker 1: Quest Loft Show is a production of iHeart Radio. Yo, Yo,
Speaker 1: What's Up? What's Up? It's another classic episode of the
Speaker 1: Quest Love Supreme podcast. And these are always somewhat difficult
Speaker 1: when the guests who happens to be a great friend
Speaker 1: is no longer with us. Of course, I'm talking about
Speaker 1: the magnetic being himself, DJ Clark Kent. He was a
Speaker 1: legend behind the turntables, behind the production board, behind the desk,
Speaker 1: behind street fashion, and back in October of twenty twenty two,
Speaker 1: we spoke to Clark on Zoom along with Team Supreme.
Speaker 1: We had no idea he transitioned two years later. Here
Speaker 1: you're gonna learn some of the things that would define
Speaker 1: Clark's life and career. He shares how being teased as
Speaker 1: a kid for wearing glasses gave him the Clark Kent
Speaker 1: nickname led to becoming the man who helped the world
Speaker 1: discover Jay Z. Clark went deep on the science of
Speaker 1: DJing and producing from the emotional power of the Ohio
Speaker 1: players Ecstasy which he ended every set and I my
Speaker 1: witness to that and sample for the song Brooklyn's Finest,
Speaker 1: which you'll hear. How Clark tried more than fifty scratch
Speaker 1: hook ideas for he reveals that he was Rock Kim's
Speaker 1: DJ for the very first time Rock Kim blessed the
Speaker 1: part Jim and how he almost signed nods off of
Speaker 1: Live of the Barbecue before the world got to know
Speaker 1: who he was. And this episode also covers Clark's evolution
Speaker 1: to a sneaker icon he got me in the game.
Speaker 1: All right, this is the story of God's favorite DJ
Speaker 1: and one of my favorite DJs. From the park jams
Speaker 1: and label board rooms to the Nike kitchen and beyond. Clark,
Speaker 1: we are going to miss you, bruh. All right, here's
Speaker 1: Clark Kin's episode.
Speaker 2: You have to understand, Like, I don't want this to
Speaker 2: be you at all, and this is like maybe probably
Speaker 2: the most important thing I want to say today is
Speaker 2: I love Quest Like I'm like, uh like beyond beyond
Speaker 2: him being my man, Like did.
Speaker 1: We say this for the show?
Speaker 2: Show the show, the show to it I'll start to show.
Speaker 2: Oh no, no, listen to what I'm about to say.
Speaker 2: You might you might understand. I just want to say
Speaker 2: it's truly an honor to be considered for this show
Speaker 2: because this show is so fucking good.
Speaker 1: Wow, thank you, Mark.
Speaker 2: I appreciate that. Thank you.
Speaker 1: He's preventing me from giving him a proper intro. Uh,
Speaker 1: Ladies and Joe and this is Quest Love Supreme. We're
Speaker 1: here with Team Supreme Sugar Steve Fan take alow, shout
Speaker 1: out to Bill Sermons, and uh, like you, how you doing.
Speaker 3: I'm doing good. I'm doing real good. I was just
Speaker 3: what's the.
Speaker 1: What's I've been meaning to ask you? What's the portrait
Speaker 1: behind you?
Speaker 4: That's my dad, says that our artist painted that of
Speaker 4: him playing the drums.
Speaker 1: Oh that's your dad. Yeah, okay, that's what's up. No, No,
Speaker 1: every time I see I didn't know if it was
Speaker 1: a moon or whatever.
Speaker 3: And that's a symbol. Quest Love.
Speaker 4: That's a symbol. That's what they all know with drums
Speaker 4: they play. It comes with a drum set.
Speaker 1: Do you know I did not know that. One day.
Speaker 1: I will take that up anyway, y'all check it. So
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say that, you know, we're nerds on this show,
Speaker 1: and we always uh sort of salivate over a specific
Speaker 1: type of industry insider, behind the scenes person, and you know,
Speaker 1: like dream Dream Future guest of the show, Like, you know,
Speaker 1: I would definitely want to get Suzanne to pass on
Speaker 1: the show. We definitely have to find the elusive John
Speaker 1: McLean as many times as he's been mentioned by like
Speaker 1: every artist that's been on the show. But for me,
Speaker 1: I'll say that the behind the scenes person mostly like
Speaker 1: offers uh kind of like a different perspective and has
Speaker 1: way more details in a way that an artist who's
Speaker 1: in the eye of the storm can't see. I don't
Speaker 1: think he could be in it and of it at
Speaker 1: the same time. So for me, I love talking to
Speaker 1: behind the scenes people, and you know, and I'm segueing
Speaker 1: right into our guest today, this particular gentleman. He's everything
Speaker 1: that you've heard about him, probably and more, and probably
Speaker 1: say resume is a little reductive because I don't you know,
Speaker 1: it's not like like he works for nobody. He's literally
Speaker 1: God's favorite DJ. And I stand by that another guy
Speaker 1: that he's associated with. Let's start with he is the
Speaker 1: reason why we know who jay Z is. That's that's
Speaker 1: might drop alone. But there's so much more than that
Speaker 1: one story I'm dying to know about. Of course, during
Speaker 1: the ton Silverman episode and you know Monica Lynch episode,
Speaker 1: speaking of them developing the new music seminar, and you know,
Speaker 1: one of the most favor things about it was the
Speaker 1: the infamous battleful Ward supremacy tales that I've always heard about,
Speaker 1: especially the Craig g versus supernet. I always wanted to
Speaker 1: know about that. I mean, this is also how we
Speaker 1: know who Skills is as well. I mean, let's just
Speaker 1: mention the classics. Brooklyn's finest guess he's backed by Rock Kim,
Speaker 1: Biggie Sky's limit on Life after Death needs you tonight anyway, man,
Speaker 1: I can go on and on not to mention this
Speaker 1: human being gave me my true intro into the world
Speaker 1: of fashion, because without him, I would have never had
Speaker 1: my own Nike imprint. Yes, this is the man that's responding, dude,
Speaker 1: I'm telling you, man, this this guy is a legend
Speaker 1: and he's on the show today. Clark Kent, thank you
Speaker 1: for finally, I won't say finally like it took you
Speaker 1: long enough. I realized that this has almost been a
Speaker 1: year of the mak Yeah that you're right, the way
Speaker 1: falls on me. Yes, you're absolutely right. Clark Kit is
Speaker 1: probably the guest that we've had to put off the most.
Speaker 1: You know, there's always an emergency that happens on a
Speaker 1: Clark Kit episode, and then we're like, can we do
Speaker 1: this at a month or so? So after four false starts,
Speaker 1: we are finally here making it happen. How are you, sir?
Speaker 2: I am truly blessed to be here on earth, but
Speaker 2: I'm even you know, like I'm very very honored to
Speaker 2: be a guest of yours simply because of how much
Speaker 2: I admire you, And as I was saying to your
Speaker 2: crew earlier, like almost like sometimes I parallel the way
Speaker 2: you work to the way that I work or the
Speaker 2: way that I worked. Like when I was coming up,
Speaker 2: I did everything and I just was trying to be
Speaker 2: always working, like never not working. And then you know,
Speaker 2: like the rise of It's love to me, it's like
Speaker 2: I don't think you're understanding what he's doing. He's just
Speaker 2: not stopping. And then I think about how I came up,
Speaker 2: like I just never stopped, so even doing what I
Speaker 2: do now, like it's like I never stopped. I don't
Speaker 2: even understand stop. And I look at you and I think, Okay,
Speaker 2: I'm not crazy for being that way, and I really
Speaker 2: really really respect you.
Speaker 1: Thank you. I gave my first speech to a bunch
Speaker 1: of high schoolers. This show is famous for putting me
Speaker 1: in a right look at life's face right now exactly.
Speaker 1: This show pretty much knows my weak points and they
Speaker 1: know that I'm a person that shoes or avoids compliments.
Speaker 1: I also avoid kids. You know, many times have been asked,
Speaker 1: hey speak at my high school, Hey talk to the kids,
Speaker 1: and da, da da da. So I finally got over
Speaker 1: my fear and went to a Bronx high school last
Speaker 1: week from this taping, and I actually found myself saying
Speaker 1: the opposite. Yes, I take those words, and I appreciate.
Speaker 1: And this is also going to be probably the most
Speaker 1: polite quest of Supreme episode we've ever done. But I
Speaker 1: will actually say that I'm trying to what he says.
Speaker 5: No, I was going to say that Clark is actually
Speaker 5: touching on a truly legitimate thing that you exemplify, which
Speaker 5: is work ethic and right.
Speaker 4: But but I'm.
Speaker 1: Actually I'm and I'm dead serious about this. I am
Speaker 1: trying to do less work. I'm literally making a living
Speaker 1: doing things that I love doing. But I know that
Speaker 1: for me and no way I'm trying to put a
Speaker 1: time on anything and not trying to be all morbid.
Speaker 1: But you know, when you're when you're north of fifty,
Speaker 1: you know, you're thinking about your your last few acts.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm in the third quarter or the fourth,
Speaker 1: you know, halftime is over. I'm in the third quarter now,
Speaker 1: so I consider third quarter the last act of work.
Speaker 2: That's what you think.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And but I want to do it so that
Speaker 1: I want to be the first generation that can And
Speaker 1: I know it's weird to hear me say this, but
Speaker 1: I would like to be part of the first generation
Speaker 1: that when they say they're going to retire, they actually
Speaker 1: mean it. You know, for a lot of us, I
Speaker 1: hear like, oh, I'm gonna stop. Actually. You know, I
Speaker 1: always tease Jay about remember when Jay said he was
Speaker 1: going to retire after reasonable doubt? What you remember that?
Speaker 2: Yeah, but I was the one who was like, no,
Speaker 2: you're not.
Speaker 1: Pulls it right exactly. So but I would I think that,
Speaker 1: you know, we're seeing a new generation. I mean, we're
Speaker 1: gonna have the first generation of black generational wealth. And
Speaker 1: I think that we can and also have like real
Speaker 1: retirement for us where you get to relax and do
Speaker 1: what you want to do and not and live the
Speaker 1: life that you're accustomed to living, and it not affects you.
Speaker 5: So oh well it's going to affect me. You can't
Speaker 5: work less. I get paid by the hour, so I
Speaker 5: could work out for everybody.
Speaker 1: H Clark, I always wanted to know this. Usually in
Speaker 1: hip hop, when a person comes up with their their moniker,
Speaker 1: their non de plume, it's usually an over exaggerated position
Speaker 1: or something that's larger than life or whatever. I find
Speaker 1: it very interesting. I mean, not that you know, DJ
Speaker 1: Superman would have been a I don't know how logistic
Speaker 1: logistical that that would have been as a title, but
Speaker 1: I think it's very curious that you decided to choose
Speaker 1: the the half life version of Superman, which is Clark Kent.
Speaker 1: What was your reasoning, you know, because we don't know
Speaker 1: any Peter Parker or I don't know the other.
Speaker 2: There was a DJ Peter Parker in Brooklyn.
Speaker 3: Really yeah it's a radio but yeah, that's only.
Speaker 2: Two Okay, Well mine's is pretty simple. I wore glasses
Speaker 2: since I was five years old, and I got teased
Speaker 2: and called clock kN since I was a baby. So
Speaker 2: what when when this started to happen? When when I'm
Speaker 2: like nine and I started DJing, there was no name.
Speaker 2: But by the time I'm like, okay, I'm going to
Speaker 2: play a park. I gotta tell him something. So I
Speaker 2: told them the name that everybody teased me about, and
Speaker 2: it just never went away. I've tried other things to out.
Speaker 1: What were your other names that you were optioning.
Speaker 2: I used to write graffiti when I was really young,
Speaker 2: and I used to write blink, So I tried DJ
Speaker 2: Blink and I thought that shit was terrible and it
Speaker 2: didn't rhyme with anything properly when I was in rap groups,
Speaker 2: so think drink and sink just just no, it didn't.
Speaker 2: It didn't make as much sense later. But and then
Speaker 2: there was a It's funny because I don't know how
Speaker 2: just Blaze nwice. But for like, for like three weeks,
Speaker 2: I was grand Master Blaster. And it's crazy because the
Speaker 2: guy who would be on the mic when I was
Speaker 2: when I was DJing like block Party Ship one day
Speaker 2: just went grand Master Blaster cut Faster. I was like, oh,
Speaker 2: And then after the joint, I was just like that
Speaker 2: shit is terrible, and I just went right back to it.
Speaker 2: But Clark Kent works for me because I don't believe
Speaker 2: any man is superior to the next man, so I'd
Speaker 2: rather be p persion that that is not a superman.
Speaker 2: I try to be a super DJ.
Speaker 1: What was your first musical memory of your life.
Speaker 2: My first musical memory, My mother was a classically trained
Speaker 2: op singer. Oh wow, Yeah, she sang in the New
Speaker 2: York full of minic. She sang in Lincoln Center like
Speaker 2: it's crazy. I did Cornegie Hall a couple of months
Speaker 2: ago with d Nice, and everybody was like yo when
Speaker 2: Carnegie Hall and Cornegie Hall. And in my mind, I'm thinking,
Speaker 2: my mother lapis play three times like this is not
Speaker 2: until I know it four times. Until I do it
Speaker 2: four times, I've done nothing.
Speaker 1: You know what I mean?
Speaker 2: Because I looked. I would go see my mother at
Speaker 2: Conny Yill. But again, she was a classically trained singer,
Speaker 2: so around the house she sang and played the piano
Speaker 2: since birth. And then my real real like music aha
Speaker 2: moments was when I stayed with my grandmother and that
Speaker 2: was since I was like six, and she had this
Speaker 2: record that she played like every day when she came
Speaker 2: home for work. It was Happy Landings, and I would
Speaker 2: watch her be happy playing this song, and then I
Speaker 2: would just sit there and try to figure out how
Speaker 2: to play all the records in the house, but when
Speaker 2: she's coming home, I would put on happy landings for
Speaker 2: her to walk into the house too, And I realized,
Speaker 2: like maybe like a year later, like I am actually
Speaker 2: doing something to her emotionally by putting this record on
Speaker 2: when she walks through the door. And that made me
Speaker 2: always want to be the person in the house that
Speaker 2: played the records. So I didn't know that at five
Speaker 2: and six and seven and eight that I'm becoming this
Speaker 2: DJ until I heard records being mixed and I was like, Yo,
Speaker 2: what the fuck has happening right now?
Speaker 1: So I know that you are from Brooklyn, I.
Speaker 2: Was born I was born in Panama, but raised in Brooklyn.
Speaker 1: Okay, when did you when did you come to.
Speaker 2: U became two months old. I was two months old.
Speaker 1: Okay, So can you give us your your take of
Speaker 1: coming into hip hop culture because you know, for a
Speaker 1: lot of people, you know, we hear the folklore of
Speaker 1: the Bronx, the Bronx, the Bronx, the Bronx, the Bronx.
Speaker 1: But as large as New York City is, I'm certain
Speaker 1: that the same development was happening in the other boroughs.
Speaker 2: Here's the thing. I don't look at it like a
Speaker 2: advent of this thing that that that we call hip
Speaker 2: hop I have. I just happened to be alive and
Speaker 2: cognizant of what was happening when I was really young.
Speaker 2: And the reason why is because I was being this
Speaker 2: DJ and because I knew grandm Aster Flowers, you know
Speaker 2: what I'm saying. Because I knew Pete DJ Jones when
Speaker 2: I was like a little kid, like knowing those two
Speaker 2: guys and having the conversations about what was happening, like
Speaker 2: you know, it wasn't even like we didn't even know
Speaker 2: that it was called hip hop when we started playing
Speaker 2: the records differently and you know, like we understood, okay,
Speaker 2: that's a section of the record. But then I was
Speaker 2: also in the Bronx with my uncle and he would
Speaker 2: introduce me to who Her. He introduced me to Bam
Speaker 2: and Breakout and Barren and j C with Kid and
Speaker 2: everybody from uptown like Charlie, Chase and Tone like I've
Speaker 2: known them since I was like twelve years old, you
Speaker 2: know what I'm saying, and did or like I was
Speaker 2: in his crib when I was like twelve or thirteen,
Speaker 2: you know, so watching it all and being able to
Speaker 2: do it all like yeah, by accident, you know what
Speaker 2: I'm saying, his brother me Jean. I was with my uncle.
Speaker 2: My uncle brings me to me Jean's crib and then
Speaker 2: I find out Theodore as his brother. I'm like, wait
Speaker 2: a minute, what's going on here? Ain't that the dude
Speaker 2: but the zigga zigga that we all do, you know
Speaker 2: what I'm saying. But like it was then, it was
Speaker 2: like so far. It was the seventies, and I'm really
Speaker 2: like witnessing and going to eighteen Parking, seeing flashing and
Speaker 2: Casta Nova's and shit and seeing like Grandmaster cast can
Speaker 2: literally say he's know me since I was a kid.
Speaker 2: It was because I was up there with my uncle,
Speaker 2: and my uncle was cool with all of them, so
Speaker 2: he would bring me around. Now, yes, I'm in Brooklyn,
Speaker 2: you know, trying to figure out this DJ thing. But
Speaker 2: the first set I ever played on was my uncle
Speaker 2: set and he couldn't DJ, so he couldn't even teach
Speaker 2: me anything. So like I would be in his crib
Speaker 2: trying to figure it out, like at nine.
Speaker 1: So he had DJ equipment, but wasn't a DJ in
Speaker 1: the sense of how we DJ.
Speaker 2: No, he didn't know how to DJ at all. He
Speaker 2: bought DJ equipment because he frequented clubs so much that
Speaker 2: he wanted to have what they had in clubs in
Speaker 2: his house. So he was a Liviticus guy. He was
Speaker 2: a Plato's Retreat guy. He was a Bonds International guy.
Speaker 2: He was a fifty four guy, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: Like he was also a lawyer, so maybe not being
Speaker 2: in a pad as garage would be good for him.
Speaker 1: But it's quite an upbringing, all right, because you are
Speaker 1: cognizant of records in your house alone. Now, I know,
Speaker 1: in hip hop sometimes with selective memory or revision whatever,
Speaker 1: like people might mistake, you know, one of the basic
Speaker 1: ingredients of hip hop breakbeats that they discovered older making
Speaker 1: beats and all those things from like what was there
Speaker 1: in real time, but for you in real time growing up,
Speaker 1: you know, in these formative years like twelve thirteen whatever,
Speaker 1: when you're like getting into records and all those things,
Speaker 1: like what was the record that caused absolute panic? And
Speaker 1: like when you put it on, it's like, oh Jesus Christ,
Speaker 1: like clear the floor or not clear the floor, get
Speaker 1: on the floor.
Speaker 2: At that time, it might have been ecstasy by the
Speaker 2: Ohio players because it was literally my favor. It was
Speaker 2: literally my favorite record as soon as I heard it.
Speaker 2: To me, it's still the best song I've ever heard.
Speaker 1: I got jokes, no, no, no, I love that song
Speaker 1: to death, but I have so many jokes with the
Speaker 1: Eye Players because they get away with so many musical crimes, right.
Speaker 2: And and the thing is, like, the whole record is
Speaker 2: a musical crime. And the reason why I say that
Speaker 2: is because it's literally the.
Speaker 1: End of a song like I would like. It's like
Speaker 1: they started right on the riff at the end of
Speaker 1: the song.
Speaker 2: And there's no hook, there's no verse, there's.
Speaker 6: No change whatever whatever he sings the first line like
Speaker 6: that's the name of the song, like that.
Speaker 1: I love you use ecstasy Pain is just since the
Speaker 1: right exactly.
Speaker 2: But by the time the end of the record comes,
Speaker 2: just the most perfect thing I've ever heard, because the
Speaker 2: emotion is raw, the music is beautiful, and it proves
Speaker 2: that there is no real formula to this shit. It's
Speaker 2: just when you listen, do you walk away going? That
Speaker 2: shit fucked my soul up, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: And that record, since I was a kid, the first
Speaker 2: time I heard it, I was just like, oh my god,
Speaker 2: this might be the most beautiful thing I've ever heard.
Speaker 2: And yes, I've heard tons of records, and yeah, I've
Speaker 2: heard tons of records, but that record right there, that's
Speaker 2: the reason why I sampled the records because and it
Speaker 2: took me like four years to sample it.
Speaker 1: Yo, I'm gonna tell you something. The anger. There's nothing
Speaker 1: like the feeling of where you think the lane is
Speaker 1: clear and all you got to do is simply to
Speaker 1: put the ball in the hoop and you know it's
Speaker 1: about to happen, and then someone just smacks the ship
Speaker 1: out of the ball, Like get the fun I'm telling
Speaker 1: you now, the anger I had when I heard Brooklyn's
Speaker 1: Finest because at the time we're working on Illadelf half Life.
Speaker 1: I was like, Yo, I'm gonna.
Speaker 2: Make some Philadelf. Half Life's a great album, I know.
Speaker 1: But my my, my contribution to this jam was I've
Speaker 1: been working so hard, like trying to hook up some
Speaker 1: version of ecstasy to go on that, and then I
Speaker 1: heard it on a mixtape and was like, Ah, this
Speaker 1: is over.
Speaker 2: Nope, all right, I'm gonna make this crazy for you.
Speaker 2: I sampled that record two years before on a remix
Speaker 2: for the Future Sound, but I only took one loop,
Speaker 2: and every time I listened to it, I was like,
Speaker 2: I didn't do this right. I didn't do this right.
Speaker 2: And again it was my favorite record. So every club
Speaker 2: I played, I ended the night with the record. And
Speaker 2: it became so popular that I would play this record
Speaker 2: that people would be like, I'm waiting to the end
Speaker 2: because I could hear that fucking record. And then one day,
Speaker 2: one day, Dame and Jay just go, yo, you got
Speaker 2: you got to hook that up. So I mean, sitting
Speaker 2: there with the sample, I'm just like, there's only one
Speaker 2: way for it to feel the way it feels, and
Speaker 2: it has to be the whole five bar loop. Now,
Speaker 2: of course five bars is very unconventional, just like three
Speaker 2: bars is unconventional. But yeah, like try to call a question.
Speaker 2: When that record was made, I like try to figure
Speaker 2: out where the fuck do I mix this record all
Speaker 2: the time, and then I figured out where I'm going
Speaker 2: to get that eight bars at and it would be weird,
Speaker 2: but it would always come off right, you know what
Speaker 2: I mean. But with Brooklyn's Finest, it's almost like I
Speaker 2: had to go, I don't care if they figure it out,
Speaker 2: because the music has to feel and and and the
Speaker 2: thing is the music feels, because what they did to
Speaker 2: was was great too. But if they didn't, if it
Speaker 2: didn't feel, it wouldn't have gotten to there. Have you?
Speaker 2: Have you heard.
Speaker 1: Lino Richie's version that Jimmy geometry list is line of
Speaker 1: Richie covered ecstasy not really but no, but like he
Speaker 1: didn't cover ecstasy, but jam kind of flipped it on no, no,
Speaker 1: no on loud of them were not louder than words.
Speaker 1: What's the Joe that he I gotta find the album?
Speaker 3: It's it's a lot of Richie.
Speaker 2: Yes, it's like one of his like I.
Speaker 1: Could spend that ship in my set and the ship
Speaker 1: come off. It's yeah, it's the louder than words, right, Oh,
Speaker 1: I want to take you down. Look up, Lina Richie,
Speaker 1: I want to take you down. And like I was like,
Speaker 1: all right, Jimmy, Jeame, Terry Lewis, like they actually they
Speaker 1: flipped they flipped one of Junie Marson's ad libs so
Speaker 1: that it actually sounds like he said, I want to
Speaker 1: take you damn. But like it's an album cut on
Speaker 1: words like right, like he'sh no, take you, damn, take you.
Speaker 1: I was impressed, and but the thing was, I didn't
Speaker 1: know that Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis produced it. I
Speaker 1: was just like, all right, so Lionel got some young
Speaker 1: cat to hook up a feat and this, you know,
Speaker 1: this came out in nineteen ninety six, so it's even
Speaker 1: weirder that both got album.
Speaker 2: No No No. But Jam. I was like, I.
Speaker 1: Know you're joking. We got jokes here, No, but literally
Speaker 1: I was like asking Jam, like, did you know Brooklyn's
Speaker 1: Finus or whatever? And He's like, nah, I didn't because
Speaker 1: I was like, it leaked a good six months before
Speaker 1: it came out, like I heard on someone's mixtape.
Speaker 2: I think it might have been either Chubby Chubb or Clue.
Speaker 1: It probably was maybe Clue, you know, whatever it was,
Speaker 1: it was enough to make me not like I was like, well,
Speaker 1: my dreams a shadow.
Speaker 4: It's one of those rare records that like, no matter
Speaker 4: how many years later, if anybody play it you on
Speaker 4: the it's just automatic, like yeah.
Speaker 2: It's because it's perfect.
Speaker 1: Wait, all right, I always tell people this story and
Speaker 1: I'm going on the timeline, but I got I got
Speaker 1: to ask this question because I don't know we ever talked.
Speaker 2: About Yes, Yes, it was hard to follow you at
Speaker 2: the Goal Party.
Speaker 1: Shut up, man, No, no, no, no, I'm talking about
Speaker 1: but but.
Speaker 2: Goal party.
Speaker 3: Oh so you oh, y'all followed each other at I
Speaker 3: got it, Okay.
Speaker 1: I had to get on the plane to go back
Speaker 1: to my day job.
Speaker 3: That's the grammy partlem of the Oscar Party. I can't
Speaker 3: remember the infamous j.
Speaker 2: We we just did it.
Speaker 3: I did okay, we know.
Speaker 1: No, I was gonna. I'm asking you, do you know
Speaker 1: if anyone that has documented or recorded, I believe that
Speaker 1: was you on the turntables for uh, the after party
Speaker 1: for Zebrahead the movie.
Speaker 2: Wow, remember this. It was a good party. But I
Speaker 2: don't know anybody.
Speaker 1: You don't even know. This the one, the one and
Speaker 1: last time I ever got on the microphone to rhyme.
Speaker 1: You were you were DJing, you going back and forth
Speaker 1: on m Vogue's hold On as an instrumental.
Speaker 2: Yeah, like.
Speaker 1: No, it definitely wasn't booming system. It was just going
Speaker 1: back and forth on hold on and NAS gets up
Speaker 1: to rhyme, and then it just became one of the
Speaker 1: things where like thirty mcs were on stage that I remember.
Speaker 1: So I was rolling because Zebrahead was a was a
Speaker 1: rough House Records Association that's where I was interning at
Speaker 1: the time, and you know, we had like two bustlos
Speaker 1: going up, so it was like all the goats, Larry
Speaker 1: Larr was there, like all the all the rough House
Speaker 1: people were like there, and I don't know, it was
Speaker 1: on stage and it was like there's.
Speaker 3: A microphone, you got the spirit a mirror? Did you
Speaker 3: get this?
Speaker 1: And I like one? I had one verse?
Speaker 3: I did you only got one chip?
Speaker 2: Look at a teket.
Speaker 1: Kick question whatever. So I was always afraid to tell
Speaker 1: that story because my fear was like someone's going to
Speaker 1: be like yeah, and I recorded it and here it
Speaker 1: is of it, like literally I remembered nas rhyme in
Speaker 1: a long time and then like then like a bunch
Speaker 1: of second tier I think Joe Fatal was there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and then by the time it got to like the
Speaker 1: seventh or eighth MC, then it was like anybody's rhyming.
Speaker 1: And then that like I was number like twenty seven.
Speaker 1: But yeah, yeah, sorry memories anyway, No.
Speaker 2: I'm not mad at you. I had one of those
Speaker 2: moments when I was like fifteen, and as soon as
Speaker 2: I was done, I was like never again again. I
Speaker 2: was I was I was at a park jam Oh no,
Speaker 2: I didn't rhyme again.
Speaker 1: I just did a hook and I, well, you did
Speaker 1: the hook on Brooklyn's finus.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, that's what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: I just some time out. They made that song without
Speaker 1: a hook, and then you went and.
Speaker 2: Listen. When Biggie came to do his verse, it was
Speaker 2: like the day before mastering, so it was you're gonna
Speaker 2: do You're gonna do this verse, and then I'm gonna
Speaker 2: have the song's gonna have to go get mad, I'm
Speaker 2: gonna have to mix it, and then it's going to
Speaker 2: master the next morning, so you gotta finish the song.
Speaker 2: He finishes his verses, and him and Jay in the studio,
Speaker 2: it's all revelie. I'm like, yo, I need a hook,
Speaker 2: he says. Jay said, scratch something. Every single thing I
Speaker 2: tried to scratch on that record sounded like blasphemy because
Speaker 2: the record was so rich, right, so everything sounded terrible.
Speaker 2: Will accept Brooklyn Brooks instead of scratching. So Jay's like, y'all,
Speaker 2: I'll be back, and he disappears, and like twenty minutes later,
Speaker 2: Biggie goes, I'll be back, disappears. But I said to
Speaker 2: both of them on their disappearance, like, yo, you got
Speaker 2: to come and give me a hook. And every time
Speaker 2: I said it to Jay, he said, yo, just scratch something.
Speaker 2: You could make it right. And like I said, everything
Speaker 2: was like disgusting. I felt so bad because all I'm
Speaker 2: thinking is.
Speaker 1: How long did it?
Speaker 2: Like?
Speaker 1: How many attempts before?
Speaker 2: Oh? No, I attempted at least fifty different things to scratch.
Speaker 4: I just had.
Speaker 2: I just had a crate full of records that said Brooklyn.
Speaker 2: And this wasn't even because of them. It was because
Speaker 2: that's what I'm thinking, I'm going to figure something out
Speaker 2: under their hook or maybe in a section, but in
Speaker 2: the breakdow out section in the fifth bar, I'm going
Speaker 2: to scratch something every hook right. And then so they're like, yeah,
Speaker 2: you you know you're going to scratch something. I'm like, yes,
Speaker 2: I am, and I got records and I'm going to
Speaker 2: try to figure it out. And nothing was figuring it out.
Speaker 1: Question though, by ninety six, the term we're Booklyn at was.
Speaker 2: It was a known thing, but it wasn't. But it
Speaker 2: wasn't a recorded thing that I could just go, I'm
Speaker 2: going to scratch and there was no store. So after
Speaker 2: a million tries and the only thing I got is
Speaker 2: Brooklyn Brooklyn. I'm just like, I'm scared to death, and
Speaker 2: I just I just kept listening to the record, and
Speaker 2: I was like, Okay, let me pull a piece from
Speaker 2: my hair, and then okay, what you're going to do
Speaker 2: after that? Because all I got is jay Z Biggie
Speaker 2: Small's nigga shit you draws, and I'm like, that's awesome.
Speaker 2: But then I'm like, what else? And then I'm like, okay,
Speaker 2: shout out the sections and the Burroughs, shout out the
Speaker 2: most important ones, persons, Bossy, that's by, you know, like,
Speaker 2: let's get to our shit first, and then the rest
Speaker 2: of the ship. I could just roll out. So I
Speaker 2: did it, and I was in fear. But for the
Speaker 2: whole time I was there, Damon was there, but he's
Speaker 2: not paying it no attention. He's there, He's almost like,
Speaker 2: I don't know, clock's bugging cool. He doesn't even say Clock,
Speaker 2: you'r bugging. I'm just doing this thing, and I'm bugging
Speaker 2: in my mind. So I'm telling the engineer, can you
Speaker 2: change the way my voice sounds? Can you double it?
Speaker 2: Can you triple it? Can you quadule it? Can you
Speaker 2: do all of these things? Please? Do not make it
Speaker 2: sound like me and everybody. He's like, well, what's wrong
Speaker 2: with this sounding like you? I said in our crew
Speaker 2: there is a packed Clark will never wrap like Jay
Speaker 2: and Saw. It's just one day was in my crib
Speaker 2: and it was just like looking at me and I
Speaker 2: was and I was like, yeah, they were looking at
Speaker 2: me like clocked. You don't rap, don't ever be a rapper, Like,
Speaker 2: let us do the rapping and you make the beat.
Speaker 2: Don't do this. And I was just like, no problem
Speaker 2: because I never ever wanted to be a rapper. So
Speaker 2: at the end of everything, Dame is like, yeah, I
Speaker 2: like it, and I'm just like, okay, please, I'm like, please,
Speaker 2: do not tell them that I did it. Don't tell
Speaker 2: whatever you do, don't tell Jade I did it. It
Speaker 2: goes to Mastering. Everybody's at Mastering. They love it, and
Speaker 2: then the record is like after master and I'm just like, yo, Jay,
Speaker 2: how you like shit is fired? Who's that? Or that's
Speaker 2: the kids I found downstairs later just so that he
Speaker 2: wouldn't be like, fuck was he doing rabbit? So later
Speaker 2: on it comes out okay, clogged it not clogged? Do that,
Speaker 2: and he was just like, yo, we told you you
Speaker 2: don't wrap right, and I was like, dog, I wasn't
Speaker 2: trying to wrap you. Guys left me here and he goes, nah,
Speaker 2: but it's really good. And then like weeks later, weeks later,
Speaker 2: we got to show at the Apollo. What's crazy is
Speaker 2: when I say we, I mean jay Z, Junie, Myfie
Speaker 2: and Biggie. So where else are we going to perform
Speaker 2: this song? We at the Apollo. Now I'm just like,
Speaker 2: oh shit, I gotta perform so yo, this is my word.
Speaker 2: I'm all the way to the side of the stage
Speaker 2: where almost like I wanted to hide behind the speaker,
Speaker 2: but I'm like jay Z, crowd's going crazy. I start
Speaker 2: moving closer to the front of the stage. Drawn I'm
Speaker 2: but I'm hype down because I'm talking about my city
Speaker 2: in holem you don't stop, stop, you won't stop. The
Speaker 2: clwd's going banana. Crowd's going bananas. First and last time
Speaker 2: we did finest because I was just like, I'm never
Speaker 2: going on tour with you, motherfucker. I'm never doing this
Speaker 2: ship again. And fortunately they didn't get to be like
Speaker 2: now you are going and we are doing it because
Speaker 2: my man passed.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was about to say you never were his
Speaker 1: official DJ.
Speaker 2: I was in the very beginning. If you look at
Speaker 2: the first jay Z record, I can't get with that.
Speaker 1: I can't get with that.
Speaker 2: Right. My name is on the logo, it's jay Z
Speaker 2: Feature of DJ Clark can. That was the name of
Speaker 2: the group back then, jay Z Feature and DJ clark Can't.
Speaker 2: But I didn't necessarily care to be featured. I care
Speaker 2: to be making the music and picking the records and
Speaker 2: picking the tracks, and you know I want to do
Speaker 2: I want to do the record making.
Speaker 6: I don't want to ask you about your time with
Speaker 6: Dana Day Dana Day fan that's the first take I
Speaker 6: ever owned, and.
Speaker 2: Like, straight up that's dope. That's dope.
Speaker 7: So yeah, talk about him? What was he like like
Speaker 7: back in you know those days? What was that time?
Speaker 1: And when you're telling the story, he tells, where the
Speaker 1: hell is Herbie?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 1: Please?
Speaker 7: Yeah?
Speaker 1: How I feel like you're the person that talks to
Speaker 1: Herbie like every day in the world. Just don't know
Speaker 1: where he is.
Speaker 2: You want to know what's crazy? I wish I could,
Speaker 2: because I literally blame him for the reason I produce.
Speaker 2: I blame Molly mal for my style, but I blame
Speaker 2: him for the actual thing happening. Because we used to
Speaker 2: be in the studio all the time and I would
Speaker 2: be looking at these drum machine going I wonder how
Speaker 2: that works. And one day he was just like, oh,
Speaker 2: you can fuck with it. And he didn't come here,
Speaker 2: he was coming to the studio. We were all on
Speaker 2: the studio and he let me sit in the studio
Speaker 2: for like three hours before he came to fuck with
Speaker 2: the machine. And I literally got to learn how to
Speaker 2: use it. And the same. Yeah, I literally still make
Speaker 2: every single track I've ever made in my life is
Speaker 2: on SP twelve hundred.
Speaker 7: Are you serious? Even now?
Speaker 2: I'm dead serious. It's the center of my studio.
Speaker 1: Have you used the updated version yet?
Speaker 2: No? And I the reason why I won't probably is
Speaker 2: because I think he's the price is just robbery. The
Speaker 2: price is, dude, is like five thousand dollars for twelve
Speaker 2: And I'm just like dog, I did not know that. Yes,
Speaker 2: like I'm dog, it's a ST twelve hundred like it.
Speaker 2: I understand you got a couple of updates, make it
Speaker 2: twenty five hundred. You know what I'm saying?
Speaker 3: Like, do that?
Speaker 2: Do three thousand even if you have to for five grand?
Speaker 2: Four or five grand now and and a lot, and
Speaker 2: trust me in my heart, I'm like, I want it
Speaker 2: because it's a twelve hundred. But I got originals, so
Speaker 2: I guess I'm cool. It's just that the maintenance can
Speaker 2: be something.
Speaker 7: But yeah, I was going to ask, how do you
Speaker 7: keep them maintained?
Speaker 2: Because you you you take it to somebody who can
Speaker 2: clean it and make sure every button and every screen
Speaker 2: and everything works. And you know, I'd rather do the
Speaker 2: maintenance than I have to go giving somebody five grand. Respectfully,
Speaker 2: you know what I.
Speaker 1: Just Steve, I'm surprised you don't have a DMZ little
Speaker 1: floppy disc joke. Well I guess I don't. Well wait,
Speaker 1: if you still make it, how do you are they
Speaker 1: still manufacturing floppy discs.
Speaker 2: So when I was young and I started seeing other
Speaker 2: machines coming up, I surplus those this.
Speaker 1: You're like Neil Neil Young. When Neil Young found out
Speaker 1: like the first round of Ampex two inch tapes were
Speaker 1: about to be out of business, he went and.
Speaker 2: Damn near, I did that too.
Speaker 1: I see. Wait before you answer Fante's question, wait.
Speaker 2: Wait, hold on, I want to go back and say
Speaker 2: I wish I could speak to Herbie all the time,
Speaker 2: just so I could be like, yo, thank you. You
Speaker 2: know what I'm saying. But I don't speak to him.
Speaker 2: I wish I could. I know, I believe Dana does,
Speaker 2: but and I speak to Dana, so maybe I'll just
Speaker 2: ask him, can you get me in touch with Herbie?
Speaker 2: But like I would just love to say thank you.
Speaker 2: And I never let it go unmentioned that he's the
Speaker 2: reason that I actually bang on a machine first, and
Speaker 2: then I would be in Mally's crib and that's when.
Speaker 1: I was just like, oh, so you went to the
Speaker 1: Marley House of Hits.
Speaker 2: I used to be in the projects because me and
Speaker 2: hot Day. Hot Day is from Queensbridge. We used to
Speaker 2: DJ together a lot and me, Molly and hot Day
Speaker 2: used to play the same club once a week. We
Speaker 2: used to play USA skating rink, so we knew each other.
Speaker 2: But like I'm talking, like since I was a kid,
Speaker 2: I was in Mally's prib. You know what I'm saying,
Speaker 2: Because that's the reason why when Molly did his own show,
Speaker 2: he came and got being being peaked. He was like
Speaker 2: Pete was the young guy, but I'm the guy that
Speaker 2: he's known for forever to be his DJs know what
Speaker 2: I'm saying. So but yes, Molly is the reason I
Speaker 2: make beats the way I make them. But the reason
Speaker 2: I make beats in the first place is Herbie Low
Speaker 2: because he gave me a moment in the studio and
Speaker 2: he came and he heard shit, and he was like, nah,
Speaker 2: that's good. No, that's good. Yo, Wait a minute, that's good.
Speaker 2: Hold on, that's good, you know, saying where'd you get
Speaker 2: that sample? You know what I'm saying. I would give
Speaker 2: them samples and shit like that. But if it wasn't
Speaker 2: for Herbie, I'm not sure I ever Well, maybe I
Speaker 2: would have, but I don't know if it would have
Speaker 2: happened then. So, like, I never got to make anything
Speaker 2: on the Dana albums, but those were the times when
Speaker 2: I was learning how to make peace.
Speaker 7: Did you tour with him?
Speaker 2: Oh? I was. I was Dana's toy DJ. We went
Speaker 2: on at least three tours for one two Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: I was solding. But yeah, it's funny because in that time,
Speaker 2: the name of the whole crew was called Idle Make
Speaker 2: because it was Kidd and Play, Kwame, Salt Pepper and
Speaker 2: Dana Dane and there was a couple of other groups.
Speaker 2: So it would be times when I would DJ for
Speaker 2: Salt Pepper, it would be times that I would DJ
Speaker 2: for Kidding Play because we were just the crew and
Speaker 2: if we if I was there and they were there
Speaker 2: and they didn't have to and whiz wasn't it with
Speaker 2: the records on the phone because we're the crew. So
Speaker 2: but my main, my main job was was Dana Day.
Speaker 2: And I think what what made working with him so
Speaker 2: perfect was he allowed me to help him make the show.
Speaker 2: So it wasn't like all his idea dictatorship and just
Speaker 2: play what I say. It was like what should we do?
Speaker 2: And that's that's what made me. Indeed, me and Biggie
Speaker 2: work so perfectly. He walked in, he was like, I
Speaker 2: don't know how to do this ship, tell.
Speaker 4: Me what to do. Does that mean you never had
Speaker 4: to negotiate your rates because I was just sitting here
Speaker 4: thinking like us run in a New time in that way?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Yeah, I mean, how do you even figure out?
Speaker 3: How you even figured that out?
Speaker 2: And now when when Dana and I started to work together,
Speaker 2: I don't, I don't. I hope this doesn't sound a way,
Speaker 2: But I was already being DJ Clark in New York City.
Speaker 2: I was already playing all of the clubs and being
Speaker 2: one of the most work DJs. So when we got together,
Speaker 2: it was just like, oh, he can make this better.
Speaker 2: You know, when we work together, I made it better.
Speaker 3: And to you, the music directed in in a way
Speaker 3: it's beyond right.
Speaker 2: Like our first show together was at the rooftop, and
Speaker 2: and walking into the rooftop as many people who was going,
Speaker 2: oh Ship day to day, Like there was as many
Speaker 2: people going yo Clark Kennedy because I played the rooftop
Speaker 2: with bruceie b a bunch of times. So they were like, Oh,
Speaker 2: this nigga is about to get on the set. Not
Speaker 2: the way that you think we're gonna do this. I'm
Speaker 2: gonna be DJing for day to day. And we killed
Speaker 2: shit because his records was on fire, you know. So
Speaker 2: but the first time I ever did DJ form for
Speaker 2: real was at Washington Irvan High School. It was at
Speaker 2: a talent contest and he was the act. And this
Speaker 2: record might have been like three weeks old. And he
Speaker 2: comes in, but the records flaming in the street, you
Speaker 2: know what I'm saying. And he comes in and he
Speaker 2: does the Ship and motherfuck first song nightmarees went crazy immediately.
Speaker 2: So three weeks later, he's the guest at Washington Irban
Speaker 2: High School. My sister was a student there, and I
Speaker 2: was just like, oh Ship. So he's just like, Yo,
Speaker 2: can you drop this record for me? And I was like, okay, cool.
Speaker 2: I didn't think it was gonna be much, but in
Speaker 2: my mind, when I'm hearing a rap, I'm like, I'm
Speaker 2: gonna pull it out here. Let me pull it out here.
Speaker 2: He came over and then he was like, no, how
Speaker 2: did you know to do that? And I was just like, well,
Speaker 2: I just felt, you know, musically, I felt where you
Speaker 2: were going and where where the drop should be. And
Speaker 2: he was just like okay cool. And he had a DJ,
Speaker 2: so times was coming and he got a couple of shows,
Speaker 2: and like his DJ would would not show up at
Speaker 2: certain things. So one time he just was like, Yo,
Speaker 2: would you be my DJ? And I was like, let's
Speaker 2: figure it out. And he came to my crib and
Speaker 2: we sat there for hours working on a show, and
Speaker 2: he entrusted me and to me because I care so
Speaker 2: much about the music, Like I was just like, I
Speaker 2: want this to be like an amazing show for you,
Speaker 2: so that when they walk away, they go, this was
Speaker 2: great to see. It was entertaining in it, you know.
Speaker 2: So that's what that was the that was the mission
Speaker 2: for for Daney Dane was to make sure that his
Speaker 2: show was awesome.
Speaker 4: And I just want to say the reason I asked
Speaker 4: that question, and I was just asking about it because
Speaker 4: it feels like this style of DJ and and all
Speaker 4: of this art that it takes is not necessarily translated
Speaker 4: into what people see these days as a DJ on
Speaker 4: stage and live performance.
Speaker 2: So just mak Yeah, Well, the DJs on stage nowadays
Speaker 2: aren't necessarily DJing. They're they're standing up there within a
Speaker 2: a piece of a piece of performance that's happening, and
Speaker 2: they're just doing there there there look like. And if
Speaker 2: they are doing some DJ and they're basically just dropping records.
Speaker 2: They're not like switching beats in the middle of the
Speaker 2: songs live. They're not on turntables making it work and
Speaker 2: figuring out how yo if if if the crowd doesn't
Speaker 2: go crazy, you gotta figure something else out on the fly,
Speaker 2: you know, And they're not they're not doing that. Let
Speaker 2: me just say this, there wasn't no dats when we
Speaker 2: were when we were doing it, and There wasn't no
Speaker 2: instant replace. It was you had instrumental records and you
Speaker 2: had to make it work. There was no there was
Speaker 2: no rapping to your vocals back then.
Speaker 1: I've seen ll and Rock and few others. Well, I
Speaker 1: now know why dub mixes were always on the B
Speaker 1: side like rock King would have. I came and the
Speaker 1: team fight me fighting be like then, I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: that helps you on stage basically TV track. However, I
Speaker 1: have a question during your tenure with Data and Dame.
Speaker 2: Which was which was has there hold on home? I
Speaker 2: didn't need to say that was some of the best
Speaker 2: times for me because I learned so many things at
Speaker 2: that time.
Speaker 1: I have a question, is at any point was there
Speaker 1: talk of like, I don't know who the other two
Speaker 1: members of the Kangol Crew was.
Speaker 2: Oh Lance and Omega. They were amazing, So.
Speaker 1: Was there ever talk of them wing something together? Like
Speaker 1: I know that I still no one still answered with
Speaker 1: with gave me give me a straight answer on why
Speaker 1: it took slick Rick four years to go from Lottie
Speaker 1: Dotty to Great Adventures. But you know, at the time
Speaker 1: when Dana Dane comes out, at least in Philadelphia, a
Speaker 1: lot of us thought that was slick Rick, you know,
Speaker 1: because he had like that's that snaggle Puss flow And yeah,
Speaker 1: I knew they were in the same crew.
Speaker 7: But okay, do you.
Speaker 1: Remember snagger Puss.
Speaker 2: I'm older than you dogs.
Speaker 1: No, no, no, I don't mean the cartoon. I meant
Speaker 1: the actual.
Speaker 2: Remember, right, everyone? He actually had bars.
Speaker 1: Yes, he yeah, and so. But just during your period
Speaker 1: with Dana Dayane, was there ever was slick Rick? Did
Speaker 1: you have any slick excitings between nineteen eighty five? Of
Speaker 1: course in nineteen eighty like post Lottie Dottie eighty five.
Speaker 2: Like absolutely, because like I knew slick Rick, like before
Speaker 2: the show came out, you know what I'm saying. Like
Speaker 2: me and Doug were friends since we like seventeen, so
Speaker 2: I knew. I knew Get Fresh crew, haven'ty and you
Speaker 2: if you asked Chill, will and Barry we were all
Speaker 2: teenagers when we met each other, and we were so.
Speaker 1: No one ever had the conversation like, yo, slick Rick,
Speaker 1: Dana Dane, do we join together?
Speaker 2: It was actually it should have been done, but Herbie
Speaker 2: was trying to get the Kano crew together. He had
Speaker 2: Lance and Omega and Dana Dane and we were trying
Speaker 2: to wrangle Slick Rick at the same time. But Rick
Speaker 2: was getting his shit together for what would be one
Speaker 2: of the greatest rap albums ever.
Speaker 7: Adventures.
Speaker 1: Ah, okay, all right, great event.
Speaker 2: Great adventure is a bar, like if you tell stories,
Speaker 2: you should be trying to tell stories better than that.
Speaker 1: It's an impossible bar, right, which is which.
Speaker 2: Makes it amazing. So that makes it really something that
Speaker 2: sho Now.
Speaker 1: I know in Philadelphia is you got to know somebody
Speaker 1: that has a station wagon or a van or mini
Speaker 1: van to really make it happen. But as a New Yorker,
Speaker 1: how does one be an effective DJ on the train? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Or just like walk me through, Like what year was
Speaker 1: it that you were like, okay, I'll do your black
Speaker 1: party and that's not your own neighborhood.
Speaker 2: In nineteen seventy six, seventy yeah, six or seventy six.
Speaker 2: I was No. Seventy seven. While in the summer seventy
Speaker 2: seven I was I was eleven and I played at
Speaker 2: at a Grand Master Flowers was DJing and Lincoln Terrace
Speaker 2: Park and everybody was like, yo, you know that's the
Speaker 2: young DJ from up the street. You know that's the
Speaker 2: young boy that DJ's from up the street and they
Speaker 2: keep telling him. He's like where. He's like, come on back,
Speaker 2: come on back, and he goes, you want to play
Speaker 2: some records? And I was like, yes, you know what
Speaker 2: I'm saying, like not a not an ounce of fair.
Speaker 2: So I just start. He's like, yo, well pick out
Speaker 2: a record you want to play. I'm in his records.
Speaker 2: I'll pick out like forty records. He's looking at me
Speaker 2: like he's looking at me like you know these. I
Speaker 2: was like absolutely, he going, I shure he give it
Speaker 2: a shot. By the end of it of like thirty
Speaker 2: five forty minutes, he was like, oh no, he's serious.
Speaker 2: And you know, he was like, yo, you did a
Speaker 2: really good job. And everybody was like yoh yeah, and
Speaker 2: understanding when Lincoln Tervice Park is be hinndred people and
Speaker 2: usually people get dead at Lincoln Service Park. So as
Speaker 2: soon as I got off and he told me what
Speaker 2: he was saying, He's like, yo, man, you got something
Speaker 2: and you're really good, keep up, keep up at it,
Speaker 2: and you sounded very good. I was just like, okay, cool.
Speaker 2: So I left. I went home and I went right
Speaker 2: to my grandmother and I was like, I'm going to
Speaker 2: DJ for the rest of my life. And she said,
Speaker 2: as long as you finish school, you can do it.
Speaker 2: And I was like, okay, back, I got a fit school,
Speaker 2: but I'm going DJ all the way through it. But
Speaker 2: the first time I played, I played a black a
Speaker 2: block party with I was I was on somebody else's equipment,
Speaker 2: but I was playing the block party. I think I
Speaker 2: was like twelve and it was and I put a
Speaker 2: hole in it because.
Speaker 7: I know, what is one of the times that you
Speaker 7: bombed a party? Like what is bombing for a clock?
Speaker 2: Can't look like it hasn't happened yet. Let me knock
Speaker 2: on some wood.
Speaker 1: No, no, no, it's not that.
Speaker 2: It's just that I put so much pressure on myself
Speaker 2: to make sure that it doesn't happen that it just
Speaker 2: hasn't happened. I'm not saying it can't happen.
Speaker 7: So it's like my sixteen year old was like, hey,
Speaker 7: come play my party like you can. You can play
Speaker 7: for that crowd.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, okay, no, no, no. I just played for the
Speaker 2: New York Giants yesterday and all of them are in
Speaker 2: their early twenties and they listened to so they listened
Speaker 2: to sixteen year old music. All of them were on
Speaker 2: on the on the on the on the field like
Speaker 2: I like drill music, I like I like these, I
Speaker 2: like I love Young Thug, I love Dirk, I love
Speaker 2: I love these.
Speaker 3: You gotta love it to play it like that.
Speaker 2: The difference is me. I don't love DJing. I love
Speaker 2: music music, so I can appreciate all of it. I
Speaker 2: understand why certain things won't make sense to some, but
Speaker 2: I don't look at it for that. I look at
Speaker 2: it for is the record good. It's the record good.
Speaker 2: If the record's good, I'm gonna play the records. I'm
Speaker 2: gonna play the good records. And that's all I think.
Speaker 2: I don't care what kind of music it is. If
Speaker 2: I if I can't understand the energy of it and
Speaker 2: it doesn't get played. But when I do like, I'm
Speaker 2: going for it because I literally love the music itself.
Speaker 2: It's much much more important than DJing. But I guess
Speaker 2: that's the actual part that makes me a really, really
Speaker 2: a very good DJ.
Speaker 1: All right, So you live in a life of yes.
Speaker 2: So that said, a life of yes.
Speaker 1: We did an episode with with DJ Drama where everything
Speaker 1: was a yes, yes, and a lot of those things
Speaker 1: I would say hell. No, no, no, no, no no.
Speaker 1: I don't mean yes. But just like you know, if
Speaker 1: I'm done a gig, I want to go home immediately
Speaker 1: he gets done a gig and then an unknown TI
Speaker 1: is you know, chasing him to the car. You're our rhyme. Okay,
Speaker 1: give me a number, here's my number, come to my basement.
Speaker 3: That's what Drama was talking about.
Speaker 1: I would have missed that.
Speaker 2: Okay, think about this. If I don't listen, I don't
Speaker 2: hear holes. Well, I don't. If I don't listen, my
Speaker 2: cousin Foxy. If I don't listen. If I don't listen,
Speaker 2: I'm not the first person to work with Kim. If
Speaker 2: I don't listen, I don't have skills in my house
Speaker 2: before any battles. You know what I'm saying. If I
Speaker 2: don't listen, I miss it. If I don't listen, I
Speaker 2: don't know the records. If if I don't listen, I
Speaker 2: can bomb at a club. I come from the context
Speaker 2: for the DJing, and because I come from that era,
Speaker 2: I look at every single gig like it's the last
Speaker 2: one some kid wants to spot. My question, is am
Speaker 2: I giving it to you? You're bugging you gotta take it.
Speaker 2: And if you try to come up against me in
Speaker 2: a club, you gonna lose. So if I bomb, it's
Speaker 2: going to be because no one else was there to
Speaker 2: edge me on. And I just was like, fuck it,
Speaker 2: you know what I'm saying, Like, if there's ten people,
Speaker 2: those ten people are going to walk away going. I
Speaker 2: don't know who that DJ was, but you know what
Speaker 2: I mean. Patty Olebell went on TV talking about how
Speaker 2: Clock can't rock her at a party, but I'm sorry,
Speaker 2: that's of Bell. That's Auntie patty Leabelle like she's my
Speaker 2: mother's age like, and she was like that DJ Clock
Speaker 2: can't was incredible.
Speaker 3: I was like, yes, and that's your rep. Now you
Speaker 3: gotta keep up that, keep going, keep going.
Speaker 2: Imagine because when somebody said my name to recently, she
Speaker 2: was just like, oh my god, that motherfucker. And I'm
Speaker 2: just like, if I don't keep that up, it's over,
Speaker 2: it's over because the chip on my shoulder is ignorant,
Speaker 2: you know what I'm saying. So the one time I bomb,
Speaker 2: it's going to be the last night. Somebody's gonna be
Speaker 2: like never again because they want it so bad for
Speaker 2: me to.
Speaker 1: Borrow, right, all Right, let's go to when you're fourteen fifteen,
Speaker 1: when you're like, got some years and and whatnot. So
Speaker 1: this is what I want to know. I mean, in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two now, especially in the world of Serrado,
Speaker 1: probably the biggest problem that we have as DJs is
Speaker 1: that it's too much information, way too many options. I now.
Speaker 1: I mean, I have a MacBook Pro that can hold
Speaker 1: about four terror bytes of music, and so for me
Speaker 1: to figure out I mean, on an average, even though
Speaker 1: I prepare for like three hundred songs, usually before a gig,
Speaker 1: I'll have the two hundred that I'm ready to rock
Speaker 1: or whatever. But back in the day when there aren't
Speaker 1: that many records left.
Speaker 2: Before you say that, I'm gonna ask you a question
Speaker 2: and tell me if you believe this. Okay, would you
Speaker 2: believe if I told you I don't go I'm gonna
Speaker 2: prepare this?
Speaker 1: Oh, I absolutely believe. I believe I'm only human being
Speaker 1: that Well, I'll put it this way. I'm preparing for
Speaker 1: the Gold Party next year right now, and I got
Speaker 1: maybe thirty songs that I like that I have to
Speaker 1: play and shit. But that's also like a fault of
Speaker 1: mind that I'm trying to not do something I'm trying
Speaker 1: to be not as calculating.
Speaker 2: Well, well, you should know my creativity. There's plenty of
Speaker 2: people that do that. I just I just can't do it. No.
Speaker 1: I mean that's I believe you. I believe that you
Speaker 1: can be in the moment and know this will work good. Next,
Speaker 1: This will work good next.
Speaker 2: That comes from being a club DJ for my whole life.
Speaker 2: I'm a I'm a club DJ. So I don't. I don't.
Speaker 3: I don't.
Speaker 2: I don't call myself a show DJ. I don't call
Speaker 2: myself a radio DJ. Have I done shows? Can I
Speaker 2: do shows? Yes? Can I do radio? Yes? Can I
Speaker 2: do all of those things? Yes? I never call myself
Speaker 2: a mixta DJ. I'm a club DJ. And because I'm
Speaker 2: a club DJ, like, I really can't prepare. I gotta
Speaker 2: be Oh shit, that's what's happened. Oh let me turn
Speaker 2: this ship into some other ship.
Speaker 1: So you work on the spot, okay, Yeah, and I
Speaker 1: see that.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna tell you where I work from. I work
Speaker 2: from here. It's what my heart's telling me to do
Speaker 2: every time I put a record on.
Speaker 3: Oh so you take requests?
Speaker 2: Never, damn.
Speaker 3: I just want to slide that in but that is guy.
Speaker 2: Let me amend that. Okay. Person I will actually pay
Speaker 2: attention to about about a request is my wife.
Speaker 3: Okay, but she probably don't, don't She don't.
Speaker 2: But the other part is if she does, she's so
Speaker 2: in tune to where my mind is musically, it's almost
Speaker 2: like I can go for the suggestion that's a good one,
Speaker 2: you know what I'm saying. And it's because she's been
Speaker 2: around me for so long playing like she can damn
Speaker 2: near tell this might work for him as well work
Speaker 2: for me.
Speaker 1: No more, rabbitble. Walk me through DJing in your formative years,
Speaker 1: Like how many records do you feel is needed for?
Speaker 1: First of all? How long are DJ gigs?
Speaker 2: No less than six hours? Like? No less? Because I
Speaker 2: was playing a club around the corner from my crib
Speaker 2: when I was fourteen, and that's when I learned how
Speaker 2: old how long you gotta play? And that night I
Speaker 2: had like six Crates records. Every night after that I
Speaker 2: played there, I would have like twelve.
Speaker 1: Se going through all them. Or do you have to
Speaker 1: repeat brick House four times already?
Speaker 2: Or no? Never? That's another thing. I don't don't repeat
Speaker 2: records in a party. I can't do it. I don't
Speaker 2: even understand. It's too there's too much music in the
Speaker 2: world to do that. He said, it's too must music
Speaker 2: your quest. Here's something else. I never played slide, I
Speaker 2: never played line records.
Speaker 1: I told you that.
Speaker 2: Records and I play and I play.
Speaker 1: That means you never did You never did a wedding.
Speaker 2: No, I've done weddings. That just I just tell them
Speaker 2: I'm not doing it.
Speaker 7: Not a no electric slide, none of that, no dance.
Speaker 2: If you got if you got to do a record
Speaker 2: like that, that means that means you can't make them dance.
Speaker 3: The gag gets to make them not even remember that
Speaker 3: they didn't even hit them records.
Speaker 2: You're right, and and and it's so many records that
Speaker 2: people do the electric slide to. Why do I have
Speaker 2: to play? Right? Come on, I don't have to tell
Speaker 2: you to do the dance. If you want to do
Speaker 2: what you want to do it, you're gonna find a
Speaker 2: record to do it, and they will do it. If
Speaker 2: they want to do it, they'll do it to damn
Speaker 2: day anything.
Speaker 1: How does the format for the originals work when the
Speaker 1: five of you, y'all have eclectic taste, but you guys
Speaker 1: are also kind of left the center of that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, how do you how do you guys decide?
Speaker 1: Because rich too, and especially in times of like when
Speaker 1: you guys do your your your gigs, like is it
Speaker 1: just like all right, you do three records, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: do three records. You do three records, I'm gonna do three.
Speaker 1: How is what's the format?
Speaker 2: The format is set up already. It's half an hour
Speaker 2: each and we keep rotating the half hours. If it's
Speaker 2: only three, then it's just going to be an hour
Speaker 2: and a half, and then there's then I'm back for
Speaker 2: an hour and a half and I'm back hour and
Speaker 2: a half. If it's four, then it's two hours and
Speaker 2: I'm back two hours. You know what I'm saying. So
Speaker 2: if it's all five of us throughout the night, you'll
Speaker 2: hear everybody twice because it's half hour sets, and no
Speaker 2: matter how many people is there, the idea of the
Speaker 2: Originals is five DJs who are friends, who really care
Speaker 2: about each other, who just want to have fun. So
Speaker 2: whether we're all there or not, we're just gonna make
Speaker 2: sure at the nightest one.
Speaker 3: Y'all killed it during COVID. I appreciate that when y'all
Speaker 3: will give us the love.
Speaker 1: I feel like a big part of your your greatness
Speaker 1: is kind of your social skills. When did you learn
Speaker 1: the power of meeting people, a kind of making connections,
Speaker 1: that sort of thing, Because I mean, you're also known
Speaker 1: as the man who knows everyone. There's literally no one
Speaker 1: I can stump you on in terms of a notable
Speaker 1: figure in history that you're not in contact with, So like,
Speaker 1: at what point are you taking an extra step to
Speaker 1: get to know this person? Take this person's card, and
Speaker 1: what they would call making moves politic.
Speaker 2: Literally, it's about what I respect the person that I'm
Speaker 2: being and if I do, then I feel like we
Speaker 2: can have a real conversation. And then most times I'm
Speaker 2: having a conversation on the spot, and that lets me
Speaker 2: know whether it can be something else or now whether
Speaker 2: it was yo, make sure you call me h yo.
Speaker 2: Let's let's set up me in and I let it
Speaker 2: be on them, because you know, like, I'm not I'm
Speaker 2: not pressing anybody to do things with me. I'm just like,
Speaker 2: maybe we can do some cool shit. And if we
Speaker 2: can do some cool shit, then cool, we'll do it.
Speaker 2: But I leave it up to them and I let
Speaker 2: my track records speak for everything that I'm doing. So
Speaker 2: like when I meet somebody from a shoe company, like,
Speaker 2: I'm not going to sit there and be like, oh,
Speaker 2: I did this many projects. I'm just like, how you doing?
Speaker 2: Nice to meet you, But maybe we could figure something
Speaker 2: out and I let it move that way and let
Speaker 2: the person decide whether they should or they shouldn't. And
Speaker 2: if they don't really know everything and they start doing
Speaker 2: the history, maybe they'll walk away going, oh, I definitely got.
Speaker 4: To do something.
Speaker 2: I mean and that and that. That goes across everything.
Speaker 2: It goes across music, it goes across sneakers, it goes
Speaker 2: us everything. Like like one of the first things I
Speaker 2: do when I meet a new rapper is I ask
Speaker 2: them about records. Like I'm talking like in the first
Speaker 2: three minutes, I'm like, yo, have you ever heard America's
Speaker 2: Most Wanted? If you tell if you're telling me you
Speaker 2: make an album, it's a classic to me, you have
Speaker 2: to know what classic st ACKs. So have you America's
Speaker 2: Most Wanted? Well? Okay, cool, when you do understand what
Speaker 2: that is, how at me? But when you don't, you
Speaker 2: really can't talk to me about no rap. You can't
Speaker 2: talk to me about rap if you don't know what
Speaker 2: the greatest advents is. If you can't, if you can't
Speaker 2: tell me what it takes a nation of millions, if
Speaker 2: you can't tell me low end theory like dog, you
Speaker 2: can't Yo. There's there's so many rappers that are making
Speaker 2: records right now that think Reverend run is a freaking reverend. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and that's it.
Speaker 7: That's all.
Speaker 1: But I blame I blame us for that.
Speaker 2: I am in total agreeings. We have a culture that
Speaker 2: doesn't cultivate itself facts, so so I expect these things.
Speaker 2: But when you come to me talking about you and
Speaker 2: MC and all of that, if you say you an
Speaker 2: m C and not a rapper, oh well you got
Speaker 2: to know MC ship. I'm going to ask you about
Speaker 2: MC ship. And then if you were a rapper, I'm
Speaker 2: asking about rapper ship, you know. Like, but if you can't,
Speaker 2: I'm just like, yeah, when you do, I'll mm hmm.
Speaker 1: What was your first non DJing for notable MC figure
Speaker 1: job in the industry, like your first Clark Kent as
Speaker 1: a and R Clark Kent.
Speaker 2: As Yeah, I was I was an r at Uh.
Speaker 2: It's funny because I was an R at Epic Records
Speaker 2: for like two days.
Speaker 1: Oh period.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, this is right before I went to Atlantic.
Speaker 2: So this is.
Speaker 1: No stop that.
Speaker 2: I didn't do that.
Speaker 1: No, Hansole was very crucial to He paid it for it. Okay, ok,
Speaker 1: very quickly. No, but you worked at what period? Did
Speaker 1: you work at Epic?
Speaker 2: It was eighty nine. So one day Timmy calls me.
Speaker 2: He was like, Yo, I'm about to send you to
Speaker 2: send you to Epic Record. You're gonna go work over there.
Speaker 2: And I was like what. He was like, Yeah, You're
Speaker 2: gonna go do an R And I was like, fuck
Speaker 2: is A and R?
Speaker 3: You go?
Speaker 2: You're gonna be looking for new artists and trying to
Speaker 2: sign new artists. I was like, oh shit, they're gonna
Speaker 2: pay you this much. I was like what. I was like,
Speaker 2: bet I gotta run the streets chasing chasing it anymore
Speaker 2: like I. And then like when I got into the
Speaker 2: first meeting, I was like, can I still DJ clubs?
Speaker 2: Is that okay? And they were like, we definitely want
Speaker 2: you to DJ. I definitely want you to stay on
Speaker 2: the radio. We definitely want you.
Speaker 3: To definitely want you to stay on radio.
Speaker 2: We definitely want you to have your pulse on everything.
Speaker 2: So two days go by. On the third day, Timmy
Speaker 2: calls me. He was like, okay, pack of shit, you're
Speaker 2: gonna quit. And I'm like, what what did you talking about?
Speaker 2: You just sent me here. This is your man that
Speaker 2: I'm working with, Like, what are you doing? Like, he goes,
Speaker 2: you're gonna quit, You're gonna go work with Merlin And
Speaker 2: I was like, what that? Because he's my man? And
Speaker 2: he walks me into Silvia Rohan's office and then I
Speaker 2: met my mother in the music business. Wow, and what
Speaker 2: he uses ninety She gave me an education? What was that?
Speaker 7: What was some of the jews she gave you?
Speaker 2: Why?
Speaker 4: Now?
Speaker 2: What what she gave me was about understanding what we're
Speaker 2: trying to pick, what we're trying to do musically, and
Speaker 2: how the deals work, and how the business works, and
Speaker 2: and all of the ugliness of it. And she kept
Speaker 2: it funky boy, like this is ugly, but this is this,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean? Like, we don't have to
Speaker 2: tell an artist to go figure out your business. The
Speaker 2: artist should be trying to figure out hiss. And the
Speaker 2: reason why she said it like that was because it's
Speaker 2: super duper clear, it's not the music. It's the music business.
Speaker 2: So just because you know the music doesn't mean you
Speaker 2: hear properly. That means you got to go figure out
Speaker 2: the business. So when you get in it, you got
Speaker 2: something with you so that you can go, I'm not
Speaker 2: taking that deal. And your lawyer is nine times out
Speaker 2: of ten a friend with the lawyer at the company,
Speaker 2: So you gotta have your lawyer working for you instead
Speaker 2: of working to make those deals happen so he can
Speaker 2: get people.
Speaker 6: Don't you think that's a little unfair to expect that
Speaker 6: of people who have no fucking clue of any of this.
Speaker 6: Like you know, someone who can have a talent and say, okay,
Speaker 6: you're a great rapper, sing or whatever.
Speaker 2: Guess what you're right. So you know what I did
Speaker 2: to every artist that came to the office. I told him,
Speaker 2: please learn the business. Whether I'm giving you a deal
Speaker 2: or not, please learn the business so this don't happen.
Speaker 2: Let me tell you about this.
Speaker 3: Let me pass a passing book, or I'm just joking.
Speaker 3: It's not yourlity.
Speaker 2: But all that I told him about I told him
Speaker 2: about those two books. Every single artist that came to me,
Speaker 2: whether I liked them or I didn't I was like,
Speaker 2: learn the business because it's gonna be terrible. That's the
Speaker 2: reason my Dame's Damon Dasher's deals were good because I'm
Speaker 2: sitting in the office going, I'm about to give you
Speaker 2: a deal, but you need to go do this so
Speaker 2: that your deal can be back. Really, you know what
Speaker 2: I'm saying. Understanding there is not an artist player for
Speaker 2: the other team. No I played. I looked at it
Speaker 2: like I'm an artist and if I'm going to be
Speaker 2: producing some of you getting jerked up is me jerking
Speaker 2: myself up. So let me make sure you don't get
Speaker 2: jerked up. So it goes right.
Speaker 1: Just in that period, you know, especially in nineteen ninety
Speaker 1: New York, man, it was like.
Speaker 2: It was it was.
Speaker 1: It was the gold Rust, the Wild West. And you know,
Speaker 1: I know that Dante is getting numbers on the boards
Speaker 1: for like the acts that he signed, But for you one,
Speaker 1: can you talk about near misses of acts that you
Speaker 1: tried to sign, that that you close put the cigar
Speaker 1: acts that you had and what is the process of
Speaker 1: you trying to get an act? Like are you the
Speaker 1: sports agent that has to go to their crib.
Speaker 2: And like, yo, do you want the answer to that? First.
Speaker 2: The first things first, I never really had to go
Speaker 2: to an artist's crib because again I was already being
Speaker 2: DJ Clode Cancer. They were coming to my office and
Speaker 2: if I like them, I'm trying to sign them. So
Speaker 2: I had nas before anybody. Like as soon as I
Speaker 2: heard the barbecue, I called Oconelly. I was like, bring
Speaker 2: him to my office because I was working on a
Speaker 2: deal between It was I was working on a deal
Speaker 2: for Ocinelly, where I had a bidding war with with
Speaker 2: Jimmy Ivan, and of course I'm just a director of
Speaker 2: and I'm not a vice president. Jimmy Ivan won that
Speaker 2: war easily, but Cockinelly and lost refessor on my man's
Speaker 2: I was like, who's that kid on the barbecue or
Speaker 2: that's not bring them? And I probably wasn't clear because
Speaker 2: I was like, bring him and bring his demo. When
Speaker 2: he came out in front of me, it's me and
Speaker 2: him and Acnelli, I was like, you'll give me a demo.
Speaker 2: He's like, I don't have a demo. I was like
Speaker 2: what after that, you ain't got a demo? Like that's
Speaker 2: going through my mind and I was just like so
Speaker 2: I had to say to him. I was like, yo,
Speaker 2: I'm not a vice president, like I'm not the president.
Speaker 2: I'm a director. When I bring something, I gotta show
Speaker 2: him the music. So like you know, like Oconelly had
Speaker 2: a bunch of songs. I was, I was walking it
Speaker 2: through to him. I was like, I gotta, I gotta
Speaker 2: play the music to get to try to get to
Speaker 2: that point. And and I said, you know, we just
Speaker 2: signed Effects. They had damn near our whole album done.
Speaker 2: Like he walks out of the meeting rightfully, so there
Speaker 2: was nothing to do. But I was just like, please, like,
Speaker 2: if you got some songs, get me the songs or whatever.
Speaker 2: He walks out of the meeting. Years later he makes
Speaker 2: a record and then the record he goes Clark Kent
Speaker 2: wouldn't sign me because he signed Effects, And I was like,
Speaker 2: that's not what happened. I was like, you know, Weed
Speaker 2: is something. But like you know, Oconnelly, I lost Oconnelly
Speaker 2: too to Jimmy I Bean, I lost, I lost I
Speaker 2: lost my Deep to Bones Malone.
Speaker 3: M hmm.
Speaker 2: Yeah. When they when they were political profits. When they
Speaker 2: were they were in my office, like I was trying
Speaker 2: to sign these these little boys, and it was this
Speaker 2: chick who managed them, who was cool with Dame, so
Speaker 2: Dame was halfway managing them to so I was just like,
Speaker 2: shake the soft Family, we're gonna go. And Bones had
Speaker 2: heard them like the day before me, so he was
Speaker 2: trying to sign them and he he yeah, he was
Speaker 2: at Fourth Broadway, so like he already had something like
Speaker 2: the day before. So it was almost like I'm going
Speaker 2: to have to fight with my man, and I was
Speaker 2: just like, no, I can't. I can't fight with Bones
Speaker 2: about this. And then the the way that they were
Speaker 2: structured with the girl, I was like, you know, what
Speaker 2: to what you want to do? But I was they
Speaker 2: would have been wherever I was at and I still
Speaker 2: got number of love for him.
Speaker 1: Yeoh, I'm glad you mentioned this. Can you tell me
Speaker 1: how long it took for Dis Effects to create their
Speaker 1: first album? After they had the single the album, that's
Speaker 1: where it got they were just you know, the album
Speaker 1: was snaps every beat.
Speaker 2: The album was done practically maybe one song off. When
Speaker 2: they came to the office, Wow, We're all we were
Speaker 2: all like, oh, ship, like this is it?
Speaker 1: What member of who did the who did the production
Speaker 1: on that album? That's one thing that was never made,
Speaker 1: was it p M D Or was it.
Speaker 7: It was that was christ Charity.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it was them. It was solid scheme. What's
Speaker 2: crazy is I didn't even notice until later when when
Speaker 2: when the deal was done, Like they brought the whole
Speaker 2: crew to the office and I'm like, I'm looking at
Speaker 2: solid skin, like, yo, don I know y'all, and they're like, yeah,
Speaker 2: we live on the next block from you. And I
Speaker 2: was like I was looking at them, like your motherfuckers
Speaker 2: make beats. You did all of this ship. They were like, yeah,
Speaker 2: we was doing it in the crib up the street
Speaker 2: from you, and I was just like, fuck, I know, y'all.
Speaker 2: Why didn't you I just so y'all as the kids
Speaker 2: from up the block, why didn't you say something? He said, well,
Speaker 2: you know, Paris was like he's going to bring it
Speaker 2: to where you was at. So I figured we find out.
Speaker 2: I'm like, what, like, I didn't have to do this,
Speaker 2: didn't have to go that way. It could have went
Speaker 2: through y'all. It could have been a solid skame production
Speaker 2: and you know, yeah, but they did. They did all
Speaker 2: of it, and it was literally done before the deal
Speaker 2: was done.
Speaker 1: Now, I mean I'm in an error where okay, if
Speaker 1: something fresh comes out everybody's biting it a second later.
Speaker 1: I mean, so common now that you know, I don't.
Speaker 1: I just think it's it's it's just the you know,
Speaker 1: the lay of the land, like some dope comes and
Speaker 1: then you got to do your version of it. But
Speaker 1: I've just never seen a domino effect or sea change
Speaker 1: effect happened so rapidly in hip hop. Then when after
Speaker 1: dost effects came out. So could you just talk at
Speaker 1: least from the from the behind the scenes standpoint or
Speaker 1: what it was like like when you heard that song,
Speaker 1: you knew that you had lightning in a bottle?
Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure. Yeah, I knew that. I knew that
Speaker 2: it was going to be crazy because of how funny
Speaker 2: enough at that moment, how different it was. But I
Speaker 2: didn't literally feel it was so different, because you have
Speaker 2: to remember at that time, I was trying to find
Speaker 2: jay Z and Jazz, and they were doing it in
Speaker 2: the eighties.
Speaker 1: So they were tongue twitched it even way before that.
Speaker 2: No, No, they were I'm talking about the eighties. The
Speaker 2: Originators came out in the eighties, Yeah, and they were
Speaker 2: doing what you heard, the riggy did dig did the sticky?
Speaker 2: All of that shit was in the Originators records, and
Speaker 2: the tripling was in the Originators records, so like they
Speaker 2: were doing it from in the eighties and I was
Speaker 2: trying to find them. But when this happened, I was like, Okay, yeah,
Speaker 2: we have to do this. This is this emergency, right,
Speaker 2: so we do it. She goes crazy, but then yes,
Speaker 2: a ton of motherfuckers just all of a sudden, we're
Speaker 2: riggedy and sticky and and I was just like, wow,
Speaker 2: but that's happened from the beginning of time. The second
Speaker 2: song that was ever made as a sample of the
Speaker 2: first song, but did you?
Speaker 1: I almost feel like the the this is the one
Speaker 1: the rare times where I felt like it was super
Speaker 1: effects right, but I almost felt like it it killed
Speaker 1: any momentum that they had that by the time the
Speaker 1: next album came, You know, were you involved at all
Speaker 1: in the the the A and R and the development.
Speaker 2: Of Yes and I'm produced On that album. They didn't
Speaker 2: change a lot, but they went more to the fact
Speaker 2: that yo, we actually can wrap you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: And I was like, that's a cool idea. People are
Speaker 2: going to be expecting you to do one thing, so
Speaker 2: doing what you're doing might not work. Out properly, but
Speaker 2: it didn't mean that we shouldn't let them try it.
Speaker 2: And some of their like better rap record like rap
Speaker 2: Ability records, came from that second album.
Speaker 6: I wanted to ask you, man, I was always curious
Speaker 6: about your work with Rob Kim on his album, you know,
Speaker 6: the Eighteenth Letter. What was it like, because that was
Speaker 6: at the point of his career where he was really
Speaker 6: you know, you don't call it a comeback, but that
Speaker 6: was you know, he was setting up, you know, the
Speaker 6: next chapter of his career.
Speaker 2: That was exactly what it was.
Speaker 6: Yeah, you know, how what was your approach as a
Speaker 6: producer saying I right, we're gonna take you. Was the
Speaker 6: goal to get him on the radio, get him in
Speaker 6: the club? Like what what was your mind as a producer?
Speaker 2: The goal was to get him interested in rapping two
Speaker 2: Wow things that I came up with, like slick Rick two.
Speaker 2: When I worked on slick Rick's album, when he came
Speaker 2: home from jail, Like I made tracks for like two
Speaker 2: weeks and he wouldn't even come in the room. Here's
Speaker 2: something a lot of people don't know. When rock him
Speaker 2: was like eleven wine dance Day happened and there was
Speaker 2: a guy named King Charles from Queens that had a
Speaker 2: stupid sound system and he used to bring the sound
Speaker 2: system to Wine Dance Day. He brought me with him
Speaker 2: one year and I'm djaying and this little dude is
Speaker 2: on the mic on a crate and it was rock Him.
Speaker 2: So later on, later on, when I'm when when we're
Speaker 2: sitting in the studio and now I've known rock him
Speaker 2: since the beginning of rock him, like making records, just
Speaker 2: cool rock him, just like cool. We meet each other
Speaker 2: and your crew knows I know all these dudes in
Speaker 2: your crew, so we're just going to know each other
Speaker 2: like that, right, And we're sitting in the studio and
Speaker 2: I say, you, oh, when's the first time he wound
Speaker 2: that Wine Dance Day? He said, how you know I
Speaker 2: round that Wine Dance Day. I said, I'll tell you
Speaker 2: in a second. So when's the first time? He said? Yo, man,
Speaker 2: I think I was like eleven. I said, I believe
Speaker 2: you were eleven. He was like, how you know that?
Speaker 2: Because I was DJing. He was like, wait a minute, clock,
Speaker 2: So you was my DJ the first time I got
Speaker 2: on a mic at a park jam And I was like,
Speaker 2: how about that?
Speaker 7: That's crazy?
Speaker 2: Man? Like it might not even make sense to people
Speaker 2: that I'm older than rock him doesn't, right, you know
Speaker 2: what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: So it's like I feel like he's older than everybody.
Speaker 2: The reason why is because at sixteen he became the
Speaker 2: most important MC period. Bro Chim is literally literally the
Speaker 2: most important MC ever.
Speaker 6: So when y'all were making back we're making an album,
Speaker 6: how we were able to fit him into a I
Speaker 6: guess back then will be a.
Speaker 7: Modern day contract? What was your what was your process?
Speaker 2: I literally for almost two sessions just sat around talking
Speaker 2: to him after and are mad at me, like cluck,
Speaker 2: you're wasting money. I'm like, no, this is actually going
Speaker 2: to help you because I'm getting him into a place
Speaker 2: of he wants to really really wrap to some some
Speaker 2: ship that might not necessarily be regularly yoused. And that
Speaker 2: thing that we did for two years got him to
Speaker 2: trust me, right, But then at the at the advent
Speaker 2: of him trusting me, I was like, he can't trust
Speaker 2: nobody else. So I would have beats from whomever at
Speaker 2: the n R would give me because it basically became
Speaker 2: I'm gonna like basically and on the album right cool,
Speaker 2: So I'm showing them beats that I'm like, he's a good,
Speaker 2: A good, he's good, and he's going yo, who did this?
Speaker 2: And when I tell him, he's going on and I'm like,
Speaker 2: so what I started doing? When I got a beat
Speaker 2: that I thought he should round two, I was like,
Speaker 2: I did it? Oh bet yo, let me go right
Speaker 2: to this. I don't give it, damn how I gotta
Speaker 2: get get it. That's me being a recognisic, a record
Speaker 2: company got I'm gonna get this. I'm gonna geta get
Speaker 2: ship done. So I did that for producers that weren't
Speaker 2: quite more famous enough for him to the only producer
Speaker 2: that he actually was like, okay, I trust him his premier, yeah, Pete.
Speaker 2: He just didn't necessarily like say oh yeah immediately I
Speaker 2: had to be like, yo, this should fire, you know,
Speaker 2: Pete p gave's fire and then he would listen.
Speaker 7: And socc begins.
Speaker 1: That was my joint right, But the fact the fact that.
Speaker 2: He ran to guess who's back was mind blowing to me.
Speaker 2: But then it gave me the ability to do something
Speaker 2: that I really didn't get to do on records, like
Speaker 2: the whole end of the record I'm scratching, which I
Speaker 2: didn't really do on records a lot, but I was like,
Speaker 2: he was like, yo, man, get to this because of
Speaker 2: the intro of the record. Once again, back is the incredible.
Speaker 2: He's like, yo, you you got to scratch that at
Speaker 2: the end of the record. And I'm just like, oh no,
Speaker 2: I don't. This record's going to have a hard end.
Speaker 2: He was like nope, and he would challenge me by going, Okay,
Speaker 2: I'll do the scratches.
Speaker 6: As the producer of MAFI Players Anthem, what were your
Speaker 6: thoughts on J Brews and Three Moods?
Speaker 7: You're playing yourself?
Speaker 2: Well, first of all, I've known Primo since he was
Speaker 2: in college, and like we're like we're really all like
Speaker 2: super old school friends. Like when I was with Dana Dane.
Speaker 2: We did a show at Priview University. He was a
Speaker 2: DJ for the night okay, and the show was in
Speaker 2: a gym and he was on the stack and I
Speaker 2: was like, Yo, nice to meet you, DJR Yo DJ Premier.
Speaker 2: There was no Game Star, it was DJ Premier. I'm like, Yo,
Speaker 2: good to meet you, man. And I was like, yo,
Speaker 2: you you're playing ship. You know what I'm saying. You're
Speaker 2: getting it off And he was like, yo, thank you.
Speaker 2: And I get on we do the show with Dana Dane,
Speaker 2: and we instantly became cool. And I would do parties
Speaker 2: at the Rhyme Stone Wrangler in Houston, and I damned
Speaker 2: there was famous in Houston for playing at the Rhymestone
Speaker 2: Wrangler with Off pe Cola and uh Steve Foyer. And
Speaker 2: I was super tight with James James Smith at that time,
Speaker 2: So like when the advent of Gangstar came, I was like,
Speaker 2: I know we know each other already, you know, so
Speaker 2: we're super cool. So when the record got made, I
Speaker 2: actually literally was like, did I do something wrong the print?
Speaker 2: I was like, because I was like I love that guy,
Speaker 2: like I love him and I believe he loves me too,
Speaker 2: And I was like, how did you just do that?
Speaker 2: You know? It really was about the idea of the song.
Speaker 2: He played yourself and he was going at Biggie, so
Speaker 2: it was like he was going at Biggie on something
Speaker 2: Biggie did. So I was like, Noah, I love for
Speaker 2: man for man loves me and I think nothing of
Speaker 2: this ship, but I did. First. I was like, he
Speaker 2: murdered that ship. So the thing is, I was like,
Speaker 2: he might have made a fill beat. I just made
Speaker 2: the better song. So I was cool. I was cool
Speaker 2: with both. You got the beat, but that's because I
Speaker 2: looked at it like a producer and not like a
Speaker 2: guy who was just listening to the song. But once
Speaker 2: I got to the song card, I was like, yeah,
Speaker 2: my song kills that, but your beat, your beat kills mine. Yo. Listen, man.
Speaker 2: One time I was in the club and all of
Speaker 2: a sudden, the DJ in the club plays you are
Speaker 2: what I'm all about and he starts manipulating the sample
Speaker 2: in Siado, so it goes boom dunk dum dumdoom, and
Speaker 2: I'm just like, fucking Quest, I'm gonna kill you. You.
Speaker 2: It was you who did it, and I was we
Speaker 2: were as Santos and I was like, oh, Quest is wild,
Speaker 2: He's wild. So I just I just like that was
Speaker 2: that was super duper ill, And I was like, you
Speaker 2: know what, how did I ever feel bad about that? Like?
Speaker 2: Quest is the premiere is freaking amazing. Premiere to me
Speaker 2: is the best boombag producer ever, like ever ever ever? Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: did come.
Speaker 1: Hey, speaking of battles. Speaking of battles, I know that
Speaker 1: you were one of the organizers of the Battle Forwards
Speaker 1: World Supremacy. Now you mentioned Merlyn Bob, which I'm gonna ask,
Speaker 1: did you do any time at a lecture whatsoever?
Speaker 2: Well, if you worked at East West, you worked at Atlantic,
Speaker 2: East West and Electric.
Speaker 1: So were you the one that signed uh Supernat to
Speaker 1: his deal of Electric?
Speaker 2: No, but I was the one who got the ability
Speaker 2: to sign an artist to the deal. So basically the
Speaker 2: deal was a prize. But the deal was a prize
Speaker 2: because I walked in and was like, yo, I do
Speaker 2: this contest and da da da da da da. I
Speaker 2: need to be able to sign the artists who wins.
Speaker 2: And they were like okay, And so it was the prize.
Speaker 2: It wasn't like I'm saying I want to sign. It
Speaker 2: was like, no, this is a prize. Like and it's
Speaker 2: crazy because people didn't even know that was a surprise.
Speaker 2: That was the prize. Like you get there and you
Speaker 2: think you're just battling for this world supremacy belt. I
Speaker 2: mean at that time I had switched it from belts
Speaker 2: to jackets that you could wear every day because you
Speaker 2: couldn't wear a belt, and a ring that you could
Speaker 2: wear every day because you couldn't wear a belt, and
Speaker 2: and you know, special things like we're gonna get you
Speaker 2: like a little setup and shit. But once they said
Speaker 2: it'll be a deal that we give, I was like, Oh,
Speaker 2: they just gonna get a jacket the gold ring and
Speaker 2: then they're gonna get this deal and that's going to
Speaker 2: fuck them up. So when they when it was happening
Speaker 2: and the ship was over and Supernatural won and I
Speaker 2: was like, by the way, you just gotta deal that
Speaker 2: Electric Records. He was like, I got a what. I
Speaker 2: was like, yeah, he still won it, even though yeah
Speaker 2: he wanted yeah, he won the battle. The Craig G
Speaker 2: thing wasn't a part of the battle. That was just
Speaker 2: Craig G. One night in between the two nights, he
Speaker 2: was just like he got up and was like, Yo,
Speaker 2: I kick this nigga's ass on the mic. That's the
Speaker 2: way I heard it come back. And then they battled
Speaker 2: and Craig G craig G roast. Okay, Craig G won
Speaker 2: the battle. I'm gonna say it like that. And the
Speaker 2: reason why I'm gonna say it like that is because
Speaker 2: when the battle was about to happen the next day,
Speaker 2: I was like, yo, I'm hearing last night that there
Speaker 2: was a battle between Craig Ge and Supernatural and Supernatural,
Speaker 2: I mean and Craig g bus his ass. Those are
Speaker 2: the words I used, right, And at the same time,
Speaker 2: Supernatural had a show on ninety seven. Once a week
Speaker 2: he would be on ninety seven. He goes on the
Speaker 2: show and goes, you know, I like to shout out
Speaker 2: to everybody who came out to the battle. You know,
Speaker 2: I won, Da da da da. But Clark cancer Snake?
Speaker 2: Oh wait what I was like Clark to Snake? How
Speaker 2: you know? So I'm a little angry and I see him,
Speaker 2: I'm like, Yo, what are you talking about? Then, instead
Speaker 2: of really trying to have a conversation with him, I
Speaker 2: went to KRS and I was like, who was managing him?
Speaker 2: I was like, Yo, talk to your man. Talk to
Speaker 2: your man, because if you don't talk to your man,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna choke. Talk to your man. And it got
Speaker 2: to a point where I was like, dog, like, you're
Speaker 2: not talking to your man. Your man should go on
Speaker 2: the radio and apologize because just because I had I
Speaker 2: respoke about some shit that happened the day before. I'm
Speaker 2: a snake. You just won my battle. I gave you
Speaker 2: a record deal. What is you talking about? You win?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 2: Right? You won? Like we just talking about what happened
Speaker 2: the night before before you won the battle. So I'm
Speaker 2: just like, so that makes me a snake because I
Speaker 2: mentioned what happened the night before, even though you in
Speaker 2: the same day won the battle. So some weeks went
Speaker 2: buying any apology. He invited me up to the radio
Speaker 2: and here because some things happened in the middle, and
Speaker 2: then he invited me to the radio to apologize, and
Speaker 2: I was just like, cool, you know, I left it
Speaker 2: the way it was, but I just could not understand
Speaker 2: why you would take that route after me just repeating
Speaker 2: what I heard the night about the night before and
Speaker 2: then you won, So it was like, who cares?
Speaker 7: What did you work on his album? And I know
Speaker 7: the album never dropped, but would you involved at all?
Speaker 7: You weren't involved.
Speaker 2: No, I wasn't involved.
Speaker 1: I was going to ask you got him the deal
Speaker 1: VA winning the contest, but you had nothing to do
Speaker 1: with an RN. No. I'm only asking this because the
Speaker 1: first day that he records one of his tracks is
Speaker 1: also the first day like he's in studio c at
Speaker 1: Battery Studios, and this is the first day that the
Speaker 1: Roots and Bob Power are mixing down. Uh, what will
Speaker 1: eventually be d you want more. It's like our first
Speaker 1: day of mixing, and maybe we were in like Supernat
Speaker 1: and Tarika were really tight, so I think we spent
Speaker 1: like just two hours in his breakroom and chilling whatever.
Speaker 1: And he's like tracking the song and he's working on
Speaker 1: a song called when I was King. When I was King.
Speaker 1: When I was King, I ruled everything like it reaked
Speaker 1: of a keras one hook. But I noticed that every
Speaker 1: time he started a verse, it was a new verse
Speaker 1: and he's like, no, no, no, I don't like that.
Speaker 1: Let's do it again. So it's like, I don't know
Speaker 1: to take two, and then he does the hook and
Speaker 1: then it was enough and I realized he was like,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna make this entire album freestyle, like I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna write anything. And I was like, yo, this is
Speaker 1: a recipe for disaster. So I always one I wanted
Speaker 1: to know did that album ever get completed? And this
Speaker 1: also is a nice, wonderful segue into another person that
Speaker 1: attempted to do that actually made made some made some
Speaker 1: some some traction with it, which is of course I
Speaker 1: gotta ask you, what was it about jay Z that
Speaker 1: you that made you say? Because I believe your quote
Speaker 1: to me was like I knew he was the greatest
Speaker 1: the first time I heard him. Yeah, Like, normally someone
Speaker 1: builds up to that, but how did you know?
Speaker 2: I knew because he was saying rhymes that were better
Speaker 2: than the guys that I thought were the best. But
Speaker 2: they were like so much better that I was like, Wow,
Speaker 2: these guys aren't aren't even like close. Him and Jazz
Speaker 2: to me, were like the most elite MC's I ever heard.
Speaker 2: But Jay had something else. He had the rest of
Speaker 2: the package, you understand, Like Jazz had no bars like
Speaker 2: Jazz's bars, like and sanity. He would say things that
Speaker 2: I would have to be.
Speaker 3: Like wow, and we would be in the room like wow,
Speaker 3: did he.
Speaker 2: Just say that? But then Jay would go in and
Speaker 2: saytion shit and we'd be like wow. But everything else
Speaker 2: was attached to it. It was like this flow, the
Speaker 2: style of cadence, the attitude. You walked away believing every
Speaker 2: single word he said, and I was just like, Yeah,
Speaker 2: that's this guy's He's going to be looked at as
Speaker 2: the greatest.
Speaker 1: Why do you think it took so long for quote
Speaker 1: unquote heads end quote to actually give him his property?
Speaker 2: Okay, before we do that, I'm gonna go back and
Speaker 2: I'm gonna say when you was talking about another guy
Speaker 2: who didn't who freestyled. Jay never freestyled. Everything that you
Speaker 2: hear was what he put together. So it was written.
Speaker 2: It just wasn't written down. It was written in his memory. Right.
Speaker 2: He remembered what he was saying by the rhythms that
Speaker 2: he wrote it in.
Speaker 1: But isn't it a former freestyle?
Speaker 7: That's different. Freestyle is like when you.
Speaker 2: Just come in like just the right off the top
Speaker 2: of your head, like none of that over time. Yeah,
Speaker 2: he's emulating the raps.
Speaker 3: He has supreme memory too, right, because that too has
Speaker 3: just like his.
Speaker 2: His recall game when he was making records was insanity
Speaker 2: because I would be like, we drive him from the
Speaker 2: city to Brooklyn and a beat would be playing and
Speaker 2: he'd be like, Yo, I got it, you got what
Speaker 2: I got? I got I got this one. We're gonna
Speaker 2: go in the crib and we're gonna do this one.
Speaker 2: And we would do it and I'd be like, when
Speaker 2: did this happen?
Speaker 1: He was like on the ride home talking about tracking
Speaker 1: it is it stands at a time? Is it like
Speaker 1: half averse?
Speaker 2: Jay was one guy who could put it all together.
Speaker 2: He could put each first together in one shot and
Speaker 2: then go back and do the ad libs like he
Speaker 2: would do a through the adlast and then go to
Speaker 2: the next verse. But I'm just like talk like you
Speaker 2: can do.
Speaker 6: That, man, it's a memory. It's a it's a memory exercise.
Speaker 6: I didnt like that. I did that from like oh
Speaker 6: four to like yeah when I heard because I heard that,
Speaker 6: because I heard the stories like oh Jay don't write,
Speaker 6: he does it, and I was like, all right, let
Speaker 6: me try it. And so I tried it, and I
Speaker 6: was like, okay, cool. So like everything from like four
Speaker 6: up until I built my studio up the crib at
Speaker 6: oh nine, like all of that was dope paper while
Speaker 6: you stopped.
Speaker 7: Then just the studio changed. Like so for me, my
Speaker 7: process at the time like was just we were recording
Speaker 7: in the studios.
Speaker 6: You just cut the beat on to fifty and just
Speaker 6: walk around and I would just kind of write it
Speaker 6: and put it together and then tell my ang there
Speaker 6: like all right, bro, let's go and I do it.
Speaker 6: When you're recording at home and you got now the
Speaker 6: right right, yeah, But now when you're recording at the crib,
Speaker 6: it's like I'm not gonna leave a beat on loop forever,
Speaker 6: you know, when my kid is trying to sleep. So
Speaker 6: that was when I went back to It became a
Speaker 6: more of a thing. It became more of a writing
Speaker 6: and I think, just for me, my style as an
Speaker 6: MC at that time, it was really changing from I
Speaker 6: don't want to be just a great rapper. I want
Speaker 6: to be a great writer because I think if you,
Speaker 6: I think there's a longevity in it. You know, the
Speaker 6: reason why guys like a j you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 6: can still perform at a high level now is because he,
Speaker 6: in my mind, he thinks of himself as a writer,
Speaker 6: Like you can mature as a writer.
Speaker 7: Can you mature as a rapper? Maybe?
Speaker 6: I don't know, But if you think yourself as a writer,
Speaker 6: there's always in a storyteller, you always have room to
Speaker 6: grow and mature.
Speaker 2: I think what's I think the right way to say
Speaker 2: it is he thinks of himself and as an MC,
Speaker 2: not a rapper. And when you and when you're an MC,
Speaker 2: what you're saying becomes more important to how you say it.
Speaker 2: You got something you want everybody to get. You want
Speaker 2: like his triple advantages is like are you getting this
Speaker 2: like there's things on the first album that people just
Speaker 2: don't get. And I'm just like, man, like this is
Speaker 2: like freaking twenty some years ago, Like why why is
Speaker 2: this mind blowing to you right now? Like you should
Speaker 2: have got that maybe a year later, but like we're
Speaker 2: twenty five and you still don't get you know. So,
Speaker 2: But I will say the first time I started having
Speaker 2: and this is like literally the first session we do,
Speaker 2: he did that shit and I was like, Yo, what
Speaker 2: the fuck just happened? Like, dog, did you have that already?
Speaker 2: He was like nah, He's like this is what the
Speaker 2: beat said for me to do. And I was like,
Speaker 2: how did you remember all that? And he explained. He
Speaker 2: was like, you know, just like when you learn your abcs,
Speaker 2: I took it. I took this part and I put it.
Speaker 2: I put it together based off of what he said.
Speaker 2: He was like, I remember the rhymes based off of
Speaker 2: the rhythm in which I wrote him, or if the
Speaker 2: rhyme goes that's the way he remembers the record of
Speaker 2: the rhymes is to but that he's coming up with,
Speaker 2: And I was just like, in my mind, I was like,
Speaker 2: what are you talking about? So I said, what are
Speaker 2: you talking about? So he would go, most of my
Speaker 2: cadences come from drum rolls, and I was like, what
Speaker 2: then you would come on, let yo, let's look at
Speaker 2: this record and you hit that right there, that drummo,
Speaker 2: that's a cadence right there, And I'm just like, Yo,
Speaker 2: what the fuck are you talking about? And he would
Speaker 2: display the ship and go back, Yo, remember that drummro
Speaker 2: go listen to that ship, and I'd be like, oh,
Speaker 2: he's a wizard. Yeah.
Speaker 3: I was just thinking, I love it when y'all make
Speaker 3: it sound like science and because it is so.
Speaker 2: So later on in my mind, I was like, the
Speaker 2: first thing you learned to remember you learn it connected
Speaker 2: to music, so connected to a rhythm, A B C D. Yeah,
Speaker 2: like you connected to a rhythm. Like it's so much
Speaker 2: easier to remember something.
Speaker 3: That's seven eleven twelve.
Speaker 2: Schoolhouse Rock was the proof of that ship. Like you
Speaker 2: you can remember everything from Schoolhouse Rock if you watched
Speaker 2: it twice, face faced off of the rhythm. You know
Speaker 2: what I'm saying, it's truth. So like he explained, he
Speaker 2: explained that ship to me, and I was just like,
Speaker 2: that's masterful. And that also gave me something else in
Speaker 2: my pocket. When I would walk around and talk to
Speaker 2: people about him and like, Yo, my man, don't even
Speaker 2: write the ship down. He would be looking at me like, clock,
Speaker 2: you're a liar. The first first person telling me I
Speaker 2: was alive with skills. So I was like, skills, come
Speaker 2: to the skills, come to the crypt. He was like,
Speaker 2: I'm not for what. I was like, Yo, my man,
Speaker 2: my man's head, and you're gonna record to to just
Speaker 2: kind of my crib. He sees Jay come in, listen
Speaker 2: to the beat for a while. He could tell you
Speaker 2: this is the truth. And he went in and got
Speaker 2: on the mic and said everything that he was mumbling
Speaker 2: in the hallway, and he was like, Yo, what the
Speaker 2: fuck does that happen? The same way I was. He
Speaker 2: was like, I said, Dog, I told you. He don't
Speaker 2: write it down. He just thinks of it. That's it.
Speaker 2: And then he thinks of it and puts it all
Speaker 2: together and everything, like when you think of ninety nine
Speaker 2: problems and think that there's no pen attached to that,
Speaker 2: there's no pen attaches to meet the parents. I'm sorry, dog,
Speaker 2: he's a fucking wizard. Yo.
Speaker 1: You're just reminded me. Now I wouldness that. Now I
Speaker 1: got a search for this shit, because I mean, technically
Speaker 1: he did it just so that he recorded something, just
Speaker 1: so that he could remember it specifically for a show
Speaker 1: that we were doing, but mid rehearsals for that whole
Speaker 1: reasonable Doubt thing that we did for the anniversary, he's like,
Speaker 1: you know what, He's like, I'm doing a sequel. I'm
Speaker 1: doing forty four fours. He's like, redo, can I kick
Speaker 1: it and just lay the beat down for five minutes
Speaker 1: to like me Adam Blacks when I forget, like, who
Speaker 1: else was there? So we we we were hooking it
Speaker 1: up like we were going to do it during the show,
Speaker 1: and the whole time I thought he was I thought
Speaker 1: he was just like recapping something that he might have
Speaker 1: wrote a sequel to it or whatever. He's like, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: I'm making it up right now. It's like, just give
Speaker 1: me a half hour. I'll get it. And I really
Speaker 1: regret this moment, but this is the exact moment where
Speaker 1: in the next room, in the in the room next
Speaker 1: door Kanye in Consequence were just working on I don't
Speaker 1: know if you remember this song on Consequences record your Girl,
Speaker 1: Your Girl, Keith, fuck yes, your Girl. It's one of
Speaker 1: the hardest beats. I really like, if you remember the yes,
Speaker 1: if you remember that beat, Like my older self's like, yo,
Speaker 1: you could have witnessed a real historical moment of watching
Speaker 1: this motherfucker crafted. But I'm not thinking like I'm making
Speaker 1: a bait for jay Z to, you know. He's just like,
Speaker 1: I got to remember my rhyme, so just give me
Speaker 1: a half hour and I'll have it. So we're running
Speaker 1: in that room to watch old boy like put this
Speaker 1: beat together for consequence and shit. And I came back.
Speaker 1: He's like, all right, I'm done, and he laid it
Speaker 1: and it didn't hit me till like much later that
Speaker 1: he actually made that rhyme up at the moment. And
Speaker 1: mind you, there were forty four fours in there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so that's the part I'm still like. I was like this,
Speaker 1: he had this one in his pocket, there's no way,
Speaker 1: and he's like, no, it's like I made it up
Speaker 1: on the spot.
Speaker 2: Twenty two Two's was a freestyle that he used to
Speaker 2: do every time we performed at Maria Davis. Well, what
Speaker 2: we call freestyle, you know, when you rhyme to a
Speaker 2: beat and you just go off like we just do
Speaker 2: that to can I kick it. This was before there
Speaker 2: was a beat to it, and then it was like,
Speaker 2: you'll make a beat to it, you'll ski come up
Speaker 2: with something to it. Like but he said twenty he
Speaker 2: said two twenty two times, and I was like wow,
Speaker 2: because because I'm he said four forty four, so trust me.
Speaker 2: When when the first time he did it, I was like,
Speaker 2: what the And then the next time he did it,
Speaker 2: I was in the side going and then when it
Speaker 2: got to twenty two, I was just like, nah, fuck,
Speaker 2: I understand that. This is the second This is the
Speaker 2: second time he did it in front of us, you
Speaker 2: know what I'm saying. The first time we were just like, oh,
Speaker 2: that shit is crazy, y'ah. Twenty two two? Yeah, Then
Speaker 2: I was like, twenty two Wait a minute, twenty two
Speaker 2: two's that's that means something different. Let me listen. And
Speaker 2: I was just like, he said too twenty two times.
Speaker 2: He's wizard, He's not regular man. So when forty four
Speaker 2: fours came out, I was like, I'm not even gonna
Speaker 2: te him nobody he said forty four he said four
Speaker 2: or forty four time, I'm not even gonna tell nobody
Speaker 2: because they're gonna say I'm.
Speaker 7: Lying, right, did you were you there for the tracking
Speaker 7: of a Scot's Limit.
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 7: Yeah, what was that like?
Speaker 2: It was kind of crazy because there wasn't an idea
Speaker 2: of one twelve.
Speaker 3: It was.
Speaker 2: It was Biggie doing the hook.
Speaker 1: He's saying it. You have a version of him singing it.
Speaker 2: The funny part is in the song his voice is
Speaker 2: in there. Okay, I just I just let it be
Speaker 2: real low because I appreciated the fact that he can't. Yo. Look,
Speaker 2: We're on a tour bus and Biggie says, bring me
Speaker 2: some beach for Junior Mafia, and I'm just like, who's Junior?
Speaker 2: My fia. He was like Ce's and such a name.
Speaker 2: The kids, the kids of g I'm like, they don't rap.
Speaker 2: He was like, don't worry about the clock. Just bring
Speaker 2: me something dream. I bring him some ship. First thing
Speaker 2: going to be the guys on the tape. The sky's
Speaker 2: the limit. He was like, Yo, you gotta hold that.
Speaker 2: And I was like, nah, that that's like an ed's joint. Mhm.
Speaker 2: He's looking at me like I was like, yes, I
Speaker 2: can know. Nah, dog, you gotta hold take it back.
Speaker 2: I need that. I'm like whatever, let's keep it. Second
Speaker 2: joint on the tape is I need it? I need
Speaker 2: you tonight. He was like, oh that, I like that too,
Speaker 2: and then he hears players anthem and like literally he's
Speaker 2: going I was like, Oh, we're gonna have something, and
Speaker 2: I'm thinking it's me and him, we're gonna make a record.
Speaker 2: In two days, we're gonna go home. We're gonna make
Speaker 2: this record. I was like, yes, we go home. He
Speaker 2: brings a little season and little Kim that I'm like,
Speaker 2: what's going on here, and then goes in the booth
Speaker 2: and does the verse. I was just like, oh, ship.
Speaker 2: And then he does his verse and then Kim.
Speaker 3: Talk about it.
Speaker 2: She just like it's crazy because if I was smarter
Speaker 2: back then, I would have left the ending of the
Speaker 2: song the way she ended it, because at the end
Speaker 2: of the song, I took out the words she was
Speaker 2: saying at the end, and at the end she said
Speaker 2: Clark can't fuck and I was just like, you can't sit,
Speaker 2: you can't stay, can't to get out. And I was
Speaker 2: just like, wait a minute. That was a moment. I
Speaker 2: walked up Clark, motherfucker who and I was just like,
Speaker 2: I didn't leave that in. I was like, I'm the dumbest,
Speaker 2: right now. But then but then the record happens, and
Speaker 2: I'm just like, yeah, that's all right. So but while
Speaker 2: we're on the tour buzz though, he goes back to
Speaker 2: the Sky's the Limit beat and he just starts singing
Speaker 2: to this ship and I'm just like, oh, he just wildly.
Speaker 4: Like he just gets it because as we hear it,
Speaker 4: Clark like what he heard for the first time is
Speaker 4: as we hear it finished product like the beat.
Speaker 2: Like exactly the way it happens is exactly the way
Speaker 2: I gave it to him. And like he goes back
Speaker 2: to it because he's like, yo, I need this, and
Speaker 2: you know, we're not really paying attention, but I'm hearing
Speaker 2: him going god, you know, and I was just like what,
Speaker 2: just like this, dude, But I was just like, dog,
Speaker 2: that's Acanelli's record. Yeah, But he's like so wants it
Speaker 2: so bad that I go back and I go to Acanelly.
Speaker 2: I was like, dog, you're really gonna use this record?
Speaker 2: He was like, hell, yeah, Clock, how much is it?
Speaker 2: And I told him and he was just like yo, Clock,
Speaker 2: he trying to buy a car on me. And I
Speaker 2: was like what, Like, Dog, like you know, I made
Speaker 2: records and you know, I make records like this is
Speaker 2: like I'm and he just like he didn't really want
Speaker 2: to pay for it. So I was just like, yo,
Speaker 2: biggie ca it. He was like, yeah, you gotta hold
Speaker 2: it though, and I'm thinking hold it for what And
Speaker 2: he was like, oh, trust me, trust me, you gotta
Speaker 2: hold it. I did not know he's thinking two and
Speaker 2: a half. He is down the line it's gonna be
Speaker 2: on your next album. I'm thinking that's somewhere on Junior
Speaker 2: Manthia's album. But he was just like, yeah, you gotta
Speaker 2: you gotta hold it. But he had the hook after
Speaker 2: like two hours. But he was singing it to himself.
Speaker 2: He wasn't necessarily saying it's going to be the hook.
Speaker 2: He was singing it like he could sing it to it.
Speaker 2: But I'm listening to it, going wow, if that's the hook,
Speaker 2: you know. And it just went that way. And when
Speaker 2: it came time to mix that, the record came back
Speaker 2: from Bad Boys Studio and it had one twelve on
Speaker 2: it and I was like, oh, this shit is beautiful.
Speaker 2: But I respected what he did so much, and it
Speaker 2: was on the tape that I just let it be
Speaker 2: in the beat. Like if you listen to Brooklyn's fine
Speaker 2: as Biggie. Every time the record goes like on certain hooks,
Speaker 2: Biggie's doing that shit like Biggie's in the background going.
Speaker 2: I was just like, yeah, I gotta leave it, I
Speaker 2: gotta leave it there.
Speaker 1: It just hit me, Clark, you got to tell me.
Speaker 1: Speaking of the early days of Rockefeller, can you please
Speaker 1: share your many Dame battles, Like I know that Dame
Speaker 1: is a proud Harlem night and you are from the
Speaker 1: borough of Brooklyn. Yeah, but can you please share the
Speaker 1: story of the bet of the Freshest, which basically, you
Speaker 1: know there's there's there's a whole slew of people that
Speaker 1: know you strictly not for music before sneakers.
Speaker 3: Oh okay, the intro.
Speaker 1: Please share this story.
Speaker 2: Dame does a whole one to traveling with with Jay
Speaker 2: and all of that, and you know, he comes back
Speaker 2: and he was like, Clark, I'm frsh than you. And
Speaker 2: I was like, yeah, I right, whatever, And he goes, now,
Speaker 2: wear new best niggas every day. I said, I've been
Speaker 2: doing that since you met me. Nah, I bet, I bet,
Speaker 2: he says, I bet. You can't wear brand new pist
Speaker 2: niggas every day for a year. So I was like,
Speaker 2: what do you want to bet? Because in my mind,
Speaker 2: I'm like, that's an instant loss. Right, So he was like,
Speaker 2: I bet you. I can't even remember what the bet
Speaker 2: was for. I had to be something stupid, but I
Speaker 2: made the bet and I wore brand new pists niggas
Speaker 2: every day. The good part was it was at Rockefeller Office,
Speaker 2: so every day he got the paint and the like
Speaker 2: and we worked document this Like no, it was just
Speaker 2: a shit talking between me and him. He knew how
Speaker 2: to ring your like to twist your stomach like shit
Speaker 2: out of you, and I'd be like, come on, dang,
Speaker 2: come on, dang. I was really one of the guys
Speaker 2: who could ignore dame that just one time it just
Speaker 2: went too far and he was like, you're scared. You scared.
Speaker 2: I'm scared. Like I've been doing this since you met me.
Speaker 2: You were eighteen nineteen when I met you, and I've
Speaker 2: been this guy, like what makes you think is going
Speaker 2: to change now? Because you got some money and bought
Speaker 2: every sneaker you saw on the way when you was
Speaker 2: on the road, Like, I really have everything that you
Speaker 2: buy and now I have it already, or I had
Speaker 2: the original to what you like, so stop, you got
Speaker 2: to stop. But he just was talking shit and talking
Speaker 2: shit and I just was like I bet and he lost.
Speaker 1: And you couldn't repeat a pair at all in a year's.
Speaker 2: Time, brand new pair sneakers every day a new pair
Speaker 2: or just a fresh like brand new pair. So even
Speaker 2: if I wore white on whites four month straight, every
Speaker 2: day to white and white had to be a brand
Speaker 2: new pair. O. Wait, think about this to me, right,
Speaker 2: if you came to my crib and you saw four
Speaker 2: thousand pairs of sneakers, why would it seem like it's
Speaker 2: hard to do it? Right?
Speaker 3: It's only three hundred and sixty five days.
Speaker 2: Right, So if I didn't buy any sneakers, I could
Speaker 2: have done it. I could have done it for like
Speaker 2: ten years. It's been like twelve years, maybe fifteen years.
Speaker 1: You still apply this rule.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I don't win. I don't wear sneakers like
Speaker 2: I'm sorry where they go?
Speaker 1: Yeah? What side? What size are you?
Speaker 5: I'll take your leftovers.
Speaker 2: I'm a thirteen, but I give him away.
Speaker 3: Well, Steve, you're you're you're out of luck.
Speaker 1: There's no way I'm not out of luck. Ask quest.
Speaker 5: He knows you're a same size, yes, I take quests leftovers.
Speaker 1: You know, you know how bad I am, Like a
Speaker 1: rare air of morek and Mendy's. I just let Steve
Speaker 1: have them.
Speaker 3: That is fascinating.
Speaker 2: And here's the thing. You probably let them have them
Speaker 2: because it didn't like affect you a certain way.
Speaker 1: Well at one point, it's just ridiculous.
Speaker 3: And you know, I was just like, okay, you.
Speaker 2: You have a you have a pair of sneakers that
Speaker 2: you didn't wear that was given to you during the
Speaker 2: Air Force one twenty fifth anniversary, and I.
Speaker 1: Know I will never wear those.
Speaker 2: Oh, you got to give them to me. Oh you
Speaker 2: talk I'm talking about the crock joints, right, You're talking
Speaker 2: about the crock joints, the white with the one white
Speaker 2: and orange croc ones, their snake with a croc strike. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you have to give them to me. Oh like, like
Speaker 2: how I got you? How I got you? The Essels?
Speaker 3: Can we talk? Are be getting to Nike?
Speaker 4: Because I just want to know the beginning of the relationship,
Speaker 4: when the romance, when y'all fell in love with each other,
Speaker 4: and how y'all fell in love with each other?
Speaker 3: No, Clark was like and Clark Nike and Clark.
Speaker 1: Oh goodbye, oh yo. When you said that with the
Speaker 1: vigor of an angry black mother. If you don't get.
Speaker 3: Because Clark said he didn't did eighty five shoes with Nike, and.
Speaker 2: I just didn't.
Speaker 1: You didn't differentiate the U. So I'm thinking, like, okay,
Speaker 1: you you exaggerated a lot like it, but okay, I'll
Speaker 1: go with this.
Speaker 3: Do you know why he I do? I do want
Speaker 3: to know why he picked you as well to get
Speaker 3: with Nike. We'll get to that. I want to know that, yes, yes, yes, Well.
Speaker 2: When the twenty fifth anniversary of Air Force one was
Speaker 2: about to happen, they had some ideas and there was
Speaker 2: this dinner and like they invited me to dinner and
Speaker 2: asked if they could borrow some of my shoes for
Speaker 2: this big exhibit. But it was going to show like
Speaker 2: maybe two thousand pair Air Force ones at a party?
Speaker 1: When did you first know that sneaker collecting wasn't art?
Speaker 2: It level, It wasn't an art, it was it was corny.
Speaker 2: And I got looked at like I was corny, like
Speaker 2: Damon and who I would end up battling one day.
Speaker 2: First time he came to my crib, he was like cluck,
Speaker 2: what the fuck is all these sneakers? I said, it's
Speaker 2: just the way I stay fresh. And he looked at
Speaker 2: me like, dog, this is weird. And he would be like, girls,
Speaker 2: come to your crib with this shit here, and I
Speaker 2: was like yeah, and he was just like cluck, you
Speaker 2: got a crib full of fresh, He said, that shit
Speaker 2: because I had every Markie can and I had every
Speaker 2: North Beach leather, I had every good pad of jeans,
Speaker 2: I had every good sweatshirts and teeth like, and I
Speaker 2: would overdo everything, so he would just he came to
Speaker 2: my crib and was just like this doesn't even make sense,
Speaker 2: like how could anyone have this much fresh? And this
Speaker 2: is when he's nineteen, so he's just like this shit
Speaker 2: is wild. I said, well, if you look at the
Speaker 2: erahere I come from, that's what we did. We stayed
Speaker 2: as fresh as possible. And he was just like, no,
Speaker 2: I get it, I said, he said, but this is ridiculous,
Speaker 2: you know. So it was the thing happened when I
Speaker 2: was nine. My uncle gave me a pair of prokeads,
Speaker 2: and when I walked outside of the prokeads, the whole
Speaker 2: block was like, you know, you got prokeads, Like all
Speaker 2: the sixteen seventeen year olds were like, you got prokeeads
Speaker 2: And I was like, yeah, it's my first name brand sneaker.
Speaker 2: But they were like, yo, but you got them yet
Speaker 2: you're a young boy. And I felt like I had
Speaker 2: a car. And it was addictive. So we would do
Speaker 2: odd jobs for all of the older people on the
Speaker 2: block and they would give give Like me and my cousin,
Speaker 2: Market would do these jobs and they would give us
Speaker 2: ten dollars a piece. Back then, prokeds were nine dollars
Speaker 2: at the flea market and to get to the flea
Speaker 2: market was fifty cent, So you got fifty cent out
Speaker 2: of this ten dollars, you get to the flea market,
Speaker 2: buy nine dollar there sneakers, and then that other fifty
Speaker 2: cent is you risking your life to get back with
Speaker 2: the sneakers. So that's when it started. It started because
Speaker 2: the block was like, oh, the older guys on the
Speaker 2: block that you know, they looked out for us all
Speaker 2: the time, but now it's like I'm almost parallel to them,
Speaker 2: and I wanted to be as cool as them. So
Speaker 2: it was like, oh, well, every weekend, I'm going to
Speaker 2: either buy records, I'm going to buy sneakers, and then
Speaker 2: it became, oh, I need to have Gaberdine's, I need
Speaker 2: to have Lee's with the with the I need to
Speaker 2: have colored leaves. I need to have BBDs, I need
Speaker 2: to have Nylons. I need to have a J Lester's.
Speaker 2: I need to have British Walkers. I need to have Playors,
Speaker 2: I need to have everything. And it became like an
Speaker 2: addiction from when I was really young because the older
Speaker 2: guys accepted me with the playboys and I mean with
Speaker 2: with with the Prokeads, and it just was like, oh, oh,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna go hard, and I went super hard. So
Speaker 2: every dollar I made, fifty cent went to records and
Speaker 2: fifty cent went to being fresh.
Speaker 3: So then what happened with you one night.
Speaker 2: That that Nike wasn't even the sneakers back then, like
Speaker 2: the sneakers Prokeads and Pumas and Adidas what I'm saying, like,
Speaker 2: and Clyde to us was a superhero. To have a
Speaker 2: pair of sneakers with his name on the side of
Speaker 2: gold was like, that's the ultimate sneaker back then was
Speaker 2: Clyde's you know what I'm saying. Wow, Yeah, So that's
Speaker 2: what we were doing and then when Nikes really really happened.
Speaker 2: The thing that made me go over the top for
Speaker 2: Nike was when Air Force Ones happened. And I was
Speaker 2: playing city Wide Basketball and Elmcore Basketball, and we would
Speaker 2: our team was good, so we would get to go
Speaker 2: to other cities to play against other cities. And in
Speaker 2: Baltimore I saw air Force ones were actually in Queens.
Speaker 2: We played at Baisley Park and this Nike rep came
Speaker 2: and told us to try these shoes. So we tried
Speaker 2: the shoes. That's what they did. They would they would
Speaker 2: go to tournaments and watch kids playing be like, hey,
Speaker 2: try these shoes, and they gave me these shoes and
Speaker 2: I just thought they were beautiful, so I just stuck
Speaker 2: them in my bag. It's the Air Force. Yeah, it's
Speaker 2: funny because now looking back at it, we would call
Speaker 2: those Air Force zeros because they didn't have no holes
Speaker 2: in the in the front of the shoes.
Speaker 1: Yo, So you gave me are the first year Air
Speaker 1: Force zeros? He gave me a red and white first
Speaker 1: year Air Force one.
Speaker 2: Oh okay, yeah, but they didn't have holes at the top. No,
Speaker 2: right then, Yeah, those were zeros to us, we call
Speaker 2: them zero. That was fun they were from that time. Yeah, Clark,
Speaker 2: thank you. We were all. You know, I really had
Speaker 2: like lots of sneakers and I had everything in so
Speaker 2: when they were coming up with this Air Force twenty five,
Speaker 2: they were like, we don't have everything, so let's go
Speaker 2: to the guy who has everything and let's, you know,
Speaker 2: give them give him some money and let him curate
Speaker 2: the the amount of pairs of sneakers that we have
Speaker 2: that were going to put on this wall for this event.
Speaker 2: So they did. They borrowed a bunch of stuff. But
Speaker 2: in the meeting, they were just like, what do you
Speaker 2: think should happened with air Force one? And I was like,
Speaker 2: y'all should make an air Force one store. And you
Speaker 2: could see the people in the in the meeting going
Speaker 2: like this because they already had an idea to do
Speaker 2: the Air Force. I said, but you need to make
Speaker 2: I D Nike ID. You need to make the ship unlimited.
Speaker 2: And they were like what do you mean. I said,
Speaker 2: you make you need to make something called VI P
Speaker 2: I D. And they were like, okay, could you stop?
Speaker 2: And I was like okay, cool, and they were like,
Speaker 2: you have a lawyer, and I was like, of course,
Speaker 2: I have a lawyer. Can you can you get him
Speaker 2: on a phone or have him come down my lawyer,
Speaker 2: have my lawyer come down, and and and and the
Speaker 2: thing is the guy who said it was a black guy.
Speaker 2: So it's almost like he was saying, let me protect,
Speaker 2: let me protect protect Nick right, and and he could
Speaker 2: see that. The conversation made me like yeah, because I
Speaker 2: was about to go off, and he was just like give.
Speaker 2: He just like, do you have a lawyer? And I'm
Speaker 2: like yeah. So when he came, my lawyer came. He
Speaker 2: was like, we want to make him a consultant to
Speaker 2: help us build this air Force one store. And I
Speaker 2: was like, oh ship, I didn't know what that was.
Speaker 2: And then when the deal points came through, I was like, oh,
Speaker 2: they're dead serious. I was like and my lawyer is
Speaker 2: looking at me like do you want to do this?
Speaker 2: And I was like what. And the only thing, the
Speaker 2: only thing in my mind, I swear to God, this
Speaker 2: is gonna sound crazy. The only thing in my mind
Speaker 2: was I'm going to get to make a sneaker and
Speaker 2: shit on Barbito because Gabrido Barbido had this white pair
Speaker 2: air Force ones with a burgundy Swiss and his name
Speaker 2: was on the side and I was like how, like
Speaker 2: how and he was like he gave it to him.
Speaker 2: So I was just like, oh, oh commercial yeah. And
Speaker 2: the thing is like I went into the meeting the
Speaker 2: first official I'm working their meeting, and like the first
Speaker 2: thing I say before the meeting, can I make a sneaker?
Speaker 2: And they're looking at me like that's not what this
Speaker 2: is for. And we get into the meeting. We keep
Speaker 2: going to the twenty minutes and can I make a sneaker?
Speaker 2: They're like, we're trying to build a store, We're trying
Speaker 2: to come up with ideas. You're doing well, going on
Speaker 2: forty minutes. Every twenty minutes, I'm like, can I make
Speaker 2: a sneaker? Can I make a sneaker? I just want
Speaker 2: to make one sneaker, like literally saying I just want
Speaker 2: to make one sneaker. By the end of the meeting,
Speaker 2: after Chambers says, let me go sit you down with
Speaker 2: Ma Delcha and I said, with my dote, and Mandte says,
Speaker 2: what do you have in mind? And I come up
Speaker 2: with I tell him what I want the sneaker to be.
Speaker 2: But I did it in like a minute and a
Speaker 2: half and he was like, you really had this idea.
Speaker 2: I was like, yes, I said, I only need one pair,
Speaker 2: and I need it. I just put my name on
Speaker 2: the side of shit, that's all one pair. So he's like,
Speaker 2: he's like what. I was like, yeah, only one pair.
Speaker 2: He was like, no, this is really good. And then
Speaker 2: he calls Astor, and then he calls the product line
Speaker 2: manager and the guy who was leading the team, and
Speaker 2: everybody in the room is like, no, that's really good.
Speaker 2: And they then Astor says to one of you know,
Speaker 2: air Force one's a part of the one's pack and
Speaker 2: I was like whatever. He's like, do you like Airmax one?
Speaker 2: I said, second favorite sneaker? Wow?
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: He says, what would you do to air Max one?
Speaker 2: Boom boom boom am Max one is finished two minutes
Speaker 2: and they're looking at me like, oh, he's really ready.
Speaker 2: And I was like, but you got to change the
Speaker 2: color of the elephant print so it's different than the
Speaker 2: air Force one. And they were like okay, So they did.
Speaker 2: Shit looked amazing. They were like, what about a trainer one.
Speaker 2: I was like that. She was like, They're like, oh,
Speaker 2: you don't like it. I said, it's not that I
Speaker 2: don't like it, it's just that I wouldn't necessarily be
Speaker 2: like I want to make that, but they said, but
Speaker 2: what would you do? And then I did it? And
Speaker 2: then Astor says it louder. He goes, that's a one
Speaker 2: pack and I'm like, fuck, is the one pack? He said,
Speaker 2: you remember those air Force ones that said gray ones
Speaker 2: And I was like yeah. He said, remember there was
Speaker 2: an air Force one and the Airtrainer one that looked
Speaker 2: just like it. I was like yeah. He goes, that's
Speaker 2: a one pack. He said, this is the one pack.
Speaker 2: I was like, cool, I only want the air Force
Speaker 2: one and they're like he's saying to me, He's like Clark,
Speaker 2: he's saying it quiet. He was like, clak. Now because
Speaker 2: some friends Woul asked the chambers before night. He's like, Clark,
Speaker 2: we feel like we could put this out and you
Speaker 2: can have a shoot this out. I was like, I
Speaker 2: don't need that. I need this shit on Bobby and
Speaker 2: he's like He's like he was like, you're not understanding
Speaker 2: that this is Stiller. Yeah. I was like no, no,
Speaker 2: but so he's going, so if you did this, what
Speaker 2: would you call it? I said, Brooklyn And they were like, Clark,
Speaker 2: could you because now I'm mad. I'm just like Brooklyn.
Speaker 2: He was like, he was like clock, and then he
Speaker 2: was like, can you can you express Brooklyn in a
Speaker 2: different way? And the first thing I thought was seven
Speaker 2: one eight, and then I was like no, because that
Speaker 2: means Queen Staten Island. And the box gets loved and
Speaker 2: I was like, oh, every zip code in Brooklyn starts
Speaker 2: with one, one two. I said, so one one too,
Speaker 2: and they were like, that's thinking. See clock, now you're thinking.
Speaker 2: And they was like, but now we got to connect
Speaker 2: it to you. I said, it is, it's from Brooklyn.
Speaker 2: It connects to me. He was like, no, we got
Speaker 2: to make something that when we see it we can
Speaker 2: go oh, that's how it connects. So they put the one,
Speaker 2: and inside they put a big one, and inside the
Speaker 2: one they put a telephone booth like that's where clock changes. Ah,
Speaker 2: And I was like, and they put the one because
Speaker 2: it's a ones pack. So that's that's that's where the
Speaker 2: logo that's inside the shoe comes from from. Enough of
Speaker 2: them being sick of me, and I'm like, yo, could
Speaker 2: you please come up with some ship?
Speaker 1: So what was Bobido's response.
Speaker 2: Barbido thought the shoe was fired especially because I give
Speaker 2: him a whole set, but I was just like, more like,
Speaker 2: this was really just a shit on you. But then
Speaker 2: he could literally go, yeah, but there's a lot of them,
Speaker 2: there's only one of these, and I was like, Okay,
Speaker 2: what the fucker. So after that, I made it my
Speaker 2: business to become friends with Tinker half Field and in
Speaker 2: the people in the kitchen so that I could do
Speaker 2: things in the kitchen that would be one of one.
Speaker 2: So I went in the kitchen. I mean I might
Speaker 2: have about thirty one of the ones out of the kitchen,
Speaker 2: but the first one I went right to Bobby and
Speaker 2: was like and it was so crazy that he just
Speaker 2: had to be like, oh, no, that's great. You know.
Speaker 7: What's your favorite Jordans cluck?
Speaker 2: My favorite At the top of the chart of all
Speaker 2: Jordan's is a tie between threes and eleven.
Speaker 7: I'm threes and fours. Those ones from me too, like threes, Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 7: you guys.
Speaker 1: Have narrow feet. Then I'm sorry, like didn't even start
Speaker 1: thinking about what.
Speaker 2: Actually they kind of give you a little room the
Speaker 2: war they actually do.
Speaker 7: Yeah, the ones that funk out of the ones, Nah,
Speaker 7: but I like it, But now I can't do the
Speaker 7: ones like ones and sixes.
Speaker 2: On the on the on the on the Jordan's scale,
Speaker 2: like Jordan one's a third. To me, what's crazy is
Speaker 2: I really have more Jordan ones than anything because they
Speaker 2: keep coming out with good ship, Like there's threes and
Speaker 2: elevens is a tie, and then it's ones, and then
Speaker 2: it's fours, and it's five. I love five. Five.
Speaker 1: So let me ask you. This house on fire, you're
Speaker 1: saving five of them joints, five sneakers. What are you saving?
Speaker 2: I'm only saving two because I'm getting my wife and
Speaker 2: my kids out first.
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, all right, the wife, he kids out,
Speaker 1: and then I can run in the house and get
Speaker 1: five pairs of sneakers.
Speaker 2: What is it. It's gonna sound weird to you, dog,
Speaker 2: but i'd be trying to get the records out.
Speaker 3: No it don't. It don't sound d do.
Speaker 1: Just give me the sneakers your top, all right, I'm
Speaker 1: destroying all your sneakers.
Speaker 2: But five, I'm gonna go get the folks. I'm gonna
Speaker 2: I mean the one of ones because they were they
Speaker 2: were they were meant and given and made for me.
Speaker 2: They weren't part of this mass production of shoes. Because
Speaker 2: I can get my favorite shoes are white on my
Speaker 2: air Force one. I can buy them ships all the time.
Speaker 2: And if if Nike decided, we will make sure that
Speaker 2: you have a brand new pair for of air Force
Speaker 2: ones for the rest of your life, of brand new
Speaker 2: every day. They could take what I got. I'm gonna
Speaker 2: admit this to you, Quests. You actually are the person
Speaker 2: that made me say, let me put a crock on
Speaker 2: my foot.
Speaker 1: You know what, ya the show's over? Thank you very
Speaker 1: much much.
Speaker 2: No, no, but but it wasn't a regular crock. It
Speaker 2: was a croc oh ship.
Speaker 1: Okay, so George is fresh.
Speaker 2: But I put it on and was like, oh, I understand.
Speaker 2: I wear him around the house.
Speaker 8: Oh you you're gonna wear him outside of the als eventually,
Speaker 8: probably not Croc, probably Mark Clark dog.
Speaker 1: You and I were on this journey together, brou I
Speaker 1: get it. And then one day I just got tired,
Speaker 1: like I just got tired of suffering just to be like, yo,
Speaker 1: what does he have on? I got tired, so I
Speaker 1: went to the opposite, which was what does he have on?
Speaker 2: Yo?
Speaker 4: These freaking fancy ass le crocs? Though, let's talk, I mean,
Speaker 4: did this ain't no regular?
Speaker 3: I had to look it up. I was gonna act
Speaker 3: like I knew what they was talking about. I did not.
Speaker 1: I'm kind of myth right now because I'm a product
Speaker 1: of Sean g So I I promised.
Speaker 3: You better follow that up with something good.
Speaker 1: Go ahead with me. No, no, no, I'm just saying
Speaker 1: that it's he is yet to steer me wrong. And
Speaker 1: he's always on me about knowing my worth and knowing
Speaker 1: my you know, my value and whatnot, because to be honest,
Speaker 1: I mean, the thing is is that Crock Ben offered
Speaker 1: me my own line. But Seawan's like, Sean's like no,
Speaker 1: dog Like, if it's not equity, I'm not talking to
Speaker 1: nobody else.
Speaker 3: Okay, that makes sense. Yeah, this is what we're doing.
Speaker 1: I was like, Sean, just please just let me do one.
Speaker 1: He's like no, because if I let you do one Crock,
Speaker 1: then you'll you'll give He's like, if it weren't, you
Speaker 1: would do everything for free, and business people would just
Speaker 1: take advantage, like a mirror DJ for free, a mere
Speaker 1: dinner for free. And so it's paining me right now
Speaker 1: that like the Crocks that I'm dreaming of designing, which
Speaker 1: is kind of on that level that he the lame
Speaker 1: that he's in right now. They just offer your year mold.
Speaker 1: You get bragging rights then, and you know you probably
Speaker 1: can leverage that to another company whatever. But you know,
Speaker 1: Crocs is kind of even aroun Timberland was, or like
Speaker 1: those companies.
Speaker 2: Okay, listen, personally, you can get I believe you can
Speaker 2: get an equity deal with Crocs.
Speaker 1: See word, because things are happening. That's it. That's all
Speaker 1: I can say, things are happening. I don't talk about
Speaker 1: something unless it's really happening.
Speaker 2: Okay, I believe you can. I know you can as
Speaker 2: a matter of fact, just because you know I work
Speaker 2: with the brands the way that I do. I know
Speaker 2: that let it, let it be what is gonna be.
Speaker 2: But I think it will happen for you. It will
Speaker 2: definitely happen. And that's the reason why. The reason why
Speaker 2: is because you're not the guy from the roots anymore.
Speaker 2: You're you're you're You're not like you would a guy
Speaker 2: from the roots. Until Jimmy Fallon happened, and then it
Speaker 2: was like a nah, nah, that's not the guy from Roops.
Speaker 2: That's the guy who is the music director, that's the
Speaker 2: guy who did the Oscars that's the guy who did
Speaker 2: the Grammys. That's the guy who did MTV. That's the
Speaker 2: guy who did He was the guy who's playing on
Speaker 2: stage with Davy, Like he's that guy. You're not just
Speaker 2: the guy from the roops, like you're you're another monster.
Speaker 2: And because you do so much and never stop, the
Speaker 2: thing would be to get you. So if you're giving
Speaker 2: it away for free, which I am begging anyone who
Speaker 2: does anything with a brand, don't give it away for free.
Speaker 2: You need to understand who you are in the game.
Speaker 2: Because if you understand who you are, then you understand
Speaker 2: that if if you walk in the door, it fixes them.
Speaker 2: All you gotta do is walk in the door because
Speaker 2: if they get a picture like it fixes them. So
Speaker 2: the idea is, let me do what I want to do.
Speaker 2: Ce Slea. He is a designer of shoes, so a
Speaker 2: deal like that is more. It could be Cachet for him,
Speaker 2: Like he also was a designer of a sa Chi.
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying. He designed for yeas he
Speaker 2: designed forever. He's like he's not regularly good, Like he's amazing,
Speaker 2: even though sometimes you might not get it when you
Speaker 2: see it. Like I looked at the crocs and was
Speaker 2: like like immediately was like, oh, that's his fingerprint, and
Speaker 2: people are looking at me like talking about I was like,
Speaker 2: look at it looks like a fingerprint. Oh ship. Yeah,
Speaker 2: Like so his mind is on some other ship, like
Speaker 2: your mind is on some other ship. So if you
Speaker 2: if you want to do it, and you you know you,
Speaker 2: I'm sure you totally understand your your your cachet. And
Speaker 2: because of that, they will they will do it with you.
Speaker 2: You will get an equity deal with them.
Speaker 1: How do you feel about the design game now, especially
Speaker 1: in light of what is going on with certain figures.
Speaker 2: Oh god, I think first being able to dignify the
Speaker 2: word designed properly is most important. Not just I went
Speaker 2: in and I colored up some shoes or I went
Speaker 2: in and uh and uh and and I told the
Speaker 2: story on the shoe. Like that's mocking up, that's reappropriating,
Speaker 2: you know what I'm saying. But like, can you go
Speaker 2: in and design and shoot from the ground up? That's
Speaker 2: the lady, you know what I'm saying. That's different. He
Speaker 2: like what he did at Asaji is different. He made
Speaker 2: a shoe that people if they didn't like, like he
Speaker 2: made people by Thesachi sneakers again. People weren't even thinking that,
Speaker 2: but he did something that was cool to the street,
Speaker 2: and they went on and board it again. And then
Speaker 2: he took that cashe and was like, well, let me
Speaker 2: go over here and show you some other ship. And
Speaker 2: let me go over here and you show you so
Speaker 2: much shit. Let me go over here and show you
Speaker 2: some other went to New Balance and put a fucking
Speaker 2: whistle on a sneak. He's some other ship, you know
Speaker 2: what I'm saying. So the design thing, if you're designing,
Speaker 2: like purely you can draw the shit like that's amazing.
Speaker 2: But if you're just getting to work on some shoes
Speaker 2: and reappropriate, I personally put myself in that category, like
Speaker 2: I'm just really good at reappropriating some shoes. I'm not
Speaker 2: calling myself a designer. The word gets thrown around too much.
Speaker 2: And you know, you design music. I could say I
Speaker 2: design music. I could say I designed soundscapes. But if
Speaker 2: I say I designed a sneaker, that means I should
Speaker 2: be able to draw a new one from the ground bag.
Speaker 2: And I'm the first one who'll be like, oh, I
Speaker 2: can't do that shit. And the only way I'd be
Speaker 2: able to get to that point is, if I gave
Speaker 2: them the ten thousand hours of trying to figure it out,
Speaker 2: you know.
Speaker 5: A quest can make ice sculptures.
Speaker 7: I've seen that, Steve.
Speaker 2: So what's going on in the design game is like, well,
Speaker 2: are you really a designer or not? I believe. I
Speaker 2: believe that if quests go in, he's going to be
Speaker 2: able to look at a crow, turn it into some
Speaker 2: other ship and it'll be amazing because his mind thinks
Speaker 2: like a creator like I did.
Speaker 4: That night he shoot that he made though first, because
Speaker 4: I'm like, wait a minute, and let's think when there
Speaker 4: was some colors and some designs on that. Remember that shoe,
Speaker 4: it was some reds and greens, different things going on.
Speaker 1: That was my first one. There's red greens, there's the
Speaker 1: gold version that was.
Speaker 2: Not I mean, you know it's I think he was
Speaker 2: expressing himself and I think he had a good job.
Speaker 2: And the thing is the perfect thing about that sneaker
Speaker 2: was it wasn't mass produced, so it was you really
Speaker 2: gotta like this, you know what I'm saying. You really
Speaker 2: gotta like it, and if you like it, then you
Speaker 2: get it once you see it, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: So or once it's in front of you, you get it.
Speaker 2: But like because it came out in a time when
Speaker 2: hype was was was really being some ship. Like it's
Speaker 2: people who got the shoe who didn't understand, you know
Speaker 2: what I'm saying. They might love the shoot, but they
Speaker 2: love the shoe because of the height instead of loving
Speaker 2: the shoe. For did you see what he did? Did
Speaker 2: you see he flipped the elephant print on two shoes?
Speaker 2: Like you didn't see that? You missed it.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of nuances that sneaker heads get that
Speaker 1: regular heads or just like I missed that one. Yeah,
Speaker 1: well sometimes it was a lot of underground code to it.
Speaker 3: Sometimes you got to explain the underground code so that
Speaker 3: the regular heads can even know that the archit I
Speaker 3: know you can't.
Speaker 1: I feel like going sometimes like only for certain.
Speaker 2: But I mean when I made one one two, when
Speaker 2: I did the one one too, all I ever said
Speaker 2: was it represents workland, and then I let people go
Speaker 2: try to figure it out. So now in Nike one
Speaker 2: one two is a colorway, you can't you can't use
Speaker 2: that colorway or the way the mix of materials and
Speaker 2: colorwaves that I use unless it's it's in collaboration with me.
Speaker 1: Have you ever seen an ill subliminal on a sneaker
Speaker 1: that only like that sort of got kind of you know,
Speaker 1: uh missed under.
Speaker 2: The radar of When air Force was turning for thirty
Speaker 2: five or no, yeah, thirty five, there was a there
Speaker 2: was a celebration called air Force one hundred and it
Speaker 2: was one hundred pairs of Air Force ones that were
Speaker 2: all white. And I got to do one. And I'm
Speaker 2: going to tell a story that is okay to tell
Speaker 2: now probably wouldn't been okay to tell. Then I got
Speaker 2: a call and it was like, yo, what you want
Speaker 2: to do. I was like, what you want to do? Like,
Speaker 2: y know, we're doing these all whites coming on and
Speaker 2: do all white sneakers. So we's in New Orleans. We
Speaker 2: had a knee with Nike, and I was like, I
Speaker 2: want to do this, this, this, and this to the
Speaker 2: shoe and we're gonna call it. Got that white now,
Speaker 2: probably one only one person in the room understood got
Speaker 2: that white man and he and he because he's my man,
Speaker 2: He's going clock, are you sure you want to do that?
Speaker 2: And I'm like absolutely and he was so so so
Speaker 2: he was like okay, I'm I'm I'm gonna push for
Speaker 2: this one. And it really when he showed it to
Speaker 2: who it had to be pushed to, it really didn't
Speaker 2: have to be pushed. It was like it was like, oh,
Speaker 2: that shit is beautiful, like even like Mark Parker called me,
Speaker 2: and it was like, this is one of the most
Speaker 2: beautiful air force once I've ever seen it. In my mind,
Speaker 2: I'm thinking, like, I hope he doesn't ask what does
Speaker 2: got that white mean? So if you look at the shoe,
Speaker 2: it has three colors on it, and it's it's it's white,
Speaker 2: and then it's like this, it's like actually off, and
Speaker 2: then it's this gum bottom. Right, So it's three versions
Speaker 2: of cocaine, right, And I put it all on one
Speaker 2: shoe and I called it got that white because in
Speaker 2: the street, if you say got that white, that means
Speaker 2: you got coked, right, And then on a tongue label,
Speaker 2: I put the words stay fresh on it because that
Speaker 2: was my thing. My thing was to stay fresh. And
Speaker 2: I was like, I need all one hundred pairs to
Speaker 2: be given to me. And my rollout was going to
Speaker 2: be I was gonna pull up in the hood of
Speaker 2: like every state and I was gonna be like senate
Speaker 2: Instagram posts out like yo, I got that white right,
Speaker 2: So a hustler would come looking for me and I
Speaker 2: would be like here, So I was gonna be serving
Speaker 2: white across fifty states. But they but they took fifty
Speaker 2: of the pairs and brought them to Complex Con and
Speaker 2: they had this dinner and at the dinner, everybody who
Speaker 2: was part of the one hundred, a pair of sneakers
Speaker 2: got put on everybody's plate, and nobody knew what the
Speaker 2: sneakers want until they start opening them. Only one person
Speaker 2: had my sleep, and I was big because Biggs got
Speaker 2: that white right. People were like we at the tables
Speaker 2: and people are like, yo, what the fuck is that?
Speaker 2: So everybody's like, I want that one I want, So
Speaker 2: they telling the waitresses, can you go switch this? And
Speaker 2: I get better DA data. So they're giving away all
Speaker 2: of my products.
Speaker 3: Oh they really gave it away. They didn't just let me.
Speaker 2: I didn't get to do the rollout properly, so it
Speaker 2: became but so I didn't really get to like it was.
Speaker 2: And the whole thing was going to be filmed, like
Speaker 2: the Feds were watching me, and then I was gonna
Speaker 2: let the fucking film come out and and so the
Speaker 2: thing is when the shoes got given away, you know
Speaker 2: some people got like Ronnie five got him. He was
Speaker 2: like clocked this on Instagram. He was like, clock, this
Speaker 2: is fucking amazing. The only thing I cared about was
Speaker 2: when I got home, I got to make sure Jay
Speaker 2: gets pare. So I get home, I bring this nigga
Speaker 2: to Jay and I said their call got that white.
Speaker 2: He was like cow, it was so important. And he
Speaker 2: wore him shits on his birthday. Wow. And I was like,
Speaker 2: he gets it. So what I did with the shoes
Speaker 2: basically I called up the ustles that I came off
Speaker 2: up with and I was like, yeah, I got to
Speaker 2: stay this niggas for you. And they didn't look at
Speaker 2: it like it was, oh I got a fresh past
Speaker 2: nigga was look they looked at it like, oh, got
Speaker 2: that white clock. You're crazy. But the good part is
Speaker 2: Nike didn't get it.
Speaker 4: Well yeah, because they ain't got no because they ain't
Speaker 4: got that black in the office to tell them.
Speaker 1: That might be you might try. That's our clip from
Speaker 1: that one.
Speaker 2: Six years Thank you, thank you, all right, so so
Speaker 2: so to me, that's the one that got missed the most,
Speaker 2: that got missed and and you know, later on, once
Speaker 2: I explained what got that White was to a bunch
Speaker 2: of people asking and they were just like, nah, that's crazy,
Speaker 2: And I was like so then later on, I can't
Speaker 2: remember what company, it was, Diamond Supply. They got a
Speaker 2: whole bunch of Air Force ones and stamped like like
Speaker 2: like pressed into the Air Force one the word coke,
Speaker 2: but it was the coke logo. It's a coke. I
Speaker 2: was like, coke. White's okay, I get it. But I'm like, the.
Speaker 3: Obvious plus obvious is more creative.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it was definitely. It was definitely more creative.
Speaker 2: And it was and the thing is once like a
Speaker 2: hustler out of here. He understood it as soon as
Speaker 2: he saw it.
Speaker 4: He was like, Clark, so those shoes can never come
Speaker 4: out again, Like and no part Clark can Nike just go.
Speaker 3: You know what, that was a good idea that Clark
Speaker 3: did ten years ago. Let's reissue.
Speaker 2: Literally, I wanted a few that they seem to have
Speaker 2: some respect for.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they they'll resell some shit.
Speaker 2: Yeah they'll they called before the stuff like that, Like
Speaker 2: I got I got something coming later this year.
Speaker 1: I was about to say, you still have a relationship
Speaker 1: with them. Correct.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, oh yes, it sounds like Clark, if you
Speaker 4: decided you didn't want to do music anymore, you would
Speaker 4: be good based off with a sneaker.
Speaker 2: The sneaker, I'd be okay, but I probably wouldn't because
Speaker 2: I love music so much.
Speaker 3: Right, probably be like no, I need to do that, okay,
Speaker 3: singing soul?
Speaker 1: Yeah, as we as we close out, I do want
Speaker 1: to know, like, where's your passion lying today?
Speaker 2: As we speak music music, Well, let me say this
Speaker 2: in this order. God family music kicks. Mm hm. My
Speaker 2: family means more to me than all of that shit.
Speaker 2: And I have a family because of God.
Speaker 3: How old are your kids?
Speaker 2: I have a twenty nine year old daughter and a
Speaker 2: twenty three year old son.
Speaker 3: I know they proud.
Speaker 2: That's dope, hope. So I'm trying not to embarrass them.
Speaker 1: You're doing well, man, you're doing well.
Speaker 2: I appreciate those words. But you know, yeah, they understand
Speaker 2: DJ Clark Campbell like I'm their father first. Yeah, so
Speaker 2: it's like I got it. I'm trying not to embarrass them.
Speaker 2: I'm trying to I'm trying to do things that they
Speaker 2: can look at and go My dad did some cool
Speaker 2: shit so that they can be inspired to do cool shit.
Speaker 1: This this has been a long time coming. Thank you
Speaker 1: for having the patience for all the false starts. But
Speaker 1: you know you're you're literally you You're God's favorite DJO man.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you want to know something that's crazy, quest is
Speaker 2: it's certain DJs that I look at and I go,
Speaker 2: I wonder if they think I'm good, you know what
Speaker 2: I'm saying, because they have their own their own thing
Speaker 2: attached to him, that that I look at them and
Speaker 2: like that he's fucking he's fucking ill. Some of the
Speaker 2: ship he does. It's crazy like I look at quests
Speaker 2: like my quest is a really good DJ, like Questions
Speaker 2: on the short list of DJs that I like, you
Speaker 2: know what I'm saying. I look at Jeff like I
Speaker 2: like Jase Jeff, I like Scratch, I like, you know,
Speaker 2: lou Louis Vaga. You know what I'm saying. He to me,
Speaker 2: to me, he's a fucking wizard. But then I got
Speaker 2: this Questlove dude where I think is out of his
Speaker 2: mind musically, and I'm like, he thinks I'm a good DJ.
Speaker 2: Like to me, that's like my worst Moore ship. When
Speaker 2: a when a DJ, I think.
Speaker 1: Why do you think we're all together in that in
Speaker 1: our threat?
Speaker 2: Man?
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't even know if.
Speaker 2: Let's ask going about.
Speaker 1: That exactly exactly, No, man, it's please. I've been to
Speaker 1: a gazillion of of your functions, Joe. Now you get down, man,
Speaker 1: You're you're the greatest clerk. I appreciate you.
Speaker 2: For doing it, man, I appreciate it. And again, it's
Speaker 2: an honor to be here because when I look at
Speaker 2: some of the people you've spoken to, I'm just like, shit,
Speaker 2: he wants to talk to me. I hope I could
Speaker 2: stand up.
Speaker 3: Dog tribe, it's all the same tribe. You definitely belong.
Speaker 3: You're talking about people that affected the culture.
Speaker 2: Honey.
Speaker 1: It seems like another successful conclusion of the adventures of
Speaker 1: d J, Clark, Kent, Smoking Steve, and Fanticke A Little Blue.
Speaker 2: Can. I go on record as saying Fante is one
Speaker 2: of the best of them. Season around. He is okay,
Speaker 2: dog is wild. He's wild. Like it's funny because be honest,
Speaker 2: like when I first heard Little Brother, I was like, Oh,
Speaker 2: this dude's sitting and I took some time off because
Speaker 2: I was like, they're not doing nothing, and I didn't
Speaker 2: realize that he was dropping solo ship and then I
Speaker 2: went back and I was like, oh, fucking nuts, Like
Speaker 2: I think I tweeted that one day, like fante g
Speaker 2: is fucking amazing. Remember that.
Speaker 6: Dog Day to Day Fame was the first tape I owned.
Speaker 6: So DJ cl can't big me up like that's just now, man,
Speaker 6: thank you so much. That means the world. I appreciate it.
Speaker 1: Only Mavericks over here. Man. Anyway, Well we have a
Speaker 1: fran Ticolo, Sugar Steve, unpaid Bill and Laya. I'm quest Love.
Speaker 1: Thank you once again, DJ Clark Kent and this is
Speaker 1: quest Love Supreme and we'll see you on the next
Speaker 1: stor now all right, peace.
Speaker 2: West.
Speaker 1: Love Supreme is a production of iHeart Radio. For more
Speaker 1: podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.