Speaker 1: R B Money. We all take valut. We are the
Speaker 1: authority on all things R and B ladies and generally
Speaker 1: what's going on. My name is Tank, I'm Jin and
Speaker 1: this is the R and B Money Podcast, the authority, Yeah,
Speaker 1: right on all things R and B. Yeah. Oh my
Speaker 1: god in the building Gumbo himself. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: go ahead and mix that thing out. Oh you all
Speaker 1: the ingredients? Oh man, And that's all I'm gonna say.
Speaker 1: Gordon Lady to be my god. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: You're so cold, like like cold cold, Like there's levels
Speaker 1: to cold, right, Cold is like Donny Hathaway. Cold is
Speaker 1: like Stevie wonder Man. Cold is like Eric Dawkins. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you're like all of that. We've into one human being
Speaker 1: with a beanie on. It's sick. Yeah, man, coming from
Speaker 1: from you, who is you know code? I mean you
Speaker 1: know you know because because I mean a cloth of it,
Speaker 1: and so now I appreciate it, man, I appreciate it
Speaker 1: just being in the same room. You know, I don't
Speaker 1: know if I were if I told you, I feel
Speaker 1: like I told you when you when I was doing
Speaker 1: the show during the pandemic, when I was doing uh,
Speaker 1: the game show whatever. But I met you at a
Speaker 1: super pivotal time in my life. When I my freshman
Speaker 1: year of more House, I moved to Atlanta. My boy
Speaker 1: Chuck took me the noontime. Took me the noontime. Jake
Speaker 1: q is his brother, that's his older brother. John Ta
Speaker 1: was there. Jaz Fade was there, you know. B Cox
Speaker 1: was there. Donnie Scans, who became my man, was there.
Speaker 1: And I walked in there and said, since she shakes
Speaker 1: for dollars, I don't like the holler. I was like, wait,
Speaker 1: what I mean that night and it feels like one night.
Speaker 1: I don't I can't remember if it was one night
Speaker 1: or a time frame, but me walking through noontime literally changed.
Speaker 1: It changed my life because I was coming from New Orleans,
Speaker 1: where there was a bunch of music, but there was
Speaker 1: no music industry. And I was saying, these dudes, every
Speaker 1: room when you went in, you were you heard music
Speaker 1: and were inspired and you were the first artist. I
Speaker 1: walked in and and I was like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: what are we doing? This is how this go? You
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying that you might have had maybe
Speaker 1: I deserve it that you might in that era. I
Speaker 1: don't know but it was that vibe. It was no,
Speaker 1: you weren't out, No, no, you know I'm saying I
Speaker 1: might have heard that record, you know early on. I
Speaker 1: did it in nineties when I did a record like
Speaker 1: eight or something like that. So I got before I
Speaker 1: got to before I got this in bro. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I wrote that record, Shakespeare Dollars. It is a noontime classic. Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: time changing my life by the way. We shared that
Speaker 1: right special and Scans became my man became yeah, so cool. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, like that became Scans. Guy,
Speaker 1: that's my that's one of my sins. Sate listen, bro. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that Shakespeare Dollars record came about from me going to
Speaker 1: Atlanta strip clubs right for the first time with with
Speaker 1: all of sixty dollars because it hadn't started raining then,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, So so so working those ones,
Speaker 1: it was had none of that, not sixties, This was
Speaker 1: this then it was it was so my thirty ones,
Speaker 1: like it looked like something you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: Friday turn the money overs had to make this work.
Speaker 1: And I saw it in goose Bumps that I was
Speaker 1: in love with Wow, like I like you, and I'll
Speaker 1: be back tomorrow. I'll be back tomorrow with another thirty,
Speaker 1: with another hot when it's under the hunt, it is hot,
Speaker 1: it's hot, and I'm hoping, I'm hoping that our conversation
Speaker 1: about her goals and aspirations and my goals and aspirations
Speaker 1: can lead to us somehow being together. And if somehow
Speaker 1: her goals and aspirations still, you know, the designs are
Speaker 1: still for her to be in this place. That's fine, Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's fine, Free Nation. I'll drop you off, I'll pick
Speaker 1: you up. Yes, just will just be with me. Keep
Speaker 1: from that. Since you started with that damn record the place, man, Yeah,
Speaker 1: that sounds like true love, man, sound like true love.
Speaker 1: I used to fall in love in the strip had
Speaker 1: a song called I always seemed to fall in Love
Speaker 1: in the Strip Club, that is, And I didn't. I
Speaker 1: just I don't know what it was. And it wasn't
Speaker 1: like I'm in the strip club and I need to
Speaker 1: get something out of here and tap it up and
Speaker 1: what I'm saying and be on like some some some
Speaker 1: some ogre savage type. No, they was dancing and throwing
Speaker 1: hips around exactly who you are. And I was looking
Speaker 1: at the eyes. Followed Diamond home and I saw that
Speaker 1: your eyes just have to look at I thought about it,
Speaker 1: but I following home. Don't be him. We didn't get
Speaker 1: jealous though, when when it was he was jealous when
Speaker 1: he had to go to the next nigga who morning
Speaker 1: and I was kind of watching, Oh my god, I
Speaker 1: gotta I gotta figure out the nigger giving him more.
Speaker 1: And she gave that can't be the love of my life.
Speaker 1: It can't be. Can't be, that can't be, not my
Speaker 1: my lady, not mus not musing, can keep He told me,
Speaker 1: what is a really sentiment? Right? The girls come over
Speaker 1: and asked me about it. There it was like, no,
Speaker 1: I'm here with somebody I'm taking. You were taking taking,
Speaker 1: were taking that crazy man, Yeah right right. But that's
Speaker 1: when we that's when I met you. That's when I
Speaker 1: met you. That is Crushman in college and just figuring
Speaker 1: it out. What a time in Atlanta though at that
Speaker 1: tall Man, it was special, bro, special, it was special.
Speaker 1: I just fell right in it and shout out to Noontime.
Speaker 1: I gotta give I gotta give Noontime a special shout
Speaker 1: out man, because just in terms of how they were
Speaker 1: making their records, the amount of talent that they had
Speaker 1: up there, um sharing and collaborating, true, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, Like true collaborations like this was the first
Speaker 1: time I had seen producers share sounds like this. They
Speaker 1: was like, Oh, you gotta get this new new stick.
Speaker 1: I I was crazy. Everybody passing the disc around this
Speaker 1: new kickoff, this new that's the new Time saying on
Speaker 1: that right there. I had them all, Yeah, the stick
Speaker 1: from the planet fact, that's the new Time stick. Like
Speaker 1: they were they were they were making this magic together
Speaker 1: and creating an identity that it was noon very motown
Speaker 1: ish because you could that's what I'm saying if you
Speaker 1: were stuck. You go in another room and it's like
Speaker 1: you're hearing something that you know what I'm saying, that
Speaker 1: was special, Like everybody had their own things. So for me,
Speaker 1: that was brand new because when I was growing up,
Speaker 1: I was the only person I knew like me, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, Like wanting to make records that
Speaker 1: we're gonna be on the radio. You know, it was
Speaker 1: like either you wanted to be in jazz in New
Speaker 1: Orleans or you know, a rapper. I wasn't either, so
Speaker 1: I just didn't really you know, find a place there
Speaker 1: until I got to Atlanta. Wow. Yeah, Um, let's let's
Speaker 1: go back to let's go back to the let's go
Speaker 1: back to the beginning, because because they had to, somebody
Speaker 1: looked at you and said that boy there got it. Man,
Speaker 1: he can do it, and he got it. When was
Speaker 1: that and when was the time that you actually felt
Speaker 1: like that? Um? Well, I'm preacher's kid, you know, and
Speaker 1: not just a preacher's kid, but I was. My father
Speaker 1: was a singer, is a singer, like a for real,
Speaker 1: for real singer, no play play and um, so our
Speaker 1: church was very musical, like um, the musicians he brought in.
Speaker 1: I mean it was like top not she was like serious,
Speaker 1: we started making records like in the eighties, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. Um, And so I had a lot
Speaker 1: of it around me. So my family was the family
Speaker 1: that pushed you. If they saw it, they're like PJ planning,
Speaker 1: you know. My dad said he prayed over my hands.
Speaker 1: So eight years old is when I got when I
Speaker 1: started playing, like when I felt like I was playing.
Speaker 1: Fourteen is when I remember saying, Okay, I'm like I
Speaker 1: can play. I didn't want to sing for for a
Speaker 1: long time. That was keys was kind of like my
Speaker 1: comfort zone. So yeah, singing during this time, you know,
Speaker 1: not really. I had a solo probably at you know,
Speaker 1: ten years old, humble yourself, you know, with the youth choir,
Speaker 1: you know, but like I didn't want to sing. Once
Speaker 1: I started playing, I was like, na, this is all
Speaker 1: I want to do. And um, the way I started
Speaker 1: singing was, um, I wanted to hear. I started hearing
Speaker 1: harmonies and stuff in my head and I'm like writing
Speaker 1: these songs at fourteen and fifteen, and I was like,
Speaker 1: I just want to hear him, so I will go
Speaker 1: to the studio and like just record him. I had
Speaker 1: an s Y eighty five and I started sequencing on
Speaker 1: that Yamaha joint and I took it to the studio.
Speaker 1: Remember I would pay my own money. Literally, I didn't
Speaker 1: have any concept of placing songs. I didn't know how
Speaker 1: to industry work. That just wasn't around. And I let
Speaker 1: my best friend here one of those songs. Uh. Kenneth
Speaker 1: and his brother Brian was in ministandard years old, and
Speaker 1: he was like, you should let Brian here that they
Speaker 1: just started a group because they were on the road
Speaker 1: doing sneaky Um, yeah, I was. I didn't know where
Speaker 1: R and B songs weld play, so I didn't let
Speaker 1: nobody hear those at that point. I was right though.
Speaker 1: I thought I wanted to write for Brian McKnight, and
Speaker 1: I'm like, I don't, I don't know, but I think
Speaker 1: I can. Yeah. That's why I was like I skipped
Speaker 1: because Stevie was the first thing that came to me,
Speaker 1: like really you and I became obsessed. Like at thirteen,
Speaker 1: I became obsessed, so I wasn't necessarily listening to what
Speaker 1: was popular at the time. So now I listened to
Speaker 1: the kid groups that you didn't want to write for them.
Speaker 1: I think Brian, I think I could do you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. That had no idea with that confidence.
Speaker 1: But but Ken let Brian hear that song and they
Speaker 1: recorded that on It Feels Like Rain album. So I
Speaker 1: was fifteen. I remember I had to bring the CD
Speaker 1: to school because they didn't believe me. I'm like, YO
Speaker 1: wrote a song for a real person, and I brought
Speaker 1: the CD cover there to show them that. Yeah, And
Speaker 1: then I got to check and I was like, wait,
Speaker 1: I could do this and get a money like it
Speaker 1: No I didn't know. I didn't know at all. I
Speaker 1: was like, they want to do my song? J Mark
Speaker 1: Pajam was producing it. P D A and J Mass
Speaker 1: they produced it. And I always tell this story. It
Speaker 1: is funny because my s Y A D five would
Speaker 1: cut out if it was overload, like sequencing right, so
Speaker 1: you go from the hook to the verse and sometimes
Speaker 1: if it's too many sounds at the at the one,
Speaker 1: it would drop out and P D A and then
Speaker 1: they dropped out. They did a break and I said
Speaker 1: in my fourteen year fifteen year old brain, I said, oh,
Speaker 1: I'm a producer, like they did my mistake over you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. And that was it. Man, I
Speaker 1: was like, I was like, and so to your point,
Speaker 1: gospel music was the lowest hanging fruit for me. That's
Speaker 1: what it was around me. Like I said, my dad
Speaker 1: was making records all that. So I was writing for
Speaker 1: the church and stuff and until I moved to Atlanta
Speaker 1: in college and that's my junior years when I linked
Speaker 1: up with in Dr Red and places. That's my first placement,
Speaker 1: like mainstream placement when she was on Motown. But so
Speaker 1: I guess fourteen was like when I started playing the
Speaker 1: House of Blue, Sunday brunch, playing for different groups. Again,
Speaker 1: wasn't singing singing was like not mom, I was too
Speaker 1: shys to shake. My dad asked me to singing church.
Speaker 1: My hand to be shaking. I didn't want to be
Speaker 1: in front of people. I tried to be in the
Speaker 1: back for so long. Still worth singing at four nah,
Speaker 1: just to myself, but not not out, not out to people.
Speaker 1: Now I was. I was terrified, man, until my dad
Speaker 1: asked me to sing a solo and I was, I
Speaker 1: did it for him, you know, And then I kind
Speaker 1: of I was like, I liked, I like this. I'm
Speaker 1: just scared, you know what I'm saying. But when I
Speaker 1: went to college, I got to kind of re reinvent
Speaker 1: myself for seeing myself in a different light because I
Speaker 1: was just Paul Morton's son, you know, in the world.
Speaker 1: So I was just it was huge, it was a
Speaker 1: huge shadow. So like I got to just restart in
Speaker 1: Atlanta's when I started to like think about being an
Speaker 1: artist at all. You know. Yeah, that's at fourteen. That's
Speaker 1: nice grade, right, yeah, eighth yeah, ninth grade. I sang
Speaker 1: in front of them girls, I say that gospel song
Speaker 1: in front of them women yeah, and went to that
Speaker 1: howard he no, and they started screaming at just something.
Speaker 1: I said, this is a different homely spit this w Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that was playing to me. But the singing I just
Speaker 1: was not. I didn't care at that point. I was
Speaker 1: I was, I was playing that. You did none of them.
Speaker 1: You didn't none of the talent shows, nothing, you do
Speaker 1: any of those things in high school and I skipped
Speaker 1: all of that stuff. I mean, my dad's church was
Speaker 1: such a popping like that. It was almost like I
Speaker 1: was in the middle of all of it anyway, Like
Speaker 1: all the musicians will come to my dad's church Sunday
Speaker 1: nights and sit around and around the musicians, and so
Speaker 1: I was like I was in it. It It felt like
Speaker 1: a professional already. Yeah, I did, because that was like
Speaker 1: that was a professional job. Like if you if you
Speaker 1: got a job as a musician, and my dad's church
Speaker 1: that was like you were really were really somebody. Yeah
Speaker 1: you're one of them. Like I'm really, I'm really puzzled
Speaker 1: by you not singing it, still not singing it fourteen
Speaker 1: fifteen years old, because like in your mind as you're
Speaker 1: going through the progressions of becoming a really dope musician,
Speaker 1: Are you also in your mind developing yourself vocally and
Speaker 1: just nobody knows? Yeah, just behind just kind of behind
Speaker 1: the scenes, like like even I remember my mom saying like, yeah,
Speaker 1: you don't think about the writing song, you know, but
Speaker 1: voice was changing probably just like no, this ain't it
Speaker 1: for me, you know, and playing fulfilled me so much,
Speaker 1: like just being in the band fulfill that was my
Speaker 1: biggest dream. I just wanted to play for an artist
Speaker 1: who performed on the Grammys, Like that was it. That
Speaker 1: was my dream. No records, no writing. It was like, yo,
Speaker 1: I just that's it if I could get in this
Speaker 1: person's band, you know what I'm saying. So um The
Speaker 1: singing though, for me, was like behind the scenes. I
Speaker 1: started to, like I said, around thirteen is when Stevie
Speaker 1: and then probably one of my earliest records I bought
Speaker 1: CDs I bought was like Brandy or something, you know,
Speaker 1: and I started seeing like okay, because I always felt
Speaker 1: like what was current wasn't singers in my mind, you know,
Speaker 1: as a kid, I was like that ain't really what
Speaker 1: I That don't move me. So I didn't really want
Speaker 1: to be like a current singer or anything like that.
Speaker 1: Uh So I never thought of it that way because
Speaker 1: then it it fast tracked though, because yeah, it had
Speaker 1: to happen quickly. Yeah, yeah, in terms of once you
Speaker 1: come out into decided to get the confidence to sing
Speaker 1: like this, just don't come out of nowhere, right. So
Speaker 1: I tried to start a band in college and I
Speaker 1: was still trying to be the background. But I wanted
Speaker 1: the Beatles. I wanted a black Beatle so bad. Like
Speaker 1: the Beatles. I was a huge fan, and I'm like, yo,
Speaker 1: it was dope because they all were sweet at singing
Speaker 1: and those harmonies were crazy. So I'm like, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: be the keyboard player and sing, you know, in the back,
Speaker 1: and then there's gonna be a lead singer. And I
Speaker 1: couldn't get anybody to commit. And that's when I was like,
Speaker 1: all right, man, I'm gonna just sing these songs. It's
Speaker 1: gotta be me. Like it just was. It was purely necessity,
Speaker 1: though I was, it was not because I wanted to
Speaker 1: be there. And then it went fast and then my dad.
Speaker 1: I remember my first show. My dad came to Atlanta
Speaker 1: and little five Points at this place called Seven Stages
Speaker 1: I was opening up for. It was me and algebra
Speaker 1: and and my dad saw me perform and I was
Speaker 1: like talking and like He's like, who was this person
Speaker 1: that's like looking like they're comfortable on stage? Atlanta is
Speaker 1: what Bradney like as one hundred percent as a writer. Everything,
Speaker 1: Like Atlanta was really the place that the developed me
Speaker 1: in that it's just always been so many dope people
Speaker 1: in Atlanta always, and it's it's musical and it's probably
Speaker 1: because there's so many churches in Atlanta, Like you can
Speaker 1: you find a real diamond in the rough down there
Speaker 1: that has no idea what they are in one of
Speaker 1: those open just just monsters. And I'm telling you it's
Speaker 1: it's church, absolutely as church. When people ask me about
Speaker 1: R and B in the state of R and B,
Speaker 1: I said it it changed when grandmothers stopped making these
Speaker 1: kids go to church. That's when R and B changed.
Speaker 1: And get it at for saying, I didn't get it
Speaker 1: till I moved home, because when I came to l A,
Speaker 1: I adn't really go to church, you know, it wasn't
Speaker 1: really the same culture of like what I'm saying, and
Speaker 1: so I lost some of it, Like I didn't realize
Speaker 1: it until I moved back to New Orleans and I
Speaker 1: was in my parents church and I'm like, oh, this
Speaker 1: is where I used to write them songs like it
Speaker 1: used to just hit me. I mean in R and
Speaker 1: B songs, you know, like my dad those, I'd be
Speaker 1: on the organ behind them while are you talking? And
Speaker 1: you know, and I'm wrong, I'm back there writing songs
Speaker 1: because something about the environment and like the spirit of
Speaker 1: what was going on was just inspiration NonStop. And that soul,
Speaker 1: that same thing you needed to move church is the
Speaker 1: same thing we need to move in R and B audience.
Speaker 1: It's there. It's no different. It's what comes from the heart.
Speaker 1: You know, what I'm saying reaches the heart and so
Speaker 1: like when you're in that environment, I just I mean
Speaker 1: that that that schooled me. Man, it schooled me. And
Speaker 1: I agree with you, like that's where we lost some
Speaker 1: of that soul in R and B. When but when
Speaker 1: the church things started to change, you know, yeah, absolutely so.
Speaker 1: So how long are you in Atlanta before he said
Speaker 1: you got your first place? Man? How long are you
Speaker 1: in Atlanta before you get your break where it's like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm really like this, I'm a professional. Yeah, this
Speaker 1: is what I'm doing Did you finish that more house?
Speaker 1: I finished that more house. I got my degree in marketing. Nice. Okay,
Speaker 1: so it all makes sense then, okay, all right, okay,
Speaker 1: yeah that really came into play. Like you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. I'm so happy I did that. Um when
Speaker 1: I graduated. UM So, when I was in school, I
Speaker 1: would get these calls to like go on tour because
Speaker 1: I was a keyboard player and people knew that, but
Speaker 1: I would just I was like, let me just finish school.
Speaker 1: But right out of college I went on tour with
Speaker 1: Erica badu Um as her keyboard plays. First was my
Speaker 1: very first tour, very first. How did you get to
Speaker 1: er Did you look in the eyes? I did, and
Speaker 1: it was it wasn't good. It wasn't. I love Erica
Speaker 1: but not feel I was scared. I was kind of
Speaker 1: like the first rehearsal, she just came and said, you know,
Speaker 1: if you need anything. I was just like, I didn't
Speaker 1: want to. I appreciate you know what I'm saying, But no,
Speaker 1: it was. It couldn't have been a better first tour experienced.
Speaker 1: Oh so uh. The guy who gave me the cassette
Speaker 1: tape with Donnie Live on it and gave me a
Speaker 1: cassette tape with I Ain't Ever dream You're Leaving Somewhere.
Speaker 1: That put me on my Stevie Geno, I go heart. Um.
Speaker 1: His dad was my best My dad's best man in
Speaker 1: his wedding became Erica ba Dudes music director. When I
Speaker 1: was at Morehouse and he was like, pe, you want
Speaker 1: to come out, and I'm like, man, I just I'm
Speaker 1: in school. And it came back around right when I
Speaker 1: was graduating and Gino took me out. Man And it
Speaker 1: was like my first time on a tour bus lo keep,
Speaker 1: my first time missing church, like like missing the Sunday.
Speaker 1: This is college after yeah, and I didn't know what
Speaker 1: to do on a Sunday. Like I was like, you know,
Speaker 1: so we it's one of the buses going to church,
Speaker 1: or like it's one of the it's one of the
Speaker 1: it's a group. It's a group of I'm gonna I'm
Speaker 1: gonna sitting in the window seat on this literally because
Speaker 1: through college, just to have a job, I played. I
Speaker 1: played at the church all throughout college. I mean I
Speaker 1: really I played at a church until Maroon five. Like luckily,
Speaker 1: to be totally honest, Um, I always kept a church job,
Speaker 1: you know, helping my dad out at that at that time.
Speaker 1: But um, I didn't know what to do on a Sunday.
Speaker 1: I was just like, all right, we supposed to and
Speaker 1: they're like, no, it's just it's a it's just a
Speaker 1: show day. Just the lower rest of them and your
Speaker 1: whole life. Sunday is church. Sunday's church. My literally, Mom,
Speaker 1: you're and you're playing in church, so you're you're there
Speaker 1: the entire day. Oh no, I'm like, I'm yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: fully a part of what churches on Sundays. So that
Speaker 1: was the experience. But by dude, man, she is ah
Speaker 1: and I think about it out because everything connects. But
Speaker 1: like the way I became a touring artist, Like I
Speaker 1: couldn't afford radio at the beginning of my career and stuff,
Speaker 1: so tour was my radio. Like that was the way
Speaker 1: I got two people. But now that I think about it,
Speaker 1: that's by do and that's why she worked forever, current single, no,
Speaker 1: current single, whatever. She has developed her audience, you know,
Speaker 1: to know that she's going to be on the road
Speaker 1: and they're gonna have this experience with her every year
Speaker 1: or every other year. And I mean I got paid
Speaker 1: on time. I mean, like shout out. It was a
Speaker 1: really solid like watching her as a true artist. It
Speaker 1: put me on my path, you know for sure, because
Speaker 1: she's like, she's so different and special in the ownership
Speaker 1: that she has. With that ownership and the confidence of
Speaker 1: there's only one one on one man, it is different. Yeah,
Speaker 1: just in just like when you walk up to her
Speaker 1: and just even start talking to her, it just starts
Speaker 1: getting different. It changes immediately. The energy. Yeah, she's she's powerful, man,
Speaker 1: She's she's got like like we were talking earlier, she's
Speaker 1: got the cult. Yeah. I did the show Erica. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they followed. They they enjoyed my set. They were, but
Speaker 1: they weren't there right at all, there for their leader. Man.
Speaker 1: They were different. Man. I was like, I was like,
Speaker 1: I know, when I take my shirt off, it's gonna
Speaker 1: get real crazy here. It's like you ain't got no instance.
Speaker 1: So it was special and I was That was the
Speaker 1: first time I ever had writer's blocked, um because I
Speaker 1: thought I was about to be writing mad songs. But
Speaker 1: it was like all these new experiences happening all at once.
Speaker 1: It was like almost just too much. And as soon
Speaker 1: as I got off tour, that's when I start working
Speaker 1: on my first solo album. Um and uh, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: get to your break question because I don't even know
Speaker 1: where my break was. It's like it was different, it
Speaker 1: was different times. I feel like I had so many
Speaker 1: of these and then coasts and then these and then coast. Um. Uh.
Speaker 1: But when I got off of bay Do, I started
Speaker 1: writing my solo album. But then I wrote a big
Speaker 1: gospel song right after that called let Go Let God
Speaker 1: for Dwayne Woods and it was like number one for
Speaker 1: like seventy two weeks, seventy two weeks, like and in
Speaker 1: the top ten for seven two weeks. And um, that
Speaker 1: song really changed my first award. I wanted like a
Speaker 1: stellar I think I was twenty something, you know. Um,
Speaker 1: and that was a break. Um. But then I went
Speaker 1: to Jermaine Dupree. After I got off the road with Bad,
Speaker 1: I went to j D School basically, and this was
Speaker 1: after Bi Cox said him and Bi Cox head they
Speaker 1: went crazy and the stream yeah yeah, mass like the
Speaker 1: biggest albums about you know, Confessions and you know, Be
Speaker 1: Without You. It's like you know, um and um uh,
Speaker 1: I well be Cox was busy, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: and j D needed another keyboard player. So I came
Speaker 1: in as that guy and wrote for Monica and Jaggeted
Speaker 1: and you know, even John Tay was working on the
Speaker 1: album at that time. And for me, so it was
Speaker 1: it was it was breaks and that, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. Um, But for me, and I think this
Speaker 1: is you know why I'm happy I'm talking to y'all
Speaker 1: because my journey has been so non traditional. You know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. It's like, people wonder how I'm able
Speaker 1: to maintain and you know, we just want the fourth Grammy,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying this year. You know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. But but but the way I got there
Speaker 1: was so non traditional. It's not you know, I didn't
Speaker 1: have a huge hit record or anything. You know. I
Speaker 1: heard somebody say like I had to hit life, you know,
Speaker 1: like it's been, it's been. It's been like um, it's
Speaker 1: been a combination of things that has allowed me to
Speaker 1: do that, and part of that was touring UM and
Speaker 1: me really understanding that there was another way. I tried
Speaker 1: to sign everywhere, you know what I'm saying. I tried
Speaker 1: to I tried to go to traditional route and Young
Speaker 1: Money was your first Young Money was my first major,
Speaker 1: first and only major deal. Um, yeah, that's what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: It's just weird. It's just weird. So so Young Money
Speaker 1: was the year after I joined around five and us
Speaker 1: story that I've never met, but we can share the
Speaker 1: same kind of name. I think we at one point
Speaker 1: met him go out to fight, I tried, well, So
Speaker 1: so Young Money had way more history than people know.
Speaker 1: Me and McMahon went to the same high school in
Speaker 1: New Orleans. It wasn't just um, you know random. Uh.
Speaker 1: And at that time when I got signed, Wayne was
Speaker 1: just getting out of jail and uh, they were trying
Speaker 1: to pivot as a label, like just do different things.
Speaker 1: And I think Mac, who is a huge fan of
Speaker 1: music in general, he's a music guy. Um just you know,
Speaker 1: was like, p you want to do this? And this.
Speaker 1: They were on fire. I mean this was this was
Speaker 1: this was Drake was dope. Yeah, he like just and
Speaker 1: so what was beautiful and what is beautiful about Young
Speaker 1: Money in general that probably isn't said enough is they
Speaker 1: leave their artists alone. They just like let them go.
Speaker 1: You know. They don't say, oh, well we signed Drake,
Speaker 1: so let's I know you've been with forty. But now
Speaker 1: let's let's go get him and let's go get you know,
Speaker 1: this producer. And they're like, na, y'all, just keep doing
Speaker 1: what you are doing and we're gonna put steroids on it. Nikki, Oh,
Speaker 1: you like doing different voices and what, just keep doing that.
Speaker 1: They don't feel the need to. They signed things that
Speaker 1: they believe in already. So like I literally they didn't
Speaker 1: hear my record until it was mixing master, you know,
Speaker 1: and it was just support there um uh and uh.
Speaker 1: I mean that was that was my first Grammy nomination
Speaker 1: as a solo artist. But that was even random. That
Speaker 1: was that was random. You know what. My first official
Speaker 1: album was after Erica Badou. So it was years. This
Speaker 1: is years, this is five, this is oh five when
Speaker 1: I released my first independent record, and that's after I
Speaker 1: couldn't sign to any major label. So I had to
Speaker 1: figure it out. I didn't know that there was another way.
Speaker 1: I had to study, like you do the white rock bands.
Speaker 1: Did you do the run? Did you go to every label?
Speaker 1: And oh man, I did all the showcases because we
Speaker 1: need That's the thing at R and B Money. At
Speaker 1: R and B Money podcast, we like to give all
Speaker 1: the information. We liked it. Let them know that this
Speaker 1: isn't an overnight thing. This is this is a life thing.
Speaker 1: Like you said, you're trying to have a hit life,
Speaker 1: and these are the things that sometimes are are are
Speaker 1: just looked over. People don't really tap into that disappointment
Speaker 1: that going to our somebody said they got an uncle
Speaker 1: that work at such and such label, and maybe they
Speaker 1: can get me a meeting. Dreams. It's a constant dream
Speaker 1: and there are so many dream sellers who are actually nightmares.
Speaker 1: Word word no. I I mean I don't. I literally
Speaker 1: went to every label, Like me and my turning we
Speaker 1: went to I think every label. I mean I remember
Speaker 1: sitting down with just about everybody doing showcases, people saying, yo, man,
Speaker 1: I love his music. I just don't. You don't think
Speaker 1: it's gonna work, you know, and like, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: like it just it was too musical and all all
Speaker 1: I've heard I heard it all, you know, And so
Speaker 1: in my mind I was like that market. In mind too,
Speaker 1: I'm like, okay, what does this mean? Like how can
Speaker 1: I get my music direct to people? Uh? And like
Speaker 1: it was way before independence was like cool even anybody
Speaker 1: knew what that was. Yeah, when you were in they
Speaker 1: at this point. It was because you couldn't get a deal,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, and so and I didn't
Speaker 1: even go to an indie label. I said, Okay, how
Speaker 1: do I do it? So it was CD Baby, it
Speaker 1: was my space. It was like, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: My first tour was based off of my sales for
Speaker 1: CD Baby. I said, well, I'm gonna go to these
Speaker 1: cities and the promoters this is a funny story. But
Speaker 1: the promoters didn't know who I was. And they didn't
Speaker 1: know who I was because I was like underground famous, right,
Speaker 1: But I knew I had fans. But since they did,
Speaker 1: and I said, don't just pay me off the door,
Speaker 1: you don't have to pay me anything. I'm gonna bring everything.
Speaker 1: And I borrowed my mom's bus. I just signed my
Speaker 1: first publishing deal with Famous Music. The Famous too is
Speaker 1: my Yeah yeah Billy Billy Billy signed left Yeah Yeah,
Speaker 1: BC signed me and then he went somewhere else. But
Speaker 1: that's my guy. He's the first to believe that way.
Speaker 1: And I literally had an open door policy, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. Um and looked out for me. But
Speaker 1: I took literally my whole events and said, I'm I'm
Speaker 1: not trying to be a writer like that. I'm an artist,
Speaker 1: and I took my whole band on tour. I'm took
Speaker 1: my horns fourteen people, with the publishing money, with the
Speaker 1: publishing money, investing yourself. Dog. Yeah, Like I've always been
Speaker 1: a maniac because if I if I think about that now,
Speaker 1: it's like, Yo, what were you doing? But literally, those
Speaker 1: fourteen places I went, I could go for the rest
Speaker 1: of my life, even today. But I didn't couldn't afford
Speaker 1: the tour bus. My mom had a women of Excellence
Speaker 1: bus that was the women's ministry at the church. Took
Speaker 1: the church bus. I took a charter bus that was purple,
Speaker 1: pink and white. They thought a women's conference was fulling
Speaker 1: up to the clubs. But I didn't care though I
Speaker 1: literally didn't. I didn't care. I had to get to it,
Speaker 1: that's all I knew. I'm like, I paid my boys nice.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. I was like, Yo, y'all
Speaker 1: we on tour. You know what I'm saying. We don't
Speaker 1: don't talk about how long I didn't eat from that,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. That's why I always kept
Speaker 1: a job where I could be flexible playing at church
Speaker 1: and as a producer and a writer. That's why I
Speaker 1: was still in that game, was because I needed to
Speaker 1: fund what I really cared about. But we went on
Speaker 1: that tour and literally like those markets Atlanta and Birmingham
Speaker 1: and like Charleston, I can I still go to those
Speaker 1: places and have a following because of ten plus years
Speaker 1: ago when I when I kind of like invested in myself,
Speaker 1: you know, uh, for better or worse. It was just like,
Speaker 1: you know, it really got me to walk to this
Speaker 1: place how many people? Oh my god? I can remember
Speaker 1: us playing Columbus, Ohio and it was like twenty people,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, Like, and I was like,
Speaker 1: whoa this is because we're at least Atlanta. We had
Speaker 1: a yeah. Yeah, so I lost. I took I took
Speaker 1: a loss on that um and then some some of
Speaker 1: the rooms were two hundred people, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: On a hundred people and we we put on the
Speaker 1: show like it was thousand people, had three background singers,
Speaker 1: that hell, three horns in the crowd. Yeah my band
Speaker 1: was bigger than the crowd. Yeah, facts like the but
Speaker 1: but but I did not man It's so crazy how
Speaker 1: I didn't care at all, Like I didn't care at all.
Speaker 1: I didn't care that I was spending my money. I
Speaker 1: just really felt sure that if I just stayed here,
Speaker 1: you know, it would click. And and so that that's
Speaker 1: kind of that kind of has has been the story.
Speaker 1: So I was on the on the tour of mine
Speaker 1: for another album called Walk Alone, and Adam Blackstone called
Speaker 1: me and was like, yo, maron five looking or a
Speaker 1: keyboard player, singer, you know. I told him, only no
Speaker 1: one like you. I just threw your hat, you know,
Speaker 1: your name in the hat, and I was like, um, okay.
Speaker 1: I literally they wanted me to audition. I canceled the
Speaker 1: last three days of my tour and came to l
Speaker 1: A and all they did was asked me to learn
Speaker 1: Sunday Morning. I was like, okay, is falling? Were you
Speaker 1: familiar with the group? Yeah, I was a fan. This
Speaker 1: love and stuff. I feel like that was mine maybe
Speaker 1: not like freshman year a college or like sophomore years.
Speaker 1: So I knew I was here too. This his taking this.
Speaker 1: I was like, these these boys are nice. So I
Speaker 1: knew that, right. I knew Sunday Morning, and but I
Speaker 1: had never auditioned before. This is my first audition in life,
Speaker 1: because people it was always word of mouth. They like, right,
Speaker 1: these guys didn't know me at all, and so Blackstone
Speaker 1: was just vouching. Um. And so I came to l
Speaker 1: a place Sunday morning and then we just vibe. I
Speaker 1: kind of knew I had it imediately because because of
Speaker 1: the vibe, not because anybody could play. Yeah, and they
Speaker 1: was so we start jamming. It was like what else,
Speaker 1: you know, I was like, and we went too long
Speaker 1: and they had people waiting, so we had to stop
Speaker 1: people with the audition. And then they had a second
Speaker 1: day of auditions that they ended up canceling and called
Speaker 1: me that night, you know, and it's been Yeah, it'll
Speaker 1: be thirteen years in July, you know, like twelve plush
Speaker 1: years that I've been with Maroon And that really changed
Speaker 1: my life. But it also freed me up to really
Speaker 1: make the art I wanted to because I didn't have
Speaker 1: to sell I don't have to sell records. Yeah and um,
Speaker 1: and so Young Money was my last kind of attempt
Speaker 1: at the normal way, you know, like I was like,
Speaker 1: all right, let me try this one more time. And
Speaker 1: when Young Money didn't necessarily fit, you know, uh, and
Speaker 1: on that on that, on that Young Money album, I
Speaker 1: did double duty with Maroon. I opened up from Maron
Speaker 1: five Kelly Clarkson, you know, was before Maroon, and then
Speaker 1: I closed with my Room five and then we did
Speaker 1: that in Europe, I opened Robin Thick and then I
Speaker 1: closed with my Round five. So those guys, and I
Speaker 1: think the reason I'm still there is because they've always
Speaker 1: fully supported me, like fully like what like whatever, like
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, true friends, and um, so
Speaker 1: I told them, and we told each other, you know,
Speaker 1: if I never have to leave, I don't. I don't why,
Speaker 1: you know, like we family at this point. But that
Speaker 1: really allowed me to, you know, like beat myself and
Speaker 1: fully make it without any pressure allowed me to. And
Speaker 1: then so um, I left l A and went to
Speaker 1: move back home to New Orleans. Maroon had played jazz
Speaker 1: Fest in and I started seeing my city way different.
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh, it is kind of fly, like I
Speaker 1: didn't remember it, Like it was just a totally different perspective.
Speaker 1: Had been around the world at that time something like that.
Speaker 1: It looked like South of France, like you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, Like I get it, and so that planned
Speaker 1: at that seed and then um, yeah I decided I
Speaker 1: was leaving. Um this was right, I think. I don't
Speaker 1: know if that was your room, but North Hollywood, you
Speaker 1: remember at that studio next to you off of Magnolia.
Speaker 1: Was that your actual room? I didn't remember. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I was next to you for for like a year probably,
Speaker 1: I guess that was my little room. Yeah, I was.
Speaker 1: I was right next to y'all. Yeah you know what
Speaker 1: because I brought it up as in joking form about
Speaker 1: about James Valentine, but you actually were instrumental in us
Speaker 1: figuring out um a p R O mishap because like
Speaker 1: somehow ASCAP was getting James Valentine and Jay Valentine mixed
Speaker 1: up and was holding up both of our money. And
Speaker 1: you're you were the only person that I that I
Speaker 1: even knew remotely that could get to Maroon. Remember I
Speaker 1: stopped you one then I'm like, hey, I know it's
Speaker 1: about to be some different ship, but yeah you can
Speaker 1: tell yeah, yeah, yeah, it's crazy. But in that room,
Speaker 1: I started writing Gumbo, like my album Gumbo, and I
Speaker 1: was like, I knew I was gonna leave Alto and so,
Speaker 1: but in their room, I remember writing this song first beginning.
Speaker 1: That really kicked off everything. So I moved home and
Speaker 1: I didn't want to do music at all. I'm like, yo,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm straight, I'm cool, I'm in maron five, not bad,
Speaker 1: you know, Okay, I'm right in life, Like you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. It's like we tried to sing, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying at that time. It's like I said, oh, five,
Speaker 1: So it's like at this time, you know, it's probably
Speaker 1: seven years in eight years in of trying if you
Speaker 1: count my group in O two in college. Then we're
Speaker 1: talking about like a long time trying, just trying, just
Speaker 1: keep like getting knocked down and saying, you know, let
Speaker 1: me go back. You what I'm saying. And um so
Speaker 1: I was like I'm done. And then I got back
Speaker 1: to New Orleans and it was like no expectation and
Speaker 1: I'm like, you know what, I'm gonna just make one
Speaker 1: more thing and I'm not gonna worry about radio. I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna worry about I'm gonna just make what I
Speaker 1: want to make. And that was supposed to be the
Speaker 1: last album that was Gumbo, and that kind of changed everything,
Speaker 1: kind of everything everything. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, No, it's
Speaker 1: it's gotta be strategic. You know, I think we talked
Speaker 1: about the dreams so much, but sometimes you gotta have
Speaker 1: an actual strategic plan to make that happen. And that's
Speaker 1: for me. You know, I was blessed enough to have
Speaker 1: like a church gig while I'm playing once a week,
Speaker 1: so I couldn't move around, or being a producer a writer,
Speaker 1: and you know, finding some success in that and being
Speaker 1: able to you know what I'm saying, cushion that. But
Speaker 1: but I put all my money right back in. You
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying that I need people to understand.
Speaker 1: I was like even when you saw me, even at
Speaker 1: a point where people may have thought I was successful
Speaker 1: in the sense of oh you man, you're touring, you're
Speaker 1: going crazy. You yeah, you see my band and my this, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's going right back out. And I understood that. That's
Speaker 1: why I kept another thing, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: And I tell people, and this is actually what every
Speaker 1: part of your team and every part of your career.
Speaker 1: Because some people think I gotta go to get an agent,
Speaker 1: I gotta get a manager, I gotta go get prs,
Speaker 1: Like what do you what do you publicize, like you
Speaker 1: don't have nothing to feed them, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: And you want to spend this a month, so like
Speaker 1: slow down and do everything you can. I say, the
Speaker 1: biggest blessing with me not getting a major deal and
Speaker 1: all of that stuff was I had to learn everything
Speaker 1: I had to learn. I mean, I drove the van
Speaker 1: I you know what I'm saying. I came up with
Speaker 1: the merch you know what I'm saying. I figured out
Speaker 1: the door deals, you know, and and understood how that,
Speaker 1: how that? Oh yeah somewhere. Yeah, I gotta gotta get
Speaker 1: you out. Yeah, I gotta get trip tripping, y'all being
Speaker 1: supposed to have that. Um. But like it made me
Speaker 1: learn every aspect of the business. So people couldn't just
Speaker 1: tell me anything once I was Once I was there,
Speaker 1: so it's like I say, don't add this agent until
Speaker 1: you know what your agent is supposed to do and
Speaker 1: know why you need the agents something, because they think
Speaker 1: if I get an agent, they're it's done. No, No,
Speaker 1: that's not how it works. These people have to want
Speaker 1: to see you. Yeah, so we we really got to educate. Man.
Speaker 1: I feel like I was the last generation of like
Speaker 1: some people still giving game, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: and this and this and this newness, but I think
Speaker 1: we gotta get that, we gotta just kind of teach it. Well,
Speaker 1: that's why I appreciate this, man, y'all really here, I
Speaker 1: mean you, I'm really hearing game when I listened to this,
Speaker 1: to this podcast. Man, I appreciate you all. And I
Speaker 1: think it's no accident that it's like taking off at
Speaker 1: the speed it has because it's like when there's a
Speaker 1: when there's a need that's not being met. You know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, People like, oh, shoot, I was just
Speaker 1: waiting for the whale. You know what I'm saying. And y'all, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: for sure, for sure, bro, Yeah yeah you sound you
Speaker 1: loan something up? Man? What's she doing cleaning your throat?
Speaker 1: I see I see red lights coming on? Top five?
Speaker 1: Oh my god, your top five? Pas, top five? Your
Speaker 1: top five? All right? Top five? Oh, y'all? Top songs
Speaker 1: beyond your top five? Mm hm m m man. Just
Speaker 1: take my time. Time, I got time to night. Just
Speaker 1: get out there. You don't want me near. Okay, old artists, Okay,
Speaker 1: Stevie um uh read the Franklin Um Michael um and
Speaker 1: Prince was everything, but Prince you know, um who would
Speaker 1: be my fifth R and B artists, because you know
Speaker 1: it was like soul music from you know, it was
Speaker 1: like the soul and R and B different sometimes for me.
Speaker 1: But I had to say Joe to See probably from
Speaker 1: my from my yeah, because just because of how it
Speaker 1: come on and talk to me, I knew it. Why
Speaker 1: do you do? I understood it immediately. I was like
Speaker 1: what I mean? I said, oh, that's yeah, I know
Speaker 1: what that is. That's church. Yeah, that's what I think.
Speaker 1: I'm in the video. That was your church. That was
Speaker 1: what Yeah, the first time, that's what they did the
Speaker 1: first time. Because I heard Joe to See before I
Speaker 1: heard commission ch okay yeah, and I'm like that Jodis,
Speaker 1: I like yeah. But as I as I like studied
Speaker 1: it and I really dove into commission, I'm like, oh
Speaker 1: my god, yeah, blue print, it's still originators of jo
Speaker 1: to See and so many these I was mad, Yeah, man,
Speaker 1: I got her commission story dog, I was nine. I
Speaker 1: was nine and they came to my dad's church, but
Speaker 1: they had but commission. And I told you I had
Speaker 1: my dad at the pop in church. My dad was
Speaker 1: from my dad's from Windsor, from Canada, so his dad
Speaker 1: was a big bishop in Canada and Detroit. So like
Speaker 1: my dad grew up with the Whinings and the Clark sisters,
Speaker 1: their families grew up together. So it was that, right, man,
Speaker 1: Like my dad's first solo record. Do you remember Thomas
Speaker 1: Whinfill he produced my dad's solo record. Commission sang background
Speaker 1: on my dad's first solo record. So like it's that's right, okay, okay,
Speaker 1: they came dog and I'm talking about Commission came through
Speaker 1: like this must have been the first album because I was, uh,
Speaker 1: this was this was like uh uh uh I'm going
Speaker 1: on and then yeah, all that stuff right, but it
Speaker 1: had to be thumbed. Dude, dude, dude, so they must
Speaker 1: have been there. What was that? I just hear the
Speaker 1: music right now. But anyways, all they had stacked amps
Speaker 1: like rock and rock. They came through there like rock stars.
Speaker 1: It was the loudest I've ever heard music. Man. When
Speaker 1: I tell you, they smashed. It was like seeing my
Speaker 1: favorite rock band. Like I remember standing by my dad's
Speaker 1: office because I guess that had to be the dressing
Speaker 1: room back that's where they was changing and I stood
Speaker 1: there waiting for the autograph stock. This is how this
Speaker 1: is how deep it was. But man, commission bro commission man,
Speaker 1: Mitchell Jones, Mitch, Mitch. I had him on the I
Speaker 1: brought him back from my gospel album at Mitch and
Speaker 1: Carl and Fred on this gospel court in the PJ album.
Speaker 1: I did, what, how do you describe Mitchell Jones his vocal?
Speaker 1: W what was that? Because it was it was kind
Speaker 1: of Stevie ste So when I got to so when
Speaker 1: he I mean, I gotta literally the song, but like
Speaker 1: it's Mitch, it's Mitch being Mitch, right, And he told
Speaker 1: me the reason they like me and stuff is because
Speaker 1: Donnie had the wait was like really influential. And I
Speaker 1: think Mitch was just like a combo of I don't
Speaker 1: really know. He was so quick. I don't really know,
Speaker 1: but he still got had patterns. They didn't have normal patterns. No,
Speaker 1: I think they like and the and the and the crack.
Speaker 1: He had the baby face crack within his patterns. That
Speaker 1: hard Yeah, that was like manufactured hard in that was
Speaker 1: like the crack. I couldn't figure. I was obsessed. They
Speaker 1: reinvented singing though in a way like they they you
Speaker 1: know how I say, it's a few of them. It's like,
Speaker 1: you know, commission. People started to sing different after that
Speaker 1: as w V. Like I remember when all girls, all
Speaker 1: the girls wanted to be Coco, right absolutely, um, you
Speaker 1: know it happened with Kimbrell, you know, when everybody wanted
Speaker 1: So sometimes that just comes along. But like Mitch fred Keith,
Speaker 1: that thing was like people started singing on the side
Speaker 1: of it, like they changed it. I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm saying they changed it. Bro. We wanted to beat them.
Speaker 1: We wanted to beat them. Um. But that was just
Speaker 1: my quick commits. I just made me think of that
Speaker 1: because I forgot it didn't before my church, but we
Speaker 1: used to always go to all the churches in the city,
Speaker 1: and they were wherever they were, Oh no rock stars.
Speaker 1: And the first time I've ever heard a track okay
Speaker 1: playing like with with with them. Yeah they were head
Speaker 1: man were head it was. And then when I'm like,
Speaker 1: why did that focal sound like that? Because they're singing
Speaker 1: I am here and it sounds like it's all it's embodied.
Speaker 1: They have background tracks on the npiece. Never what is
Speaker 1: happening in here? A church group? Yeah? Never? Okay, game change, right. Sorry,
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, so I did my five top five songs.
Speaker 1: You can do it, um, because it could just be
Speaker 1: for today the ones to all right, So so let's say.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm just going all the time. So Donnie,
Speaker 1: since were something one Donnie had the way I think, um,
Speaker 1: you know, a song for you? So for you? I
Speaker 1: mean when I heard that, I was I got chills.
Speaker 1: I was like, I was like, I was almost like
Speaker 1: scared too. I was like maybe I knew his story too.
Speaker 1: I was like, this just feels it haunting. I was
Speaker 1: like it was almost like he predicted, you know, Um,
Speaker 1: so song for you. Um, Stevie, there's so many songs. Um,
Speaker 1: I'd probably say an unknown joint um either ordinary pain
Speaker 1: or the song called Summer Soft, that song songs a
Speaker 1: key of life. I got so many though, Stevie, so
Speaker 1: that but I just I'll just say, Stevie, um, um
Speaker 1: shoot R and B songs. If I'm just saying, Joe
Speaker 1: to see come and talk to me. Um shoot l
Speaker 1: de Barge or the barge, come on, come on, come on,
Speaker 1: you love I sweitch. Even though what I'm saying I
Speaker 1: know the brother was killing before, but all this love, man,
Speaker 1: it still works today, still works today. I wear them,
Speaker 1: wear them if I feel R and B SA, Oh
Speaker 1: my god. So I'm the dummy who watches you'all podcast
Speaker 1: and say, don't think of yours, like, don't prepare. I
Speaker 1: don't like being prepared? Did I feel stupid for doing that?
Speaker 1: But um um um, let's say can we talk? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I remember that, I remember that time all time. Okay, okay, okay, okay,
Speaker 1: you did good, you did good. Um, we're gonna build
Speaker 1: R and B voltron Okay, we're gonna build your R
Speaker 1: and B artists. We're gonna need the vocal from somewhere,
Speaker 1: the performance style from somewhere, the styling from somewhere, and
Speaker 1: the passion from somewhere. Who are you getting the vocal from?
Speaker 1: What artists are you snatching the vocal from to make
Speaker 1: your R and B artists? Um? I feel like Stevie
Speaker 1: is too easy. I'm gonna say, let's say like Whitney.
Speaker 1: I just feel like I never heard Whitney saying a
Speaker 1: bad I mean like it was. It's like she's the voice,
Speaker 1: you know. So I say I say Whitney. Let's say Whitney. Yeah, um,
Speaker 1: performance style on stage? I mean Prince Man. I saw Prince.
Speaker 1: I saw Prince a few times and did you ever
Speaker 1: I saw him once? Yeah, yeah, yeah right with the
Speaker 1: same Yeah, now Prince for I mean, like performance wise,
Speaker 1: I just used to study them and and and then
Speaker 1: as a you know, like de'angelo was an extension of
Speaker 1: that for me. But like I saw the mind James
Speaker 1: was really all of them, but like Prince. Yeah, it
Speaker 1: was something about how Prince was this like urban rock
Speaker 1: star most but also pop rock star, like all the
Speaker 1: same kind of thing. It's like everybody. Everybody just understood it.
Speaker 1: Everybody understood for some reason. Yeah, he just got to
Speaker 1: everybody whatever sensibilities they had. He had somebody that made
Speaker 1: sense to them. He could they dancing okay, yeah yeah,
Speaker 1: who are you getting the styling from, like like the vibe,
Speaker 1: like the look? Yeah, use use prints, But no, I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't want to wear what Princes was wearing necessarily,
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, because not as confident in my
Speaker 1: cheese and my chicks. Yeah, I'm not as confident in
Speaker 1: my cheeks. So I wouldn't want We wouldn't want it.
Speaker 1: He would want to do that time, isn't wonder At
Speaker 1: the same time. Cha can't do that, So we don't.
Speaker 1: We don't don't want that, We don't want that. Who
Speaker 1: was just smooth? I say, mar let's say Martina with
Speaker 1: the baby Yeah yeah, okay. And the passion, the heart
Speaker 1: of the artists, the passion I had to say, Donnie
Speaker 1: had the way I mean conviction. Bro. It was like
Speaker 1: when I heard Donnie live and I heard them people,
Speaker 1: I'm like, wait, they are they in the club? Are
Speaker 1: they in the church? Like I heard him. I couldn't
Speaker 1: understand it. And I think about my live albums now
Speaker 1: and stuff like that that are really connected. And it's
Speaker 1: all that's where that that came from me understanding that
Speaker 1: you could still have the same conviction even if you talk,
Speaker 1: you're singing a love song or you so like hands
Speaker 1: down Donnie man like passion you felt it even make
Speaker 1: me want to cry everything anything he say. You know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, Yeah, yeah, wow trump Yeah yeah. Oh no,
Speaker 1: that's the that's the Reaper, ain't it? Oh smokey, are
Speaker 1: saying no, I saying no name. I'm saying the name.
Speaker 1: Who was? What we did? You know? I do? I
Speaker 1: stup right down? Still you get the same down? Okay? Yeah,
Speaker 1: listen to help me the story right, funnier fucked up,
Speaker 1: are funny and fucked up in the travels of p J. Morton.
Speaker 1: The only the only one thing you can't do. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's say the name right. You can't say no names.
Speaker 1: You can not put a face with the case. Yes,
Speaker 1: this is p J. Morden. I ain't saying all right, dang,
Speaker 1: I don't have I'd be by myself so much. I'm
Speaker 1: such a loner that I haven't had a lot of
Speaker 1: experiences with I had somebody threatened to kill me before. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I was saying no name. He was like, yeah, I
Speaker 1: kill I'll kill you. I didn't. I think I was
Speaker 1: a little green. This ain't really my story. But maybe
Speaker 1: this works because this guy is in the industry, and um,
Speaker 1: I he was trying to work with another artist, and
Speaker 1: I was like, I didn't know him that well, but
Speaker 1: I'm like, you know, I heard something, I heard some stuff,
Speaker 1: but I was just really trying to help out a friend.
Speaker 1: I was just trying to tell this artist, like, you know,
Speaker 1: just bell no normal normal energy, like very like not
Speaker 1: like yo, don't mess with this dude that and uh
Speaker 1: so apparently this artist told the person and they called
Speaker 1: me and um, he was like, man, you're messing up
Speaker 1: my money. I was like, he was like, I kill you.
Speaker 1: I was like it went right there though, that's the
Speaker 1: that's the immediate They said, I'll kill you, but I
Speaker 1: ain't saying no names. What did you say in response
Speaker 1: to that? Well, I'd really see. This is the thing.
Speaker 1: It's so crazy because I've been around all kinds of stuff,
Speaker 1: like right, like I was signed the cash money like
Speaker 1: I was with baby. But what I always have done
Speaker 1: is like just remain consistent as a man. You know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, Like I'm no and I'm the furthest
Speaker 1: thing from a from a streetcat. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: But like I just was like I always felt like
Speaker 1: I could talk, Like if I just talk to you,
Speaker 1: you don't understand you know what I'm saying. That's my
Speaker 1: that's my like innocence, right, I'm like, bro, No, I
Speaker 1: was just trying to help her out. But he I
Speaker 1: kind of disarmed him because he was like, oh, because
Speaker 1: I thought you was you know what I'm saying. I'm like, nah, man,
Speaker 1: like kill you know what I'm saying. But we did
Speaker 1: have to have a middle man who knew me was like, Yo,
Speaker 1: that's not him. You gotta you gotta relax. That's pretty good.
Speaker 1: I said that. I never said that, but I got
Speaker 1: he was gonna kill I'm like, Yo, this industry is different.
Speaker 1: You want to kill me. I'm imagine that you want
Speaker 1: to kill me? Bro Yeah yeah, yeah, I thought I
Speaker 1: had another one in my head. But that that that
Speaker 1: that's music business and listen over a woman. Yeah yeah,
Speaker 1: in any capacity, in any compacity, I've got that same
Speaker 1: same threatening and energy, right, same threatening. I'll kill you,
Speaker 1: I'll kill you. You want to die to night? Dad,
Speaker 1: I don't think so like you're gonna do it like
Speaker 1: like when you're gonna like you're gonna kill You're gonna
Speaker 1: do it. And I'm whatever you do to me to
Speaker 1: tell me that outside right now? Why why would you
Speaker 1: have so many people that's sores to have that. He
Speaker 1: was mad at me for making fun of him. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you're gonna get a hundred for me, yo. Yeah, comes
Speaker 1: like five yards paper. That is not like you shouldn't
Speaker 1: have to do that just peer just on the per
Speaker 1: just from a pure numbers perspective, that is gonna be
Speaker 1: crowded like you. I'm saying like I was like, Bro,
Speaker 1: I don't even just like, yeah, you're gonna. I don't
Speaker 1: think that's any of your business. Why are you like this?
Speaker 1: You try to play yeah yeah, yeah in here if
Speaker 1: I give you it, just if I'm giving any opinion
Speaker 1: on this, I got to tell that story. But when
Speaker 1: I gotta do, I say no names, And I got
Speaker 1: to tell that story. It is the funniest sounds. Oh
Speaker 1: my god. If I could say the names anyway, you can't.
Speaker 1: You can't. Brother. Um let's start with I'm glad that
Speaker 1: he didn't kick. Oh, I'm alive. I'm alive. He's still
Speaker 1: he's still kicking out here. Yeah, bro, you you're you're
Speaker 1: absolutely amazing brother. And that and that is not you know,
Speaker 1: that is not industry talk. That is not fluff. That
Speaker 1: we are fans of what you are fans and and
Speaker 1: it makes sense man. You you put in the work,
Speaker 1: you put in the time. Um, and and you hone
Speaker 1: your gift in real places, man, in real rooms and
Speaker 1: and real dirt floors, man, And and really get into
Speaker 1: the chicken, man, so that part alone, man deserves the salute.
Speaker 1: And as many flowers as imaginable, man like warting artists
Speaker 1: to understand like that groundwork is real, man, and that
Speaker 1: that will be the difference in you standing the test
Speaker 1: of time said, being able to go into these rooms
Speaker 1: and these whether it's a big room or small room
Speaker 1: meeting um and go crazy with with the gift that
Speaker 1: you've that you've perfected, perform in front of a gift
Speaker 1: that you've perfected. Thank you, man, man, thank thank thank
Speaker 1: you brother than thank your Grammy. So we can at
Speaker 1: least see, yes, we see it. You know what I'm
Speaker 1: saying that we know we both I've been nominated anyone,
Speaker 1: I lost a lot. You know what I'm saying. I've
Speaker 1: been nominated. Listen, I'm just saying nominated nineteen times Jesus
Speaker 1: counting this year. Three years. I'm nominated for three right, nine,
Speaker 1: sixteen before that, and I want four. So I mean
Speaker 1: there's a lot of I've been nominated, no times because
Speaker 1: so many times I've won. Well, this has to be revived.
Speaker 1: R and B Album of the Year. How everybody should
Speaker 1: get a Grammy and producer and producer get Grammars. I
Speaker 1: don't know why they do R and be like that.
Speaker 1: It's all of those, it's all of this up. That's
Speaker 1: not fair. It's not fair and shout out to Harvey.
Speaker 1: He's gonna help make that change. But that's not crazy, y'all.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying like that, that that even
Speaker 1: that journey of like where Harvey is. Yeah, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. So I technically yeah, yeah one see
Speaker 1: that's what happened with me. So so I would is
Speaker 1: out of mind. I thought I won because India Rewe
Speaker 1: that's Sorry R and B album for that album I
Speaker 1: worked on in college. So I have been telling people
Speaker 1: I wanted Grammy for ten years until I started actually
Speaker 1: working with the Grammys and knew them and I had
Speaker 1: to write something and they was like, oh, no, you
Speaker 1: you never want to agree. You just notified my Grammy. No,
Speaker 1: here just saying because that's what he been coming. Oh,
Speaker 1: I'm saying, yeah, I did what you're talking about. I
Speaker 1: did what you're talking about. And I do think that
Speaker 1: if you worked on it, you know you were you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, you'll grab me adjacent you have
Speaker 1: you you have your plaque. I mean, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. It's Jason, you live in the hood, but
Speaker 1: it's close to the nice I'm saying. Now, there's my question.
Speaker 1: I wasn't trying to That's not what I was trying
Speaker 1: to do, though, because I do think that enough. I
Speaker 1: was just trying to help you work with them people. No,
Speaker 1: you always just saying work with not not not worked
Speaker 1: on it. And so how is it an R and
Speaker 1: B Album of the Year if I'm not on it?
Speaker 1: The whole R and B album consist of me? You
Speaker 1: have composition. Yeah, without that composition, it's not a whole album.
Speaker 1: I agree with you. But would you want me to
Speaker 1: do you want me to you want me to lie
Speaker 1: to you? You know what I'm saying. I agree with
Speaker 1: you what you're saying, and I agree because yes, in
Speaker 1: that space, yes, I'm counting on you to lead the
Speaker 1: charl fight for R and B making that change. Yeah.
Speaker 1: We just you know, they just got album of the
Speaker 1: Year for everybody to get a Grammy. That that is
Speaker 1: a part of it. So I think, you know, it
Speaker 1: is growing in that direction and understanding that these these
Speaker 1: things are collaborative. You know what I'm saying, we're calling
Speaker 1: Harry Monday. Well, I mean it's a busy time right now.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's probably wait till after the season. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. The focus. Graham is just
Speaker 1: a few months away. I just I don't think I
Speaker 1: should get into it. Yeah, I'm just let me see
Speaker 1: how I go for it. Let's see how I go first. Translation, people,
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna let yeah, yeah, I let go first.
Speaker 1: Let me go first. You hold on, hold on, let
Speaker 1: me get get past these three tech that we're gonna fight.
Speaker 1: We're gonna fight the power. Yeah, first thing on the docket,
Speaker 1: my first, my first hundred days as president. Just oh,
Speaker 1: y'all boys, marching, y'all boys, y'all, yo, boys, stabilizing. Oh, okay,
Speaker 1: y'all go, y'all, donna do that, y'all stabilizing. Okay, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna get with you. I'm gonna get with no man.
Speaker 1: It is it's a human process, you know. So it's
Speaker 1: like it deserves to be grown. We got to get
Speaker 1: in trouble with Stevens, like I'll see you. We don't
Speaker 1: confirm your three this year. Man, you earned it. You
Speaker 1: deserved than you deserve. Man. And thanks listen, man, I'm
Speaker 1: thanking Ja Valentine And this is the r by Money Podcast,
Speaker 1: the authority. Yeah, all things. We have been blessed and
Speaker 1: honored to be with this brother writer Man be Amazing
Speaker 1: Part Thank y'all, Thank y'all, Love, Love and Money. R
Speaker 1: and B Money is a production of the Black Effect
Speaker 1: podcast Network. For more podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit
Speaker 1: the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you
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Speaker 1: and rate our show, and you can connect with us
Speaker 1: on social media at Ja Valentine and at the Real Tank.
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Speaker 1: R and B Money