Speaker 1: Every day a week ago, clicks up the Breakfast Club
Speaker 1: finish for y'all done.
Speaker 2: Yep, it's the world's most dangerous morning show to Breakfast Club.
Speaker 2: Charlamagne the God, DJ NB and Jess Hilarius aren't here today,
Speaker 2: but LLL Cool Bay Lauren Lerossa is and we got
Speaker 2: a very special guest celebrating thirty years Man thirtieth anniversary
Speaker 2: of his ri I double, A certified gold debut album,
Speaker 2: bona Fide.
Speaker 1: John b is here. Man.
Speaker 3: What's going on?
Speaker 1: Man?
Speaker 3: I'm blessed man. Good to be with you, guys, man,
Speaker 3: thanks for having me.
Speaker 1: You know, it's so funny.
Speaker 2: I saw you say somewhere I might have been blad TV,
Speaker 2: Well you were the first white R and B singer,
Speaker 2: And I'm like, damn you right?
Speaker 1: And I remember imber between you and color me back.
Speaker 3: I remember, you know, other people being in R and B,
Speaker 3: but I don't remember any of them claiming R and
Speaker 3: B the way I have. Like Michael McDonald, you know,
Speaker 3: you know he's very soulful. You know, Allan Oates, very soulful.
Speaker 3: The bgs, you know, Liz, you know Tina Marie was
Speaker 3: an R and B.
Speaker 1: You know what I mean?
Speaker 3: And she claimed R and B. So that's that's all
Speaker 3: I basically was saying, is I feel like I was
Speaker 3: one of the first ones to really claim R and B.
Speaker 3: You know, George Michaels, he was soulful, but he wasn't
Speaker 3: an ring.
Speaker 1: They were R and B O.
Speaker 2: I wonder if that was because they were white, and
Speaker 2: so the labels probably like, don't say you're RM because
Speaker 2: that would limit you.
Speaker 3: There you go.
Speaker 1: Did they tell you that?
Speaker 3: Not tell me that? They showed me in their own way,
Speaker 3: like we want you to work with Diane Warren, David
Speaker 3: Foster make a pop record, And I'm like, I don't
Speaker 3: really want to do that, but I'm gonna do it
Speaker 3: to satisfy you guys. I don't want to look like
Speaker 3: a difficult artist, you know. But I was like more
Speaker 3: interested in work with Tupac, you know, more interested in
Speaker 3: working with Babyface. Warrant is you know, real R and
Speaker 3: B and hip hop not doing pop music?
Speaker 1: What about colling Me Bad? What would they be considered R.
Speaker 3: And B but more like Latin R and B because
Speaker 3: they were more like, you know, kind of with the
Speaker 3: Latin mixed up. You know what I'm saying a little
Speaker 3: bit about that. Yeah, they had the me and more,
Speaker 3: I door, me and more they were saying. So they
Speaker 3: had that old kind of cross genre thing going on,
Speaker 3: which is cool because that was new too international you know,
Speaker 3: everybody involved. No, that's uh it was. It was a
Speaker 3: great time to see that growing up because I was
Speaker 3: trying to have groups growing up in high school. And
Speaker 3: when we saw Comedy Bad, I was like, oh man,
Speaker 3: they took our idea. We had a Filipino homie and
Speaker 3: black homie and me and we used to sing at
Speaker 3: at lunchtime. So when we saw Colored Be Bad, we
Speaker 3: were like, oh man, you know, they took our ideas.
Speaker 1: If Envy was here, he would say, where'd you get
Speaker 1: your start? I want to go back? I want to
Speaker 1: go back. Where did you get your start?
Speaker 3: John by Man? You know, just singing in in Altadena,
Speaker 3: Pasadena and talent shows and you know basically just really
Speaker 3: loving the music and being around other guys who loved
Speaker 3: it too, and demoing, you know, basically you know, getting
Speaker 3: equipment at at an early age enough to be able
Speaker 3: to make demos. You know, not everybody had a keyboard,
Speaker 3: not everybody had a you know, multi track recorder, so
Speaker 3: those things were tools. Back in the day, and I
Speaker 3: just rather and being outside playing ball or whatever else
Speaker 3: everybody else was doing. I was in there writing records
Speaker 3: and making making songs. And by the time I was sixteen,
Speaker 3: I had a full, you know, demo ready and just
Speaker 3: trying to shop it around, and by eighteen I had
Speaker 3: a deal.
Speaker 2: You think that's a lost art, like having to make
Speaker 2: an actual demo tape.
Speaker 1: Like more than one song that defines you.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, I think that, you know, now we just go
Speaker 3: straight to making records. You know, we don't even make
Speaker 3: demos anymore. I think the demo is the record now,
Speaker 3: So which is which is? You know, it's cutting a
Speaker 3: lot of a lot of red tape out of the way.
Speaker 3: You know. We had to do a whole lot, you know,
Speaker 3: to get noticed and to get heard. So we were
Speaker 3: out there hustling.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: I remember my eighteen you know, I turned eighteen my
Speaker 3: senior year in high school. I was checking myself out
Speaker 3: of school and going to shop my demo tape, you know,
Speaker 3: in Hollywood, because I had time. You know, I was like, man,
Speaker 3: I'm not going to college, you know, I'm getting a
Speaker 3: record deal.
Speaker 4: You know what was demo tape? John be the same
Speaker 4: as like bona fide John, Did you know a lot
Speaker 4: of the.
Speaker 3: Same records were on my demo? A lot were on
Speaker 3: my first album. Actually, one of the songs I wrote
Speaker 3: on my first demo was called I Do What You
Speaker 3: Say Boo, which was on my second album. We held
Speaker 3: we held that off for some reason. It didn't make
Speaker 3: my first album. We just kept that in the wings waiting,
Speaker 3: and then the second album came and then Sony was like,
Speaker 3: we want to put that out as a single one.
Speaker 1: I was like, yes, because.
Speaker 3: That was the first song I sort of wrote and
Speaker 3: produced one hundred percent myself that was released, But that
Speaker 3: was on my original demo.
Speaker 4: That's crazy to think about because I feel like to
Speaker 4: a lot of artists now do so much different stuff
Speaker 4: because they don't know who they are, like feeling wise
Speaker 4: and sound wise. But you came in strong out the gate,
Speaker 4: like yeah, knowing that well.
Speaker 3: I mean, I was looking up to all my favorite producers,
Speaker 3: you know, Jimmy jam and Terry Lewis, Babyface of course,
Speaker 3: and baby Face you know, I'm Teddy Riley, anybody who
Speaker 3: was making noise at the time. I was trying to
Speaker 3: reverse engineer what they were doing, how they get that
Speaker 3: snare sound. How did he get that? You know, and
Speaker 3: try to you know, make my own sort of version
Speaker 3: of that. And you know, you always start off imitating someone,
Speaker 3: you know, That's the I think all of the greatest artists,
Speaker 3: I've always had a you know, sort of a muse
Speaker 3: or someone that they use as an example. And you
Speaker 3: know those guys with that for me, Babyface, you know,
Speaker 3: Jimmy James, Terry Lewis. So I just wanted to, you know,
Speaker 3: basically follow in their footsteps, you know, and learn the chords,
Speaker 3: learn how to make the beats. And that's what I
Speaker 3: spent you know, my time doing at sixteen.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I've heard you talk about working with Baby Faith
Speaker 2: and how that helped to shape your career early. What's
Speaker 2: the most important creative or even life lesson he gave
Speaker 2: you that you still guide you right now.
Speaker 3: Man, keep it honest, Man, just be honest. The more
Speaker 3: honest you are, I think that's the special stuff that
Speaker 3: is hard to get.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: It takes time to kind of you know, write those
Speaker 3: type of records. It's not just a throat, throw together thing.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: Sometimes you'll have a train of thought and it'll just
Speaker 3: come out in that moment, it's boom.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: I did that one time on this this new album
Speaker 3: I just released this called Waiting On You, And the
Speaker 3: title track Waiting on You is actually a song I
Speaker 3: sat down I wrote in one instance. You know, it's
Speaker 3: probably about a couple of hours I had this writ
Speaker 3: you know. But it doesn't always happen like that. But
Speaker 3: when you have a feeling that you're really trying to
Speaker 3: convey and your focus, you know, I know exactly what
Speaker 3: this is about, boom, It's like laser focus. You just
Speaker 3: get it done. What about from Jimmy Sam, Terry Lewis,
Speaker 3: Jimmy James, Terry Lewis, don't be afraid to be as
Speaker 3: exotic as you want to be with with R and B.
Speaker 3: You know, R and B is so vast of a style.
Speaker 3: It's not just one thing. You can't put it in
Speaker 3: a box. And they showed me that. You know, they've
Speaker 3: incorporated so many different you know, textures in their music,
Speaker 3: and I love that about them. They really really helped
Speaker 3: me kind of find my own style through theirs.
Speaker 2: You know, I always wonder, man, I guess this is
Speaker 2: a question for Jimmy jam and Terry Lewis, and baby Face,
Speaker 2: but even I guess you're you're an R and B autist,
Speaker 2: So you could add, how do y'all feel.
Speaker 1: About this news sound?
Speaker 2: To where there was a point where R and B
Speaker 2: and hip hop blended so much you couldn't tell what
Speaker 2: was what The hip hop waters was sounding like the singers.
Speaker 2: The singers would sounding like the rappers. I wonder how
Speaker 2: y'all how'd y'all feel about that?
Speaker 3: It was kind of a transition to hear like novice singers,
Speaker 3: you know, sing and be accepted for that, because back
Speaker 3: in the day and the nightso'd be like, oh, you
Speaker 3: can't sing, you know what I mean if you try
Speaker 3: to do something like that. But now it's like, you know,
Speaker 3: because if you flip it, and you know, you turn
Speaker 3: the singer who you used to you know, hearing sing
Speaker 3: into a rapper and he was to try to rap
Speaker 3: and do a whole rap song, you know, I don't know,
Speaker 3: I don't know if that would work. Yeah, So you know,
Speaker 3: the fact that we were able to accept the singing
Speaker 3: from the rappers. I remember back in the day, R
Speaker 3: and B and hip hop didn't really they didn't really
Speaker 3: gel like that all the way in the nineties, we
Speaker 3: were still saying, oh, man, you know you dress an
Speaker 3: R and B.
Speaker 1: You know what I mean? You look at real R
Speaker 1: and B over there.
Speaker 3: This is hip hop over here, and you couldn't really
Speaker 3: play hip hop music at the same time of day
Speaker 3: as you played R and B. It was not mixed up.
Speaker 3: So when we did are you still down? You know,
Speaker 3: it was very very much against the grain. We were
Speaker 3: doing something that was sort of taboo, you know, and
Speaker 3: but we were doing it because we wanted to, you know,
Speaker 3: we wanted that to, you know, be the meeting of
Speaker 3: two worlds.
Speaker 1: You know. How did that collaboration even happen?
Speaker 3: Man, just some mutual friend you know, was at the
Speaker 3: video shoot for how Do You Want It? With Tupac
Speaker 3: and he's like, Man, he mentioned my name and he's like, man,
Speaker 3: you know him, hit him up. Pop said, hit him up.
Speaker 3: So he called me and man put him on the
Speaker 3: phone and he's like, get down here, man, you know.
Speaker 3: So I came down there and he's cool, cool as ever.
Speaker 1: Man.
Speaker 3: We just hit it off. It was chemistry right from
Speaker 3: the walking through the door, you know, because I was
Speaker 3: playing my beats for him and he started freestyling right
Speaker 3: away and just you know, Casey and Jojo was there
Speaker 3: as well, and I remember there being like, oh, you guys,
Speaker 3: get that in the studio. You guys got to get
Speaker 3: that down right there. That sounded like something, you know,
Speaker 3: And sure enough to weeks later he hit me up
Speaker 3: and we made are you still down man?
Speaker 1: You'all recorded together?
Speaker 3: Yeah in the studio, man, I mean I pulled up
Speaker 3: and my my CD was right there in his in
Speaker 3: his car, my first CD, bona Fide. He had it
Speaker 3: like just right there in the front where I could
Speaker 3: see what he was playing, you know, and I said, oh, man,
Speaker 3: you might you might have been listening to my music
Speaker 3: or whatever. You know. So when I walked in, I
Speaker 3: felt real good about that. Like, you know, he was
Speaker 3: he was there early, you know, he was he was
Speaker 3: there before I was there, so he you know, he
Speaker 3: looked forward to working with me and everybody that came
Speaker 3: into the session. You know, he made sure they knew, like,
Speaker 3: you know who that is, that's John b Up in there.
Speaker 3: So it wasn't it wasn't the type of situation where
Speaker 3: I was coming into the death robe. You know, all
Speaker 3: these guys in the studio and I didn't matter. He
Speaker 3: was like nah, this is he told me. He's like,
Speaker 3: this is my crossover joint.
Speaker 4: Was it all love every time you met? Because he
Speaker 4: embraced you, but internally, like with other artists, was it
Speaker 4: always all love or was it like who was this
Speaker 4: white guy with the arm and be like how audition artists?
Speaker 3: When I so one of my prerequisites I told I
Speaker 3: told Babyface, I said, so, you know, if I signed
Speaker 3: you know this deal, I gotta work with New Addition
Speaker 3: and I gotta work with Tony Braxton that that has
Speaker 3: to happen. He's like, I can make that happen. So
Speaker 3: he put me in first with New Addition. And I
Speaker 3: remember coming to this the studio session with New Addition
Speaker 3: and being such a New Addition fan that they were
Speaker 3: all sitting outside of the studio just chopping it up,
Speaker 3: you know what I mean That before we go in
Speaker 3: and do the work whatever, we parked our cars and
Speaker 3: everybody's outside of the studio. But I was so starstruck
Speaker 3: that I just walked straight past them and I didn't
Speaker 3: even say hello, why And I walk into the studio
Speaker 3: and I'm like like, oh man, you know, because I
Speaker 3: was a little I was like nineteen, you know, and
Speaker 3: just these you know, these are my heroes.
Speaker 1: They didn't know who you were.
Speaker 3: They didn't know who I was an engineer. They thought
Speaker 3: I was an engineer undercovered. But yeah, man, So I'm
Speaker 3: in there and they think it I'm the engineer and
Speaker 3: so I you know, and they come in and I
Speaker 3: was like, hey, guys, what's up man, you know, and
Speaker 3: I'm talking to him and I'm John B. You know
Speaker 3: your John B. I'm like, yeah, man, So like wow,
Speaker 3: we we didn't know he was white, you know. And
Speaker 3: it's all good because I wrote the record for him
Speaker 3: and produced it and everything, and they loved it and
Speaker 3: they wanted to cut it. So we were already good.
Speaker 3: You know. We knew the music meant. That's what you know,
Speaker 3: we were there for. It was a song called Hey Girl.
Speaker 3: It never came out, but but the song is dope.
Speaker 3: And every time I see those guys, we always ask
Speaker 3: we always ask each other about it. What are we
Speaker 3: gonna do with that record?
Speaker 1: Man?
Speaker 3: You know, because it was actually one of the on
Speaker 3: the Reunion album. It was for the Reunion album. All
Speaker 3: of them was on.
Speaker 1: There, so why didn't come out? You know?
Speaker 3: It was there was a lot of records for that album.
Speaker 3: That everybody. You know, they were working with just about
Speaker 3: everybody on that album. So I was really honored to
Speaker 3: have just gotten a chance to collaborate. But yeah, you
Speaker 3: never know, it probably will come out.
Speaker 2: I want to go back to the Tupac thing for
Speaker 2: a second, because you know, I didn't grow up in
Speaker 2: that era, so to me, Tupac is like a mythical.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I feel it.
Speaker 1: How was he when you was around him? Like what
Speaker 1: was his presence?
Speaker 3: Like energy, just like you know when you see DMX,
Speaker 3: Like how he just kind of glowed as a person
Speaker 3: around his presence. He just had that just that that
Speaker 3: thing he did to the atmosphere of the room when
Speaker 3: he walked in. He just felt his presence. A lot
Speaker 3: of it was the motivation that he had. He was
Speaker 3: such a motivation type of guy, you know, motivating. His
Speaker 3: energy was about all right, man, let's get this done. Like,
Speaker 3: let's let's be be present and be in the moment.
Speaker 3: Like I don't care if we're drinking Hennessy and we're smoking,
Speaker 3: it don't matter, Like you better be in the moment,
Speaker 3: really really putting your best foot forward. That's what he
Speaker 3: was really about. And I remember one of the things
Speaker 3: he said was, Man, if you're not doing like three
Speaker 3: records a day, you're not really doing this.
Speaker 1: Man. You know, you need to be productive.
Speaker 3: So productivity I think was his main his main sort
Speaker 3: of like, uh, that was one of his superpowers.
Speaker 2: You know when you debuted with Bonafire, speaking of motivation,
Speaker 2: what was the sound you were chasing?
Speaker 1: What was your motivation?
Speaker 3: Well, I mean, I will say my first album was
Speaker 3: very heavily Babyface influenced, and wanted to be one of
Speaker 3: the guys that he was, you know, collaborating with. You know,
Speaker 3: I saw how he collaborated with Tony Braxton and with
Speaker 3: TLC and with Bobby Brown and with so many different
Speaker 3: other you know artists after seven and all my favorite
Speaker 3: are and be growing up. So I thought, what would
Speaker 3: it be like if I allowed him to produce me?
Speaker 3: You know, what does that sound like? What is our sound?
Speaker 3: What our what would our voices sound like? We blended
Speaker 3: them together on one record. So Someone to Love was
Speaker 3: our first time getting to do that. And uh, you know,
Speaker 3: it's it's one thing to be a fan, but then
Speaker 3: when you get to actually work with the person and
Speaker 3: you know, and hear all of the lessons learn how
Speaker 3: how do you put a course together. Oh damn, that's
Speaker 3: how many notes you have to do on the on
Speaker 3: the stack of the backgrounds. Like I remember stacking that
Speaker 3: course up so many tracks and I had never done
Speaker 3: anything like that before as a vocalist, so it taught
Speaker 3: me a lot. You know, just that first session with
Speaker 3: with with Kenny.
Speaker 4: I saw somewhere you turned down a ton of like
Speaker 4: million dollar deals to stay signed with the baby and
Speaker 4: his wife. Talk about your loyalty to him, and you
Speaker 4: know what the decision to be loyal to him, but
Speaker 4: also how that paid off for you.
Speaker 3: Well, I tell you, loyalty when you say you're gonna
Speaker 3: do something. I'm the type of guy that when I
Speaker 3: say I'm gonna do something, I'm gonna do it. You
Speaker 3: know it's not I'm gonna do it if this is
Speaker 3: you know, if if if I show up and I
Speaker 3: say that I'm down with you, that I'm down with you,
Speaker 3: you know, I mean, you're gonna have to do something
Speaker 3: pretty pretty crucially crazy, like for me to think I
Speaker 3: get it for the burn the bridge. Like I'm a
Speaker 3: very very loyal person. I'm a scorpio. I mean we're loyal,
Speaker 3: but I mean will say that it feels good to
Speaker 3: be thirty years and still have gratitude, you know, not
Speaker 3: only for what I'm getting to do right currently, right
Speaker 3: now with you guys and everything, this new album and
Speaker 3: everything and the support and all the collaborations I have
Speaker 3: on the new album, but everything I've gotten to do,
Speaker 3: you know, the thirty year career and what that would be.
Speaker 3: I don't know what that would look like if Kenny
Speaker 3: and Tracy didn't give me that opportunity. And I've never
Speaker 3: lost sight of that. You know, the business and the
Speaker 3: patience that it takes to be in this business, it's
Speaker 3: never it's never changed. You know, You're either going to
Speaker 3: have the patience or not. You know, and certain people
Speaker 3: just they it's like, you know, I could feel it.
Speaker 3: It's like the energy, the love for the music doesn't
Speaker 3: supersede how much they hate the business, so they don't
Speaker 3: continue with the music. And I don't want to be
Speaker 3: one of those guys. I don't want the music to
Speaker 3: be overshadowed by the business what it is, because the
Speaker 3: business is a messed up business. Let's let's who has
Speaker 3: like the story that that needs to be told with
Speaker 3: as far as like the business is going good, the.
Speaker 2: Whole time, the whole times at the time I came
Speaker 2: in with fantastic you know who.
Speaker 3: Has that story? But I think that, you know, that's
Speaker 3: what That's when it comes down to having the passion
Speaker 3: for what you do. You know, do you really do
Speaker 3: you believe it still? Because if you don't believe it,
Speaker 3: why should we as the listeners, you know. So I
Speaker 3: hope that what I'm doing currently now with my music
Speaker 3: conveys the point that, you know, I still love what
Speaker 3: I do. I have a passion for what it.
Speaker 1: Well, you know one thing about loyalty, like you know,
Speaker 1: you can stand on that.
Speaker 3: What is it returned? Yeah, that's the thing, is the
Speaker 3: return part is that that's where I put it out
Speaker 3: to the universe. I'd rather put good energy out and
Speaker 3: because I know that it'll be good coming back. If
Speaker 3: it doesn't come back, that's where the patience comes in,
Speaker 3: you know, because I know what it's like to be
Speaker 3: the guy to sit to, you know, sit and sort
Speaker 3: of wait for your shot, you know. And I never
Speaker 3: also wanted to be the sort of the main dude.
Speaker 3: I wanted to be a part of the nuts and
Speaker 3: bolts of what makes this thing, put this thing together.
Speaker 3: But I'm always been. I've always been sort of a
Speaker 3: team player. That's where producing really comes in. Is really
Speaker 3: if you don't need to be the main guy shining
Speaker 3: all the time, then you can also, you know, make
Speaker 3: yourself felt in other ways, like produce the track, you know,
Speaker 3: write the lyrics. You know what I'm saying, Like maybe
Speaker 3: just fall in that way, you know. And I've been
Speaker 3: able to be a part of different amazing projects just
Speaker 3: doing that, and that's just it's just as fulfilling.
Speaker 4: Really, I was gonna say, while we're talking about things
Speaker 4: being returned, I know that there was like a bit
Speaker 4: of a back and forth at one point a couple
Speaker 4: of years ago with you and Babyface over like you
Speaker 4: were saying that you weren't paid for certain things he
Speaker 4: was saying and that it wasn't his duty to pay you,
Speaker 4: and he was kind of like disappointed. He said that
Speaker 4: you let the narrative go. Where does that conversation stand
Speaker 4: now with you guys.
Speaker 3: Well, it's interesting that he would say that because I
Speaker 3: was signed to his production if you want to not
Speaker 3: call it a label. I was signed to his production company,
Speaker 3: which was called Edmund's Record Group. So that's the deal
Speaker 3: that you talk about me passing up the other deals
Speaker 3: so I could sign with baby Face. You know, that's
Speaker 3: the company that I signed with. Now, they were distributed
Speaker 3: and they had they were a subsidiary label of Epic Records,
Speaker 3: So I had basically half my deal with Epic and
Speaker 3: half my deal with Kenny and Tracy. But the deal
Speaker 3: that I signed was a cross collateralized deal with all
Speaker 3: of the other artists that they had signed to their label. Now,
Speaker 3: cross collateralized means that basically, whatever those artists spent, whatever
Speaker 3: they were given advance, any money, I'm responsible for that
Speaker 3: under my budget to recoup that. So basically none of
Speaker 3: those artists ever really came out, but they all got
Speaker 3: recording budgets and they all got living stipings and whatever.
Speaker 3: So at the end of the day, it's a lot
Speaker 3: of money, right. So basically what it was is that
Speaker 3: I'm in a situation where I'm not only recouping what
Speaker 3: I'm spending myself, I'm recouping what this entire label was spending,
Speaker 3: you know what I'm saying, And that's I think that's
Speaker 3: a great responsibility to put on a nineteen year old
Speaker 3: kid who's writing, producing everything pretty much himself. But just
Speaker 3: wants to work with his hero. You know, that was
Speaker 3: a great deal to you know, to have to you know,
Speaker 3: to sign that deal was it wasn't the greatest deal,
Speaker 3: let's put it like that, but to work with Babyface,
Speaker 3: you know, that was what I really had my mind
Speaker 3: set on. So all of the money part, all of
Speaker 3: the sort of like the business part, I really let
Speaker 3: that kind of like be not as important. So that's
Speaker 3: why it's taken so long to get to come full circle.
Speaker 3: But it's been so long that they have to come
Speaker 3: full circle now and that's where that's where we're currently
Speaker 3: at right now. It's unfortunate that he didn't really have
Speaker 3: my back, and seeing how loyal I've been all this
Speaker 3: time by not speaking on none of this, you know
Speaker 3: what I mean, and people being like, where you been?
Speaker 3: What's held you back all this time? Well? Really I
Speaker 3: didn't allow the financial part to hold me back because
Speaker 3: if I did, I wouldn't continue putting music out independently,
Speaker 3: you know, I mean, I'm funding all this myself. So
Speaker 3: you know, it hasn't been easy. But what really hasn't
Speaker 3: been easy is to be so supportive of him and
Speaker 3: then have it not be returned like in a sense
Speaker 3: of him just knowing what everything that I've sort of
Speaker 3: like you know, did to have that opportunity to work
Speaker 3: with him, you know.
Speaker 2: And that's what I meant when I said the loyalty
Speaker 2: being returned. Know about that situation in particular, but just
Speaker 2: being a loyal person. Yeah, sometimes you sacrifice a lot
Speaker 2: for yourself, but it don't never come back to the
Speaker 2: person you're being loyal to.
Speaker 1: Don't give it back to you.
Speaker 3: And that's on him, you know what I mean. If
Speaker 3: if that's how he wants to address the situation, that's
Speaker 3: on him. You know. When we when we've seen each
Speaker 3: other out in public and stuff like that, when we
Speaker 3: do shows together, it's not the same, you know what
Speaker 3: I mean, And we're not we're not really. I mean,
Speaker 3: we're cordial, but we're not.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: It's the relationship hasn't really blossomed, you know, into what
Speaker 3: I thought it would be after all of that that
Speaker 3: I sacrificed in my in my in my career. I
Speaker 3: would have definitely wanted to see him at my wedding, definitely,
Speaker 3: one would want to see him to you know, introduce
Speaker 3: him to my kids. So yeah, like he doesn't even
Speaker 3: know my kids. We don't know each other anymore. So
Speaker 3: it's like that that part of it hurts me, the
Speaker 3: fact that we can't go on tour together because I
Speaker 3: don't really know that Kenny even really likes me as
Speaker 3: a person. Actually, you know, it's it's interesting, but I
Speaker 3: don't really care because I did what I I did
Speaker 3: what I got to do with. I care because I
Speaker 3: love the guy, But I don't care if a person's
Speaker 3: going to be negative just to be negative and tell
Speaker 3: a negative story or sort of like not respond to
Speaker 3: what the truth is, because the truth is a lot
Speaker 3: of people sacrifice a lot to work with Babyface and
Speaker 3: their stories. I don't really get. I don't really think
Speaker 3: that they get to tell their story. That story hasn't
Speaker 3: really been told for the respect of what it was
Speaker 3: to uphold the you know the you know what, the
Speaker 3: magic that we were able to create together and to
Speaker 3: respect that and to leave that alone. Nobody wants to
Speaker 3: tank the story with like, oh but the business wasn't
Speaker 3: you know what I mean, and that type of stuff.
Speaker 3: So I've never been this is the most I've ever
Speaker 3: talked about in my entire career. Right now, actually, in
Speaker 3: this moment, the information I've devoted I said, I wasn't
Speaker 3: really talk about, but I think it's important for people
Speaker 3: to understand what kind of deals we're signed back in
Speaker 3: the nineties, you know, and what kind of deals can
Speaker 3: still be signed now if you're you know, if you're
Speaker 3: not careful, just be careful to I will say, as
Speaker 3: advice to the kids coming up, be careful not to
Speaker 3: put all your eggs in one basket, you know, because
Speaker 3: that's what that's what I did. I put all my
Speaker 3: eggs in one basket instead of being like, you know,
Speaker 3: a little bit more patient and just okay, I'll work
Speaker 3: with you on a couple of records, but I'm gonna
Speaker 3: have this over here, publishing deal over here, a production
Speaker 3: company over here. I have my own label from the
Speaker 3: very beginning, you know. It's basically what I had anyway,
Speaker 3: because I was paying for everybody's stuff with my own budget, basically,
Speaker 3: you know whatever.
Speaker 2: It's interesting because I wonder about stuff like that because
Speaker 2: when I think about you know, of course, I think
Speaker 2: about the face, and then I think about, you know,
Speaker 2: the TLC situation, right, and I just wonder was that
Speaker 2: intentional or was that just the business?
Speaker 1: Like I don't know, if these people wake up.
Speaker 2: And say, hey, we're gonna take advantage of these people financially.
Speaker 2: I don't know, or was that just the way record
Speaker 2: contracts were structured, Like I don't.
Speaker 3: Know, I can't really speak on anyone else's like sort
Speaker 3: of why they you know, make contracts the way they do,
Speaker 3: because really what it does is it just it delays
Speaker 3: the process of the artist being able to have you know,
Speaker 3: you know, being compensated for their art. You know, and
Speaker 3: it's thirty years later and we're you know, we're still
Speaker 3: addressing all of this. So it's but it's a wonderful
Speaker 3: process to watch it happen because I know there's a
Speaker 3: light at the end of the tunnel that's just getting
Speaker 3: closer and closer and closer. As far as really was
Speaker 3: that light, Like well, just getting paid man, you know
Speaker 3: what I mean at the end of the days, the
Speaker 3: checks coming, you know what I mean, Oh, from from
Speaker 3: from epic, from God. Yeah, they're the they're there. The
Speaker 3: company that all of this was under, that's where all
Speaker 3: the money came from. But the fact is that all
Speaker 3: the money that was spent by the label all was
Speaker 3: recoupable by me.
Speaker 4: You say, by the label you're talking about the label
Speaker 4: with Babyface and.
Speaker 3: Baby Face and Tracy Edmonds, the Edmunds Record Group where
Speaker 3: that was the production company Slash label that I was
Speaker 3: signed to under Epic. Epic funded their whole thing, see
Speaker 3: what I'm saying. So all the artists that they were
Speaker 3: signed signing, the money would come from Epic, right, but
Speaker 3: the money was also charged to my account. So John
Speaker 3: B paid for.
Speaker 2: Everything, every water, every everything, artists, every studio time, Hey,
Speaker 2: such and such needs to get a living stipend because
Speaker 2: they need to get their rent paid.
Speaker 3: So the group that signed to them, I'm paying for
Speaker 3: all of that, recoup all of that. So all those
Speaker 3: all those budgets have to be paid back before I
Speaker 3: can see anything. That's the deal that I signed. So
Speaker 3: that's why it's taken so long. So but I knew
Speaker 3: what I was signing. My attorney told me, you know
Speaker 3: what I'm saying, Yeah, he said, he said, listen, it's
Speaker 3: gonna take a long time.
Speaker 1: You're gonna have to sell a lot of records for
Speaker 1: this to.
Speaker 3: You know, for you to come on top.
Speaker 4: How many on top?
Speaker 3: And you know we've sold you know, if I'm going
Speaker 3: to count the singles, it's over ten million, easy because
Speaker 3: I've sold you know, multiple platinum singles, but the albums
Speaker 3: have gone multiple platinum as well. So my my second album,
Speaker 3: care Relax I Believe is quaduple platinum. And you know
Speaker 3: what's cool about saying that is that we don't sell
Speaker 3: records anymore. So it's like that means that people actually
Speaker 3: went out and lot stood in line and people. So
Speaker 3: when you think about a million people going out by
Speaker 3: a record, that's like, that's kind of cool for me,
Speaker 3: you know, and I still celebrate that, you know, just
Speaker 3: knowing that those albums are part of people's lives, lives,
Speaker 3: and you know, evidently if I don't play a certain songs,
Speaker 3: theyn't want their money back in the show. You know,
Speaker 3: if I don't play that on no, do you think
Speaker 3: they did that to you?
Speaker 1: Because of how white executives have gotten over on black artists.
Speaker 1: It's a little payback probably, right. Oh, you want to
Speaker 1: be an R and B artist? You want to be artist?
Speaker 1: You want to be an R and B artist? Okay,
Speaker 1: damn old.
Speaker 3: A lot? Wow a lot?
Speaker 1: Wow?
Speaker 3: So yeah, and the and the beautiful thing is it's like,
Speaker 3: you know, the money is a byproduct of being as
Speaker 3: successful you can't hide that kind of that type of
Speaker 3: you know, because that's how successful it was. It was
Speaker 3: and and still is. It's you know, still being sampled
Speaker 3: all the time. The records of the Weekend just sample
Speaker 3: the actually someone to Love.
Speaker 2: Oh we gotta I gotta text from my producer. He's
Speaker 2: an ov ho O v ho and he said, where
Speaker 2: is it that? Where's that? I just saw it? What
Speaker 2: was it? He just texted to me, send it to
Speaker 2: me again?
Speaker 1: He said.
Speaker 4: Drake sample John B's Calling on a track off of
Speaker 4: Take Care called Cameras the Good Ones Go interlude.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, anybody that's been near Drake or been sampled,
Speaker 2: he goes crazy, Yeah.
Speaker 3: No, it's it's it's been cool. Chris Brown sample they
Speaker 3: don't know as well, Gonna and Chloe sample they don't know.
Speaker 3: Not too long ago. Yeah we we we won't go there,
Speaker 3: but but yeah, you know, it's just cool to see
Speaker 3: the music existing in this time, in this era and
Speaker 3: be I never thought I'd be the guy that got sampled.
Speaker 3: You know. I was always sampling like old seventies records
Speaker 3: and eighties records and you know, and thinking, man, you
Speaker 3: know that's where you get your samples from. I never
Speaker 3: thought I'd be part of someone's out selections, So however,
Speaker 3: I get flipped. You know, it's a beautiful thing to
Speaker 3: just yeah, be a part of the times.
Speaker 1: How How did it feel to hear your fingerprints?
Speaker 3: That's cool, man? I mean something about that song they
Speaker 3: don't know has really you know, it's resonated with people,
Speaker 3: and not only the song, but the track too. So
Speaker 3: I got to give Tim Kelly and Bob robertson their
Speaker 3: their props for such an amazing track because that they
Speaker 3: keep sampling that track even if they don't take the hook,
Speaker 3: they love that that track. So yeah, man, I think
Speaker 3: that's the one we we we just we got that one.
Speaker 3: We got we got it right with that one, you know,
Speaker 3: and if you can have one of those in your career,
Speaker 3: you know. And yeah, I penned that record myself. So
Speaker 3: that's one of the songs I'm probably most proud of you.
Speaker 2: After bona Fide and you started leaning into your own vision.
Speaker 2: Did the did the industry understand your vision?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 3: I think so. I think that what most what really
Speaker 3: showed me was even if the labels don't really understand
Speaker 3: what was going on, and they're kind of like going
Speaker 3: with the flow, and they're kind of trusting my creativity
Speaker 3: but not really knowing how to necessarily market it or
Speaker 3: you know, they just I was signed to Epics, so
Speaker 3: they were rolling out the red carpetfore me. Don't don't
Speaker 3: get it twisted. We were having like three or four
Speaker 3: rec you know, records on be et playing at the
Speaker 3: same time. Like they knew they had to they had
Speaker 3: to do something. They just had never done it before.
Speaker 3: So I was sort of the guinea pig for you know,
Speaker 3: this this thing now that's you know, sort of like
Speaker 3: you see it all the time now, you know, But
Speaker 3: I was I was definitely like a you know, definitely trailblazing.
Speaker 3: Put it like that. At that time. Nobody expected me
Speaker 3: to be accepted right away. And I think that was
Speaker 3: sort of like the Shocker was by the second album,
Speaker 3: you know it. A lot of that went into the
Speaker 3: reason why I wrote a hook like don't listen to
Speaker 3: what people say.
Speaker 1: You know. It was like, you know, it's sort of.
Speaker 3: Like me, like literally like it was more than just
Speaker 3: hear saying it was like, no, I think I have
Speaker 3: a feeling now, like I know what I'm doing, y'all.
Speaker 3: You know what I mean, so there was a little
Speaker 3: bit of that that that confidence starting to show itself
Speaker 3: a little bit more on this second album. I remember
Speaker 3: the first the first thing I did on that album
Speaker 3: was cut all my hair off. I just went straight
Speaker 3: buzzed it off and did the fade because they were
Speaker 3: trying to, you know, they wanted me to be.
Speaker 1: A pop star.
Speaker 3: They wanted me to grow my hair longer and get
Speaker 3: streaks and all this stuff, and I'm like, that's not me,
Speaker 3: you know, straighten it out and do all this parted
Speaker 3: in the side, and I'm like, look, you're making me
Speaker 3: look a little too, you know, I don't know, it
Speaker 3: just wasn't my look. And so I buzzed it off
Speaker 3: and Coo relax was or had the season cut, you know,
Speaker 3: and the beer whatever. And so I just did that
Speaker 3: on my own.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: That was kind of like how I grew myself when
Speaker 3: I was in high school. So I just kind of
Speaker 3: went back to my old style and that was that
Speaker 3: was a big move because I remember the labels pissed
Speaker 3: as hell when they saw I cut my hair off. Yeah,
Speaker 3: just a shape up real quick, and that was more
Speaker 3: authentic for me, you know, it's just doing me but.
Speaker 2: It's crazy to even think back in the day how
Speaker 2: much image matters, especially when you see everybody not just
Speaker 2: doing whatever.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, your board shorts and the T shirt. Now
Speaker 3: you rock a stage, you know, look like you just
Speaker 3: going to the beach or something Coachella, you know, after
Speaker 3: not even dressed for a show. I mean, no, I
Speaker 3: think it's uh, it's different times, you know, we're living it.
Speaker 3: But one thing I love about R and B is
Speaker 3: we we are unapologetically slick, you know. We we just
Speaker 3: keep the you know, the fashion going. You know, I've
Speaker 3: always loved R and B and hip hop for that
Speaker 3: because we've been sort of the leading on the leading
Speaker 3: edge of that all of that, I think all the
Speaker 3: other genres of music sort of followed the lead of that,
Speaker 3: you know, and just every culture, whether you're whether you
Speaker 3: even like R and B or hip hop, is influenced
Speaker 3: by the culture of hip hop and R and B,
Speaker 3: whether they like it or not. It's probably the most
Speaker 3: influential style.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, you know, we have When you look at each
Speaker 2: album of your career, because you got what ten albums, Yeah, damn,
Speaker 2: where do you feel the biggest artistic evolution happened for you?
Speaker 1: Well?
Speaker 3: I think the biggest you know, probably evolution was probably
Speaker 3: making the record with Tupac because it was the most
Speaker 3: revolutionary and kind of risk taking. I remember, I felt
Speaker 3: like I was treading in water that you know, like
Speaker 3: I couldn't feel the bottom of the the sand no more.
Speaker 3: I was you know, you when you when you tread
Speaker 3: out on the beach and you just you know, you're
Speaker 3: no longer walking on the on the You're like treading
Speaker 3: water now, you know. So it's sort of like, all right,
Speaker 3: you better float or you're gonna sink. You better swim
Speaker 3: where you're gonna sink.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: I wasn't really in my element with Tupac Shakur and
Speaker 3: the Death Row scene. That was very much like I
Speaker 3: was the Babyface R and B element and working with
Speaker 3: new Addition and Tony Braxton all of a sudden, you know,
Speaker 3: I'm you know with Tupac. But what it felt like
Speaker 3: was it was I was in the right place at
Speaker 3: the right time. We were we had the right energy.
Speaker 3: And so what that taught me was just you know,
Speaker 3: step outside your norm and don't be afraid to do
Speaker 3: things that haven't been done. Next thing, you know, I'm
Speaker 3: in the studio with nas, you know, and we're making
Speaker 3: the record together and jay Z and you know, and
Speaker 3: so it's it's just been. It's been really first of all,
Speaker 3: really dope to be one of the first ones to
Speaker 3: really trailblaze that sort of collaboration between hip hop and
Speaker 3: R and B, because there wasn't a lot of that
Speaker 3: going on. And when I started ninety five.
Speaker 1: You know, how did you feel when they named Tupac's
Speaker 1: whole album.
Speaker 3: You still down right? His mother? Yeah, his mother, after
Speaker 3: you know, his passing. I got to meet her actually
Speaker 3: at his memorial and uh, I sang at his memorial
Speaker 3: and yeah, she she felt it necessary because she's like,
Speaker 3: I'm the you know. I told her thank you so
Speaker 3: much for allowing the song to come out, because she
Speaker 3: was the main reason why the record got released. She said, Yeah,
Speaker 3: my son played that song for me. You know, he
Speaker 3: didn't play a lot of his music because of you know,
Speaker 3: you know, he didn't the lyrics, and but that song
Speaker 3: he felt really confident about and he's like, this is
Speaker 3: my song. I know you're gonna like this, mom, you know,
Speaker 3: And she loved it, of course, and that was the
Speaker 3: last song that he recorded. So Dan the least it
Speaker 3: was two weeks, three weeks before he went to Vegas. Man, wow, yeah,
Speaker 3: I remember because I went to England to go finish
Speaker 3: my album and and I found out out in England
Speaker 3: when when he got shot. And I I remember when
Speaker 3: it happened because I thought, you know, because he had
Speaker 3: already been shot, you know, and lived, shot in the
Speaker 3: head and lived. So there was this feeling of like, oh,
Speaker 3: he's gonna be all right. That's Tupac, you know, it's
Speaker 3: like he's superhuman. So there was this like I remember,
Speaker 3: it was about four or five days of not knowing
Speaker 3: what was what was happening, right, It was about I
Speaker 3: don't know how many days, it seemed like long.
Speaker 1: Seven. He died on the seventh day, I believe. Man thirteen.
Speaker 3: Oh my god. Yeah, we were, we were, you know.
Speaker 3: I'm trying to work in the studio that's basically like
Speaker 3: an old renovated Catholic church. It was called Air Studios
Speaker 3: in England's George Martin the Beatles Engineers Studios, And it's
Speaker 3: got these cathedral you know walls, you know, it's like
Speaker 3: an old church with the you know, stangle glass windows.
Speaker 3: And I'm working in this in this room and my
Speaker 3: assistant comes in and say, Pop got shot and he's
Speaker 3: in the hospital. I'm just like, we gotta call him,
Speaker 3: we gotta you know, I'm trying to get in touch
Speaker 3: with them and can't get in touch with him. Of
Speaker 3: course he can't get through, and uh yeah, we just
Speaker 3: it was it was really really horrible to go through
Speaker 3: that because it was like everything that I was looking
Speaker 3: forward to doing with him. We were talking about wearing
Speaker 3: suits in the video. You know, we were just, man,
Speaker 3: we're gonna be so clean. This is about to be
Speaker 3: you know, this is think about it. This is before
Speaker 3: doctor Dren and Eminem had even done a collaboration. No,
Speaker 3: there's been There was no collaboration really like this ever done.
Speaker 3: And we both felt like we were doing something special.
Speaker 3: You know. He invited me after we recorded the song,
Speaker 3: he invited me to come watch him work on his
Speaker 3: other tune. He was recording in the other room and
Speaker 3: he was doing to Live and Die in La in
Speaker 3: the other room, and I'm sitting there like he's going
Speaker 3: to play it for him. I think he's just gonna
Speaker 3: play it for me. But he presses record and he
Speaker 3: goes in there and he does a double vocal right
Speaker 3: over his vocal that he already had laid and it
Speaker 3: sounded like a xerox copy. It was. I was like,
Speaker 3: he's got like photographic memory of what he did, because
Speaker 3: he just did it exactly the same, right in front
Speaker 3: of me. And I was like, you just record that
Speaker 3: right now. He's like yeah, man, you know, just gotta
Speaker 3: get it done.
Speaker 1: Man.
Speaker 3: I'm like, god, you are. I've never heard any rapper
Speaker 3: double his voice like that precise.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: It's incredible.
Speaker 1: That's why I'm sitting there.
Speaker 2: I'm like, yo, you know, he told you that he
Speaker 2: wanted He said, you should always record three songs a day. Yeah,
Speaker 2: Well he recorded with you, and then he didn't record
Speaker 2: for two weeks, and then I wonder what was going
Speaker 2: on in his life in those two weeks that he
Speaker 2: didn't even want to record.
Speaker 3: I don't know, man, I don't know. I know that
Speaker 3: he was doing a lot of collaborating with a lot
Speaker 3: of people at that time, because I had heard that
Speaker 3: he was working on a project where he was trying
Speaker 3: to unify the East and the West.
Speaker 1: For the one nation.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the one Nation, that's right, that's right. And so yeah,
Speaker 3: he was doing some things. I mean, there was rumored
Speaker 3: that he was working with Atlantis more set, Oh wow
Speaker 3: on something. I mean a lot. I heard a lot
Speaker 3: of different things, but but our collaboration, man was to
Speaker 3: say the least that was.
Speaker 1: That was the groundbreaking classic record, groundbreaking movement for me.
Speaker 1: When you think about records like they don't know you know,
Speaker 1: are you still do? Just having those big classics create
Speaker 1: pressure when you approach new music or does it free
Speaker 1: you knowing you already contributed something that's timeless.
Speaker 3: Well you're grateful for it because if the new music
Speaker 3: doesn't catch on, absolutely no. I mean you know what,
Speaker 3: it's a It's a great thing to shoot for that.
Speaker 3: You know. It's like if you have a template that
Speaker 3: you know works with people, then I feel like that's
Speaker 3: a good feeling. And if I could just get back
Speaker 3: to that fear, I have an inkling of that feeling.
Speaker 3: But getting back to what Babyface says, and I'm gonna
Speaker 3: take it back to the positive about baby Face because
Speaker 3: I love that that man. Don't get it twisted. That's
Speaker 3: my father to the game. So but one thing he
Speaker 3: will say to you is keep it honest. That's all
Speaker 3: I'm trying to be is honest. You know that was
Speaker 3: his own advice he gave me. So, you know, I
Speaker 3: feel like this this album is very honest. You know,
Speaker 3: I turned fifty on fifty one now, but you know
Speaker 3: the year I put the album, you know, March I
Speaker 3: was fifty and it is my tenth album. It felt
Speaker 3: it felt very much like this is the album that
Speaker 3: I want to be making at fifty. You know, we
Speaker 3: got Rick Ross on the album, and we have Tank
Speaker 3: on the album. Donelle Jones is on the album, Alex
Speaker 3: Eisley is on the album. And to be independent and
Speaker 3: have all that support like that people coming to my
Speaker 3: aid and want to bless me like that with their
Speaker 3: features was Yeah, it was incredible.
Speaker 4: Were you ever worried because it took thirteen years for
Speaker 4: the album to come that you talk about being honest,
Speaker 4: that you weren't going to be able to be as honest?
Speaker 4: Is because your life has changed so much or be like,
Speaker 4: you wouldn't get that feeling or that sound again that
Speaker 4: you would had in the music prior.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I think that when you mature and you get
Speaker 3: a lot more added to your life in terms of
Speaker 3: your actual what's happening in your life. In this case,
Speaker 3: I've been married for eighteen years get chills to protect.
Speaker 3: Now there's a lot more to protect, So there's a
Speaker 3: lot more I think that goes into the crafting of
Speaker 3: these songs. Like actually the lyrics, there's responsibility behind those lyrics. Now,
Speaker 3: you know, as a as a grown man, I know
Speaker 3: what I don't want to say. I know what's sort
Speaker 3: of out of my lane to say, like I'm not
Speaker 3: going to go in there and and and for the
Speaker 3: song live the plight of a single dude in the
Speaker 3: club trying to holler for the night and just let's
Speaker 3: get this done, and then and then go back to
Speaker 3: being like a married man on the next song, Like
Speaker 3: you're not going to get that on this album. You're
Speaker 3: going to get one plight, which is basically me just compliment,
Speaker 3: you know, being complimentary and romantic and celebrating relationships. You know,
Speaker 3: that's what this album is really celebrating. But I'm an
Speaker 3: atmosphere creator, so I'm always gonna have those sexy joints
Speaker 3: and joints said, you know, the baby makers.
Speaker 1: Hopefully you know what's part of your journey that you
Speaker 1: think people don't talk about it enough, Like something behind
Speaker 1: the scenes that even shake the John b We know
Speaker 1: to day.
Speaker 3: I think it goes back to just really being a
Speaker 3: fan of R and B that I would really continue
Speaker 3: to do this like for free, Like even if I
Speaker 3: didn't make money doing this, that this would be my
Speaker 3: first choice, you know, Like like this is the music
Speaker 3: I listened to at home when I'm cleaning up my place,
Speaker 3: you know what I mean. And this is the these
Speaker 3: are the clothes I put on when I'm chilling around
Speaker 3: the house, Like this is the life I live. Like
Speaker 3: I'm raising young black women, you know, I'm married to
Speaker 3: a black woman. This is the life that I live,
Speaker 3: you know. So it's like whether you see it in
Speaker 3: the video and you think, oh, that's cool, that's that's
Speaker 3: a cool like look, or she's she's pretty for the video,
Speaker 3: it's kind of representing my life, yo. And I mean
Speaker 3: my music is representing my life in a real way.
Speaker 3: It's not for show. You know. This is who I've
Speaker 3: been for thirty years, and I'm just I'm glad to
Speaker 3: have been accepted for who I am, you know, and
Speaker 3: really being able to stay true to that is really
Speaker 3: it's been really not even a challenge. It's just been
Speaker 3: an honor to do so and to sort of be
Speaker 3: the one who shows up to the gigs that I
Speaker 3: see my counterparts sort of like avoiding like the plague.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: The places I go are like where real R and
Speaker 3: B is being felt and real R and B is
Speaker 3: being you know, celebrated. So that's where I'm going to,
Speaker 3: you know, and I'm going to continue that walk.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I don't think it's enough spaces for it.
Speaker 2: I know you got Tank on the new album. You
Speaker 2: know that I think is a great dude. And like
Speaker 2: even just creating, like you know, tank I thing I
Speaker 2: did for this R and B Money Award show. I
Speaker 2: want to see, you know, come to Fruition just because
Speaker 2: I don't feel like number one, there's not a lot
Speaker 2: of places that celebrate R and.
Speaker 3: That's right, that's right. We don't have the venues. We
Speaker 3: don't have we don't have the venues. We don't have
Speaker 3: the shows we need an R and B celebration show,
Speaker 3: you know what I mean. We have Soul Trained. We've
Speaker 3: had the Soul Train Awards, which has been our only
Speaker 3: real venue for that, and I mean that's really been
Speaker 3: an honor to be a part of the Soule Train Awards,
Speaker 3: you know, to to that's how me and Donell linked up.
Speaker 3: We both got honored that night, the same night, and
Speaker 3: it was a pleasure to see in backstage and to
Speaker 3: be like, Man, you nervous. I'm nervous too, Man. We
Speaker 3: have been on stage for so long, man, you know,
Speaker 3: let's go have fun with this, you know, celebrate. These
Speaker 3: people are here for us, you know. So yeah, just
Speaker 3: you know, getting to you know, have that moment and
Speaker 3: then say hey, let's let's collab man, let's do something,
Speaker 3: you know, and we make the song understand from my
Speaker 3: album and yeah, he's a he's a great guy. And
Speaker 3: same with Tank. You know, get to be on the
Speaker 3: R and B Money podcast and just chop it up.
Speaker 3: And I'm like, hey, man, and you know you you're
Speaker 3: the guy. Man, you've been the guy for quite some time.
Speaker 3: And that's not our first time working together. We've collaborated
Speaker 3: in the past. But but I was just like, man,
Speaker 3: you know, you've really really been like one of my
Speaker 3: main influences over the last ten you know, ever long's been.
Speaker 3: And uh, yeah, let me play this record because I
Speaker 3: think you're going to hear a little bit of that influence.
Speaker 3: And then I played it for him and he was like,
Speaker 3: I gotta be on that. I was just like, I
Speaker 3: was blown away because I wasn't expecting him to say
Speaker 3: that he was going to sing on the record. And
Speaker 3: you know, it's one thing when someone says they're going
Speaker 3: to do something, and another thing when they pull up
Speaker 3: to the studio and they're there and then you know,
Speaker 3: he's like, I don't want to change nothing. You did
Speaker 3: you body them, versus like I'm just going to add
Speaker 3: the bridge, play some piano on it, and it's a
Speaker 3: rap and that's a hit. And I was like, man,
Speaker 3: I mean, the most confident I've felt in a very
Speaker 3: long time.
Speaker 1: Wow, you lost it for a minute.
Speaker 3: Well, I mean, it's just it's one of those things
Speaker 3: where you're hoping to get one again, you know. And
Speaker 3: uh and when someone like, you know, the likes of Tank,
Speaker 3: you know, comes along and co signs for you. Especially
Speaker 3: in this day and age, there's so much music, so
Speaker 3: much more music being released than it was when I
Speaker 3: first came out. The volume of artists that come out
Speaker 3: every month is insane. So just to be somebody to
Speaker 3: even be considered, but you know, it was it was
Speaker 3: really lovely to wake up in the morning and see
Speaker 3: my video playing on b Et in the morning again,
Speaker 3: you know, with all the other new videos coming out
Speaker 3: and just the support that b Et has shown me
Speaker 3: all my career. Man, without b ET, I wouldn't be
Speaker 3: John B. Period.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: I remember the funny story. I was in Jamaica with
Speaker 3: Beanie Man. I was working out there and we got
Speaker 3: pulled over by the police and I thought, oh man,
Speaker 3: we're gonna go to jail in Jamaica. Man, it was
Speaker 3: you know, and they were like, who the white boy
Speaker 3: in the car with you the policeman and he's like,
Speaker 3: that's John B. And they go John B from b
Speaker 3: E T. John B. Yeah, can we take a picture?
Speaker 1: Come on?
Speaker 3: So I get out and I'm taking pictures with the
Speaker 3: police and they let us go. But that's you know,
Speaker 3: I mean, it just shows you man, people know me
Speaker 3: from that you know, and that that that era, and
Speaker 3: without them, I wouldn't be, you know, wouldn't be where
Speaker 3: I'm at. So I got a big up beet for shure.
Speaker 4: How is John B as a dad to his girls
Speaker 4: like explaining like now you've got your music out and
Speaker 4: you explained to them like okay, this is what daddy does,
Speaker 4: and you know, like how are you in space.
Speaker 3: My eighteen year old is really just now really I
Speaker 3: feel like raped her. It's taking her this long to
Speaker 3: wrap her head around what I do. And now she's
Speaker 3: part of the team, you know, she's It's funny because
Speaker 3: like when we do videos and stuff, she'll be the
Speaker 3: one doing my makeup on the side. She'll you know,
Speaker 3: give me a little powder or whatever, and you know,
Speaker 3: telling me, Dad your hair straight or you know, or
Speaker 3: you need to fix this or whatever, or don't wear
Speaker 3: that like that.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: She's sort of like a stylist for me. At the
Speaker 3: same time, she's a little bit of helping up with travel,
Speaker 3: you know, with booking all the travel because we do everything.
Speaker 3: My wife's the manager. Everything's all in the house, so
Speaker 3: everybody's helping out.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: My eleven year old, she's still wrapping her head around
Speaker 3: what I do. I think that it's still nice for
Speaker 3: her to sort of be naive to it, you know.
Speaker 3: And she sees the shows and I'm sure it's intimidating
Speaker 3: seeing all those people standing on the side of the
Speaker 3: stage and Madison Square Garden being you know, but but
Speaker 3: at the end of the day, it's it's wonderful to
Speaker 3: come back to them and to know that, you know
Speaker 3: they're there waiting for me at home. It's it's incentive
Speaker 3: to go out there and want to work real hard though,
Speaker 3: you know, give them a good life, you know.
Speaker 4: And you're and your wife have been together since two
Speaker 4: thousand and seven, yes, the right, Okay, so she's been
Speaker 4: along for the journey for a long time. Oh yeah,
Speaker 4: this unfolding of the career part is like easy for her.
Speaker 4: She's probably just like doing it in her sleep.
Speaker 3: Well, it's it's not easy for us. I mean, it's
Speaker 3: a lot of responsibility. It's only on us, so it's
Speaker 3: no one you know, there's no labels involved. So it's
Speaker 3: it's really about But you know, that's why I want
Speaker 3: to come in my fans and thank the fans. Without
Speaker 3: the fans, I would not be here, y'all. I wouldn't.
Speaker 3: You wouldn't hear me on the radio right now, you know,
Speaker 3: without the people coming to the shows to make it all,
Speaker 3: Because the shows is what's kept me alive all this time,
Speaker 3: because I wasn't making money from the records, but I
Speaker 3: was making money from the shows, and so you got
Speaker 3: to go out and get that show money, you know,
Speaker 3: stay on the road man, that's all of them. I've
Speaker 3: been one of the hardest working R and B guys
Speaker 3: in the game. Like really, it was me for a
Speaker 3: long time. It was like me genuine and like Case
Speaker 3: and like Jagged Edge and one twelve. We were like
Speaker 3: the hardest working guys in the games. I was always
Speaker 3: out in the road with them everywhere we go. H
Speaker 3: Town two. I mean, I got to give all my
Speaker 3: guys from the nineties, we stay working because People that's
Speaker 3: some of the music, that's some of the most celebrated music.
Speaker 1: Soundtrack to People Live.
Speaker 3: Man, it's just a wonderful thing. Me and Joe and
Speaker 3: Case are going to perform in Jersey actually tomorrow, we're
Speaker 3: going to be in Jersey.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 3: Yeah, right, what We're going to be in Elizabeth, New
Speaker 3: Jersey at the Rich Yeah. So that's gonna be a
Speaker 3: dope show. And you know, it's just it's it's such
Speaker 3: a beautiful thing to be included with that that line
Speaker 3: up right there. First of all, I'm such a Joe
Speaker 3: fan and I'm such a Case fan, so you know,
Speaker 3: and both of those brothers are good, good friends of mine.
Speaker 3: We known each other for years, and yeah, that's.
Speaker 1: The night we're gonna play on Friday. That's a night
Speaker 1: of R and B with Joe and Live Band and Yes,
Speaker 1: Case and John B. How hell I ain't know this
Speaker 1: new Jersey.
Speaker 3: Yeah, gotta come on out man, R and B lovers.
Speaker 3: You know it's going to be a good night.
Speaker 1: How you know you're married to a black woman?
Speaker 3: Yes?
Speaker 1: How do you great? Great choice? By the way, yes,
Speaker 1: how do you and your wife feel about doctor Umar Johnson?
Speaker 1: That is?
Speaker 3: I don't know who that is.
Speaker 1: I don't worry about it.
Speaker 4: Brought our question over here.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry.
Speaker 4: It's totally fine that you don't know who that is.
Speaker 4: I guess speaking of so you talk. We talked a
Speaker 4: bit about your daughters. I know, he said, you don't
Speaker 4: want to talk a lot about it. But the Chloe
Speaker 4: moment when Chloe was here and she reacted to you
Speaker 4: talking about her song. You seeing her moment here made
Speaker 4: you like kind of rethink about how you said things
Speaker 4: when you were asked about her covering they don't know
Speaker 4: and you mentioned it's because you're raising black you know,
Speaker 4: daughters that He wanted to be more careful talk about
Speaker 4: that realization in real time because the world was like,
Speaker 4: what is happening?
Speaker 3: I mean, it's interesting to have an opinion in this
Speaker 3: day and age, because it's it's a responsibility.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: Sometimes you can say what you think is the way
Speaker 3: that you say it that can be misconstrued, you know,
Speaker 3: because everybody doesn't have to like everything. You know, obviously,
Speaker 3: we live in a canceled culture like society now where
Speaker 3: if you say something the wrong way, you can be
Speaker 3: cancer very fast means. But you know, in whatever it means,
Speaker 3: I think it's the people lose respect for you and
Speaker 3: so they they don't mess with you as much. And
Speaker 3: for me, it's like I'm count on people to continue
Speaker 3: to you know, to support me, so I'm never I
Speaker 3: don't want to mess my chance up of that. And
Speaker 3: first of all, I'm a mature man. I know when
Speaker 3: to take an l and say my you know, my bad,
Speaker 3: I didn't mean that. The worst part about is raising
Speaker 3: daughters and seeing when they get disappointed, how their facial
Speaker 3: expressions look and how their voices changed, and they you know,
Speaker 3: to see that happen with her.
Speaker 4: Your eighteen year old is a Chloe fan, well yeah.
Speaker 3: I mean she you know, she she could feel her
Speaker 3: energy when she was reacting to it, so could I
Speaker 3: being that I'm raising an eighteen year old, right and
Speaker 3: she's not that much older. I mean, you know, but
Speaker 3: she's a young girl. So to see that I made
Speaker 3: her feel that way, you know, made me feel bad
Speaker 3: because I never want to insult anyone or make them
Speaker 3: feel bad, especially when they're incredibly talented like that. I
Speaker 3: guess what I want to say is, come collaborate with
Speaker 3: me for real, you know, come collaborate. Let me have
Speaker 3: a chance to really work with you. She's so incredibly
Speaker 3: talented that I just don't feel like that showed the
Speaker 3: real you know what I want to see us, how
Speaker 3: I want to see our styles collaborate together. I think,
Speaker 3: you know, it worked for what they did for it
Speaker 3: was just kind of like a jump to put out.
Speaker 3: But I don't know if I could really get behind
Speaker 3: that and say that I like that joint, you know
Speaker 3: what I mean. I felt like my song is very
Speaker 3: very deep and meaningful, and when you turn a meaningful
Speaker 3: record into sort of like a record that's just sort
Speaker 3: of like, oh, I just want to I just want
Speaker 3: to have sex with you and let's do it good
Speaker 3: and then later, you know what I mean, kind of
Speaker 3: that's fair, you know what I mean? It's just kind
Speaker 3: of like, that's not what I want to tell my
Speaker 3: eleven year old, you know, on them right now, you
Speaker 3: know what I mean. So it just kind of made
Speaker 3: me feel like speaking on it and be like they're
Speaker 3: like you like it, I'm like, nah, I don't like it.
Speaker 3: But now I'm like I feel bad about saying that,
Speaker 3: you know, because I know that, you know, we're for
Speaker 3: every action, there's a reaction, and I'm trying to put
Speaker 3: good positive energy out in the where I'm trying to
Speaker 3: build people up, not break them down.
Speaker 1: You got a joint for her? You got a record
Speaker 1: for her?
Speaker 3: Definitely got a record for her. I her and if
Speaker 3: I don't, I will make it for it. No, She's
Speaker 3: She's amazing. They're so They're so talented and so beautiful,
Speaker 3: you know, I mean, they got the full package. It's yeah,
Speaker 3: it's just a matter of us getting in the studio
Speaker 3: and just making some magic happen.
Speaker 1: How does John be want to be remembered.
Speaker 3: I want to be remembered as an atmosphere creator, somebody
Speaker 3: who was really honest with his emotions and somebody who's
Speaker 3: just made a baby maker music.
Speaker 1: Definitely made that Well that's it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Yeah, we want know, I mean I think that
Speaker 3: you know, at the end of the day, I want
Speaker 3: I want to be remembered as a guy who was
Speaker 3: you know, uh, you know, he gave us all, you know,
Speaker 3: in terms of like everything I do really, from being
Speaker 3: a father to you know, husband to a songwriter and
Speaker 3: a performer. I sing my heart out on stage every
Speaker 3: show I do, you know, whether they're giving it up
Speaker 3: and giving me the energy I want to have or not.
Speaker 3: You know, it's because it's the passion for what I do,
Speaker 3: you know, So yeah, I want to be remembered for that.
Speaker 1: Really.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well, John b you're doing a phenomenal job. Man. We
Speaker 1: here talking about thirty the thirty fan a Brest.
Speaker 2: You a bona fide, So that means, yes, sir, man,
Speaker 2: you and Babyface can reconcile too.
Speaker 1: Man.
Speaker 3: Yeah, me too.
Speaker 1: Man.
Speaker 3: I think that things are coming full circle regardless and
Speaker 3: because of that, you know, I think it's just it's
Speaker 3: you know, it's a matter of just us literally chopping
Speaker 3: it up one day and just letting each other know
Speaker 3: how we feel. But that's that that definitely needs to
Speaker 3: happen in a in a private setting and not on
Speaker 3: a public forum. You know where it's said I heard
Speaker 3: you say this, and you know what I mean, and
Speaker 3: then I'm reacting to that on on this thing, on
Speaker 3: this public forum over here. It's gonna go tip tip
Speaker 3: for tap forever until we just sit down as grown
Speaker 3: ass men and being like, hey, listen, still got love
Speaker 3: for you?
Speaker 1: You never tried to just call him?
Speaker 3: I feel like at this at this point, the only
Speaker 3: time that I've ever been able to get in touch
Speaker 3: with him is by going and contacting him. That's all
Speaker 3: it's ever been is me get reaching out to him.
Speaker 3: It's never been the other way. So and I just
Speaker 3: feel like there's only so much you can give to
Speaker 3: something before if it's not like you said, if you're not,
Speaker 3: it's like you showed loyalty, but it's the loyalty being
Speaker 3: shown back. In fact, I feel like from the truth
Speaker 3: that I've told, how I've been honest, it's only got
Speaker 3: it's only made him sort of more angry because you know,
Speaker 3: he doesn't want people to know those ins and outs
Speaker 3: of the business, which I understand. But in no way
Speaker 3: have I defamed him or talked you know, said Babyface
Speaker 3: did this to me, He he wronged me, you know,
Speaker 3: No it's not that at all. He only gets praised
Speaker 3: by me and get that's all I do is praise babyface.
Speaker 3: But it would be nice also to see him, you know,
Speaker 3: return in this day and age right now. Uh, that
Speaker 3: same kind of energy back my way. You know.
Speaker 1: You gotta Valentine's Day cruise having a tour.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Valentine's Day Cruise. Yeah, trying to do something I
Speaker 3: think it's fitting for the album and waiting on you.
Speaker 3: You know, it's what better way to take in the
Speaker 3: new album than to h you know, play it on
Speaker 3: a cruise ship, you know, and go We're gonna go
Speaker 3: sell to uh Encinata, Mexico, and we're gonna go to Catalina.
Speaker 3: Just a little mini cruise, you know, three day John.
Speaker 3: But it's uh, it's gonna be fun and up closer
Speaker 3: person with the fans, and you know it's a grown
Speaker 3: up thing.
Speaker 1: Let's do it. Well. It's John B. Thank you for coming,
Speaker 1: My brother.
Speaker 3: Charle Man, Thank you, sir.
Speaker 1: I appreciate you man. It's the Breakfast Club.
Speaker 3: Hold up every.
Speaker 1: Day I wake click yours up, the Breakfast Club.
Speaker 3: Finish for y'all. Done