Speaker 1: R and B money, Honey, we are thanks take Valanti.
Speaker 2: We are the authority on all things R and B.
Speaker 1: Ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 2: Mon name is Tank Valentine and this is the Army
Speaker 2: Money Podcast, the authority on all things R and B.
Speaker 1: Ah. There are men.
Speaker 2: There are men who are writers. There are men who
Speaker 2: deliver melody. All of it there there. But there's a
Speaker 2: certain type of man.
Speaker 3: They produce that vocal too.
Speaker 2: They produced that vocal, that vocal, not the vocal that
Speaker 2: are the or the This particular kind of man is
Speaker 2: a scientist. He weaves into the intricacies technician of a
Speaker 2: record technician and takes a record from here to here.
Speaker 1: He also has a beer, make some.
Speaker 4: Beer.
Speaker 1: The buildings a picture rally fingers. That's before your time.
Speaker 5: It might have been before my time because I don't
Speaker 5: know what we're talking about.
Speaker 1: The baseball pictures with this here.
Speaker 3: He really feel like I can't grow ship bro.
Speaker 1: Bro.
Speaker 3: He I already knew I couldn't.
Speaker 1: He keeps going. He's done.
Speaker 2: First of all, I want to say this, thank you
Speaker 2: for coming right your family, But we never want to
Speaker 2: take advantage of that.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. We never want to take
Speaker 1: light of that. We know you're busy man.
Speaker 6: We know you're a busy man. You know you're you're
Speaker 6: here in Korea. You hear me in Korea man, you know,
Speaker 6: as the original Black Man would say, even over there Koree.
Speaker 1: Bleeding from the inside. Yes, I know, Jacob.
Speaker 2: If you the grap crap prap that thing for me,
Speaker 2: this is a special day on the R and B
Speaker 2: Money Podcast.
Speaker 1: You are a first. You are a first with this particular.
Speaker 3: I don't even know what's going on.
Speaker 5: You lied to me, you are half.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Okay, happy birday, che.
Speaker 7: Happy bad hay bad cheez.
Speaker 1: Come on, man, fro.
Speaker 4: Lied to me.
Speaker 3: You know it's gonna come out twelve months from now.
Speaker 2: Actual sure birthday, brother, and I can't believe you're here
Speaker 2: on your birthday thinking I can just all right there.
Speaker 1: I just want you to I just wanted to be
Speaker 1: part of you in this part.
Speaker 6: You know what I'm saying, So people know I appreciate it,
Speaker 6: so they can see the happy birthday you want have birthday?
Speaker 1: Which one for him, however, he wants to receive.
Speaker 2: You are. You are an awesome brother, one of the
Speaker 2: coolest human beings ever. Since day one, your family day one.
Speaker 2: We go all the way back to before all of
Speaker 2: the ship right.
Speaker 1: As you. Yeah, as you are the nicest guy ever.
Speaker 1: You'd be smoking when you want to be.
Speaker 2: Yes, we don't take his kind we can't take his
Speaker 2: kindness the weakness, because there's no weakness in this young man.
Speaker 1: Okay, you got in his garage, we've worked out together. Okay,
Speaker 1: all right, that.
Speaker 5: Strong I do anywhere.
Speaker 1: But in any event, I want to start off with
Speaker 1: the smoke. JQ.
Speaker 2: You're so nice. I want to get to the smoke
Speaker 2: who rocked. Yeah for us, sure, Raymond who I want
Speaker 2: to know?
Speaker 7: Now?
Speaker 1: We will do the pod the way we know what
Speaker 1: we're doing.
Speaker 4: After we talked.
Speaker 5: About this, that's how we started.
Speaker 1: I remember everyone, we're moving with that. Jordan piel.
Speaker 2: Is.
Speaker 5: I've heard so many iterations of the story. It's wild
Speaker 5: because I actually just not just maybe a year ago,
Speaker 5: had this conversation in studio. I'm in the studio with
Speaker 5: USh like be Cox called me ushers. Okay, yeah, okay,
Speaker 5: he don't. He doesn't need the earth. Just to point
Speaker 5: that out to you, I get a call from b
Speaker 5: Cox and he's like, Yo, you know me jd uh felly,
Speaker 5: we're up Keith, we're up here working with Usher. You
Speaker 5: should fall through.
Speaker 1: And I was like, oh yeah, and this is the
Speaker 1: this is recent.
Speaker 5: Yes, And I was like, oh yeah, easy, easy, I
Speaker 5: pull up. I pull up, and you know, it's amazing
Speaker 5: seeing everybody and j D and I you know, know
Speaker 5: each other, but we've never worked together, you know. So
Speaker 5: I'm in the room and the energy doesn't feel like
Speaker 5: I'm supposed to be in the room writing and Brian's like, no,
Speaker 5: just jump in wherever, and I'm like okay. So, you know,
Speaker 5: first first day, it's a little weird, but I tell
Speaker 5: Brian it's cool, like I'll come back because I'm just
Speaker 5: trying to hang out with you really, because he don't
Speaker 5: be here all the time. So I pull up the
Speaker 5: second day and we're talking and me, KP and Usher
Speaker 5: are outside outside sitting on the stairs, just chopping it up,
Speaker 5: and Keith sticks his head out of the room and
Speaker 5: just goes, hey, JQ. I was like, what's going on, bro?
Speaker 5: He said, you wrote on yeah, didn't you? And I
Speaker 5: said what And he said, nigga, I know, but you did,
Speaker 5: didn't you? And I was like yes. Then he went
Speaker 5: back in the room. Then he popped out again and
Speaker 5: he's like, what did you write exactly? And I said
Speaker 5: I don't. I said, I don't understand the question.
Speaker 1: What do you mean?
Speaker 5: He said, what did you write? I said, I wrote
Speaker 5: half of it and he said okay, and he popped
Speaker 5: back in the room and then KP's looking at me
Speaker 5: like this, and I was like, I don't know. And
Speaker 5: then he comes out of the room and JD comes
Speaker 5: out of the room and I'm like, what's going on?
Speaker 5: And he was like, do me a favorite man, Just
Speaker 5: tell JD what you just told me. And I was like, well, yeah,
Speaker 5: like Sean and I wrote it together. And he was
Speaker 5: like for real, for real and I was like yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 5: Now let me say this. Over time, I don't know,
Speaker 5: maybe people's recollection of what the story is changes. And
Speaker 5: as you guys know, when you have management, you know,
Speaker 5: a team, it's their job to make you larger than life.
Speaker 5: So I expect niggas to tell whatever story that you
Speaker 5: know it's going to help push the machine forward. But
Speaker 5: they tell me that the story story that they've heard
Speaker 5: is that I was given some publishing for engineering. Like
Speaker 5: they were just glad that I said, and I engineered
Speaker 5: the demo, so they threw me some publishing.
Speaker 1: I was like.
Speaker 5: Exactly, and I was like, no, that's not what's happened.
Speaker 5: What happened. So we started explaining it, and I tell,
Speaker 5: you know, the entire story of how the matter of fact,
Speaker 5: matter of fact, let me tell the story, and you know,
Speaker 5: shout out to Sean for calling me. Like Sean and
Speaker 5: I were both signed to LA Read, both signed a hit. Yeah,
Speaker 5: and shake is really the one that was like, Yo,
Speaker 5: you know, I think you guys. He was like, I
Speaker 5: think you guys. Yeah, Shakier, he was like, I think
Speaker 5: you know, you guys are the two writers that I
Speaker 5: have here that really have a chance at really stepping
Speaker 5: it up and taking it to the next level. So
Speaker 5: it was like excited, let's go. So he's like, I'm
Speaker 5: I'm thinking, if you guys can deliver me a hit
Speaker 5: for Usher that I can make sure it's hurd. I
Speaker 5: can't promise anything, but I can make sure that that
Speaker 5: it gets hurt. So we're like, cool, cool, Cool, let's
Speaker 5: let's get to it. And it's Sean that actually pulls
Speaker 5: out some tracks from Little John. Now for me, personally,
Speaker 5: I go way back with Little John, so I'm far
Speaker 5: I go back to ninety five maybe ninety.
Speaker 8: Five with.
Speaker 5: With Little John, my first the first professional recording, first
Speaker 5: record that I was ever part of. It was a
Speaker 5: song that went viral maybe seven years ago Again.
Speaker 9: And Night I Think of You.
Speaker 5: So yeah, out of high school. This is the first
Speaker 5: record that I'm ever part of in Little John and
Speaker 5: Are that project, And that's that's where I met John
Speaker 5: and we went on to do some other stuff together.
Speaker 5: But when Sean plays the John track, I'm amped because
Speaker 5: I fucking love Little John. Yeah, And at the time,
Speaker 5: Little John was maybe one of my favorite producers moving
Speaker 5: definitely one of favorites moving around Atlanta. So Seawan is like,
Speaker 5: I think we should write to this. So we're like, hell, yeah,
Speaker 5: let's do it.
Speaker 1: Let's do it.
Speaker 5: So he mess around, puts in the track, track starts playing.
Speaker 5: We get hype as hell, were about to write for
Speaker 5: us Nigga, were about to kill as we write for Usha.
Speaker 5: After about two minutes, were just looking at each other going,
Speaker 5: what do you what do you write to? This ain't nobody?
Speaker 5: So we look at it for a second. I say,
Speaker 5: hold on one second. I run out to the car,
Speaker 5: I come back in with the CD, put it in
Speaker 5: and it's if you don't give a damn will give
Speaker 5: a fuck.
Speaker 1: Hey.
Speaker 5: It was my favorite song ever at the time. So
Speaker 5: we listened to that ship and we're just we both amp.
Speaker 5: I curse a lot, so I apologize Mama, my kids.
Speaker 5: When you see this go crazy, I'm gonna go crazy.
Speaker 5: So we're hype as fucking now. We're like, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 5: let's do it.
Speaker 10: Let's do it.
Speaker 5: If it ain't just hurt, if it ain't just scronking,
Speaker 5: if we ain't just hurt, then we don't even need
Speaker 5: to do it. So we amped, We amped, and then
Speaker 5: we just confused again and about what to do, and
Speaker 5: Sean's like, play that ship one more time. So we
Speaker 5: play it and it goes off, and it's like it's
Speaker 5: got to be that hype or there's no point to
Speaker 5: a John track, So hit play again. That shit comes
Speaker 5: on and Sean goes yeah, and I go and he
Speaker 5: looks at me and we're like, Nikka, we should call
Speaker 5: this ship. Yeah, we should call this Yeah. So now
Speaker 5: we I have been we're like, all right, what is
Speaker 5: this going to be about? What is gonna be about?
Speaker 5: And I got the call earlier to write for USh
Speaker 5: because I had done this record with Marcus Houston. I
Speaker 5: co wrote it with Neo. What's your Name? If I
Speaker 5: wanted that girl I would be with. So La liked
Speaker 5: the way that record felt, and because Usher had come
Speaker 5: off that you remind me that's what they had asked
Speaker 5: me to write before, and Nigga, I just fell short,
Speaker 5: like it's it's hard for me to copy. I'm not
Speaker 5: really really good at that. So we sit down and
Speaker 5: you know, back this story. We sit down and we're like,
Speaker 5: all right, well, let's just write what we want to write,
Speaker 5: what we think being Usher is like. And Shake had
Speaker 5: played us before we got started. He played US Caught Up,
Speaker 5: he played US Confessions, he played US Superstar, and he
Speaker 5: played US burn And we're sitting there and he's like, well,
Speaker 5: you know what, what do these records have in common?
Speaker 5: And I'm looking at I'm like, they're all very visual.
Speaker 5: So we knew it needed to be visual. So we're like,
Speaker 5: you know, let's make it. Let's make it that. Let's
Speaker 5: talk about what we think, you know, being Usher is.
Speaker 5: It's got to be in the club because of the
Speaker 5: way the record is. So we'd sit down and start writing,
Speaker 5: and Sean hops in the booth and Sean is melodically gifted.
Speaker 5: Nig like, he's different. He's different. So he's in the
Speaker 5: booth and he's I'm like and then he keeps going,
Speaker 5: but it doesn't stop. So at a point I'm like, hey, bro,
Speaker 5: that's it's too much, Like it's too much, and he's like, Nigga,
Speaker 5: I'm telling you this is what hot. And I'm like,
Speaker 5: I get it, but it's too much. He's like, well
Speaker 5: what do you hear?
Speaker 1: So I sing and my.
Speaker 5: Ship is slower and he's like, well, that ship's boring.
Speaker 5: And back then I had a way bigger ego, Like
Speaker 5: my personality is still kind of big, but my ego,
Speaker 5: like nigger, I thought I was the best, and you
Speaker 5: better think I'm the best. So when Shawn's got a
Speaker 5: big personality as well, so we argue, you know, for
Speaker 5: a bid, we just screaming at each other and then
Speaker 5: we kind of slow down and we just talking with like, look, bro,
Speaker 5: we both because neither one of us had a record
Speaker 5: that it changed our lives. So we sat and we
Speaker 5: talked and we're like, look, they're really giving us an
Speaker 5: opportunity to change shit for our families. Like, bro, we
Speaker 5: gotta get past this. And figure it out. So he's like,
Speaker 5: I really just think that this ship that I'm doing
Speaker 5: is the new shit. It's it. And I'm like, nigga,
Speaker 5: I agree, you just do it for too long, like
Speaker 5: people have to remember it, they need something to hold
Speaker 5: on to. So he does this and he's like, well,
Speaker 5: what do you hear?
Speaker 9: And I'm like, da da da da da da da
Speaker 9: da da da da da.
Speaker 3: Oh.
Speaker 5: And he's like all right, I fuck with that. So
Speaker 5: we do all of that shit, end up writing the
Speaker 5: whole thing, write the verses, write the chorus, sing that
Speaker 5: bitch down, you know, hype the ship. We like, we
Speaker 5: listened through it, write the second verse. Then we're like, well,
Speaker 5: what do we do for a bridge, because at the
Speaker 5: time US was super musical, so we're like, we don't
Speaker 5: know if John's could have put a change in it,
Speaker 5: if he's gonna do whatever. So we're like, well, let's
Speaker 5: just do a bridge with John. So our bridge was
Speaker 5: yay yale yale yal yeah usher yeah yah yeah, And
Speaker 5: we're like, all right, that'll be the bridge for right now.
Speaker 5: So we listened to the Shit Down again all the
Speaker 5: way and it comes out of the second verse into
Speaker 5: the second hook yah ya ya yeah, and we're like,
Speaker 5: oh my god, nigga, that has to happen every time.
Speaker 5: So we mess around and fly that to where it
Speaker 5: needs to be and we're sitting in the room and
Speaker 5: we're listening to it, bro, and I remember Polo comes
Speaker 5: busting in the room, him and and Bubba Sparks.
Speaker 1: That's great.
Speaker 5: Actually went to college with Sparks. Yeah. So he comes
Speaker 5: in and and he's like, what's this and we're like,
Speaker 5: YOA said shot, we just did for us here and
Speaker 5: there be known. He was like, it's incredible, it's gonna
Speaker 5: be It's gonna be the biggest record of his life.
Speaker 5: Y'all just say that this is gonna be it. It's
Speaker 5: gonna be the biggest working of his life. And we
Speaker 5: both like yeah, cool. But we know that if Polo
Speaker 5: likes it, we might be onto something. So we're like, yo, okay,
Speaker 5: here's the thing. Great musical, yeah, bro, genius. So we're like,
Speaker 5: don't play it. We tell the engineer don't play it
Speaker 5: for sake. We know he's gonna want to hear it
Speaker 5: in the morning. We want to be here when you
Speaker 5: play it. And he's like, absolutely, we won't play anything. Nigga.
Speaker 5: I get woken up by a car, I get it
Speaker 5: hooking up by a call from Shakir. It's like, yo,
Speaker 5: listen to the record, get down to the studio, BRO
Speaker 5: want you and shout down here and he talk to you,
Speaker 5: get down here. So Sean and I get to the
Speaker 5: studio and Shake is like, I think this hook is amazing.
Speaker 5: I don't think La is gonna like these verses. You
Speaker 5: guys need to rewrite the verses right quick. And Sean
Speaker 5: and I kind of look at each other and we're
Speaker 5: like no, and you know, Shake, yeah, he's like no,
Speaker 5: We're like nah, Bro, we rock with it the way
Speaker 5: it is. So he's like, okay, okay, cool, and he
Speaker 5: sends the record bro, and we hear back. Actually, I
Speaker 5: think Shawn's in New York working on something else. I'm
Speaker 5: with Tricky working on some Backstreet board stuff. And I
Speaker 5: get a call from Sean who said he sat and
Speaker 5: talked to La and La told him that he really
Speaker 5: liked the song, but he actually wasn't crazy about the hook.
Speaker 5: He's like he felt like Sean's exact words is. He said,
Speaker 5: La said the song was like bad sex. He was
Speaker 5: like bad sex. He was like yeah, the verses you
Speaker 5: get me all hyped up, you get me right there,
Speaker 5: but then your hook, it don't really delivered. And the
Speaker 5: hook that we had at the time was like, I
Speaker 5: don't remember the hook that's that's on the actual album,
Speaker 5: but the hook that we did came out, Yeah, I
Speaker 5: don't remember exactly how that hook goes, but yeah, all
Speaker 5: the melodies are the same. So we were like it
Speaker 5: was like, uh, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 9: Shout it, get down low if you think you're ready.
Speaker 9: Yeah yeah, I could turn you out baby if you
Speaker 9: let me. Yeah yeah, I want to see if you
Speaker 9: could back up what you told me. Yeah, yeah, shout it,
Speaker 9: get down low if you think you're ready.
Speaker 5: And then LA was like the story of the verses,
Speaker 5: you got me that hook, don't go nowhere, you know.
Speaker 5: And it's one of the pluses of being signed to
Speaker 5: an amazing rite. He was able to see that, like
Speaker 5: he it was never enough for him that it felt good,
Speaker 5: like you guys are onto something. Make it better. So
Speaker 5: we get in and Sean gives me that call and
Speaker 5: I tell Trick I gotta go. I head back to
Speaker 5: the apartment. Sean hits to the studio in New York.
Speaker 5: We're on like speakerphone, and we write like five more
Speaker 5: hooks and he's not sure which one to pick. I'm
Speaker 5: not sure which one to pick, So I go and
Speaker 5: I sing them all for viv like I sing all
Speaker 5: the courses Vivian my wife, because viv Is. Viv Is everything, bro,
Speaker 5: real fast is the reason, Like viv Is is the reason.
Speaker 5: It doesn't matter what we're talking about. Vivis the reason.
Speaker 5: So we sing viv the hooks and when I get
Speaker 5: to the one, she was all up on me screaming yeah,
Speaker 5: viv Is like, oh my god, USh is fucking his
Speaker 5: girl's best friend. Now, when we wrote it, we literally
Speaker 5: just meant she was in the club dance with that nigga,
Speaker 5: screaming yeah, yeah yeah. And when she says he's fucking
Speaker 5: his best friend, I was like, that's exactly what you do.
Speaker 5: And I run back upstairs and I call Sean and
Speaker 5: I'm going, this is the one. We gotta do this
Speaker 5: one right here, and he's like you shure yes, because
Speaker 5: this is a story I'm telling you. So Sean's like,
Speaker 5: fuck it. So he goes and sings it. Plays that
Speaker 5: shit for La. La is like cool, let's play it
Speaker 5: for everybody else. Fun part is and our team didn't
Speaker 5: like the song, Like nobody really wanted Bro to have
Speaker 5: the song. You know, even after talking to us KP.
Speaker 5: USh didn't really like the song. He was like, on
Speaker 5: first listen, I didn't understand.
Speaker 3: It, and it doesn't it doesn't fit.
Speaker 1: It doesn't no album at all at all.
Speaker 5: And it was the the album. The album was actually done.
Speaker 5: Burne was the first single the video was and I
Speaker 5: was like, this is out of here here the ship
Speaker 5: was done and done, and we showed up yeah record
Speaker 5: and we wrote we wrote it shout out to KP.
Speaker 5: KP is really one of the people that got USh
Speaker 5: to cut the record because he told us because US
Speaker 5: was really unsure of it, and LA wasn't crazy about it,
Speaker 5: and I was good, Like I understood LA's reasoning, you
Speaker 5: know what I mean. L A's whole thing was USh
Speaker 5: has never really had up until that point, someone standing
Speaker 5: next to him. He was like, that's by does We
Speaker 5: never put anybody next to him. It's never Usher and
Speaker 5: someone else. So he's the star. So I don't know
Speaker 5: if I want to start that with Little John like
Speaker 5: and KP's whole thing was listen, I don't know all
Speaker 5: I know is that ship feel like helly Atlanta? I
Speaker 5: fucked with it, like like cut it an old thing, nigga.
Speaker 5: If you don't like it, we don't keep it. But
Speaker 5: there's no problem with putting your voice on it.
Speaker 1: Just sing it.
Speaker 5: Let's see what happens.
Speaker 1: I want to take you on a different path. We
Speaker 1: going now that you've now that chief started this path talk.
Speaker 5: Let's go path talk.
Speaker 1: Make sure we make sure we call the lawyer's path talk.
Speaker 1: We said your first hit record was in the nineties. Yes,
Speaker 1: and what was that record?
Speaker 5: My boo?
Speaker 1: Yes, give me my bool.
Speaker 5: My boo's fun.
Speaker 6: Uh.
Speaker 5: For as long as I can remember, Like I'm a
Speaker 5: like I'm an army brat. So I was raised globally,
Speaker 5: but I graduated high school in Alabama, like a small
Speaker 5: town in Alabama called Anniston, and they all like, I'm
Speaker 5: a Southern kid. I've always loved bass and ato waits
Speaker 5: and you know all of that. And I remember being
Speaker 5: a kid and trying to get my big brother Greg
Speaker 5: shout out to Gregg, who is an amazing musician. I
Speaker 5: wish I was the musician he was. And I remember
Speaker 5: telling them all the time, bro, we should sing over that,
Speaker 5: like I'm watching what happens when they play that ship
Speaker 5: at the pep rallies because I play football, Like when
Speaker 5: they play that ship at the pep rallies, when they
Speaker 5: play that ship at the dance, when they play that,
Speaker 5: that's what we should sing over. Ain't nobody singing over that?
Speaker 5: And he used to clown me all the time. That
Speaker 5: ain't real music, boy, real music. And they start playing
Speaker 5: the keys. This is real doing that thing y'all do
Speaker 5: with the show.
Speaker 3: This real music.
Speaker 5: So I so like, fast forward. I get out of
Speaker 5: high school, move to Atlanta, following my big brother, like
Speaker 5: just literally trying to be like him. And I mess
Speaker 5: around and you know, start meeting my own people, start
Speaker 5: going to the Art Institute of Atlanta, start meeting my
Speaker 5: own people. And I met this, you know, one lady
Speaker 5: named Akima day Achema.
Speaker 1: You know, of course I know Achema.
Speaker 5: Okay, so yeah, Achema would take me around. I would
Speaker 5: I would, you know, arrange and do a lot of
Speaker 5: the stuff on her demos, and she would be like, yo,
Speaker 5: so what do you think And I'd be like singing this,
Speaker 5: do this, do this, do this. So she called me
Speaker 5: one day and was like, yo, I gotta you know
Speaker 5: I got the song I gotta do. Will you come
Speaker 5: with me to the studio? And I was like absolutely absolutely.
Speaker 5: So we get to the studio and they start playing
Speaker 5: the song and it's everything I've been waiting for.
Speaker 1: They're playing the track or they're playing a song.
Speaker 5: The track and the song, so they're playing it and
Speaker 5: I'm sitting there like, yo, this is fucking awesome. So
Speaker 5: they're like, let's let's cut it. Let's get it. So
Speaker 5: we're sitting there and we're cutting it, and I'm arranging
Speaker 5: and I'm trying to help out the best as I
Speaker 5: as best I can and and they're giving a Chema
Speaker 5: hard time, but they're not really giving her a hard time.
Speaker 5: They just keep saying it's hit suck, like this don't
Speaker 5: sound good. And Kimmi gets frustrated after a while because
Speaker 5: they really go in and she's delivering what's written, so
Speaker 5: they're giving her really hard time and she she ends
Speaker 5: up dipping and I'm not trying to dip because this
Speaker 5: is my first professional session. So I'm like, well, what
Speaker 5: y'all want? And Little John is there and Little Jo
Speaker 5: looks at me and goes, hey, Janny, you should sing it.
Speaker 5: And I go this is this is this is this
Speaker 5: song for a girl, no disrespect, but you kind of
Speaker 5: sound like a bitch when you sing.
Speaker 1: So I'm like.
Speaker 5: This repet So I'm like, I'm like, no, I can't
Speaker 5: sing it, but I can call my girlfriend. So the
Speaker 5: girl that's singing the song again, no, I don't think
Speaker 5: was my girlfriend. We met at a junior college in
Speaker 5: Alabama called Southern Union, So I called Virgo and I'm like, yo,
Speaker 5: you should get down here, like there's a there's a song.
Speaker 5: We could sing this song. So she comes down and
Speaker 5: she comes down with with THEO who she was doing
Speaker 5: a lot of I think it was there who she's
Speaker 5: doing a lot of work with at the time, and
Speaker 5: she starts singing that and they kind of react the
Speaker 5: same way. This ain't it. So immediately THEO is like, well,
Speaker 5: the problem is like the melodies jacked up, like it's
Speaker 5: not the song. So niggas start working on the melody.
Speaker 5: So I'm just hopping in, Hey, well what if you
Speaker 5: sing it like this? Well what if we did this
Speaker 5: part like this? So niggas mess around and changing and yeah,
Speaker 5: wed the melodies sing the song like Virgo singing the song.
Speaker 5: I'm yes, and I'm singing the backs on the record
Speaker 5: to this day. To this day, Yeah, the only voices
Speaker 5: that you hear on that song are virgoing me. So
Speaker 5: we we redo the song, and it's crazy because they
Speaker 5: had told me, like, we'll give you guys one hundred
Speaker 5: and fifty bucks for doing it, niggas out of high
Speaker 5: school trying to out.
Speaker 1: I was like, yes, so much Taco bell and fifty
Speaker 1: man what so we we we do the.
Speaker 5: First day and we come back the second day and
Speaker 5: they haven't given us the money yet. So V's like,
Speaker 5: let's just sing it, and I was like, no, Like
Speaker 5: if we sing it, there's no reason for them to
Speaker 5: pay us, Like it's one hundred dollars hundred and fifty bucks. Like,
Speaker 5: I'll talk to them. So we go in there, nigga,
Speaker 5: and I need you to understand, like y'all know me
Speaker 5: for a long time, this is the pretty much the
Speaker 5: biggest I've ever been in my entire life. Now out
Speaker 5: of high school, nigga, I was a and I'm like, yo,
Speaker 5: like getting the booth. We need to finish this record
Speaker 5: because they are on the time batter fact right, And
Speaker 5: I'm like, we're not singing anything until y'all pay us,
Speaker 5: Like y'all said, y'all was gonna give us the money
Speaker 5: if we sing this. You ain't got no reason to
Speaker 5: pay us. Bro said, oh, you ain't singing like no.
Speaker 5: Man reaches in his bag, pulls out a nine dressed
Speaker 5: that bitch on the table.
Speaker 1: Do you know the name of the person that did this?
Speaker 5: I absolutely do. I'm not gonna say I love it,
Speaker 5: I love it, I love it.
Speaker 3: This nigga tank turned in the flag.
Speaker 5: No, I don't know, yeah, exactly what it was. And
Speaker 5: I'm like, he look at me. I was like, no,
Speaker 5: I just said I need a little water before the vocals.
Speaker 5: A little drive fucking had night, had Night, went in
Speaker 5: the booth, went the booth, and we saying that bitch down.
Speaker 5: We're saying that bitch down, and then we dip. They
Speaker 5: never gave us the money, and it was also the
Speaker 5: last song that was being recorded.
Speaker 2: Trying to say, y'all gotta give us at least some
Speaker 2: water before I start singing any damn thing around here.
Speaker 1: Bro.
Speaker 5: So we sing, we sing it, and they end up
Speaker 5: putting it out as the single, and it ends up
Speaker 5: doing really well. Her just her voice and your Yeah,
Speaker 5: they put it out as a single and it does
Speaker 5: really well. They start trying to perform it and they're
Speaker 5: getting booed, So who is this the social death? They
Speaker 5: start trying to perform the song because it's in Atlanta
Speaker 5: in the South. The ship just becomes a hit, but
Speaker 5: Virgo's not performing it because they treated us like shit
Speaker 5: and they're getting booed everywhere because the girl the singing
Speaker 5: this ain't the girl that's on the record. So they
Speaker 5: end up, you know, reaching out to us and like
Speaker 5: I remember John calling me and being like where you
Speaker 5: live And I told him where I lived, and Bro
Speaker 5: pulled up with a goal plaque. This is my first
Speaker 5: goal plaque.
Speaker 1: He was like, we straight.
Speaker 5: I'm looking at this ship to say Q Smith. I'm like,
Speaker 5: hell yeah, we straight? What hell yeah? And John and
Speaker 5: I end up like doing like a remix for to
Speaker 5: Me and doing some other shit together. Like I just
Speaker 5: remember hanging with John when because John started out as
Speaker 5: you know, an executive, he like he was had a
Speaker 5: head an an R Soso And I remember back then
Speaker 5: him going that he just wanted to be like Uncle Luke.
Speaker 5: He was like he was gonna do that. He was
Speaker 5: going to figure out how to be a rapper and
Speaker 5: be like Luke Skywalker like and I'd be like okay,
Speaker 5: and it was DJing and figuring it all out. I
Speaker 5: ended up running in the in the Virgo later because
Speaker 5: we broke up. But I ended up running in the
Speaker 5: Virgo when we hooked back up and she was like,
Speaker 5: oh my god, did they Did you get your plaque?
Speaker 4: I was like, hell, yeah, I got my plank.
Speaker 5: She's like, how much money did they give you?
Speaker 3: I was like what.
Speaker 5: Money?
Speaker 1: She was like they never paid.
Speaker 5: She was like, yeah, they gave me, like they gave
Speaker 5: me I got twenty thousand.
Speaker 7: Oh.
Speaker 5: I was like, watch, you should be outside.
Speaker 4: She takes me outside.
Speaker 5: You take me outside to see the new Purple Ultimate.
Speaker 2: I was like, what.
Speaker 1: Money?
Speaker 5: Yeah, a good story. Don't learned a lot.
Speaker 3: Did you ever get paid?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 10: I still haven't been paid and I still ain't been paid.
Speaker 10: It's all good though, Like I messed around and I.
Speaker 3: Ended up.
Speaker 5: You know what, I ended up getting paid.
Speaker 2: ID you give them two hundred, three hundred, one hundred
Speaker 2: and fifty twice?
Speaker 1: I got two hundred, you got a hundred hundred.
Speaker 5: You know what, It's a good birthday present.
Speaker 6: I tell I take I'll received this in the name
Speaker 6: of every birthday, every Birthdaylujah, all of it, all of it.
Speaker 1: Man, what a story. That is great.
Speaker 3: That is a great story, bro.
Speaker 6: And now I will never be able to listen to
Speaker 6: that record the same again every time I hear it.
Speaker 6: I'm going to think of this story.
Speaker 3: Bro.
Speaker 5: You can hear me the clearest on that. When they
Speaker 5: get to the bridge. Boy, you've got an back then.
Speaker 5: Nigga couldn't use no autotune either. Niggas just had to.
Speaker 1: Get it right. You heard that, didn't you. Okay?
Speaker 5: Oh for clarity, I ain't got no issue with auto
Speaker 5: two God bless you.
Speaker 6: No, no, no no, But I'm just saying, yeah, we've
Speaker 6: been we've been doing this way before the plug in. Boy,
Speaker 6: what I'm from the tape, from the tape that boy,
Speaker 6: what I'm from the tape days, the VCR days.
Speaker 1: Hey, Dad's.
Speaker 5: They could never sink up. They just could waiting for
Speaker 5: your part.
Speaker 3: We talked about that flight vocals.
Speaker 1: You going to lunch real quick, He'll figure it out.
Speaker 1: Let's go.
Speaker 6: I like you format today, man, Yeah, I like what
Speaker 6: I mean he's I love the way he got to
Speaker 6: break come here.
Speaker 1: I love the way he's breaking it down.
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying, and I want to get
Speaker 2: to I want to get into his real moments like
Speaker 2: a boy, which I thought.
Speaker 5: Was like a boy thought, I think it is a
Speaker 5: crazy fun like a boy about to be the shortest
Speaker 5: story ever. God, God bless the Clutch. I did like
Speaker 5: nothing on this record. This is one of the records
Speaker 5: where you know inside the clutch. When we started, the
Speaker 5: Clutch was a company that I co founded, that carry
Speaker 5: and I and Zeke and Ballewa and Candice Nelson co founded,
Speaker 5: not that I could that we co founded.
Speaker 6: With huh huh, Jack kick out the clutch before before
Speaker 6: he became a car and you put it in the
Speaker 6: car to make the clutch.
Speaker 3: You know, you know him.
Speaker 5: There was one guy we didn't kick We didn't kick
Speaker 5: him out though we didn't. Tab was there in the beginning.
Speaker 5: We did not kick Tab out. Tab just kind of
Speaker 5: walked his own path. But Tad was there in the beginning.
Speaker 3: Uh, Tab got kicked out like me.
Speaker 1: You didn't get kicked out.
Speaker 5: You stop it, you stop it.
Speaker 2: I was never.
Speaker 5: I was in Miami formed, but I was never the
Speaker 5: first time the first time we worked together was Miami.
Speaker 5: It was the weekend of Hurricane Katrina. Yes, it was
Speaker 5: weekend of hurricane.
Speaker 4: Like crazy.
Speaker 5: Yes, what what years thousand and five, two thousand and five,
Speaker 5: two thousand and four or five might have been four.
Speaker 5: It was while, but we we went down there to
Speaker 5: work and like Ethiopia and Fulan are really the masterminds.
Speaker 5: They put together writing camp and they were like, he
Speaker 5: brought three people from Universal ful Ay and brought three
Speaker 5: people from Hicco and they stuck us in the studio.
Speaker 5: I think where a circle. Yeah, they stuck us in
Speaker 5: the studio for like a weekend. We wrote six songs,
Speaker 5: recorded five by the time we left Sunday. By Tuesday
Speaker 5: four them host was placed.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I don't think this song I wrote with him
Speaker 6: got placed that I got kicked, but we can't place
Speaker 6: no records for him.
Speaker 5: We did it, and I want to say Epic Epic
Speaker 5: had funded it, so all the four records got placed
Speaker 5: with Epic and we were like, oh, that was cool.
Speaker 5: But then we heard from Larry Jackson. It's like Jay
Speaker 5: Records started asking, Yo, we heard you guys did this thing,
Speaker 5: and it was pretty cool. Why didn't we get a call?
Speaker 5: So then Jay Records flew us out here and we
Speaker 5: did it again. And during that time, me and Zeke
Speaker 5: came up with the name the Clutch, and and Antonio
Speaker 5: Reed Jr. Was there as well. And that's just because
Speaker 5: we were at record Plant. Speaking of record Plant, I
Speaker 5: heard y'all talking. I can't remember who y'all were talking.
Speaker 5: You might have been talking to Oh, you were talking
Speaker 5: to somebody about how when it was when you was
Speaker 5: popping that record plan, you got a little name plate
Speaker 5: on the scooter and y'all saying, y'all never got I
Speaker 5: just wanted you to know, y'all know, I held on
Speaker 5: to mind.
Speaker 1: You know what gave my mother.
Speaker 5: I can't take it back, and took our money.
Speaker 3: Can you look smash your cupcake?
Speaker 5: This was fine, man, I let this think. Shout out,
Speaker 5: Shout out to Pearl. When the Clutch decided to move
Speaker 5: the home base really working in Atlanta, we knew we
Speaker 5: wasn't gonna be out here so much. So I asked
Speaker 5: Pearl if I could have my name plate and she
Speaker 5: gave it to me. So I've kept this whole time.
Speaker 5: Stays in my studio pel But yeah, bro, we did it.
Speaker 5: We came back out and like did it for Larry Jackson.
Speaker 5: Inside that session we figured out how we worked best.
Speaker 5: Carry and I were all were already writing together all
Speaker 5: the time. Zeke and Candice were writing together a lot.
Speaker 5: So you know what we started doing early is they
Speaker 5: would split us into two rooms. Out of those two rooms,
Speaker 5: we would do two to three songs a day in
Speaker 5: each room. So we were turning in anywhere between four
Speaker 5: and six songs a day, and people would just book
Speaker 5: us for like five days or a week and then
Speaker 5: just have thirty forty songs, you know what I mean.
Speaker 5: So we're working. We worked that way, and after stuff
Speaker 5: started picking up, what we decided to start doing was
Speaker 5: all right, so that everybody eats fairly, you know, whatever
Speaker 5: records are created. You know, on this trip, we're splitting.
Speaker 5: We're splitting. So the crew showed up and they mrked
Speaker 5: like a Boy. Funny thing is though we actually wrote
Speaker 5: like a Boy for Kelly Rowland, wrote Like a Boy
Speaker 5: for Kelly Rowland, which is hia areas because like fast
Speaker 5: forward a long time. I end up in session with
Speaker 5: Kelly Roland maybe a year or so later in Atlanta,
Speaker 5: and we're in session and she's like, JQ, what I
Speaker 5: really want is a record like that, like a boy song,
Speaker 5: and I was like stop and she was like what.
Speaker 5: I was like, Kelly, stop and she was like, I'm
Speaker 5: being serious. JQ. I was like, we wrote like a
Speaker 5: Boy for you. She was like, why didn't you let
Speaker 5: me hear it? We did? Now the A and R
Speaker 5: that we sent it to happened to be in the room,
Speaker 5: and we're like, we sent.
Speaker 1: It to him.
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, yeah, I love that. And it's the It's
Speaker 5: the only time I've seen fire in Kelly's eyes, because
Speaker 5: Kelly is actually the sweetest person in yes, And Kelly
Speaker 5: turned and looked at him and said, you don't make
Speaker 5: another decision about a record without me, And I was like, OK.
Speaker 6: I like that.
Speaker 2: Wow, that is great because you can never pinpoint who
Speaker 2: dropped the ball. There's always somebody in between the office
Speaker 2: or it got to such it never made it too.
Speaker 3: Until you start dealing directly with artists.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, that's beautiful. You didn't think you had
Speaker 2: a great story that that piece right there? That doesn't
Speaker 2: for me. Here we go, Icebox.
Speaker 1: Back, won't you?
Speaker 5: Icebox is actually my favorite song I ever worked on
Speaker 5: that's been released. Wow and quietly fucked quietly not quietly. Oh,
Speaker 5: Marion is my favorite artist to write for. Wow, because
Speaker 5: when I write when Omrion sings it, it sounds like
Speaker 5: it sounds in my head like his delivery, like as
Speaker 5: not just as a songwriter, but as a vocal producer,
Speaker 5: as a fan, i'ma be honest with you, I don't
Speaker 5: I don't care as much about your ability to get
Speaker 5: to the notes as a lot of pure like musicians do.
Speaker 5: All I care is that I believe you like music.
Speaker 5: To me, music has one fucking job, and that's to
Speaker 5: make you feel something. That's the only job you know.
Speaker 5: And inside of that, I like, I believe that a
Speaker 5: music is like a three four minute audible movie. It
Speaker 5: is my job as the writer to give you the
Speaker 5: best script possible. As a producer, it is your job
Speaker 5: to make sure that the song, the record as a whole,
Speaker 5: comes to fruition in the way it's supposed to. As
Speaker 5: an artist, I don't care how fucking will you sing.
Speaker 5: I need you to get in character and I need
Speaker 5: you to deliver fuck singing it. I need you to
Speaker 5: deliver the record the way that it needs to be delivered.
Speaker 5: And when oh sings shit, it has the.
Speaker 1: Urgency my brother.
Speaker 5: Talk. You know, understand how long I've been waiting to
Speaker 5: hear this song live.
Speaker 4: Top five?
Speaker 5: What is Jake U?
Speaker 11: Top five?
Speaker 1: Top f what is that cap?
Speaker 6: Top five?
Speaker 1: Are these sigles? Body?
Speaker 4: So yo, don't go, don't don't go top your top
Speaker 4: Paul on.
Speaker 1: Top your top five?
Speaker 12: Yeah yeah.
Speaker 5: Yeah, JQS top.
Speaker 1: Fuck.
Speaker 5: It's better live, y'all.
Speaker 1: It's better lives that ship your top five R and
Speaker 1: B singer.
Speaker 3: Come on, brother, I had to write this down.
Speaker 1: You prepared?
Speaker 5: You want to slip up on the pod Top five
Speaker 5: R and B singers. Okay, this is difficult because I
Speaker 5: definitely got seven.
Speaker 3: I became prepared and I'm prepared.
Speaker 5: Okay, first and foremot Well, I guess I got way
Speaker 5: more than say. If you break it down, uh, boys
Speaker 5: to men.
Speaker 1: Hmm, easy, you don't have to explain it. You don't
Speaker 1: have to. We'll take off.
Speaker 5: Usher huh. I don't think there's anybody better than us.
Speaker 5: Beyonce umber right here.
Speaker 1: That's some time.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's difficult.
Speaker 3: It's difficult to say the list you wrote.
Speaker 1: Exactly.
Speaker 5: I'm just trying to.
Speaker 1: Trying to go, Okay, we're doing okay, it's your birthday.
Speaker 5: It is my birth okay, boys and men. Prince yea
Speaker 5: m J, but specifically Young m J, Young Usher, Beyonce,
Speaker 5: Jo Deasy and Whitney.
Speaker 1: I don't have a gagle because niggas say groups.
Speaker 5: That's just because I don't think. I don't think. I
Speaker 5: don't think groups.
Speaker 1: Getting you're right, you're right.
Speaker 6: And as a person, if you yeah, you gotta say Sean.
Speaker 6: If you're gonna say Casey, you gotta say Joe.
Speaker 5: I like, I get it, I love them both. Would
Speaker 5: as a person, I would say Sean first. I would
Speaker 5: say Sean. Then I would say one. Yeah, Okay, it's close.
Speaker 5: Here we go your top.
Speaker 1: R and B songs.
Speaker 5: Let's go see it.
Speaker 3: Mm hmm.
Speaker 5: Can you stand the ring?
Speaker 1: Jesus?
Speaker 3: Mm hmm nay, who.
Speaker 5: Can we talk?
Speaker 6: Mm?
Speaker 1: A lot of questions, A lot of questions, questions.
Speaker 5: Unbended m M and begging super Woman huh like k
Speaker 5: why what Karen?
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 7: Yeah?
Speaker 6: Master masterfully Yeah, yeah yeah, Shadowy Superwoman out there.
Speaker 1: Though.
Speaker 5: It's funny when I was when I was going over
Speaker 5: the list, I was like, bro, every song, for the
Speaker 5: most part is Kenny and Jimmie Lewis.
Speaker 3: They are no air mhm.
Speaker 5: They shut up on that. And Vive brought this one
Speaker 5: up and I had to go with it just because
Speaker 5: it's the irony bro Janet. Let's wait a while.
Speaker 1: Mm hmmm.
Speaker 5: I'd love to know how many babies were made to
Speaker 5: a song that was that was about abstinence. It's the
Speaker 5: sexiest song maybe ever.
Speaker 3: I think that's six too.
Speaker 1: I think you just.
Speaker 3: It's your birthday is back to it's your birthday.
Speaker 1: I should make a song about abstinence. Man, you can't
Speaker 1: this ship you.
Speaker 5: They gonna know you don't know what you're talking about.
Speaker 1: Waited before when.
Speaker 2: So segment the next segment, segment, We're gonna make a
Speaker 2: volt trying an R and B volte trying your artist you're.
Speaker 1: Starting with. We want to get the vocal performance style,
Speaker 1: the styling of the artists, and the passion of the artists.
Speaker 1: Who are you getting the vocal from to make your
Speaker 1: R and B.
Speaker 6: Artists audio top thirteen usher Mmmm he said, he said, yeah,
Speaker 6: go with him.
Speaker 5: If you're going your ability to deliver tempo and deliver
Speaker 5: a ballot. One of my favorite vocals ever recorded vocals
Speaker 5: ever might be can you help me off the eighty
Speaker 5: seven on one album?
Speaker 3: Like Yeah, no, No, He's greater and everybody can't do
Speaker 3: both absolutely right.
Speaker 1: You cannot cannot performance style.
Speaker 5: It should be getting difficult because I feel like I'd
Speaker 5: be having answers. But then when I take the time
Speaker 5: to look at the artists as a whole, I like Nigga.
Speaker 5: That's a while looking at artists, I don't. I don't
Speaker 5: understand on stage the way they perform. Oh yeah, no,
Speaker 5: I understand. That's so difficult because I would say I
Speaker 5: would say Chris, I say CB but Marvin Marvin's ability
Speaker 5: to make people move mm hmm, it's different.
Speaker 6: I like that.
Speaker 1: A combo guard.
Speaker 5: I'm gonna go. I'm gonna go Chris.
Speaker 1: Mm hmmm.
Speaker 5: I'm gonna go Chris because.
Speaker 1: The energy.
Speaker 8: Is unmatched, unmatched, unmatched, unmatched. Love the Marvin reference though
Speaker 8: styling close artist rip.
Speaker 1: Chris Quick Quick.
Speaker 5: I don't know anybody who's and I'd have to do
Speaker 5: more homework. Has ever been more in touch then Chris
Speaker 5: and Chris has lived for a long time in the spotlight. Yeah,
Speaker 5: in the spotlight and somehow right in front whatever the
Speaker 5: movement is, but is.
Speaker 1: Globally fly Yeah he's not like Yeah, demographic doesn't matter.
Speaker 5: Where you go and people respond, And I think that's
Speaker 5: the job.
Speaker 1: The passion of the artist, the heart of the artist.
Speaker 1: Where you getting that from?
Speaker 5: Yeah, don't be mad at me, y'all?
Speaker 1: Yay for what upset about? What? Yeah, he'd be rocking,
Speaker 1: he mean it, yay is yay is I was at that.
Speaker 5: I don't how about say, I don't necessarily.
Speaker 1: Not agertating it was Colosseum.
Speaker 5: Mean, yeah, it's not necessarily And that's not always about
Speaker 5: always agreeing with what everybody says. But I respect in
Speaker 5: some of the state with this.
Speaker 3: Political ship man the nigga like Kanye when he performed.
Speaker 12: No, I just mean, hey, listen, wherever you are with
Speaker 12: your politics, how do I unpluy? Okay, you're pretty but
Speaker 12: speaking over talking me.
Speaker 5: Speak of ship speak your ship.
Speaker 3: You said you weren't coming here to be political.
Speaker 4: Oh I'm not.
Speaker 11: I'm not.
Speaker 5: I expected some crazy question.
Speaker 3: No, no, we anna do that.
Speaker 1: But we're here now though I didn't get none of
Speaker 1: the kick out questions.
Speaker 3: You take me out. It's cool, it's here now.
Speaker 1: Though.
Speaker 3: It's here now thoughcause you just said a few names.
Speaker 1: But what can he do?
Speaker 5: I ain't saying no names.
Speaker 4: Are you saying the man? Ain't saying no man?
Speaker 5: You was.
Speaker 1: What you did, don't say she.
Speaker 4: Saying no names.
Speaker 6: Are you ready, j Q, I already we need that story,
Speaker 6: all right, funnier fucked up, all right, funny and fucked
Speaker 6: up this story.
Speaker 11: Hold on, hold on, I didn't know, no, got to
Speaker 11: introduce you, right because you're a j Q swift Man
Speaker 11: and you are mother fucking legend, legend, nigga.
Speaker 5: I apologize, and we want.
Speaker 6: To introduce the legend and what he's done and what
Speaker 6: he did. And he ain't saying ship. This is j Q,
Speaker 6: mister icebox himself where his heart used to be. You
Speaker 6: know who you know who you are and broken. He
Speaker 6: ain't gonna say he already said your name whatever. Well
Speaker 6: on this segment right now, he ain't saying no names.
Speaker 5: J Okay, This this story happens over a few years,
Speaker 5: so early early, and you know, in my journey, I
Speaker 5: was in a group with my brothers, myself, my big
Speaker 5: brother Greg, my younger brother Chuck, and my cousin Dre.
Speaker 5: Do those names that's not the d okay, Yeah, that
Speaker 5: was a lot of names.
Speaker 1: This is birthday and birthday, tough talents names and me.
Speaker 5: But I was in this group and even back then,
Speaker 5: like I wanted to be part I wanted to help.
Speaker 5: I had ideas so and a lot of people may
Speaker 5: not know this about me. I never wanted to be
Speaker 5: a songwriter, like this was never, never in my dream.
Speaker 5: But I'm in this group. We're in the studio working
Speaker 5: with you know, these producers, and we signed to these
Speaker 5: producers because they've got major backing from a professional athlete.
Speaker 5: And we're like, yeah, Bro, were about to do it,
Speaker 5: were about to get it. And I remember being in
Speaker 5: the studio and the producers and songwriter writing. It was
Speaker 5: a production team. They're writing, writing, writing, and I'd be like, oh,
Speaker 5: what if you said this? And they just kind of
Speaker 5: turn around look at me. They'll be trying to figure
Speaker 5: it out. Oh it would be cool if we talked
Speaker 5: about this, and they look at me again, maybe third
Speaker 5: or fourth time, and there's a room full of people,
Speaker 5: so it's not just us, it's us. And then because
Speaker 5: they're in this huge mansion that the professional athlete has
Speaker 5: gotten for them, it's just a gang of women, bunch
Speaker 5: of niggas, And I go, yo, what if we say
Speaker 5: and Bro turns around. The songwriter turns around and says,
Speaker 5: won't you shut your corny ass up? I'm a songwriter
Speaker 5: he's a producer, you the artist Alabama and turns back
Speaker 5: around and the whole room is cracking up. I'm like, okay,
Speaker 5: cool coo Goo Goo goo goo Google. You know, take time.
Speaker 5: We end up getting out of that situation, you know,
Speaker 5: fighting trying to figure out my situation, end up over
Speaker 5: at noontime. I'm over at noontime and I've been working
Speaker 5: and writing there long enough to where now I'm one
Speaker 5: of the guys that they call you'll go too, And
Speaker 5: now they have this artist and I co wrote the
Speaker 5: first single, I wrote the second single, and we're tracking
Speaker 5: the second single. At the time, we didn't know the
Speaker 5: second single, but we're tracking the song and one of
Speaker 5: the partners come in and go, hey man, we got
Speaker 5: some people that you know, wanna you know, want to
Speaker 5: get up here and want to start doing some work.
Speaker 5: I told him to come in here and play this
Speaker 5: stuff for you. And I'm like, okay, well, I need
Speaker 5: to get finished with Buddy Vocal, so if I could
Speaker 5: have like ten minutes to just wrap this part up,
Speaker 5: it'll be cool. And it was like, yeah, I'll send
Speaker 5: him in there in ten minutes. I was like, thank you, bro.
Speaker 5: So I'm sitting there and we're going over trying to
Speaker 5: get all the backgrounds done. That was back in the
Speaker 5: day when I thought more harmonies meant a bigger hit, right,
Speaker 5: So every note I could think of, yeah, I know,
Speaker 5: it's we already got that note in there.
Speaker 1: But this does a little bit different.
Speaker 5: Yeah, sing this one. So Bro singing and they come
Speaker 5: in the room, Hey hey, and he's like, well, I'm
Speaker 5: looking for JQ, and you know I'm JQ.
Speaker 11: Now.
Speaker 5: When I started, I was just cute. So I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 5: just give me one minute, give me one minute. Yeah,
Speaker 5: all right, perfect, bro, come on out. We'll get back
Speaker 5: in the maybe like five minutes. So I spin the
Speaker 5: cheer around and nigga that called me corny and told
Speaker 5: me to shut the fuck up is looking at me.
Speaker 5: His eyes get big as ship and I'm like, what up, bro,
Speaker 5: And he's like, uh, they just wanted me to come
Speaker 5: in here and play, so you up here, you're up
Speaker 5: here now. I was like, yeah, man's that's kind of
Speaker 5: home now. I was like all right, yeah, yeah bro, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 5: So I was you might know these songs. This nigga
Speaker 5: plays me my demo, plays me all the songs that
Speaker 5: we cut, and I was like, yeah, I appreciate your time.
Speaker 5: We'll get back to you. Bro left. It was petty,
Speaker 5: but I never felt so much joy ever. Bro comes
Speaker 5: into the partner comes in the room, He's like, what
Speaker 5: did you And I was just like, I don't funk
Speaker 5: with him, no kind of way. He's untrustworthy, he's this,
Speaker 5: he's that, this nigga is Bob. I don't funk with him.
Speaker 5: And he was like, what did you think about the songs?
Speaker 5: I said, He played me songs that I demoed four
Speaker 5: years ago and he was like, that's enough for me.
Speaker 5: Then I turned back around and finished recording single, my
Speaker 5: second single.
Speaker 3: My my mind.
Speaker 1: Be nice to be cool, not even you know what,
Speaker 1: may not even have to just be nice, just be cordial.
Speaker 6: We just don't don't don't don't shoot on especially if
Speaker 6: they don't deserve it.
Speaker 5: Bruh.
Speaker 6: You can, you know, pull pull a young man to
Speaker 6: the side, shoes a young fello at the time and
Speaker 6: we're gonna we might work you in, but you know,
Speaker 6: let me focus a little bit, even if it's said
Speaker 6: that way. Yeah, and definitely don't don't don't diss where
Speaker 6: you're from.
Speaker 1: My father from Ala.
Speaker 3: Oh me, you know, because it could.
Speaker 1: You could very well be in the other chair at.
Speaker 5: Some points around it was amazing.
Speaker 1: Oh it's you and on the other side of it.
Speaker 5: I'm gonna tell you another story. When the camera's off.
Speaker 2: We're gonna get these cameras out. Brother j Q, amazing man.
Speaker 2: You are amazing man. Outside of all of this, man
Speaker 2: just an amazing brother.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: Anytime you know, and JA can attest to this man
Speaker 2: anytime your name comes up, it's just good energy all around.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. And then it's infectious. You
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5: I love you guys. There's not it's crazy. I was
Speaker 5: talking about this yesterday in the session. I was like,
Speaker 5: I know a lot of people.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 5: We all was like, but I don't think I have
Speaker 5: a lot of friends. Like I don't trust a lot
Speaker 5: of people around my I don't feel comfortable enough to
Speaker 5: have them around my kids.
Speaker 1: Be out.
Speaker 5: I love you guys. You guys have been solid from
Speaker 5: the beginning. You made me better. You make me better.
Speaker 5: You also introduced me to Sean Stockman. It's amazing.
Speaker 6: That's my brother. Yeah, my brothers, all of us. Yes, Yeah,
Speaker 6: he's been a blessing.
Speaker 5: To all of us Christmas project that's coming out.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because I was you know, yeah, yeah, yeah, I
Speaker 1: got the call.
Speaker 6: You know.
Speaker 3: But thank you, bro for being who you are and
Speaker 3: for being consistent.
Speaker 5: Absolutely I appreciate it. Can I say one thing to
Speaker 5: the creatives that may be looking, but I just want
Speaker 5: to say this just because I feel like it needs
Speaker 5: to be said, and I wish somebody would have told
Speaker 5: me really early in my career. Is one thing that
Speaker 5: I wanted to make sure I said, for those creatives
Speaker 5: that are out here trying to figure it out, understand
Speaker 5: that success it's easy. And when I say easy, I'm
Speaker 5: not like it's going to fall out of the sky
Speaker 5: into your lap. But it's not compleated. Like success is
Speaker 5: a combination of good decisions.
Speaker 6: You know, learn.
Speaker 5: To make decisions that move you in the right direction.
Speaker 5: You know, whenever you're about it, is this moved me
Speaker 5: closer to my goal or not closer to my goal.
Speaker 5: I swear if you do that, you know you will
Speaker 5: get to where you're trying to get. Like math is
Speaker 5: math two plus two will always be four. If you
Speaker 5: keep walking in the direction that you're supposed to be going,
Speaker 5: Eventually you will get there.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 5: Have the people that fall flat now fall flat for
Speaker 5: a couple of reasons. They have a very bad relationship
Speaker 5: with self discipline and self sacrifice. Like there's too much.
Speaker 5: And I'm saying it's because I speak to a couple
Speaker 5: of young people now and that's all of this thing.
Speaker 5: Everybody's scared of missing out and all of that. Just
Speaker 5: understand that the real fucking work gets done alone, you know, Floyd.
Speaker 5: When it's time to get it in and they're preparing
Speaker 5: for a fight, bro, don't go out and bring a
Speaker 5: bunch of people around. They go into isolation. When Kobe
Speaker 5: was ready to really ball out, he would say, I'm
Speaker 5: in a cage. When I'm in that cage, don't fucking
Speaker 5: talk to me, don't touch me. You learn who you
Speaker 5: are by your fucking self. Learn to trust you. I'm sorry,
Speaker 5: I got a little amped up, but y'all fall into that.
Speaker 5: I swer I hate.
Speaker 2: Y'all, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Tank Valentine. I'm JQ,
Speaker 2: and this is the Army Money Podcast, the authority on
Speaker 2: all things R and D. This episode has been.
Speaker 5: I'm gonna get y'all that picture. I'm gonna get a
Speaker 5: picture of.
Speaker 1: Man. Thank you well.
Speaker 6: R and B Money. R and B Money is a
Speaker 6: production of the Black Effect podcast Network. For more podcasts
Speaker 6: from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
Speaker 6: you listen to your favorite shows. Don't forget to subscribe
Speaker 6: to and rate our show, and you can connect with
Speaker 6: us on social media at Jay Valentine and at the
Speaker 6: Real Tank. For the extended episode, subscribe to YouTube dot com,
Speaker 6: forward Slash, R and B Money