Speaker 1: R and b's Money.
Speaker 2: Child.
Speaker 3: We are the authorities.
Speaker 4: R and B.
Speaker 1: What's going on? People?
Speaker 3: You have just tuned into the R and B Money Podcast.
Speaker 3: I'm Tank, this is Jay Valentine, and we are the
Speaker 3: authorities on R and B music and in the building
Speaker 3: all the way from mell Walkee mail town.
Speaker 1: Huh anything with mail letter mail do my brother from
Speaker 1: another mother.
Speaker 2: Thanks for the insight man waiting to come up in this.
Speaker 3: Listen this. We want to this. We want to kick
Speaker 3: this thing off the right way. Okay, we want to
Speaker 3: kick this off the right.
Speaker 1: In honor, yes, okay, in honor of Okay.
Speaker 3: Let me tell you something. Let me tell you something.
Speaker 3: First of all, are you all of a sudden organic? Yeah,
Speaker 3: all of a sudden? Are you in touch with the
Speaker 3: earth people? All of a sudden? You? Wait, listen, I'm
Speaker 3: gonna tell you. Started this ship there was a man, yeah, walking.
Speaker 2: Barefoot, barefoot.
Speaker 3: He had already had sea shells attached the strings and ship.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And we was trying to figure out how is
Speaker 1: he doing this? Is he Listen?
Speaker 3: I'm trying to tell you every girl I knew everyone
Speaker 3: was like, oh my god. I was like, no shoes up.
Speaker 2: I love Eric B.
Speaker 1: I'm looking at my temple and was like, still represent
Speaker 1: we are not wearing shoes.
Speaker 2: With no shoes, I'm gonna get rid of my heir.
Speaker 1: Jesus is here man, Jesus ey thing.
Speaker 5: It was every nay, Lenny Kraviss Maxwell, a very small
Speaker 5: group of elite organic men.
Speaker 2: We all smell like that. You back then, some of
Speaker 2: the ladies like, remember he would be on Venice Beach
Speaker 2: and the nigga be selling. I got some portunity for you.
Speaker 3: Yeah, see this, he's been doing this, so you said
Speaker 3: some money eventually eventually.
Speaker 1: Now y'all come in the terms.
Speaker 3: Now you've got your feet now you now you now
Speaker 3: you're not now you hold he's been doing it and
Speaker 3: the women have been going.
Speaker 1: So let me ask you a question. Yes, answer your question.
Speaker 1: Please do that.
Speaker 2: I want to talk about the bare feet thing. Go ahead.
Speaker 1: Was that on Was that on purpose?
Speaker 3: Like did you know going into this like I'm gonna
Speaker 3: give them something, something different, I'm gonna give them something vulnerable,
Speaker 3: something you know what I'm saying a different kind of
Speaker 3: with my feet out, I'm comfortable.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna tell you about that. I'm gonna, I'm gonna,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna go a little surface with it, then I'm
Speaker 2: gonna go deep.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 2: So when I was first signed back in nineteen Hendres
Speaker 2: and Hum, it was me and my sister. We were
Speaker 2: called Bennet. We were first. My first record deal was
Speaker 2: with E and My Records, and so you know, we
Speaker 2: came up in Milwaukee. We did like the clubs we
Speaker 2: would do, like the obscure cities in Michigan and Illinois.
Speaker 2: And then we got our record deal. And I was
Speaker 2: always used to looking to my left and seeing my
Speaker 2: sister right there. Okay, first record deal didn't work out
Speaker 2: so good. My sister was like, baby brother, you go ahead,
Speaker 2: it's music business, shit crazy, I'm gonna give me a job.
Speaker 1: A wow.
Speaker 2: So my dumb ass hung in there a little bit
Speaker 2: longer and I got my solo deal. Once I got
Speaker 2: my solo deal, I started to have to perform by myself.
Speaker 1: I was not used to that.
Speaker 2: The stage fright when you are used to looking over
Speaker 2: and see your family member and all of a sudden,
Speaker 2: it's me out there.
Speaker 1: It was.
Speaker 2: It was like I'd be backstage a little debilitated, just
Speaker 2: like stage fright will come on me like that. So
Speaker 2: I discovered one day that if I just took my
Speaker 2: shoes off and went out on the stage. I relaxed,
Speaker 2: almost like you felt at home. I felt at home.
Speaker 2: And a byproduct was of that was women. Apparently I
Speaker 2: must have had a good foot day or something and
Speaker 2: they'd be like.
Speaker 1: Oh, look at his feet. I was like, oh, y'all
Speaker 1: like this shit.
Speaker 2: Okay, I'll keep doing it because it makes me feel great.
Speaker 2: So let me flash forward. Great, I'm gonna flash forward
Speaker 2: to something that I've reached. I told you I was
Speaker 2: gonna go deep, something that I've just discovered, which you're
Speaker 2: probably hipped to. You're so health conscious and YouTube. But
Speaker 2: there's such a thing. It's called grounding and earthing.
Speaker 1: Have you heard of this, yes?
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So basically, grounding is the science based upon the fact
Speaker 2: that the Earth is just one big battery full of
Speaker 2: negative electrons. We as human beings, are basically electric beings.
Speaker 2: We're full of positive electrons. But when we walk around
Speaker 2: with shoes on all the time, especially rubber soul shoes,
Speaker 2: we are insulating ourselves from those negative electrons, which balances
Speaker 2: our body and reduces inflammation, makes us healthy, makes us
Speaker 2: sleep better, makes sex more boili. So basically, I've since discovered,
Speaker 2: which I didn't know back then. That shit just keeps
Speaker 2: me healthy, It keeps me young, It makes me feel
Speaker 2: makes me feel like I'm twenty years younger than I am.
Speaker 2: At least an hour day, I will walk around outside
Speaker 2: barefoot in the dirt, in the sand and the grass.
Speaker 1: Wow. Yeah, it's real ship, you know what. And and
Speaker 1: thinking about that, I used to always wonder why my.
Speaker 3: Country cousins healthiest ship well, was so far ahead every
Speaker 3: party elements.
Speaker 1: They were faster than you. They were faster. It was
Speaker 1: right right like they was driving. I was like, you're
Speaker 1: not right, how are you driving? Just dropping the car.
Speaker 2: Broke bruh, you and me both because that where's your family?
Speaker 2: From my mobile? Alabama?
Speaker 3: I got Alabama, I got I got all all all
Speaker 3: over Alabama, Birmingham specifically, I got Arkansas, little Rock all
Speaker 3: through there.
Speaker 1: And then they all migrated. They Migras's how they got
Speaker 1: to Milwauk into Detroit.
Speaker 2: But you are you are speaking the truth. Like we
Speaker 2: would go down to Alabama and my other I'd be
Speaker 2: ten years old, and my other ten year old cousins
Speaker 2: be like driving, got girlfriends and.
Speaker 1: They got everything. We're going to see these goods around
Speaker 1: the corner you want to go.
Speaker 2: I was like, I ain't much nowhere, you can't go.
Speaker 1: I don't know we're gonna do.
Speaker 3: We get exactly the joke, but they was ready to
Speaker 3: get to it. It was like and then I had
Speaker 3: two goods.
Speaker 6: Like, so, what you're saying with it, with the whole
Speaker 6: barefoot thing, is that we shouldn't make jokes about the
Speaker 6: little drunk white girls after the club.
Speaker 2: We can still make fun of this drunk Let's keep
Speaker 2: that funny.
Speaker 3: I'm just wondering, man, how that all works. All right,
Speaker 3: let's tap into the music. Man, Yeah, let's go.
Speaker 1: Let's go to the beginning, right, we like we like
Speaker 1: to go to like the introduction of of you to
Speaker 1: music and music to you. You know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: like the complete where your old story.
Speaker 3: No, I mean you can break it down in the pieces,
Speaker 3: but the part where it's where you said you know,
Speaker 3: where it claimed you because normally claimed you first.
Speaker 1: Right, you don't know what the gift is. You don't
Speaker 1: know you have a gift. True, you were in a group.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you're able to do things that you just think
Speaker 3: you're able to do. And then there's a moment where
Speaker 3: you recognize.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, you really hit up. You really hit on
Speaker 2: something right there. Because I remember as far back as
Speaker 2: I can remember, you know, Milwaukee in grade school, sixty
Speaker 2: Pith Street School and Capitol Drive, you know, something as
Speaker 2: simple as music class. I just remember having an ability
Speaker 2: to sing and understand music on a level that was
Speaker 2: way above like the rest of the kids.
Speaker 1: And what I would do.
Speaker 2: I don't know if you did this, but because I
Speaker 2: didn't want to stick out and be weird, I acted
Speaker 2: like I was on their level, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: It's like I don't I don't want too much attention
Speaker 2: on me right now. It's like, you know, the music
Speaker 2: teacher would tell us, okay, class, it's like here's the
Speaker 2: scale or here's the song, and it's like I would
Speaker 2: already be like five steps ahead of them, and little
Speaker 2: me over here and Dondrell over here is like completely clueless,
Speaker 2: and I'm just like okay, I'm like I'm struggling too,
Speaker 2: isn't that weird?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 3: That was me in sixth and seventh grade, and so
Speaker 3: I was just kind of like staying here and then
Speaker 3: really right right right right.
Speaker 2: It was almost like this, Yeah, I played football.
Speaker 3: Like you sing were you sing. I'm like, right, I
Speaker 3: don't know if I want to, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: Because my cousin was the lead singer. My cousin Kisha,
Speaker 3: was the one who was doing all the solos. And
Speaker 3: then when I finally tried a solo, I tricked it
Speaker 3: off really bad.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. I was like, how do
Speaker 1: I do? She was like, you was off? You know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. So I went back into training. You
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. Okay, So so you're starting there
Speaker 1: and you're and and about what time is it?
Speaker 2: So this is I mean, this is grade school. And
Speaker 2: then when I go home, like I'm I'm the youngest
Speaker 2: of a group of five siblings, we're all musical, we
Speaker 2: all sing. So that was the place. The whole house
Speaker 2: from from my mom playing the piano. My dad didn't
Speaker 2: really sing, but he had this extensive classical music collection.
Speaker 2: So I would be in my dad's music collection listening
Speaker 2: to Tchaikowsky and Brahms and Mozart, and then with my
Speaker 2: sisters and my brother, we would sing. We would listen
Speaker 2: to like the Silvers or the Carpenters, and we would
Speaker 2: deconstruct the harmonies and like, you know, sing them, and
Speaker 2: I you know, before my voice changed, i'd have the soprano.
Speaker 2: So Michael Jackson, Yeah, I was michae I was a
Speaker 2: little Microjacks established that. So that's where music that's really
Speaker 2: People ask me who's my biggest influence, My biggest influence
Speaker 2: on my older siblings, because I've always equated music to
Speaker 2: love because that's how we that's how we would have
Speaker 2: fun together. That's how we would show each other our love,
Speaker 2: like like making music. So but outside the house, it
Speaker 2: was almost like, Okay, I'm gonna I'm gonna keep that
Speaker 2: talent close to my vest because it comes off a
Speaker 2: little too overpowering for people outside the family circle. Now,
Speaker 2: then puberty happened. So I've always been like the nerdy
Speaker 2: and you know, I kind of still am. I've always
Speaker 2: been like the nerdy science fiction book reading, you know,
Speaker 2: into writing my own little weird stories and making up
Speaker 2: my own songs. And so I've always been that little kid,
Speaker 2: even in like thirteen or fourteen, where I would stick
Speaker 2: to myself, and like I said, I still wasn't singing
Speaker 2: publicly in school. But I remember when puberty hit, there
Speaker 2: was a singing competition, and nobody really knew I sung.
Speaker 2: There was a singing competition in junior high school, and
Speaker 2: my sisters told me, go ahead, Eric, get into the contest.
Speaker 2: And keep in mind, I'm thirteen now, and my all
Speaker 2: my siblings are beasts, and that's when I come home. Yeah,
Speaker 2: seventh grade, middle school. So I just grew up with
Speaker 2: older siblings who literally could deconstruct the song and we
Speaker 2: would put it back together. So I was at thirteen,
Speaker 2: I was dope. So I entered the contest. Nobody really
Speaker 2: knew I could sing.
Speaker 1: Bruh.
Speaker 2: I sang Lionel Richie's truly I kill that ship. I
Speaker 2: killed that ship. You know that's still a fro no offense, Linel,
Speaker 2: But at thirteen, I probably sang that ship better than
Speaker 2: you respected. But you respected Bruh. Can I tell you?
Speaker 2: The next day at school there were two girls I
Speaker 2: had crushes on that did not know I existed. They
Speaker 2: were waiting at my locker the next morning. I was like,
Speaker 2: that's something to this ship. Both boup.
Speaker 1: Both up.
Speaker 2: Vicky Stanton, Vicky Stanton, Laura Oldenburg.
Speaker 1: Them oh vi VI Vicky Stanton, Laura.
Speaker 2: Oldenberg Oldenburg Oldenburg.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was.
Speaker 3: You were early there too. You were early there too.
Speaker 3: I didn't learned about equal Effers is way later in.
Speaker 2: I don't even know if I know now where, but yeah,
Speaker 2: and from there, you know, from there it was just
Speaker 2: like my cousin George, who was always like the musician,
Speaker 2: the musician of the family. My George, cousin George played
Speaker 2: you know, he was like you. He was like, played
Speaker 2: piano and he played the guitar. And it was just
Speaker 2: dope and my cousin George and my sister Lisa and
Speaker 2: I we started writing songs. Then I dropped out of
Speaker 2: college UW Milwaukee, joined this band, and then we got
Speaker 2: our first record deal, the one I told you about Benet,
Speaker 2: me and my sister. That's dope too. Yeah.
Speaker 6: So between time wise, when you guys get your first deal,
Speaker 6: so when you get your deal and get your first
Speaker 6: hit wreck, a lot of shit happened between that and
Speaker 6: me having a solo deal.
Speaker 2: So what's the what's the time frame. So we're talking
Speaker 2: about we signed the Benet deal with EMI Capital in
Speaker 2: ninety two, Pluck from Milwaukee in Los Angeles, and that
Speaker 2: was just culture shock man. That was yeah, yeah, but yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: I mean, I love Milwaukee, but it's like you come
Speaker 2: out to la In the early nineties, it was a
Speaker 2: whole nother expansive universe, from musical like the community of
Speaker 2: badass music dudes, to like the most beautiful women you've
Speaker 2: ever seen in your life, to like people who are
Speaker 2: the hell of a lot of bullshitters, but but a
Speaker 2: lot of people who are on a higher level of consciousness,
Speaker 2: like talking about eating right and you know, you go
Speaker 2: back home to Milwaukee and you just eat a vat
Speaker 2: of pork. It's just you know, it's like salt pork.
Speaker 2: You eat it, but come out here and it's like, no,
Speaker 2: you know, it's like higher level of taking care of you,
Speaker 2: your mind and your body. So it was just like
Speaker 2: culture shock all the way around.
Speaker 1: And that's ninety two.
Speaker 2: That's ninety two. That record did not work out, as
Speaker 2: everybody in the industry has these stories where your first
Speaker 2: management deal, your first record deal, it's like, well they
Speaker 2: kind of sort of put a single out but didn't
Speaker 2: really put any money behind it, so we got dropped.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: This was one of the hardest times in my life
Speaker 2: because a few years prior my father died. My father
Speaker 2: was a detective for the city of Milwaukee. So Dad died,
Speaker 2: my girlfriend, Tammy Stouff, we became parents. We became parents
Speaker 2: India short my daughter, India Shortly after I got dropped,
Speaker 2: Tammy died in a car accident. So now I lost
Speaker 2: my record deal. Dad's gone all of a sudden, single dad,
Speaker 2: and I'm just trying to figure out, Wow, how am
Speaker 2: I going to do this? Thank God, I have the
Speaker 2: family I have because between my mom and my sisters
Speaker 2: and my brother, they would let me like I could
Speaker 2: take India. India was only fifteen months old, and my
Speaker 2: mother did. So I have the most amazing family in
Speaker 2: the world because I could, you know, if I had
Speaker 2: to fly out to La to talk to some people
Speaker 2: who were thinking about signing me. You know, as a parent,
Speaker 2: especially as a single parent, you need to know that
Speaker 2: your children or your child is safe and taken care
Speaker 2: of and loved. And I never had to worry about
Speaker 2: that when I was out there trying to make the
Speaker 2: dream happen. I basically got a gig in Milwaukee as
Speaker 2: an assistant engineer at a recording studio on Fondilac, Okay,
Speaker 2: and I between George and this crazy ass dude who
Speaker 2: is one of the baddest keyboards ever. Dmante you know Demante?
Speaker 2: Do you know Demante Posi? Nigga's bad anyway, He's from Milwaukee.
Speaker 2: Also met Demante and my cousin George during the off
Speaker 2: hours at the at the recording studio that I was working.
Speaker 2: They would let me use the studio to record demos.
Speaker 2: So between me and George and Demante, we just started
Speaker 2: writing all these songs, writing all these demos. That demo,
Speaker 2: all those demos turned out to be my first album,
Speaker 2: the first solo Eric Bene True to Myself album Nowhere,
Speaker 2: which is amazing. Thank you, sir, crazy, thank you sir.
Speaker 2: Yes's it's an incredible story.
Speaker 1: I'm riding with a girl through d C.
Speaker 2: Was it side Boom? It might have been that's another beast.
Speaker 1: I was upside. It might have been signed, She's a beast. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it might have been signed. You gotta hit this from
Speaker 1: I'm really she played that, she played that femininity. Oh
Speaker 1: ship and at that time, pronounce it.
Speaker 3: That's how I like it. And I was like everything
Speaker 3: for me was John p Key and Burrell, It was
Speaker 3: Fraying Hammond and and then it was it was it
Speaker 3: was all that, you know what I'm saying, so when
Speaker 3: you tell me to listen to something like at this point,
Speaker 3: I have every run in the book downloaded.
Speaker 1: That's how I lived my life. I run. I don't
Speaker 1: want to verse, no first verse.
Speaker 2: Let's not gliss over that that you nigga.
Speaker 3: You don't just run, you just you kill it at
Speaker 3: that time, Nigga, I have no verse. I'm gonna run
Speaker 3: this hol of thame five minutes. So so if you
Speaker 3: ain't doing that right, I don't want to get you're
Speaker 3: not running through the whole song. And she started playing
Speaker 3: this song and a.
Speaker 1: Missing to the thing.
Speaker 7: You was making the faces and ship right interesting right,
Speaker 7: and the vocal was so clean and straight ahead, and
Speaker 7: I was like, who's this again?
Speaker 3: After she had already told you. And then and then,
Speaker 3: and then you did something that we do in church.
Speaker 3: Was about the three and a half close to four
Speaker 3: minute mark.
Speaker 1: You did a vamp. Okay, you let the band play
Speaker 1: for a minute, and then you went into a vamp.
Speaker 2: Yeah that's this nineteen seventy ship.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, this niggas ba nigga vam. I was so
Speaker 3: at that point, man, thank you you went into a vamp.
Speaker 3: I was coming from yours. I said, your problem coming
Speaker 3: from and then even I know we'll we'll get to
Speaker 3: we'll get to the later in the two thousands, But
Speaker 3: then you started going digging into your false settle with
Speaker 3: the uh.
Speaker 2: I cried sometimes sometimes yeah yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: That bothered me.
Speaker 2: I took a shue with that.
Speaker 1: I took I took it. I felt the person at okay, okay,
Speaker 1: because GEORGI said, I took that person because I'm going
Speaker 1: thumb back, say let it. Why is this nigga, why
Speaker 1: is this false settled? So clear it's been connected with me.
Speaker 3: And and I hear you sing that on stage and
Speaker 3: you didn't miss a no wow a no, And I'm
Speaker 3: a false settle that's what I do.
Speaker 1: You known for that?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 6: No, no, no, no, literally not just a false sttle, right,
Speaker 6: you're known for not missing, which is as guys who
Speaker 6: we all sing, right, we've we've been around one thousands,
Speaker 6: so you know where that comes. But not missing, it's
Speaker 6: a different type of gift, right, That's just that's that's
Speaker 6: that's just special. Like you talk to somebody, especially me
Speaker 6: being from the baby Me and my brother was talking
Speaker 6: about it and he's like, man, because he's the first
Speaker 6: person to put me on to you, right, and he
Speaker 6: wanted to go see you.
Speaker 1: A Yoshi.
Speaker 2: Yosh and he was like, nigga, he didn't miss.
Speaker 6: And you know, as singers, we all know what that means.
Speaker 6: But I had to ask again. I'm like, what do
Speaker 6: you mean he didn't miss? That's a huge conference, Like
Speaker 6: he didn't And you.
Speaker 2: Know about this that comes from that comes from going
Speaker 2: through the ranks, like like, okay, so I dropped out
Speaker 2: of college, but my college was being in those shitty
Speaker 2: clubs all over the Midwest, right having to it's a
Speaker 2: drunk crowd. This nigga over here is about to start
Speaker 2: a fight with this nigga. There's some something going over here.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna have to like take command of this whole room,
Speaker 2: and I'm gonna have to do it consistently, And maybe
Speaker 2: I wasn't able to do it for the first six
Speaker 2: months I was in the band. But it was a
Speaker 2: honing process where a lot of artists today they don't
Speaker 2: have that honing process. They might they might be in
Speaker 2: their lab in their base and they yeah, doing some beats,
Speaker 2: put a couple of loops on it, you know, and
Speaker 2: they got all kinds of technology. Catch your record and
Speaker 2: catch a record, and then you put them on stage
Speaker 2: and it's like, nah, you didn't go through the process, bro,
Speaker 2: I can tell.
Speaker 1: Well, I mean they're not investing. They're not investing in
Speaker 1: the process, right.
Speaker 2: I don't even know if there is the process, Is
Speaker 2: there any reverence for it anymore? No, there should be,
Speaker 2: there should be.
Speaker 3: But I don't really think that we're like probably the
Speaker 3: lasts who are who are looking for people who are
Speaker 3: actually just just seized and seasoned in some type of growth,
Speaker 3: that's some type of developments. Like it's taken us years
Speaker 3: to find an artist, right because we're like, nah, but
Speaker 3: they hot in they all time.
Speaker 1: They got this record of them.
Speaker 2: But you that fleeting, Like that's so fleeting. I remember,
Speaker 2: like one of the things that I so appreciate y'all
Speaker 2: telling me that that means a lot to me. I
Speaker 2: remember a couple of times in my career, and as artists,
Speaker 2: I guess there's always some level it thinks for me,
Speaker 2: there's always some level of insecurity. But I remember when
Speaker 2: I first got I first started doing my solo deal,
Speaker 2: and you're doing the rounds at the radio stations and
Speaker 2: Luther Vandross was just leaving an interview and Luther was like,
Speaker 2: I'm the type of dude where it's like, if I
Speaker 2: know Luther is there, I at least want to just
Speaker 2: say thank you. I don't I don't want to crowd
Speaker 2: to you. I just want to say thank you. But
Speaker 2: Luther found out I was there, He's like, oh no, no, no, no,
Speaker 2: no no, you tell him to come here. When somebody
Speaker 2: like Luther looks at you and say, you know what,
Speaker 2: you're doing it right, you know, And that's all I needed.
Speaker 2: Luther looks at me, that's it. So it's like, if
Speaker 2: you thought I was dope before, that's probably when you
Speaker 2: heard me go in the studio do that false little
Speaker 2: let me show these niggas, you know. So it's like
Speaker 2: when you get when somebody like that, like a Maurice
Speaker 2: White or Luther Vandross or David Foster, that just makes
Speaker 2: me want to, oh ship, if I thought I was
Speaker 2: honing my craft before, I'm gonna have to like, I'm
Speaker 2: really happy, I'm really going in deep now. So it's
Speaker 2: those kinds of things that make me continue to strive
Speaker 2: to be better to this day.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the hunger doesn't go away, you know, the grind,
Speaker 2: the hustle. Yeah, never never goes away.
Speaker 6: So when you get that first hit record, right, because
Speaker 6: thanks spoke about it a little bit, right, you know,
Speaker 6: you put up on them with shoes off, was out,
Speaker 6: you know what I mean, showing them sing something, showing
Speaker 6: them something, and they're definitely showing out.
Speaker 2: What is that influx?
Speaker 3: Like?
Speaker 2: Yeah, man, you mean when you catch there, you catch
Speaker 2: that r you fresh from Milwaukee, Yes, you're fresh from
Speaker 2: your walk. You get a major hit record, and but.
Speaker 6: You don't but you also don't get the run of
Speaker 6: the meal hit record. You get a record that nobody's
Speaker 6: heard before. You don't get the some producer was did
Speaker 6: that record, and then your producer heard it and y'all
Speaker 6: recreated and now you get that little cheek code hit.
Speaker 6: You had a record that sets you apart from the gate, right.
Speaker 6: So it's a different it's a different level that's coming
Speaker 6: your way. It's a it's a different kind of vibe
Speaker 6: because back then.
Speaker 2: There were like you said, I mean, when you think
Speaker 2: about what I was doing back then, and what cats
Speaker 2: like D'Angelo were doing back then, and like Maxwell were
Speaker 2: doing back then, that was outside of the norm.
Speaker 1: For sure.
Speaker 6: It was like Mashow was brushing his teeth right video,
Speaker 6: Like it's like right brushing his teeth. They don't care
Speaker 6: at all and they love it right right.
Speaker 1: So we.
Speaker 2: It was just kind of like this feeling of I
Speaker 2: don't know, being that kind of a creative person. The
Speaker 2: people who I work with. When I'm in the lab
Speaker 2: and i've been, I've I like to go check in
Speaker 2: on like how see how lots of people work. A
Speaker 2: lot of people like to work like they like to
Speaker 2: check out what's hot right now, like runk, what kick
Speaker 2: sounds are hot right now? You know what's happening in
Speaker 2: the top ten. And I'm going to try to put
Speaker 2: my own spin on that. But I've never really worked
Speaker 2: I've never really worked that way, even back then. I
Speaker 2: always dig from a more intimate place, like even musically,
Speaker 2: like I've never wanted to try to emulate the other
Speaker 2: things that are happening out there. And when you work
Speaker 2: like that, you're working in a bubble. At least I am.
Speaker 2: You're working on this. No, I want to be cut
Speaker 2: off from everything that's like top ten, top twenty on
Speaker 2: the radio right now. I just want to be in
Speaker 2: like this little fortress of musical solitude with myself and
Speaker 2: whoever I invite to come in there and create with
Speaker 2: me all that to say, as we're doing that, we
Speaker 2: don't I don't really know how this is working like
Speaker 2: a motherfucker here, but I don't know how that's going
Speaker 2: to play out there because it's like so intimate to
Speaker 2: us and we're like nerdy music heads. So that's kind
Speaker 2: of it was like I was surprised in a way.
Speaker 2: I was surprised because we were signed to what I
Speaker 2: was signed to Warner Brothers as a solo artist, and
Speaker 2: they really did just leave me alone. They let me
Speaker 2: just do my thing. And then when I turned the
Speaker 2: record in there was a reaction like somebody just reinvented
Speaker 2: the wheel, and I was like, really was It was
Speaker 2: just incredibly surprising because, like I said, I was grateful,
Speaker 2: and it was at least it was affirming that I
Speaker 2: felt like, Okay, I mean.
Speaker 1: And you had seen the bottom.
Speaker 2: I had already had huge loss, personal loss in my life,
Speaker 2: my the mother of my daughter dying all of a sudden.
Speaker 2: I'm a solo single father, trying to figure out the
Speaker 2: next move. I was working at UPS. When I told
Speaker 2: you I was working at the studio, I was also
Speaker 2: working at UPS. Uh, and working at the studio to
Speaker 2: make you know, to make a little bread. So it's
Speaker 2: like I saw the bottom and once I knew that,
Speaker 2: oh you mean, I can win by just being completely
Speaker 2: authentic in my appreciation for music, not the music industry,
Speaker 2: but music. Yeah, I was like, Okay, I'm not I'm
Speaker 2: not gonna switch it up.
Speaker 1: And that's it. And that's a very unique situation.
Speaker 6: That's very as all of us has been in this
Speaker 6: music business for so long to actually it's like getting
Speaker 6: drafted to the right team because one or worked for you,
Speaker 6: but universal may.
Speaker 2: Have not you know what I mean, or im I
Speaker 2: didn't you know what I mean?
Speaker 6: So it's like in that space man, that that in itself,
Speaker 6: and you know, we try to give that type of
Speaker 6: information when we when we do these interviews for people
Speaker 6: that are trying to get in the music business. People
Speaker 6: are in the in the business to understand, like this
Speaker 6: ship just don't happen the way you want it at
Speaker 6: that time, and you got to keep pushing.
Speaker 1: You got to keep pushing until you find that situation
Speaker 1: that makes the most sense for you exactly. But we
Speaker 1: got off of the influx that came with this.
Speaker 3: You you.
Speaker 1: I'm from that area.
Speaker 6: He wasn't gonna let you around by the way around
Speaker 6: baptized didn't.
Speaker 2: I'll tell you.
Speaker 1: I tell you here.
Speaker 2: A lot of people don't believe this, but actually, now
Speaker 2: that you now that you know me, you can leave it.
Speaker 2: Like I've always been the nerdy dude, like I've always
Speaker 2: been the if it wasn't for music, if it wasn't
Speaker 2: for me being on a stage and singing like my game,
Speaker 2: like my just step up to a girl game was
Speaker 2: was garbage, Like I had no idea I need it,
Speaker 2: but I didn't know I didn't need it because you
Speaker 2: know what I'm saying, So okay, So then you got
Speaker 2: this guy who's basically uh looking at women feeling like
Speaker 2: I don't really have that much of a shot, to
Speaker 2: being on stage having a hit song and having them
Speaker 2: literally come to me. It was overwhelming. And I'm going
Speaker 2: to say this, that's one of the most like if
Speaker 2: you're not ready for that kind of attention, you will die, yes,
Speaker 2: or things around you will because it isn't all And
Speaker 2: I don't use the word awesome like well, it can
Speaker 2: be great, but it is. It is an overwhelming uh power.
Speaker 2: And if you are an insecure person who always idolized
Speaker 2: women but didn't know how to talk to him, and
Speaker 2: all of a sudden you're the guy that they're coming
Speaker 2: at to talk to you. That could be a very
Speaker 2: dangerous thing. And there is a process where, you know,
Speaker 2: for some of us, it takes a year or two
Speaker 2: or ten or two.
Speaker 3: Where you feel me where it's like I'm in that
Speaker 3: ten fifteen years you just jumped another.
Speaker 1: You know, I need a little bit more.
Speaker 2: Time to real this thing in right, because it's like,
Speaker 2: all of a sudden, I can have all of it.
Speaker 2: Are you fucking kidding me? It was like like, speak on, man,
Speaker 2: come on, you stuttered Milwaukee, Milwaukee, Maryland.
Speaker 3: Yeah right, l A, now now I gotta I gotta taste.
Speaker 3: When I went on tour with Genuine, it was it
Speaker 3: was a it was a heavy taste.
Speaker 1: That was it was.
Speaker 3: It was the taste that changed my life. No, no, listen,
Speaker 3: I definitely yes, you are correcting that, man. I know,
Speaker 3: and Genuine would say to me, this is cool. I
Speaker 3: know you having the time of your life, but it
Speaker 3: ain't nothing like when it's you and I didn't believe
Speaker 3: I'm never leaving you.
Speaker 1: I'm going to sing.
Speaker 6: You still dowhere if guy is on stage and we
Speaker 6: got to show that he finds.
Speaker 1: A way to sing back to get let's do So
Speaker 1: it's like.
Speaker 3: When you get with you, but then when it when
Speaker 3: it listen when I watched, when I watched, maybe I
Speaker 3: deserve start charting and me going from clubs like you
Speaker 3: know what was one hundred people to a thousand people,
Speaker 3: to seven hundred people to a thousand people, and then
Speaker 3: to co headlining radio shows and arena's and London.
Speaker 1: To Chris and and and Nally you know and and
Speaker 1: Jah rule Jesus Christ, you have.
Speaker 3: To be all the R and B shows all because
Speaker 3: my name was Tank and so sometimes they wouldn't even
Speaker 3: listen to my music.
Speaker 2: Just saw that's hilarious record.
Speaker 3: Yes, so so so like you take you, I just
Speaker 3: I was dropped in a church kid. Still I'm still trying.
Speaker 3: You know, it's still biblical for me, it's still spiritual. Lord,
Speaker 3: If you just guide me tonight, I'll let me.
Speaker 1: Just won't do it.
Speaker 4: Lord, if you just let me get this tonight, I'm
Speaker 4: not gonna do it. No mo Like, Lord, please guide
Speaker 4: me tonight. And Lord, why did why did her ask
Speaker 4: have to look like that?
Speaker 2: Lord said?
Speaker 1: Lord made you did that, you made you did this,
Speaker 1: and I honestly was not. No, you were not. I
Speaker 1: was not.
Speaker 2: There is no man and and people people don't understand this, bro,
Speaker 2: like you get it. There is no man on this
Speaker 2: planet who works at home depot or who's working at
Speaker 2: Wells Fargo right now. If you throw him in this situation,
Speaker 2: if you just throw him in the whatever you want situation,
Speaker 2: it will kill him. It will suck the life out
Speaker 2: of them. And so it's like you have to be
Speaker 2: in a certain mental emotional preparedness, which I was not.
Speaker 2: But like I said, it will take some years and
Speaker 2: you have to live with.
Speaker 8: Some consequences, some consequences, some losses and losses, some consequences,
Speaker 8: and it's.
Speaker 2: Like, wow, I need to reevaluate a lot of shit.
Speaker 2: So but this, you can't be ready for that.
Speaker 3: And and I think on the other side of that,
Speaker 3: the the upbringing and all of these things, and having
Speaker 3: the family structure that we had prepared us in a
Speaker 3: different way to where.
Speaker 1: We would be able to survive. Right, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. Because a lot of people, a lot of
Speaker 1: people just don't know. And and for you, you did
Speaker 1: it on a very public stage. Right, because you know
Speaker 1: what you were involved in.
Speaker 2: So it's like anytime it's on a public stays, it's
Speaker 2: a million it's not only magnified a million times, but
Speaker 2: there's a certain uh, there's a narrative that they want
Speaker 2: to tell to you know. Now it's clickbait, but it's
Speaker 2: like to sell magazines to do this, So things respawn
Speaker 2: a certain way, and then on the very tiny nucleus
Speaker 2: of what's happening on the inside, there are details that
Speaker 2: no one else knows and maybe I'll never share, but
Speaker 2: it's like it ain't mistakes were made. I've taken accountability.
Speaker 2: So what I've done, I've grown. But from the celebrity,
Speaker 2: there's any celebrity out there who's dealing with that relationship
Speaker 2: and the press ship, that's.
Speaker 1: That's that's that's a hard thing. And it's even it's
Speaker 1: even harder now with social media.
Speaker 6: Oh my god, it's even harder now, right because back
Speaker 6: then you just have to try to see you and
Speaker 6: take a picture of you and then't write whatever they wanted.
Speaker 1: You get tired of it or they get tired of it.
Speaker 6: And now you make your own and you sorry typing ship,
Speaker 6: and now you're like maybe I should Yeah, maybe I
Speaker 6: should have.
Speaker 1: Just I'm a delete that right, they've already out. He
Speaker 1: used to call me. You'll call me about seven in
Speaker 1: the morning. What the fuck? Take what did you? What
Speaker 1: do you want to do?
Speaker 2: What's her name?
Speaker 3: Seven? Five?
Speaker 1: Saying some can you stop this on line?
Speaker 3: This?
Speaker 1: No, I said, I said that said the same way.
Speaker 6: But I get that, I said, Tank, what you gotta
Speaker 6: realize a lot of times you're talking to ghost. True,
Speaker 6: you're literally talking to go like, yes, are there some
Speaker 6: people that are real people that are going at you?
Speaker 6: But sometimes it's just accounts that are made to literally
Speaker 6: absolutely get a.
Speaker 1: Rise out of you. Well, what come on out, come
Speaker 1: on now, doubt. Can you just stop on Instagram? Can
Speaker 1: you do it for me for two weeks?
Speaker 2: Please?
Speaker 1: No, they have to hear from me. That's just not easy.
Speaker 2: I have this outlook on life. Mistakes that might be
Speaker 2: a little different because granted, in the moment, they feel
Speaker 2: like the exact wrong thing you've allowed to happen, or
Speaker 2: you participated in happening, or that has happened to you.
Speaker 2: But in my fifty four years on this earth, I
Speaker 2: am fifty four.
Speaker 1: Come on, man, I did not know that nigga, I
Speaker 1: don't think I'm buying no more shoes. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Man, what I've learned is mistakes, all of them. And
Speaker 2: this is gonna sound like some cliche. You see you
Speaker 2: on the Instagram with a lion in the background of
Speaker 2: some sh sterc but from.
Speaker 1: Some nigga, that's just a terrible human, right. It's probably horrible.
Speaker 2: For the girls I'm talking about some certain people whatever
Speaker 2: is it's a terrible human right, or the Instagram models
Speaker 2: with the ass and it be like.
Speaker 1: Spiritual, you know, it's like, you know, I've got to
Speaker 1: grow foot.
Speaker 2: To be like to be like only God, you know. Anyway,
Speaker 2: So what the what was I saying?
Speaker 1: Oh, mistakes, mistakes, God?
Speaker 2: I know, great, I got to use the mistakes for
Speaker 2: me have all been an opportunity to grow. So yes,
Speaker 2: I have made mistakes in my life, and I feel
Speaker 2: and I think it goes back. I think it goes
Speaker 2: back to something something you hit on the parenting thing
Speaker 2: my mom and dad instilled in me a long time ago,
Speaker 2: like you are going to make a lot of mistakes
Speaker 2: in your life. What do you do with those mistakes?
Speaker 2: What do you do with those traumatic events in your life?
Speaker 2: So when I have stumbled. When I've fallen, or when
Speaker 2: I've made mistakes in business or in my personal life,
Speaker 2: you know, I take a moment to fall back and see, Okay, God,
Speaker 2: what was the lesson you were trying to teach me
Speaker 2: with this one? Sometimes those lessons are obvious as hell,
Speaker 2: and sometimes are not so obvious, But every time it happens,
Speaker 2: it's an opportunity to be a better version of yourself.
Speaker 2: My first record deal, to answer a question that deals
Speaker 2: with more professional situation, my first record deal that I
Speaker 2: did with my sister Beney. It was an incredible opportunity.
Speaker 2: It was two kids being plucked out of Milwaukee, coming
Speaker 2: to La seeing things and experiencing things that I only
Speaker 2: saw on Magnum PI and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: You know, but.
Speaker 2: The record label didn't really give us autonomy, didn't really
Speaker 2: give us control to make all of the music we
Speaker 2: wanted to make, to pick the producers that we necessarily
Speaker 2: wanted to work with, or at least we felt like
Speaker 2: I shouldn't say that, because there was a lot of
Speaker 2: energy on my part where I felt like I doubted myself.
Speaker 2: Enough is that twenty something year old kid who well,
Speaker 2: I certainly can't know so if they're telling me I
Speaker 2: should work with this artist and that artist, and I
Speaker 2: guess I should. That was a mistake. That was a mistake,
Speaker 2: and that's a mistake that every young artist needs to
Speaker 2: know right now. The reason why they own your shit
Speaker 2: right now, Young artists out there, the reason why you're
Speaker 2: geting and the attention you're getting is because you're dope.
Speaker 2: Because the creative decisions you make are dope.
Speaker 1: Led you here.
Speaker 2: Don't doubt that, you know, like, lead with that. Don't
Speaker 2: let somebody else who's been on their own journey and
Speaker 2: have seen their own assent to fame and fortune tell
Speaker 2: you this is how I did it, so you need
Speaker 2: to do it. You need to do it like this. Look,
Speaker 2: some of those lessons that they bestow on you are
Speaker 2: appropriate and you can use that, but their path is
Speaker 2: not your path. So I think that's probably one of
Speaker 2: the biggest lessons that I learned. I think I learned
Speaker 2: early from that mistake. That's why when I had an
Speaker 2: opportunity to do the solo album in ninety six, the
Speaker 2: Eric Benet record, I was like, look, okay, we can
Speaker 2: do this record deal thing, but I have to be
Speaker 2: in charge of everything from the way I dress to
Speaker 2: the way I look to the songs on the album
Speaker 2: I told you, like the whole album. My first album
Speaker 2: was like the demo between my cousin George and Demonte
Speaker 2: and me just met. So I need to be in control.
Speaker 2: To the point where I named my first album true
Speaker 2: to Myself because I had been through the whole Uh
Speaker 2: the alternative.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I could only imagine Eric coming out as like
Speaker 6: the fifth member of Joasy with like.
Speaker 1: The type of that was.
Speaker 2: Like, it's not you, you are somebody tried to get
Speaker 2: me in, like a nigga was that to get me
Speaker 2: in like a three boy band group where it was
Speaker 2: me I was to singing nigga and it was like
Speaker 2: this dark nigga from from like Nigeria or something, and
Speaker 2: it was a white nigga who was singing whig and
Speaker 2: it was like I almost did it. And this was
Speaker 2: before my first record deal.
Speaker 1: I was like, and I was in the meeting with
Speaker 1: the two guys.
Speaker 2: And come on, bro, this is our chance. You know,
Speaker 2: if you don't like it, you know, we could blow
Speaker 2: up and then you can do your own thing. I
Speaker 2: was like, yeah, but I don't know the same for me,
Speaker 2: So you're absolutely right. Man, it's like, you gotta, you gotta,
Speaker 2: you gotta be true to yourself. You gotta be true
Speaker 2: to yourself. You have to be honest enough with yourself
Speaker 2: to know your gut, to know your soul, so that
Speaker 2: when something doesn't vibrate right with you, you are the
Speaker 2: first to know and and and act upon that. No
Speaker 2: matter how old I get, I'm still that hungry, young
Speaker 2: creative dude from Milwaukee. No matter what happened. Shout shout
Speaker 2: out to Milwaukee. Thanks, hey, Wisconsin came through, didn't they
Speaker 2: with that orange? Hold up?
Speaker 1: Bow it up? You know what?
Speaker 3: And that's that's okay, movie star writer all of that.
Speaker 3: Let's pivot to that because you know, I don't really
Speaker 3: do a whole lot of politics.
Speaker 9: You know sometimes and listen you in between you and
Speaker 9: d L you, Oh my god, yeah, out there.
Speaker 2: I think that's the old man. That's the old man
Speaker 2: in me.
Speaker 1: You are out there.
Speaker 2: The old man ship is real because once you get
Speaker 2: to a certain age, it's like, let me just say
Speaker 2: you are saying it. I remember when I first started
Speaker 2: doing it. My management was like, yeah, you know, that's
Speaker 2: how I started saying. You know, we really respect that
Speaker 2: you want to voice your opinion, but we got to
Speaker 2: remember there's there are people out there who like your
Speaker 2: music who aren't exactly on the same political that man,
Speaker 2: we're talking about a damn you know ship, damn Hitler
Speaker 2: starter kit.
Speaker 3: Here's what I say, it's like, it is a double
Speaker 3: ed short right in terms of the political part of it.
Speaker 3: Once you start dabbling into that place, you can you
Speaker 3: can feel the shift of people who were there for
Speaker 3: the music then knowing discovering too much about you, right,
Speaker 3: that makes them either go way left or way right
Speaker 3: with you. But you're right, you're and you're out, you're
Speaker 3: outspoken in terms of you know, in terms of the
Speaker 3: political uh, in terms of your political status.
Speaker 2: I think once you hit fifty, what it is like
Speaker 2: any any whatever like filter I had left that ship,
Speaker 2: that ship just you.
Speaker 1: Know, because you were you were attacking who was you?
Speaker 1: Who was you?
Speaker 3: You know you said something, you said something running, ain't
Speaker 3: singing and if it's in insane you know because you
Speaker 3: and you young niggas, you're putting the whole lot of
Speaker 3: we grew up on you man doing that man attacking
Speaker 3: the kids, saying like who was attacking the king?
Speaker 1: At some point we're gonna have to stop.
Speaker 10: Eric, you ain't nobody when I was growing up, when
Speaker 10: I was in the studio, which I hate that.
Speaker 1: I said, Eric, come on, man, stop there people, This
Speaker 1: new ain't ship. You put the time on it.
Speaker 3: But it was like it was like you were just
Speaker 3: I mean, you were being honest about how you felt
Speaker 3: about it. But you know what I mean, Like I
Speaker 3: think I was.
Speaker 2: Having one of those moments where hey, I love like
Speaker 2: I am. I'm one of the biggest fans of like
Speaker 2: dope runs and people who can run.
Speaker 1: It's just like, I don't know.
Speaker 2: I think it's like one of those things where before
Speaker 2: the run, there needs to be the melody, Like can
Speaker 2: we at least know what the melody is before you start?
Speaker 11: Like and I know what I said, and I agree
Speaker 11: with you, but they had to say it. But no,
Speaker 11: there because because because I grew up, Yeah, you said.
Speaker 1: On Kim Barell.
Speaker 2: But see that's it's almost.
Speaker 3: So guess what I needed, Like she she didn't. She
Speaker 3: didn't make a song that was like a straight ahead
Speaker 3: or a commercial thing until way later.
Speaker 2: I know this sounds like bullshit, but it's almost like
Speaker 2: that's different because because Kim Barell, Kim Barell is a
Speaker 2: whole nother being.
Speaker 1: It's not different because I needed what she was doing.
Speaker 1: I needed it.
Speaker 2: I agree with that. I'm not disagreeing with you. Like
Speaker 2: these young nigga like kim Barell, probably.
Speaker 1: That's what it's like.
Speaker 2: It's like these young niggas would hear a Kim Barell
Speaker 2: and be like, Oh, that's what I need to do,
Speaker 2: and it's like, no, before Kim Barell was I don't know,
Speaker 2: I don't. I mean, I met Kim Barell. She's a
Speaker 2: wonderful person, but I don't know like her whole story,
Speaker 2: but I would imagine before she could do all that,
Speaker 2: at some point she had the base, like she could
Speaker 2: do a melody for sure, so and she had to
Speaker 2: evolve to that. But I think one of the frustrating
Speaker 2: things for me is like young singers would see the
Speaker 2: Kimbarell and be like.
Speaker 1: Oh, and that's what the song is, that's all it is.
Speaker 3: But as I was able to grab the pieces, well,
Speaker 3: clearly you can use it and use it in spacessary
Speaker 3: and that's.
Speaker 2: What the beauty of running like you you well you're
Speaker 2: a songwriter, you're a producer, so you know construction of
Speaker 2: along the melody, learn yes, yes.
Speaker 3: To learn to stop singing versus myself. You know what
Speaker 3: I'm saying, like, Oh, they'll never be able to do this,
Speaker 3: Like that was my mentality when I went to the studio.
Speaker 3: They're going to be like when they can't sing, like
Speaker 3: maybe I deserve was like in my mind, my worst
Speaker 3: song vocally one of my biggest.
Speaker 1: Wow, and I didn't understand why until fifteen years later.
Speaker 2: Was that kind of stuff is incredible to me because
Speaker 2: I kind of feel the same way like with some
Speaker 2: of my biggest songs. For some of those songs where
Speaker 2: and it's interesting how this works. It's like you can
Speaker 2: be in the studio and you can have some song
Speaker 2: that you feel like is a masterpiece and you just
Speaker 2: have to put no every every box of that song.
Speaker 2: No no, no, no, no no no, that wasn't right.
Speaker 2: I want to can we can I bring the can
Speaker 2: the guitar play come back to the studio because he
Speaker 2: I wanted him to glisten on this, you know. So
Speaker 2: it's like you can create this masterpiece and people will
Speaker 2: hear it and be like wow, that's dope. Okay, let
Speaker 2: me hear another one. And then you play a song
Speaker 2: where you was in the studio for like four minutes throwaway. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you can be in a song where it's like, okay,
Speaker 2: we were just vibing on this, and then I put
Speaker 2: some words on this motherfucker and it's like, oh shit,
Speaker 2: that's the one.
Speaker 3: So it's like, I'm a story of mine, the story
Speaker 3: of my career right A song Please Don't Go have
Speaker 3: been played for numerous artists foof album whose albums I've
Speaker 3: worked on. I was like, I got this one thing
Speaker 3: right here playing it's cool. I'm in Glenwood Studios working
Speaker 3: on uh, working on tex Club and pain and I
Speaker 3: got one day extra. I finished all the songs I
Speaker 3: wanted to release, said something here.
Speaker 1: They was like.
Speaker 3: They was like, well, you got one more day. If
Speaker 3: you want to do something, you do something. I was like, okay,
Speaker 3: they got good cookies and ship hang out at the studio, chill,
Speaker 3: and I'm gonna record this one track. One.
Speaker 1: I was like, I got this one track. I'm just recorded.
Speaker 3: Lonnie, my guy, Lonnie he call, He's like, he's like,
Speaker 3: what you working on teas. I was like, I'm just
Speaker 3: working on this song right here. Like he's like, let
Speaker 3: me get some of that. Bridge was like absolutely. It
Speaker 3: was one hundred percenter into the bridge, so he puts
Speaker 3: a bridge down. I sing the bridge. I'm like, I'm
Speaker 3: just turn it in with the rest of them. Turned
Speaker 3: the song in and it was please don't go. And
Speaker 3: they called me two days later, nigger you did it
Speaker 3: the street guy, nigga, you did that ship nigg And
Speaker 3: I started naming every other song, Oh you like that
Speaker 3: ship right there, and they're like nah. I said, oh,
Speaker 3: I know what you want you talk about. You talk
Speaker 3: about that one because I put the song NA not
Speaker 3: that with nigga, Nigga, Please don't go. I said, what right, Nigga?
Speaker 1: Is that snad? I said, are you sure?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 1: You know I haven't been out in five years. I've
Speaker 1: been on the bench.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I've been at war. Yeah, we're in rec company
Speaker 3: for five years. And they're like, this is a song
Speaker 3: and I'm like, I don't I don't think. I don't
Speaker 3: think that after five years of being absent, that this
Speaker 3: is this is where we go. We don't start with this, right,
Speaker 3: And they're like this, yes we do, right, Yes we do.
Speaker 3: Black Round Records I got.
Speaker 2: I got the same story. So it had been a
Speaker 2: minute since I went through this whole thing. With Warner
Speaker 2: Brothers where I you know, we did A Day in
Speaker 2: the Life and that was a big record for me.
Speaker 2: And then I did this other record, another album called
Speaker 2: Better and Better, but they rejected my album, so the
Speaker 2: whole album. So I'm going to the record label and
Speaker 2: I'm like, Okay, y'all don't really get this album. Okay,
Speaker 2: will you let me leave the label? Will you let
Speaker 2: me out at my deal?
Speaker 1: Nope?
Speaker 2: Okay. Will you give me like a budget to go
Speaker 2: in and do some more shit like if you didn't
Speaker 2: like Nope. So basically I'm just sitting. I'm just sitting
Speaker 2: for a couple of years. They wouldn't let me out,
Speaker 2: they wouldn't give me a budget to do anything else.
Speaker 2: And so I'm back home just vibing some songs with
Speaker 2: my dudes. Ultimately I got another I got a green
Speaker 2: lid to do another record. And we were in the
Speaker 2: in my promotion man's room, Ken Wilson, you know, come
Speaker 2: on now, yes, my job, my god. So we're listening
Speaker 2: to all these songs trying to figure out, like what's
Speaker 2: the single. And we were listening we had a couple
Speaker 2: of dope joys, so yeah, yeah, man, you can have
Speaker 2: man man dope ship on that look. But that's all.
Speaker 2: It's like, I got this other thing, but you know
Speaker 2: it's not a thing already, shut that down. No, no, no, nobody,
Speaker 2: this is something new that I was like this other thing.
Speaker 2: It's probably not a single, but I mean I played
Speaker 2: for you. Maybe we put it on the album for
Speaker 2: the Japanese release, like Jeffards bonus track or some ship.
Speaker 2: Like Nigga, I played the song Ken Wilson, Nigga, that
Speaker 2: that motherfucker right there, Nigga, that's your first thing. It
Speaker 2: was You're the only one, wow right, that you play
Speaker 2: as your throwaway?
Speaker 1: Yeah. I thought it was just like, yeah, I thought
Speaker 1: it was.
Speaker 2: I thought because when we wrote You're the only One,
Speaker 2: I thought it was one of those like throwback to
Speaker 2: you know, the whole vibe we were doing like a
Speaker 2: seventies throwback thing, and I was like, I don't know
Speaker 2: people ready for that right now. It's probably just gonna
Speaker 2: be like a cool vibe on the album. Can It
Speaker 2: was like, Nigga, that was the vibe, that ship right there, Nigga,
Speaker 2: don't know what you're smoking, Nigga. So yeah, and that
Speaker 2: was that was number one for like a couple more
Speaker 2: number one.
Speaker 1: You got toast the number.
Speaker 2: Boy.
Speaker 1: It was got a lot of my money. We have
Speaker 1: a part of the show. Okay, right, he can do it.
Speaker 1: He can definitely. What is it?
Speaker 2: Does it involve calistenics or doing push up?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 6: No, no, okay, it involves talking that talk, so it's
Speaker 6: called I ain't saying on that m.
Speaker 1: Hm, whoa No, listen, listen, listen, listen.
Speaker 6: It can be funny or fucked up. Are both funny
Speaker 6: and fun up your story? But you do not say
Speaker 6: the names of the other participants in the story. But
Speaker 6: you give a non be like, oh you talking about that?
Speaker 1: Could have been.
Speaker 2: I ain't saying, I ain't saying. Okay mm hmm.
Speaker 1: But you know I know I didn't prep you for this.
Speaker 1: You just not. We like to do it on the spot.
Speaker 1: We like to do on the spot. You like to
Speaker 1: get it honest uge.
Speaker 2: Let me see now in my memory, I'm you know,
Speaker 2: I'm doing like the fucking don't say that. They don't know.
Speaker 2: They don't know who that is that ship either. No, yeah,
Speaker 2: we're swiping. I'm swiping right.
Speaker 1: Now in my brain. Old hell, let's see, no name,
Speaker 1: no face, no case.
Speaker 2: Here's that I'm trying to think it don't fit. I
Speaker 2: ain't saying no name.
Speaker 1: Y'all edit this ship. No we wrong you the ben man.
Speaker 1: Whatever you need, whatever you need.
Speaker 2: Jamie told us, don't any ship custs us out.
Speaker 1: But I wanted to adder some ship. Okay, okay, okay.
Speaker 2: I ain't said no names. I mean it's I mean
Speaker 2: just in the spirit of the conversation and being from Milwaukee,
Speaker 2: and you know Milwaukee gets cold as ship. Mm hm.
Speaker 1: Ah.
Speaker 2: Somebody was uh this was I used to before I
Speaker 2: actually moved to LA. I kept my I kept the
Speaker 2: place in Milwaukee for a while. And uh there was
Speaker 2: an artist. Oh my god, I can't believe I'm telling
Speaker 2: you burdening ham. If I didn't have like three glasses
Speaker 2: of wine, I probably wouldn't say this man hold up.
Speaker 2: So there was somebody. There was this female artist who
Speaker 2: I was kind of vibing. By the way, full disclosure,
Speaker 2: was not married. This was like Eric in Milwaukee, just
Speaker 2: like being at the Milwaukee BNA, being at BNA. There
Speaker 2: was this artist in Milwaukee and we, uh, we had stayed.
Speaker 2: I forgot how we got each other's information, but we
Speaker 2: stayed in touch. And she was like, I'm in Milwaukee,
Speaker 2: we should have some drinksoo, we went out. My god,
Speaker 2: this sounds horrible. This sounds horrible, man, but it's really
Speaker 2: not that bad. So we went out, you know, east
Speaker 2: side of Milwaukee. It's all kind of dope little bars
Speaker 2: and dope pizza joints, and were one drink after another
Speaker 2: and it's cold as ship. I think it was probably like.
Speaker 1: It was it was. It was.
Speaker 2: It was either December or January in Milwaukee. So you know,
Speaker 2: that's no way, no joke. So we are, we're drinking,
Speaker 2: we're eating, and as we're drinking and eating, we're getting
Speaker 2: a lot more touchy philly with the laughs, the laughs,
Speaker 2: the lingering hands are lingering longer and boom boom boom.
Speaker 5: And then.
Speaker 2: We're both drunk, which this is everything about the story
Speaker 2: is horrible because because I'm drunk in the bar with
Speaker 2: this person and now I'm gonna I'm like where you're
Speaker 2: saying what what? Held are you saying?
Speaker 1: Okay, I'm just driving.
Speaker 2: I'm not drunk. Incredibly irresponsible. So we're in the car
Speaker 2: and she says we're driving past esther Brook Park. She
Speaker 2: says streaking. I'm like streaking, Yeah, let's do it. So
Speaker 2: it's like one o'clock in the morning, it's probably like
Speaker 2: eight degrees outside.
Speaker 1: Drunk as hell.
Speaker 2: That's a great idea.
Speaker 1: Pull over, Oh my god, pull.
Speaker 8: Over as the Brook Park in the parking lot, looking ship,
Speaker 8: we takeing off our clothes. We run through Estherbrook Park
Speaker 8: one o'clock in the morning, butt ass naked, ended up
Speaker 8: in the bushes, and that's where I'll leave the.
Speaker 2: Bushes eight degrees you are wow?
Speaker 8: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Do you ever hear about the news run in Milwaukee?
Speaker 1: This this is me say.
Speaker 2: I got a lot a lot of crazy white boyfriends
Speaker 2: in Milwaukee. So they got this are they used to?
Speaker 2: I don't know if they do it anymore? But on
Speaker 2: New Year's Eve, you got the Polar Bears, and they
Speaker 2: jump into the Polar Bears, y'all. They don't know what
Speaker 2: the Polar Bears is. It's a bunch of crazy ass
Speaker 2: white people in Milwaukee. On New Year's Eve, they will
Speaker 2: strip down to their swimsuits and jump into sub zero water,
Speaker 2: freezing ice water for whatever reason. I don't know. But anyway,
Speaker 2: some other homies in mind, some of them I went
Speaker 2: to college with. But some of them were just like
Speaker 2: crazy ass white dudes. Like I would go have drinks
Speaker 2: with every year they would do the nude run. You
Speaker 2: would run from like River West all the way to
Speaker 2: the lakefronts. But as NICKI what, yes, So you would
Speaker 2: do the nude run and you would ultimately end up
Speaker 2: at this public swimming pool that of course was closed,
Speaker 2: and then it would turn into.
Speaker 1: They were break into the swim.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So I did the nude run in Milwaukee once.
Speaker 1: But I feel like you do more.
Speaker 2: Probably probably the nude run Milwaukee.
Speaker 1: I did it like one time.
Speaker 2: I know I was lying. You could tell I was
Speaker 2: lying right every year like new Road.
Speaker 1: This niggas wilf Ferro didn't mean that's Frank the tenth
Speaker 1: right here? Why is the gentleman? This has been Everybody
Speaker 1: Podcast with our brother Eric Bennay. He name name, name name,
Speaker 1: I don't even be money money