Speaker 1: R and beans money, honey, we are.
Speaker 2: Thanks take valantility.
Speaker 3: We are the authority on.
Speaker 2: R and ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 3: My name is Tank Valentine and this is the Army
Speaker 3: Money Podcast, the authority on all things.
Speaker 1: HORR and B.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean today's it's.
Speaker 3: A beautiful day, man, it's today where you know we
Speaker 3: get to talk to and interact with a man who's multifaceted, uh, bilingual, multicultural.
Speaker 3: I think he got a skin care line. I mean
Speaker 3: great skin, great skin, a character to go with the skin.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 5: This is how you.
Speaker 2: Diversify your portfolio. You're seeing what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: You're always gonna be cracking in one area and you
Speaker 3: got another area to hold you up.
Speaker 1: And listen, I become the podcast.
Speaker 3: Now come on now, who will somebody gonna tell me
Speaker 3: that the podcast. That's what I'm saying, in honor of Birst,
Speaker 3: to find your portfolio and being good in every asset
Speaker 3: in that motherfucker. Ye.
Speaker 1: Hey, So, so the two languages I speak, the third
Speaker 1: language I speak it's called sexy. Yeah, it's called sexy.
Speaker 1: It's about a Scotish language. It's called sexy baby. Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: so just it's three of.
Speaker 4: Them not two three.
Speaker 1: This is your camera. I had to look at him
Speaker 1: and look.
Speaker 2: Relax.
Speaker 5: You don't speak the language.
Speaker 2: I do speak.
Speaker 3: Please, please, please, you try to. It's better when you're
Speaker 3: not here. When you're not here, is that sound horrible?
Speaker 1: It's okay. I love you.
Speaker 5: I love you. It's the truth.
Speaker 2: Not always thank you.
Speaker 3: So I could not have been in no no, yeah,
Speaker 3: having to New Jersey not even you don't coming to
Speaker 3: America to okay. You have to teach me and willing
Speaker 3: to learn. Listen, man, First of all, thank you my brother.
Speaker 6: Man.
Speaker 3: You know we're family, but you know we we we
Speaker 3: know your time is precious man, and we appreciate that
Speaker 3: you've how you've grown. Thank you, We support you, know
Speaker 3: what I'm saying. How you've been successful.
Speaker 1: Thank you.
Speaker 3: We don't take that for granted, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: Even within friendship, man, we always want to salute and
Speaker 3: respect that. How you feeling, man, you got you know
Speaker 3: your fiendy two P.
Speaker 1: Thank you. You're dressing like an American today? Is that
Speaker 1: American today?
Speaker 2: I thought I was.
Speaker 7: I was putting on like some He tried to go
Speaker 7: with a little tribal prayer.
Speaker 2: It's coming. No, no, he's got the Michael Jordan's show.
Speaker 1: Yes though I did that. Yes, he showed up, Like
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, like the Ferrari outside freak.
Speaker 2: Nah.
Speaker 1: I feel great, bro. You know, for me, I'm in
Speaker 1: a place of like self learning, you know, self growth.
Speaker 1: Like this year, I told myself, I'm going to do
Speaker 1: a lot of things for myself, you know, Like for
Speaker 1: the last ten years I've been working, working, working, work
Speaker 1: and work and taking care of everybody doing draining myself.
Speaker 1: And it's like, dang, like what is Roal Timmy? Like
Speaker 1: who is Roal Timmy? Genuinely, like where are we going
Speaker 1: with who I am? And what do I love to
Speaker 1: do as a man? And so I'm at that place
Speaker 1: where it's like, Okay, yeah, career is great, this and
Speaker 1: this and this, but peace of mind is everything for
Speaker 1: me right now. Everything so just growing in self really,
Speaker 1: you know, and it translates to the music, it translates
Speaker 1: to everything, but just peace of mind and really enjoying
Speaker 1: doing it while I'm doing.
Speaker 3: It, Yeah, because I mean there is a discovery within
Speaker 3: within working and you know, and all the trials and
Speaker 3: tribulations that come along with that. And then but then
Speaker 3: you know, there's so much life outside of work, Yes, bro,
Speaker 3: which is which is so important when it comes to
Speaker 3: your peace of mind?
Speaker 1: Yes, you know what I'm.
Speaker 3: Saying that what are what are? And where are those
Speaker 3: recharging stations? Those things that are going to sustain you
Speaker 3: through the.
Speaker 8: Work Because as entertainers where everyone else's get away, getaway?
Speaker 1: So who's what is our? Who is?
Speaker 8: And then when we then when we don't do it,
Speaker 8: it's hey, man, can't I can't.
Speaker 4: I can't.
Speaker 1: It's like we're not human, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: We'll just an imagination. We're fantasy. But people forget that. Yo,
Speaker 1: we bleed, we we we go through things. And so
Speaker 1: for me, like that peace of mind has just been prayer.
Speaker 1: It's been fast and it has been health has been
Speaker 1: just being still just saying, y'all, I'm not doing anything,
Speaker 1: you know, instead of doing so much like I gotta
Speaker 1: be a part of this got of people. It's like, no,
Speaker 1: I don't need to do anything. Let God take control.
Speaker 1: And that's where I literally am now.
Speaker 2: Bro.
Speaker 3: Well, I think that's also that's also a key in
Speaker 3: terms of longevity, right, and then just another nuance to
Speaker 3: add to that the quality of that longevity yes, you
Speaker 3: know what I'm saying, Like how you're around, you know,
Speaker 3: for a long time, is just as important as you
Speaker 3: being around for a long.
Speaker 1: Time, absolutely and trusting your talent. You gotta trust your talent.
Speaker 8: A lot of talented people don't actually trust their talent.
Speaker 8: They feel like they're gonna run out, so they rush,
Speaker 8: They rush into bad deals, they rush into doing bad things.
Speaker 4: You know what I mean.
Speaker 8: You know it's like, you know, especially in this day
Speaker 8: and age, you can't that's not going away.
Speaker 1: It's going to be there.
Speaker 8: Like maybe we're on a different subject, but when your
Speaker 8: name comes up, you know, you gotta you know, you
Speaker 8: gotta be mindful of that. And just like I said,
Speaker 8: just just trust your talent. Your talent gonna.
Speaker 1: Still be there. Do you feel like social media has
Speaker 1: like made it feel like I gotta do this, I
Speaker 1: gotta do this all you think is to label more so?
Speaker 1: Or do you feel like I.
Speaker 8: Think I think system talented people have always been impatient.
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, you.
Speaker 8: Know it's something about singing that first note in the
Speaker 8: bathroom and being like somebody gotta hear it, somebody else
Speaker 8: got to hear it, you know what I'm saying, Like
Speaker 8: when if you want to go that route. I think
Speaker 8: that you know that impatience has always been there, but
Speaker 8: now you get to see other people's Yes, you know,
Speaker 8: in front of you, you can see how impatient they
Speaker 8: are because if you watch it, you're like, you probably
Speaker 8: moving too fast, You probably should have let that bake
Speaker 8: a little longer, but you took it out the oven.
Speaker 1: And you can see that now. But and for some
Speaker 1: you see that and then you go and do the
Speaker 1: same thing, or you.
Speaker 8: Say, hey, I'm gonna chill. I'm a way too, it's
Speaker 8: my time and I'm ready.
Speaker 3: You got to be able to identify, you know, your
Speaker 3: lane or your position within all of that. Yes, you
Speaker 3: know what I mean. And so the labels, the labels
Speaker 3: are going off of old information. By the time they
Speaker 3: get the analytic, it's already happened. So they're just in
Speaker 3: a space where they're just trying to reproduce that. Right,
Speaker 3: but those results may not happen because of the same thing. Right,
Speaker 3: you may get the same results, but your output make
Speaker 3: al be completely different than the analytic that they got
Speaker 3: on somebody else that was doing whatever that They feel like,
Speaker 3: we have to produce that.
Speaker 1: And to get that exactly not true.
Speaker 2: You just have to.
Speaker 3: Do your thing your way, yes, the way it connects,
Speaker 3: and then once you either figure out how you want
Speaker 3: to super serve that or not.
Speaker 2: We got a lot of artists that are missed.
Speaker 3: Three artists yeah you know what I mean, Yeah, who
Speaker 3: survive in this mysterious space and then put up one
Speaker 3: post and only got one post on their whole page.
Speaker 2: People in a frenzy one point. There's a lot of that.
Speaker 3: So it's just like the labels have an idea of
Speaker 3: what they see happening, but.
Speaker 2: It's already happened. Yes, yes, So it's it's all different.
Speaker 3: There is I don't think there is no right or
Speaker 3: wrong way in terms of being active.
Speaker 1: And that's the hardest thing for people who are really
Speaker 1: talented to actually say, oh, I could just be myself
Speaker 1: because you're taught to. Oh that worked that. Like you said, though,
Speaker 1: the labels were like, Okay, I got to sound like
Speaker 1: this person this person, and if you can actually sing
Speaker 1: and do it like that, you're like, oh, but it
Speaker 1: never connects. And that's what happened with me. So for me,
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, I can do this type of record.
Speaker 1: Oh I could do that too, I could do it
Speaker 1: oh I do. And when I sat back and I
Speaker 1: was like, you know what, Bro, just do what you
Speaker 1: feel is right. You are really the definition of African America.
Speaker 1: You stop right there, don't you do this? Okay, get there? Okay, okay, we.
Speaker 3: Had so much interaction before you got there. Yes, you
Speaker 3: and I personally yes, bro.
Speaker 2: So let's go.
Speaker 3: Back okay, okay, okay, okay back into time. Let's go
Speaker 3: back to the very beginning where somebody said to you,
Speaker 3: you you you got something or you realized it for yourself.
Speaker 1: Who are your daddy told you need to go be
Speaker 1: a doctor instead reality both can happen the same time. Truth,
Speaker 1: all right, So it started even before I was born.
Speaker 1: So my mom had a dream. So my mom is
Speaker 1: a prayer warrior, So she had a dream that Bob
Speaker 1: Marty came to and said, your son is going to
Speaker 1: finish my legacy. So that's what she did. And most
Speaker 1: freaking parents are always going to be like, no, you
Speaker 1: need to be a doctor, lawyer. So when she had
Speaker 1: that message, she's either like, okay, well, bar Marley was
Speaker 1: a politician. He was kind of like he was smart
Speaker 1: enough to be a lawyer. He was part of but
Speaker 1: it was the music. So when I started singing around
Speaker 1: three four, she started hearing me sing in the shower
Speaker 1: and she was like, oh, that's what it is. So
Speaker 1: she said to my dad like, listen, I know our structure,
Speaker 1: I know our family, I know everything. I know. There's
Speaker 1: no one else in the family who's ever done music.
Speaker 1: But I was given this message before he even arrived.
Speaker 1: So she had never told your father. She never told
Speaker 1: because she didn't know what it was, like, are you
Speaker 1: going to be you know? He was into politics, you know,
Speaker 1: so she was just like, you know, until she freak
Speaker 1: finds out. So she was like, I had the dream,
Speaker 1: and once she realized that's what it was, my mom
Speaker 1: became my first manager. So she had me singing at
Speaker 1: Nigerian weddings when I was five, six, seven, eight years
Speaker 1: at this point, so I was in New Jersey in Jersey, yeah,
Speaker 1: so Maplewood, New Jersey, actually East Strings, New Jersey at
Speaker 1: this point. So I'm singing at Nigerian weddings all over
Speaker 1: the East coast from Connecticut Phillys. So that's what started happening.
Speaker 1: And then she was like, oh, you need to join
Speaker 1: the children's choir New Jersey Children's Choir so I did
Speaker 1: that and realized, okay, I love this type of music,
Speaker 1: but this is still not me. So she then started saying,
Speaker 1: what do you want to do? I want to be
Speaker 1: like Michael Jackson. So I was a kid that every
Speaker 1: family member was like looking at and wanting to perform
Speaker 1: in front of everybody, and that's when it kind of
Speaker 1: just realized, like, Okay, I love what I'm doing. And
Speaker 1: then at fifteen, I did the Apollo Theater. So I
Speaker 1: did the Apollo Theater and I was just like, I
Speaker 1: just want to skip school on Wednesday. My mousel you
Speaker 1: me by myself. It's just me by myself. It was
Speaker 1: me by myself. And I was in the adult category
Speaker 1: because I was a late add on, so it was terrifying,
Speaker 1: bro Like, so just knowing that, okay, you got thirty
Speaker 1: five year olds, thirty two year old you know, twenty
Speaker 1: five year olds in my category, it's like, okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: I might get some mercy as a kid, but they
Speaker 1: ready to move no matter what if you know the
Speaker 1: Apollo Theaters. So I did that and end up winning.
Speaker 1: So then came back the following week and I came second.
Speaker 1: So then that's when I realized, Okay, this is really, really,
Speaker 1: really what I want to do. So yours air aired
Speaker 1: on TV. This was right before you get to there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you get to there, you get to there. So for me,
Speaker 1: I was about to google. Yeah, I know, right before,
Speaker 1: right before I get to there. So if I would
Speaker 1: have came first, then yes, okay, So the second time
Speaker 1: came second. So then jay Z's nephews moved into town
Speaker 1: and so one of the nephews wanted to rap. His
Speaker 1: name was Ramel, so Ramel Spanky. All of them they
Speaker 1: became a group and they were like, well, yo, you're
Speaker 1: the singing nigga all everywhere around town, like, you know,
Speaker 1: join our group. So I joined the group. And then
Speaker 1: Hole was like, look, if y'all serious, I need y'all
Speaker 1: to come to the crib and I read every Saturday
Speaker 1: that I'm in town, and I want you to perform
Speaker 1: all your records that you're writing during the week for me,
Speaker 1: so that was when I was like, okay, all right,
Speaker 1: how good are you roll? This is really what you
Speaker 1: want to do. You got the greatest or possibly the
Speaker 1: grades of all time, you know, spending three four hours
Speaker 1: of his weekend with you. You know, so we're writing
Speaker 1: after school every day writing right right, and so we'll
Speaker 1: go perform and he would just be like, Okay, that's whack,
Speaker 1: that's great, that's yeah. Your voice not powerful on that,
Speaker 1: but lyrics is good. Oh, your stage presence is to
Speaker 1: do it again. So we'll be doing it for two
Speaker 1: three hours. So this is now sixteen and seventeen. So
Speaker 1: by this time the group was called NBH and we're
Speaker 1: like literally performing at all the talent shows, college talent
Speaker 1: shol high school talent shows, winning everything. And then that
Speaker 1: was with the conversation that I had to have my
Speaker 1: mom like, well, I mean, I don't want to go
Speaker 1: to college, Like I want to just keep doing this.
Speaker 1: I want to join Rock Nation d D. And my
Speaker 1: mom was like a rich to mean, ya not the
Speaker 1: nephew of this mind here, what are you doing? Not
Speaker 1: going to be he doesn't have to sign you. So
Speaker 1: it was like, all right, well, I'm good enough so
Speaker 1: much I got to study better than I mean, he's
Speaker 1: cheating blood. So so so I had just gotten accepted
Speaker 1: into Northwestern for vocal performance in Northwestern in Evanston, Illinois.
Speaker 1: So I got accepted, so my mom was like, you're
Speaker 1: going to skip basically an ivory League school to go
Speaker 1: take a chance on you know, this group. And I
Speaker 1: was like, well, mom, you know we're good with winning
Speaker 1: this and this. She was like, no, as soon as
Speaker 1: they don't want to rock with dream, they go, let's
Speaker 1: let you go. But you always have a college degree.
Speaker 1: So and that was the So I went to college
Speaker 1: basically for my parents. And yeah, so I can keep
Speaker 1: keep finish. You finished, Yeah, I graduated, I graduate.
Speaker 2: Are you still doing the group and all of that?
Speaker 1: Why did you have to leave the group? So I
Speaker 1: had to leave a group. So that was the whole thing.
Speaker 1: Like we're great today, but that was the whole thing, absolutely,
Speaker 1: like oh dang, you think you better. It was like
Speaker 1: it was a whole There was a whole thing, you know.
Speaker 1: And I felt like I was betraying him. And it
Speaker 1: was like, Dan, you're not even really one of us.
Speaker 1: You never believe it. And again, we're all sixteen seventeen, right,
Speaker 1: you know.
Speaker 4: What I mean.
Speaker 1: So it's a tough conversation. It's hard you guys. You
Speaker 1: spent that much time with Yes, you said, sixteen seventeen,
Speaker 1: sixteen seventeen. So at this point in time, we've been
Speaker 1: working and going to Hole's crib you know, off and
Speaker 1: on for almost a year and a half, you know,
Speaker 1: so you're gonna throw it all away for this and dang, like.
Speaker 3: I love a dream birusu reality what Yeah, yes, especially
Speaker 3: when you believe yes, you, when you when you're that close.
Speaker 8: You're yes, Like you're sitting across from someone who could
Speaker 8: change your life.
Speaker 1: And there and they're saying you're good.
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: So like you got an end too, because you got
Speaker 1: I'm in a group with.
Speaker 2: Yeah, nephew, but I don't think.
Speaker 1: But we also knew that the pressure was on us
Speaker 1: even more because they had to be that good knowing
Speaker 1: better than good, better than him type of energy. So
Speaker 1: it was like a lot of it was a lot
Speaker 1: of stress, good stress that prepared me for life later
Speaker 1: down the road because you're starting to see like, oh man,
Speaker 1: you have to bring your a game every day even
Speaker 1: though you're mentally not developed yet, you're still like okay
Speaker 1: the dog and you was born at that time for real.
Speaker 1: And so so you got a vocal degree, no, no,
Speaker 1: hell no, so listen, So I went to vocal went
Speaker 1: to school for vocal performance, and I realized so in college, right,
Speaker 1: so you got like so every credit, every class is
Speaker 1: one credit and you need about four credits to get
Speaker 1: past the semester. Right, Okay, so you can have like
Speaker 1: four classes or two classes at equal one. Right. So
Speaker 1: in vocal performance and the Western At the time, I
Speaker 1: don't know how it is now, but vocal performance, every
Speaker 1: class was like zero point five point three point two.
Speaker 1: So you gotta do music theory, music and the music keyboard,
Speaker 1: blah blah blah. So you there from seven am. Then
Speaker 1: inquired you there from seven am to nine pm. I'm like, now,
Speaker 1: there's too many joints on campus, but I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: be here doing this every day.
Speaker 8: You're talking to a dropout and it never went so
Speaker 8: what you're saying right now?
Speaker 2: Oh y'all good?
Speaker 1: Nah, champ. So I'm in a full scholarship. Look, I
Speaker 1: thought about it. But now to the audition. Yeah, high school.
Speaker 1: My high school music teacher was like, yeah, so you
Speaker 1: know I went to you know.
Speaker 8: School of Music, Berkeley School of Music, and you know
Speaker 8: I have some connections. Man, I would love to Yeah,
Speaker 8: you know, I'm a seven audition.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, wrong, back to the black I go. So
Speaker 1: you ain't want to go at all? You were just
Speaker 1: talking so you had no planning going college.
Speaker 8: For music, but all definitely not for music, because for music.
Speaker 8: So I had another opportunity in high school because that
Speaker 8: already it was weird for me because I had already
Speaker 8: done music professionally, you know what I mean. So when
Speaker 8: my brother, when my brother passed, we moved back to
Speaker 8: San Francisco, and you know, I had just been on
Speaker 8: soul train six months before, you know, so when I
Speaker 8: get back, I'm the kid that was just on that.
Speaker 8: Now I got to figure out how to be regular
Speaker 8: in the hood again. So I didn't sing for a
Speaker 8: couple of years. I didn't sing at all for a
Speaker 8: couple of years. A couple of people tried to get
Speaker 8: me to get in groups and some different shit. And
Speaker 8: then when I got in high school, I realized that
Speaker 8: if I took music, it's.
Speaker 1: An easy a. I just looked at it as an
Speaker 1: easy a. So the first music teacher was like, you
Speaker 1: probably should go look at, you know, the School of
Speaker 1: the Arts. I'm going to school to play basketball and
Speaker 1: go to a basketball school. And the teachers like, there's
Speaker 1: a School of the Yards in San Francisco too, that's good,
Speaker 1: blah blah blah, And I was like, you're talking about
Speaker 1: them kids that we're all black all day and trench
Speaker 1: coats smoking cigarettes at the bus stop. I ain't fun
Speaker 1: with it right. The music school niggas was weird to me,
Speaker 1: so didn't do that.
Speaker 8: Never never went because they were trying to hook me
Speaker 8: up to go check out the school lyards.
Speaker 1: Didn't do that.
Speaker 8: So then senior year comes same conversation, like, listen, you
Speaker 8: can go to school for free as a singer. I
Speaker 8: might go to school for free as a singer for
Speaker 8: some ship I already been paid for as a kid.
Speaker 1: It's backwards like.
Speaker 8: That, don't really you know, it just didn't. It didn't
Speaker 8: like you said, it didn't add up.
Speaker 1: So I was.
Speaker 2: I was more.
Speaker 8: And at this point I was just in love with
Speaker 8: playing basketball. I had a you know, affinity for that.
Speaker 8: That became my thing.
Speaker 1: So, nah, I couldn't do it. I couldn't do it,
Speaker 1: bro and I didn't. I didn't want to be I
Speaker 1: didn't want to be a starving student either. I feel you,
Speaker 1: but I had no. The thing is, I don't even
Speaker 1: remember one thing I learned in school. That's the thing,
Speaker 1: Like nothing, nothing I remember. It's true, Like it's like
Speaker 1: you it gave you structure. Yes, it gave me structure.
Speaker 1: It gave me how to how to be, how to
Speaker 1: compartmentalize my time. It gave me. I mean, I went
Speaker 1: to school. I just turned seventeen and going to college,
Speaker 1: so I was I was a baby, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. So like I had to go to the
Speaker 1: Midwest by myself, you know, and so it was like, Okay,
Speaker 1: this is how you survive, you know, and like I'm
Speaker 1: an only child, so being out, I was like, oh
Speaker 1: you sink or swim, you know what i mean. And
Speaker 1: then it was a culture shock. It was majority white people,
Speaker 1: so it was like all right, so how are you
Speaker 1: going to survive in this? Okay, this is the type
Speaker 1: of music they like, so you kind of got to
Speaker 1: incorporate a little bit of this. And then I well,
Speaker 1: da da da da. So it was like, oh, this
Speaker 1: is how these guys kind of speak to people like this.
Speaker 1: So it's like college for me, it was like more
Speaker 1: about the handshakes. Environmental study. Yeah, it was like the
Speaker 1: more about the handshake you make and not the classes
Speaker 1: you take, you know what I'm saying. So it was
Speaker 1: really about environmental and like learning about who I was.
Speaker 1: The communication the communication and even just and then at
Speaker 1: the time, it was like how much do I really
Speaker 1: enjoy music because I used to go, well, we used
Speaker 1: to sneak into that. So there was a studio there
Speaker 1: that was for the music program. So I go back.
Speaker 1: I dropped the music vocal performance because I was like,
Speaker 1: I'm not taking eight classes. Yeah, like that's that's not
Speaker 1: fair to nobody. So I joined. I went to micro economics,
Speaker 1: and I was like, I ain't doing this. Yeah, bro,
Speaker 1: I was like this is it was calculus and all
Speaker 1: this and X square. But I was like, no, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: for what exactly. So let me just do communications, man,
Speaker 1: let me just do communication. So that was like, okay,
Speaker 1: psychology and you know theater one on one, the history
Speaker 1: of theater. It was cool and just communicate, calm. It
Speaker 1: was fun, you know what I mean. So, and it
Speaker 1: was where the girls.
Speaker 8: They weren't in a micro micro.
Speaker 2: Lady, I want to be with a lady.
Speaker 1: You're gonna walk in class with the list baby. So
Speaker 1: we used to sneak into the studio that was just
Speaker 1: for the engineering kids. So we got cool with the janitor.
Speaker 1: So we sneak in at one o'clock at night and
Speaker 1: just record like our mixtapes, me and my guys at school.
Speaker 1: So then it was like, okay, I really like So
Speaker 1: we would just start printing out the mixtapes, selling it
Speaker 1: right before class. And it's cold as hell in Chicago,
Speaker 1: so we were really on the block, like at a
Speaker 1: Northwestern Ivy League school, just passing out mixtape three dollars,
Speaker 1: and we started realizing, oh, people really buying this, okay,
Speaker 1: so then we're like, yo, just come to our show.
Speaker 1: So then we started packing out the shows. So that's
Speaker 1: when it was like, all right, so the hustle mentality, Okay,
Speaker 1: you're actually really good, doesn't matter what skin color it is, Okay,
Speaker 1: let's keep going. So then you'll start taking like trains
Speaker 1: to the city, go to Chicago and just do like
Speaker 1: the open mics there. And that's where I met Jeremiah
Speaker 1: because he was coming at the birthday. Sex was about
Speaker 1: to drop at that time and he was doing it,
Speaker 1: so and then Will from day twenty six had his
Speaker 1: open mics, so it was like it was like a
Speaker 1: family that was starting to form out there for me,
Speaker 1: you know, but it was it was cool, man. There
Speaker 1: was a lot of growth in that time. From seventeen
Speaker 1: to twenty one.
Speaker 3: Okay, yeah, you graduate, you graduate college.
Speaker 1: Yes, sir, do you stay in Chicago? Yes? So I graduate,
Speaker 1: So it's how it goes illo. So I graduate, yep,
Speaker 1: so I graduate. So I moved to the hood in
Speaker 1: Chicago when I graduate. So right at this point in
Speaker 1: the hood, No, I didn't know it was a hood.
Speaker 1: So it's it's High Park. You move where you could though.
Speaker 1: I moved where I could afford. Yeah, and you know
Speaker 1: anything Martin Luther King Boulevard.
Speaker 4: You know, I was there.
Speaker 2: I was.
Speaker 1: I was there with Martin Luther. So when I when
Speaker 1: I did that, it was me and my manager living
Speaker 1: together at that time. So my dad was like, Yo,
Speaker 1: since you finished school, I'll pay half your rent for
Speaker 1: the first year so you can follow music. Like, since
Speaker 1: you graduated, I'll give you six months rent to just
Speaker 1: figure out what the hell was going to do. So
Speaker 1: this is when it gets interesting. So we really didn't
Speaker 1: have money. I was a struggling artist. You started. I'm
Speaker 1: starting to see all my my friends get economic jobs
Speaker 1: and the walk working for Wall Street because Northwestern sets
Speaker 1: you up for that. So I'm just basically in the
Speaker 1: hood now this point, me and my manager and he
Speaker 1: was like, yo, like you ever thought about acting? Bro?
Speaker 1: Like you you shot like two music videos. You're real
Speaker 1: natural in front of the camera. Like, let's go, let's
Speaker 1: try to get money to do a commercial. That was
Speaker 1: how it started. I was like, well, bro, I don't
Speaker 1: got no resume or anything. I never really act before.
Speaker 1: Like what he was like, Nah, just just let's just
Speaker 1: put your He was like, just put the two three
Speaker 1: music videos you did and we just say you went
Speaker 1: to Northwestern to see what happens. So I go spend
Speaker 1: the day going to every agency in the city. Nobody
Speaker 1: took me because there was no agent. There was nothing.
Speaker 1: There was nothing. I had no no resume. The only
Speaker 1: the only agency that took me was a small boutique agency.
Speaker 1: And the only reason why she took means because her
Speaker 1: son was a freshman at Northwestern. So she was like,
Speaker 1: let me just make sure alumni is okay. Like I
Speaker 1: don't know if you can act or not, but like,
Speaker 1: if you want to do this, let me make sure
Speaker 1: you're okay. So she was like, all right, let me
Speaker 1: do a camera test. You know the Gator Rays Gatoraye
Speaker 1: script that I got. Just see what you do. At
Speaker 1: this point in time, I didn't know. I had like
Speaker 1: a photographic memory, so I don't know. I can look
Speaker 1: at something. It okay cool. So I did it and
Speaker 1: she was just like whoa, okay, this is your You
Speaker 1: didn't study Northwestern? I said no, no. She was like,
Speaker 1: all right, okay, So what we're gonna do. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: give you. I'm gonna sign you. So it's Monday. She
Speaker 1: was like, there's an audition for a TV show called
Speaker 1: Boss on Wednesday. I was like, all right, well, what
Speaker 1: do I do when I go into audition? Like, how's
Speaker 1: it set up? Is the casting director? She's like, don't
Speaker 1: go in thinking that you're going to get this job.
Speaker 1: The job, the role is already cast for. I just
Speaker 1: want you to get used to being in front of
Speaker 1: a casting director and the elements of auditioning. So just
Speaker 1: just a friend is doing me a favorite. Her name
Speaker 1: is shout out the Clai signmon man. She she looked out.
Speaker 1: So a friend is giving me, doing me a favor
Speaker 1: by letting you in. So I was like, all right, cool, cool, cool.
Speaker 1: So I took the papers for the audition and I
Speaker 1: was like all right, cool, well, all right, boom, I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna get this. So let me just have fun
Speaker 1: with this fun. So I learned that. So I was like,
Speaker 1: all right, I go in. So then I see Kelsey Grammar.
Speaker 1: So Kelsey Grammar is coming in to basically tell the
Speaker 1: casting director casting agency, thank you for casting my new show,
Speaker 1: which is Boss. So she was like, well, Kelsey, why
Speaker 1: don't you just stay Why don't you just stay this?
Speaker 1: You know, if you see anything with this kid, this
Speaker 1: kid has never acted before. It's just just just see
Speaker 1: what you you know. He's like, all right, I really
Speaker 1: didn't know who we were. I just remember seeing him
Speaker 1: on Frasier. I'm saying, I really you know, So I'm
Speaker 1: okay cool. I wasn't phased by it. So I'm so
Speaker 1: in my music bag at this point. Remember when you
Speaker 1: could write the website of your your website on a wristband. Yes, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: so I'm over there, wrote Tommy music back. I got
Speaker 1: you go scroll down on when you go to the website,
Speaker 1: like straight up not giving a damn, like you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. So I'm like, so they all laughing,
Speaker 1: so mind I was like, okay, so that little laughing
Speaker 1: is okay.
Speaker 2: The move just got broken.
Speaker 1: Ice is broken. So again another skill that. I'm like,
Speaker 1: oh wow, okay, Ice is broken. It's cool. So then
Speaker 1: I just do it do the auditions. So Kelsey's like
Speaker 1: I never figured. He was like, can you try it,
Speaker 1: you know, with a little list this and this, this, this,
Speaker 1: this this. So I'm all right cool, he said, so
Speaker 1: you so you study because at the time, Northwestern was
Speaker 1: one of the top theater theater programs in the country.
Speaker 2: Did you know this?
Speaker 1: I don't know this. So when she said you went
Speaker 1: to the Western, he was already like, oh, you probably
Speaker 1: studied with Don. He was like, oh, you studied with
Speaker 1: Don Mora because hey, haa Don Morris one of the
Speaker 1: I said, but I don't know who Don morri is.
Speaker 1: I never met Don Morris. Who is He like, no,
Speaker 1: it's a sixty year old white woman. I said, oh okay, alright, alright,
Speaker 1: we're back, you know. So so then I do it
Speaker 1: about another three or four times and he was like, man,
Speaker 1: he was like, I've never I haven't seen natural ability
Speaker 1: since like a Jamie Fox, you really do music. I
Speaker 1: was like, yeah, I seen man. He was like, okay, well, Claire,
Speaker 1: let's figure something out. I remember that. I was like.
Speaker 1: So I was like, so anyway, so two weeks later
Speaker 1: they called and say I got the job. So it
Speaker 1: becomes I'm terrified. Bro's like, okay, my first deal. Now
Speaker 1: I'm scared. And I was like, Yo, you're getting six
Speaker 1: figures out of school and you don't know what you do,
Speaker 1: what you're doing, you don't know why why are you
Speaker 1: paying me this money? I don't even know what I'm
Speaker 1: supposed to do to earn this money.
Speaker 2: How am I like?
Speaker 1: How does this make sense? So so Kelsey was like,
Speaker 1: once I got the call, once I got the deal,
Speaker 1: once I did the deal, Kelsey's like, yo, come meet me.
Speaker 1: He's like, okay, so let me explain to you the basics.
Speaker 1: This is camera left, camra right, These are called sides,
Speaker 1: These are this and this. So every time, every every
Speaker 1: time we have scenes together, I need you to come
Speaker 1: to my trailer two hours before and we will do
Speaker 1: scenes study together. I said, okay. So Kelsey Grammont was
Speaker 1: basically my first acting teacher. Bro crazy. So he was like, man,
Speaker 1: like this little cool, cool things that like you can
Speaker 1: learn you know from only can learn from a great
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. And so it was like,
Speaker 1: so episode one was my first acting class for real.
Speaker 1: So whenever. So you go on Netflix and watch Boss.
Speaker 1: That's my first acting class of what things are and
Speaker 1: where things are. Yeah, yeah, that's amazing. It's is guy
Speaker 1: working at the right time. So my manager at the time,
Speaker 1: I didn't have an agency at the time. So my
Speaker 1: manager at the time was like, bro, fifty got this
Speaker 1: show just like two thousand and fourteen is now. He's like,
Speaker 1: fifty got this show called Power, Like like, I don't know.
Speaker 1: Season one just went went on, but nobody's really talking
Speaker 1: about it and they interested in you. But you gotta
Speaker 1: fly yourself to LA and kind of put yourself up
Speaker 1: for a pilot season. I'm like, dog, I only got
Speaker 1: like five grand bro, Like I can I just put
Speaker 1: my self tape? You really in self tape? Then you
Speaker 1: had to be in the room, you know.
Speaker 4: What I mean.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So like it wasn't really it was like can
Speaker 1: I self tape? Like yeah, but you'll kind of be
Speaker 1: shuffled and they're seeing people every day for this character. Bro,
Speaker 1: it's a series regular regular role, like you gotta go in.
Speaker 1: So I'm like Jesus, all right, So I bought my
Speaker 1: ticket boom some counting every dollar like all right, well,
Speaker 1: poly seasons about two three weeks. They might see me.
Speaker 1: They might need to see me the first day and
Speaker 1: not call you back for another two weeks. So damn,
Speaker 1: I gotta figure out. Let me get Let me get
Speaker 1: a motel. So I went, I got a motel in
Speaker 1: east on East Hollywood, like with the essays yo, like
Speaker 1: all this side like it's it's not one of my language.
Speaker 1: It wasn't one of them. So I'm I'm in East Hollywood, bro,
Speaker 1: and like and like, I'm like, damn, how much is
Speaker 1: this from a night? He was like, uh forty, I said, Brom,
Speaker 1: I'm a struggling artist. Like I don't know how long
Speaker 1: I be here. He was like, shout out to Bob Man.
Speaker 1: It was like, okay, I can do it was an
Speaker 1: Indian dude. He was like, I can do twenty five
Speaker 1: dollars a night for you. Just don't forget that's when
Speaker 1: you make it, man, don't forget real hotel. But I
Speaker 1: was in a motel. Bro different, it's different, it's nasty way.
Speaker 1: But I was still pulling them though. I mean, it's
Speaker 1: the man, you know. I said, this is a temporary big.
Speaker 5: That's whoa, that's a cold bottom of the.
Speaker 1: It's the man, not the hotel, bro, Bro, So from
Speaker 1: the bottom.
Speaker 4: Now we're here.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so I'm in the motel. So luckily the first
Speaker 1: day they see me, they bring me in and they're like, man,
Speaker 1: we love, we love, we love what you did. Do
Speaker 1: I said, but maybe come back. We'll keep you posted.
Speaker 1: Maybe we'll have callbacks in like four or five days.
Speaker 1: Oh my god. So that's another one hundred and fifty
Speaker 1: two hundred. I gotta eat, so four hundred all right, shoot,
Speaker 1: all right, cool, all right, cool, I can I can
Speaker 1: make it happen. Come that day boom, knock it out.
Speaker 1: They're like, all right, well another four days. Well well
Speaker 1: yeah it's like that, bro. It's like, well I did
Speaker 1: it on Thursday. Monday was if you get the screen test,
Speaker 1: you get like the what's called like if it's down
Speaker 1: to basically you and somebody else, they basically like bring
Speaker 1: you in. So I had to wait till Monday. Now,
Speaker 1: so now I'm kind of pushing two weeks now, you know,
Speaker 1: which I didn't know. I'm just starting to feel like
Speaker 1: you're starting to know, like damn, like this is really
Speaker 1: this is getting low, like this is getting lower.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's great, raised bro. So then I'm like, all right, cool,
Speaker 1: so oh shout out to say your name. But like
Speaker 1: one of my homegirls at the time, she was like,
Speaker 1: you'll come to church with me, and I was like
Speaker 1: all right. So I went to church and it was
Speaker 1: it was like it was like the sermon was like
Speaker 1: just just hold on a little longer, just hold on
Speaker 1: a little longer. And that thing broke broke. And I
Speaker 1: was like, okay, all right because at the time, like
Speaker 1: you on the top of the world, you in Chicago,
Speaker 1: you got to hit show, your show wins a golden
Speaker 1: globe the bass, and now you're not really with three
Speaker 1: four thousand. You have money, but you can't really touch
Speaker 1: it for real. So you start to feel like damn,
Speaker 1: like what's wrong with me? Like what how did it
Speaker 1: get to this point that I'm in a motel and
Speaker 1: you know, and one of my homegirls got it like, yo,
Speaker 1: I don't I handle it like that type of energy
Speaker 1: is I'll never feel this ever again, yo. And so
Speaker 1: so yeah, so that that mindset started changing when I
Speaker 1: went to church and I was like, all right, cool,
Speaker 1: I can do this, even if it's to my last
Speaker 1: last dollar. I'm here, and I said, I did it.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: So then callback comes and it was me and the Keith.
Speaker 1: It was me and Leakeith, and he was like, yoh,
Speaker 1: so you're going there for Dre. I'm like, yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: going to j He's like you're going for JA.
Speaker 4: Yeah, nigga, I'm.
Speaker 1: Going for JA. He's like, if I don't get this one,
Speaker 1: I'm working on it, I might get this show called Atlanta.
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, shoot, well cool, bro. Either way,
Speaker 1: you know, you do your things. So that's how we met,
Speaker 1: and so went in. Oh I bodied it, bro. I
Speaker 1: bodied it like it's one of the best experiences of
Speaker 1: my life where I was like, damn, I just own
Speaker 1: this whole situation. But it was also like that desperation
Speaker 1: of I need this, like I for myself, my sanity,
Speaker 1: for my mindset, for my family, for my future. Like
Speaker 1: it was like I don't care, and I knew he
Speaker 1: was nice. I was like, but I'm ten times better
Speaker 1: than anybody in this moment. You know what I'm saying
Speaker 1: in this moment, you know what I mean? So went
Speaker 1: crazy and this again is how God works too. So
Speaker 1: got the had to wait. They're like, we'll call you
Speaker 1: back in like you know, like two three days we'll
Speaker 1: know my my man is basically telling like yo, that
Speaker 1: they don't really call right away, so just wait. You know,
Speaker 1: they still got to see other people, you know, and
Speaker 1: some people are you know, sending videos through Skype, and
Speaker 1: so just just wait, bro, you know. So now I'm
Speaker 1: down to like twelve hundred, Like twelve hundred, bro, and
Speaker 1: get the call like you booked it, and that there
Speaker 1: was the relief, like the relief, mind you we three
Speaker 1: weeks in and just never forgetting that experience. So then
Speaker 1: when I got my first paycheck, I went back to
Speaker 1: that hotel, that motel and gave ten thousand to Bob.
Speaker 2: You know what, Come on, man, you know what? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, absolutely, yeah.
Speaker 5: I love I love the West.
Speaker 2: So solid.
Speaker 1: That's amazing, man, Bob, Come on, Bob, come on. Strip
Speaker 1: Crazy Girls is over there somewhere close, you know. So
Speaker 1: I'm at crib. Yeah I had already. You know, Ma's
Speaker 1: been my guy for years. Yeah.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I'm at the crib and you pop on the screen.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I hadn't seen you. Yeah, I guess what years? Yeah,
Speaker 1: And I'm like it's the first the first season. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's crazy.
Speaker 5: It literally was.
Speaker 8: I literally had that moment Oh, you know you got
Speaker 8: people that you're cool with but that you don't talk
Speaker 8: to all the time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that you know you it's spaces, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. It's not like you know, I was
Speaker 1: on the call list of like, yeah, book, we know
Speaker 1: each other, we cool, but I don't know that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: yeah Nigga.
Speaker 2: I'm literally like, oh.
Speaker 1: Ship, Yeah, Nigga's cracking.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: When I was watching it, I was like, I was,
Speaker 3: he's really killing ship because that's not him the nicest guy, say,
Speaker 3: the coolest nigga effort, and he is bodying this ship.
Speaker 3: I really kind of don't like him. Yes, you know
Speaker 3: what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: The way I definitely had a defendant for sure.
Speaker 5: They be like, man, dude, hell no. Even though stuff
Speaker 5: will come up with I'm like, yeah, here's a bullshitter,
Speaker 5: a whole another route there, let's go. I'm sick of this.
Speaker 1: Ship to.
Speaker 4: Ship.
Speaker 5: He always look at weasel out. Don't trust that nigga.
Speaker 3: Like I was really in the show, Yes, don't tell
Speaker 3: me nothing, like me and Ze would watch it. I said,
Speaker 3: don't tell me nothing, I want to watch it, and
Speaker 3: I really watched it from a fan. And when I
Speaker 3: say enjoyed myself. Right, I know we're getting ready to
Speaker 3: get to some more music because watching you go crazy
Speaker 3: in that show and then hearing your music, I was like,
Speaker 3: I was like, they're not gonna get that. I said,
Speaker 3: they're not gonna get it. And me, you talked about it.
Speaker 3: He said, I say, you are so far left right now.
Speaker 3: You are such an abuser, You are such a killer
Speaker 3: and connoising motherfuckers that no one is going to be
Speaker 3: able to separate you from that character and embody your
Speaker 3: sexy music. They're not gonna find you there. Who is that?
Speaker 6: You know?
Speaker 3: Goddamn it really am And I was like, I felt
Speaker 3: like there was a disconnect. Yeah, absolutely was because you
Speaker 3: were doing so good, which is good and bad because
Speaker 3: as a musician, as an artist, you're like, I just
Speaker 3: want to be able to do what the fuck I do.
Speaker 3: Appreciate me everywhere, but people will believe wholeheartedly that that
Speaker 3: motherfucker devil and yeah, I lost half on a bet
Speaker 3: movie lost. They will play my movie for educational purposes.
Speaker 2: Don't fall.
Speaker 5: In churches and in school, got run.
Speaker 8: That's a tough space, like for a new artist. Absolute,
Speaker 8: it's really tough for Tank. It's it's tough, but it's
Speaker 8: a mind fuck for you. It's a mindful right, But
Speaker 8: we're very mindful incognizant of that to this day though,
Speaker 8: of when roles come in, what you think?
Speaker 1: I'm like, you can't do it? Yeah, yeah, yeah, you
Speaker 1: can't do it. Not that one.
Speaker 5: He's like, what if? I like, but if you do
Speaker 5: too good? You're him?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Yeah, And how do we you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: I get around you know what I'm saying. So we
Speaker 1: we are every time a role comes in, we have
Speaker 1: those conversations.
Speaker 3: So what is your feeling like you're you're killing no
Speaker 3: power and you're also trying to have a moment in music. Yeah,
Speaker 3: and within all of those conversations, like, what is your
Speaker 3: realization about your process?
Speaker 6: That?
Speaker 1: Okay? So it was it was steps and levels and transitions.
Speaker 1: So when I first got there, it was okay, oh
Speaker 1: not when I first got Oh yeah, there's two sides that.
Speaker 1: So when I was filming Season two, when my first
Speaker 1: season with Season two, all my if you remember Dre
Speaker 1: and Canan fifty were the best of France, right, So
Speaker 1: I spent majority of my season with fifty, all my
Speaker 1: scenes with fifty. So I started realizing like, damn, I
Speaker 1: don't want to really bring up my music because it's
Speaker 1: not the right time. And then people on the street
Speaker 1: are giving him mixtapes and he's throwing it like I'm like,
Speaker 1: I don't want that to be me. Let me chill,
Speaker 1: like exactly, I don't know how to do my job
Speaker 1: after that.
Speaker 3: So then excuse me, what the hell is this man.
Speaker 2: Should have done? Man thrown my drives?
Speaker 4: Man crazy?
Speaker 1: So so yeah, so I was like, nah, he's either
Speaker 1: gonna have to hear me on the radio somehow or
Speaker 1: somebody gonna have to bring it to him. So I'm
Speaker 1: telling you the story of how I got my deal
Speaker 1: and then we'll go into the transition of everything. So
Speaker 1: we're filming season two, so I don't know the magnitude
Speaker 1: of what Dre is gonna be at this time. We're
Speaker 1: literally filming, so no one's seen it yet, so we're
Speaker 1: just working, you know. So so so yeah, So one
Speaker 1: day I still haven't told fifty four months into working
Speaker 1: with him, almost every day that I do music. So
Speaker 1: I go to this session one day. It's these two
Speaker 1: white producers and they were like, hey, bro, I never
Speaker 1: met them, but they've been asking to work for about
Speaker 1: two three weeks at that time. So they're like, hey, Bro,
Speaker 1: so somebody's gonna come to this session because we just
Speaker 1: won a Snapchat beat battle and the guy from in
Speaker 1: the Scope is going to come and get some records
Speaker 1: for some of his artists. So I was like all right, cool.
Speaker 1: He's like, did you mind? I was like no, dadn't come.
Speaker 1: So oh boy comes in and the record that I'm
Speaker 1: working on is the record called my record called Lotto
Speaker 1: with Fifth and eventually records I'm working. He was like, yo, yeah,
Speaker 1: my name is Tony G I work with in the Scope.
Speaker 4: But who's this that.
Speaker 1: I was like, that's me, Bro. He's like oh, He's
Speaker 1: like okay, did you do music? I was like yeah.
Speaker 1: He said, what do you bring this to New York.
Speaker 1: I'm like, well, I'm filming a TV show called Power.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you know it. You know we're
Speaker 1: filming season two right now. He was like, bro, what
Speaker 1: I do the music for Power? Said? I do all
Speaker 1: the music for Power. It was like, Bro, I'm I'm
Speaker 1: the head of G Unit Music. I said, what, Bro,
Speaker 1: I played Dre. He was like, oh, you played Dre.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Fick was telling me about this kid Bro come to
Speaker 1: the come to G unit tomorrow. I said, look at God,
Speaker 1: Bro like, so I go to So it's how it works, right.
Speaker 1: So my meeting, I was living in Brooklyn in the
Speaker 1: studio apartment, so I had to go. If you know
Speaker 1: New York, the traffic around one, two three to go
Speaker 1: to Times Square, it's horrible. So my meeting was supposed
Speaker 1: to be at one o'clock with Tony G. And you
Speaker 1: know when you play records, the meanings like thirty forty
Speaker 1: minutes in and out kind of thing, right, But I
Speaker 1: was like two. I was like, I was like an
Speaker 1: hour and a half late. So I'm panicing, like, damn,
Speaker 1: this is I lost an opportunity man brola blah blah blah.
Speaker 1: So Tony's like, nah, it's cool, Bro, it's cool, cool,
Speaker 1: cool Now we just getting started. Anyway, So I sit
Speaker 1: down and fifty comes in at two thirty. So if
Speaker 1: I came on time, I most likely would have missed. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that moment, that moment. So he comes in, He's like, hey, ro,
Speaker 1: what's you doing?
Speaker 6: Bro?
Speaker 4: What you know here?
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, man, Tony G came to the studio.
Speaker 1: He's like, studio, what you filming? Something else there, So no, no,
Speaker 1: like music studio. He was like, where you do music?
Speaker 1: I was like yeah. He was like okay, let me So.
Speaker 1: I don't know what he I don't know what he
Speaker 1: expected he was gonna hear. But I played the record.
Speaker 1: I played Lotto and he made me play that song
Speaker 1: nine times, back to back to back to back, and
Speaker 1: he was like, oh yeah, let's we're gonna do a deal.
Speaker 1: Oh what the fuck is this? We're gonna do a deal?
Speaker 1: Oh yo, ro I'm gonna do my verse tonight. Have
Speaker 1: your lord, let's set this up through. This is easy,
Speaker 1: let's go. So I signed with Gan.
Speaker 2: So today.
Speaker 3: Man, right now, what's on your mind? Where are you
Speaker 3: in terms of you know, the things you're working on
Speaker 3: and where you want to tell the people to go
Speaker 3: to things, where to be when you're gonna be there?
Speaker 7: Yeah? Yeah yeah.
Speaker 1: So So first and foremost, we got a TV I mean,
Speaker 1: I got a TV show called Will Trent that I'm
Speaker 1: on now. It's on ABC. So we had to crossover
Speaker 1: and go that sign you know what I'm saying, and
Speaker 1: it's it's a beautiful thing, man, shout out to ABC.
Speaker 1: So I got a movie house party. If you haven't
Speaker 1: seen it yet. It's out in theaters right now. I'm
Speaker 1: doing really well. I got a broken Lebron house. Yes, yes, sir,
Speaker 1: yes king, yes sir, you know, yes, yeah you go.
Speaker 1: He signed an argument.
Speaker 8: We don't have a basketball podcast, so I'm not gonna
Speaker 8: everybody know, Michael Jordan Green.
Speaker 2: It just is what it is.
Speaker 4: Six times I don't have a go.
Speaker 1: We just I don't have a go. What you're doing,
Speaker 1: what you're doing. This is how he win his little argument.
Speaker 1: You know, you know I can't play no pim, so
Speaker 1: whenever we start allgeting, he break out the pimo. Come on,
Speaker 1: man with your man go ahead, what you're gonna do?
Speaker 1: I just want to know your.
Speaker 6: Top five, your top five? Mm hmmm, top five, Your
Speaker 6: top five?
Speaker 1: Who?
Speaker 4: Your top.
Speaker 5: Singers and song homes? R and B top us?
Speaker 4: Yeah, where it be?
Speaker 5: Your top top five?
Speaker 4: Hold on?
Speaker 2: Still first, your top.
Speaker 4: You're top.
Speaker 1: Five. He showed out because you dissed his accent. He
Speaker 1: showed up. Yeah, that's been five R and B singers,
Speaker 1: Man and woman lives who Marvin start off right, Joe?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I know what I know what box you in
Speaker 2: right now?
Speaker 1: I like O R Kelly, Kelly got you can't take
Speaker 1: away from a box you I know for my life
Speaker 1: Carl Thomas, m hm, Carl Thomas was crazy. And I
Speaker 1: gotta go with Mike and Michael Jackson. Michael Jackson, that's
Speaker 1: my start because you were the Nigerian Michael Jackson as
Speaker 1: a child, I was better.
Speaker 4: Did you have glitter?
Speaker 2: I did?
Speaker 1: I did all of it.
Speaker 4: I made it myself.
Speaker 1: It was in Glitan Gold.
Speaker 3: That's a great box. That's a great box. Top five
Speaker 3: R and B songs.
Speaker 1: Oh oh, Summer Raine, m m Summer Raine US in Chicago. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you just can't help but to you just can't help it.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, it's just so good man.
Speaker 3: You need to find lenen, loose linen. When Summer Raine
Speaker 3: come on, it's got to write a little bit with something.
Speaker 3: It's gotta be tropical.
Speaker 1: You can be twelve years old, you still feel like
Speaker 1: an o G. When I record.
Speaker 2: You gotta have on some different kind of sands, maybe
Speaker 2: a throng sand.
Speaker 1: So I say Summer Raine. Then I go with Oh wow,
Speaker 1: that's dang. There's so many songs. Uh, I'll go with
Speaker 1: I'll go with Thriller because of just watching the visual
Speaker 1: with it and seeing like yo you can, you can
Speaker 1: actually make a movie.
Speaker 8: It's never been done again never and it's been done,
Speaker 8: it's never been recreated.
Speaker 5: It can't ever.
Speaker 1: You can't recreate thrilling. It can never be trying to
Speaker 1: find a jacket for Halloween. Recreate thriller Oh for You
Speaker 1: by Kenny Latimore. M. Yeah, that was hard to sing. Oh, bro,
Speaker 1: that's crazy. Don't don't don't. I don't recommend anybody try.
Speaker 1: That is incredible.
Speaker 8: Speaking of that's that that is like the top of
Speaker 8: the top of wedding songs. Yeah, what is a Nigerian
Speaker 8: wedding song? Because you said you're a Nigerian wedding singer.
Speaker 1: So it was more gospel songs. Yeah, it was more
Speaker 1: like Jesus paid it all. It was more of like,
Speaker 1: uh but it was like so at that age it
Speaker 1: was for me. It was Jesus paid it all. So
Speaker 1: it was like the ceremony of just like basically celebrating
Speaker 1: them together before like the African music came. I mean,
Speaker 1: where am I at three? At three summer?
Speaker 2: Thriller for You?
Speaker 1: For you? Oh Joe, I want to know? M man,
Speaker 1: that's crazy great, my crew. The song I sang a
Speaker 1: lot in high school. That just played, not even sang
Speaker 1: a lot that played a lot was dang it was
Speaker 1: on Jamie's unpredictable. Uh damn was it unpredictable? Yeah it
Speaker 1: was actually no, no, it was. Yeah, it was predict
Speaker 1: It's unpredictableable.
Speaker 2: Do what to do?
Speaker 1: Actually? Do what to do?
Speaker 4: Is it not?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Yeah? Do what do? That's for what it represented
Speaker 1: for me, man, it was it was. It was incredible
Speaker 1: because it was the first one do you know that record?
Speaker 4: Tank?
Speaker 1: Do you know that song?
Speaker 3: I mean, I just you know, got called the Miami
Speaker 3: Shooting Miami Weeis to help him finish the tune.
Speaker 1: I don't know. Just check the credits, bros. Incredible, incredible, incredible.
Speaker 4: Bro, Like it was for.
Speaker 1: You know, for me, that was one of my surreal
Speaker 1: moments when I knew how much I was like the
Speaker 1: big I still am, for sure, but I was the
Speaker 1: biggest Jamie Fox fan in high school in college that
Speaker 1: the first ever celebrity that actually took me in in
Speaker 1: Hollywood was Jamie. Oh yeah, So I'll tell you the story.
Speaker 1: Tell many people have that story, bro. So it was
Speaker 1: twenty thirteen and he was filming Jangle with Leonardo and
Speaker 1: he was like and I was like. We were at
Speaker 1: a Clippers Clippers private parties. It was my first time
Speaker 1: really in LA. I'm just young, just like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: I'm here my show popper. It was a golden globe
Speaker 1: we had just Kelsei had just won a golden globe.
Speaker 1: So somebody taps me on my shoulders. So I'm like,
Speaker 1: you know, okay, cool whatever. It's a dude with like
Speaker 1: this beard and look dirty. So I'm like, yo, who
Speaker 1: is this And it's dark, so I'm like, who is
Speaker 1: this nigga trying to touch? He does it. He's like, yo, man,
Speaker 1: I'm a fan of you man. And he's literally in
Speaker 1: full everything. They're still in the middle of filming and
Speaker 1: he had a scully on and his shades on. So
Speaker 1: I'm like, yo, this is and he's dressed like different.
Speaker 1: It's not what I expect the Jamie Foxx to look like.
Speaker 2: So he tells me.
Speaker 1: I'm like, hey man, I'm like, what's up, bro, Like,
Speaker 1: thank you, thank you man, I appreciate you. But she's
Speaker 1: tapping me. He's like, look, nigga, turn around. I was like,
Speaker 1: oh my god. I said, oh my god. He was like, man,
Speaker 1: yo and me and Leonardo we stop everything and watch
Speaker 1: boss Man and you're super talented, bro, like what you're
Speaker 1: doing out in La And at the time I was
Speaker 1: there for Gold and Glove about still recording music. He said,
Speaker 1: you do music. I was like yeah, man, like, yo, come,
Speaker 1: there's a playoff games like come to my crib, come
Speaker 1: to there. Yeah, my family gonna be there, My sister's
Speaker 1: gonna be there. You know, come pull up, man, like
Speaker 1: you know, just just just vibei kicking with us for
Speaker 1: the for the day went over and it was just
Speaker 1: like he's like, Yo, let's go to the studio. Play
Speaker 1: my whole cattle out. He was like, man, like you
Speaker 1: my little brother. And so every time, even if he
Speaker 1: wasn't there, like most of the time he wasn't there,
Speaker 1: I was just to stay at the crib, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, And like just for that to be
Speaker 1: my ushering into Hollywood, it was like wow, like someone
Speaker 1: that you see yourself doing similar things and just admires, like, oh,
Speaker 1: he's taking me under his wing. I remember like maybe
Speaker 1: four or five months later, I had a hosting at
Speaker 1: some little club. It was my birthday. He got on
Speaker 1: stage and like, yo. In the next five to ten years,
Speaker 1: this man gonna be one of the biggest people in
Speaker 1: the world, man, and it was just like wow.
Speaker 8: Now his footprint is on the entertainment business. It's it's unmatched,
Speaker 8: it's unmatched.
Speaker 1: It's unmatched, man.
Speaker 8: It's literally he's the guy that you meet and you're like,
Speaker 8: it ain't all fake. Yes, yeah, when you meet Jamie Foxx,
Speaker 8: you realize that it's not all fake. You're like, you
Speaker 8: know what, you can go to the highest levels of
Speaker 8: this ship and still be.
Speaker 1: A real one. Absolutely, man, the greatest. So for you
Speaker 1: to have that story, man, it's amazing to hear it,
Speaker 1: and it's amazing to hear it over and over of
Speaker 1: different people that you Like, I saw ed shearing at
Speaker 1: his crazy bro, what's the readier white nigga bro? He
Speaker 1: likes different.
Speaker 8: Yeah, crazy Jamie believes really early man, and he I
Speaker 8: think he just loves He just loves talent.
Speaker 1: He loves talent, man, and he embraces it. So that's
Speaker 1: that's super dope. Okay.
Speaker 3: So that's your that's your five songs. That's five artists.
Speaker 3: Let's get a lets get a volt tronk going. Okay,
Speaker 3: we're gonna make a vult tronk an artist super artist.
Speaker 3: I want to know who you'renna get the vocals from.
Speaker 3: Who you're gonna get the performance style from. Who you're
Speaker 3: gonna get the style from, and you're gonna get the
Speaker 3: passion from. So let's start with the vocal for your vultron.
Speaker 3: You're okay, what person are you going to snatch the
Speaker 3: vocal front?
Speaker 4: Wow?
Speaker 1: Give me Whitney m hm, can't go wrong.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Performance style, performance style, how they rock on stage, Prince Ship, Yeah,
Speaker 3: that's getting aggressive, aggressive styling, what they look like on stage.
Speaker 1: Andre two thousand. But he's not R and B. But no, no, no,
Speaker 1: no god ye bang bangs. Give me a Andre two
Speaker 1: thousand style. Yeah, put the show paths on Jersey. You
Speaker 1: will know, you will know not miss him like no
Speaker 1: means I was like it okay. And then the passion
Speaker 1: of the artist, the harder, the soul of the art,
Speaker 1: the passion. Give me Quincy Jones mm hmm. Yeah, he's relentless.
Speaker 1: What you know anybody else that went over to France?
Speaker 1: And steady strings for your strings? You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: I'll be back, come back to the whole.
Speaker 2: No FaceTime, FaceTime, the phone.
Speaker 1: You gotta letters, letters, your letters.
Speaker 3: I'll be back. I gotta study strings and.
Speaker 1: Who that's a different type of passion. That's a different
Speaker 1: that's a dedication. Man wrote out everybody's parts like with
Speaker 1: his hand. So you know what, I'll take the gig
Speaker 1: for less. I'll write the charts off crazy. You're talking
Speaker 1: about Frank Sinatra. Bro, people don't even know that in
Speaker 1: charge for Frank Sinatra. Come on, who are you? Come on?
Speaker 1: Quincy Jones, Jones that relentless?
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, Michael, we have to keep that. What do
Speaker 3: you mean can get away? That's the best part. So Michael,
Speaker 3: all the time, you can't keep fighting for the magic
Speaker 3: man for the magic.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: No, so man, Yeah, I ain't saying I ain't saying.
Speaker 7: That saying.
Speaker 1: That you did.
Speaker 2: I ain't saying.
Speaker 4: No names.
Speaker 8: So we're here, and we're here. It's time you give
Speaker 8: us that story, funny or funked up. The only rule
Speaker 8: you can't say no name. I can't say no names.
Speaker 1: The Travels of ro Timmy, the Body, Scott's Travels travels.
Speaker 1: Yeah and listen, if if, if you want to be here,
Speaker 1: when you tell your story, tell your story.
Speaker 2: If that makes you.
Speaker 1: Feel better, yes, it makes me.
Speaker 5: You can't say no name.
Speaker 1: So right now this is Rotemy aka Dre the nigga.
Speaker 2: You love him again?
Speaker 1: Now I ain't saying no names. Hmm okay, all right.
Speaker 1: So when I was a young buck in this game
Speaker 1: looking at all the giants, Yes, there was one particular
Speaker 1: joint that was an actress. And she was beautiful as
Speaker 1: golden beauty can be. Yes. So as a young girls,
Speaker 1: I didn't know what to do. Didn't have any idea
Speaker 1: what to do to say to this beautiful woman. You know,
Speaker 1: I said, I have to give money.
Speaker 2: I have to do it.
Speaker 1: What I have?
Speaker 4: Do you have to pay for this thing?
Speaker 2: What am I doing?
Speaker 1: I don't know. I was twenty one, twenty two years old.
Speaker 1: She was in a that T six or so. Yeah, yes,
Speaker 1: he who guy? Yeah, well she met the lion. You understand,
Speaker 1: she met the lion. So as she met the lion, right,
Speaker 1: so great, so she met the liar. Right. I realized
Speaker 1: that this woman was I was twenty one, twenty two,
Speaker 1: so she was recently divorced divorce. So her man was
Speaker 1: a big time business guy. But I said, listen, women,
Speaker 1: I don't have any money. I don't have money. I
Speaker 1: just have sex appeal and I have a gigantic thing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I have something that will change your life if you're
Speaker 1: allowed to happen to you. If you want it, you'll
Speaker 1: never go back to any other mail ever, is that
Speaker 1: is once a lifetime baby. So as I get closer
Speaker 1: to bringing her over to my place, remember my place
Speaker 1: was nowhere to be found with a luggage and furniture,
Speaker 1: you don't finish it there. It was just a computer chair.
Speaker 1: But I had a computer chair for her as well.
Speaker 1: So in the computer chair, I said that I have
Speaker 1: not in here, but if you want, we can we
Speaker 1: can just talk. There's no I don't have cable, so
Speaker 1: we can have conversations. Do you like cards? We can
Speaker 1: play cards. So, as this moment is happening, the lights
Speaker 1: go off. The lights have gone off. This is one
Speaker 1: of routine Miss brookest moments ever. So as I sit
Speaker 1: there as a broke nigger, right, she says we can't
Speaker 1: just have conversation. She said, I'm so used to all
Speaker 1: these things that this man tried to do, but your
Speaker 1: conversation changed my life life. So we put candles and
Speaker 1: we almost had flaw sex. We almost remember, remember we
Speaker 1: all got flow after the conversation, but we did it.
Speaker 1: We had sex in the computer chair. So that was
Speaker 1: my story of this actress lady that is still popping
Speaker 1: to the Hallelujah Jesus and you are not yes, yes,
Speaker 1: well I will not see a name computer chair.
Speaker 5: Well, we don't call the computer.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I love the computer chair, sir.
Speaker 1: Right, yeah, lost lost our up in the chair. No,
Speaker 1: I haven't, no even tied up in the chair. I'm
Speaker 1: married now. Look so look man, first of all, man,
Speaker 1: congratulations to you man. Congratulations to you man. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Before we yes, you know, we get into those our
Speaker 1: mutual brother that we all have to make sure we
Speaker 1: shout out the ghost himself, who has no because between
Speaker 1: all three of us, he's always been a bond between
Speaker 1: all three of them.
Speaker 5: Absolutely, he's always made sure.
Speaker 1: That if we're all in the same city, Hey, come come,
Speaker 1: come pull up on me. What's what's what's that?
Speaker 5: What's I got here?
Speaker 1: We got you know what I'm saying, like another genuine guy,
Speaker 1: absolutely human, Yes, great human that has just always been
Speaker 1: super super solid man that we all rock with, super heavy.
Speaker 8: And I know he gonna tap in. I know he
Speaker 8: gonna watch this podcast. Got a shouting bars for you to.
Speaker 2: It's not a regular Hello, no no, no, no, no,
Speaker 2: no no no.
Speaker 3: I just want to check on you and the tribe.
Speaker 3: You know, as you know Ows is also connected to me,
Speaker 3: a friend of mine, close to my heart. And then
Speaker 3: you know Brot Timmy who also you know, played a
Speaker 3: big part in developing on our show w as we
Speaker 3: became close and you know, now we're in such a
Speaker 3: great space, you know, spiritually as many as soldiers and bondage.
Speaker 1: And then back to you, my brother, I just want
Speaker 1: to say hello, Hello, a.
Speaker 2: Shout out to the brother.
Speaker 1: Brother.
Speaker 3: But man list congratulations to you brother. Your product of
Speaker 3: hard work. Man of course, the gifts of course, right,
Speaker 3: but you are a product of hard work and and
Speaker 3: that that is not going to change. Skipping steps is
Speaker 3: never going to be. There's DNA, it's not even you know.
Speaker 2: What I'm saying.
Speaker 1: I'm bow legged too.
Speaker 2: For that alone.
Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying. I know what you you're
Speaker 3: made up, I know what you're gonna do. I know
Speaker 3: you've had great success. I know you're on your way
Speaker 3: to even greater success. And you will always have the
Speaker 3: backing and the support of your brothers man, the entire
Speaker 3: r and b money army.
Speaker 2: You are army.
Speaker 7: You represent you know, but Scotch to you give me
Speaker 7: a chair, baby, give him episode.
Speaker 2: We got to bring the chair.
Speaker 5: You know, you know, you know, you know to reverse swivel.
Speaker 4: You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: Make sure nothing again. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Whatever you need man, Thank you, insane, insane, absolutely congratulations
Speaker 1: on all the success. Like I said earlier, it's always
Speaker 1: great to see when a good guy wins man. Thank
Speaker 1: you Man. You a good dude.
Speaker 8: Thank you for flat out everything else. You're a good
Speaker 8: dude man, always been the same you fastest hell.
Speaker 5: To hey man, fast and fast dude.
Speaker 2: And loads to the ground to got real running back spirit.
Speaker 2: Emmitt Smith's.
Speaker 1: To you know what I'm saga man, cornerback Darrel, thanks
Speaker 1: for pulling up on it than Valentine.
Speaker 2: And this is starting money podcast.
Speaker 5: No it's not. It's about Scotch Army and I'm going.
Speaker 4: Make some.
Speaker 3: R and B money.
Speaker 8: R and B Money is a production of the Black
Speaker 8: Effect podcast Network. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the
Speaker 8: iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
Speaker 8: favorite shows. Don't forget to subscribe to and rate our show,
Speaker 8: and you can connect with us on social Media at
Speaker 8: Jvalentine and at the Real Tank. For the extended episode,
Speaker 8: subscribe to YouTube dot com or slash r and B
Speaker 8: money