Speaker 1: Welcome to Checking In with Michelle Williams, a production of
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and The Black Effect.
Speaker 2: Okay, so I.
Speaker 1: Love when I get to speak to somebody that was
Speaker 1: from home.
Speaker 2: Well they're from Chicago, I'm from Rockbert.
Speaker 1: But this soul is absolutely incredible, very talented, very gifted.
Speaker 1: I just love his voice. I love the tone of
Speaker 1: his voice. I love the vocal choices he makes. I
Speaker 1: love his music. And we've known each other for a
Speaker 1: very very long time, probably twenty plus years, and I'm
Speaker 1: really excited to have bj the Chicago kid. He's checking in, y'all.
Speaker 1: You know, there are many times I get to have
Speaker 1: folks on my podcast where we've actually talked on the phone.
Speaker 2: We've been at each other's presence.
Speaker 1: We have enjoyed great Chicago times together. We have the
Speaker 1: same mutual friends and family. Y'all probably already recognized who
Speaker 1: he is just by his distinct speaking voice, and I
Speaker 1: am excited to have a Grammy nominated singer songwriter. We've
Speaker 1: got to hear his voice some of everywhere. But I
Speaker 1: was so excited when he finally came out with solo music.
Speaker 1: Because you've heard it with Mary J. Blaine, You've heard
Speaker 1: it with Usher, You've heard it with Kendrick Lamar, Kellie
Speaker 1: Chance the Rapper, and yes, Coco Jones is his newest collab.
Speaker 2: Y'all, let's give it up.
Speaker 1: BJ the Chicago Kid. One of the greatest vocalists on
Speaker 1: our planet.
Speaker 2: He's checking you.
Speaker 3: Thank you here, I got you on the side of things.
Speaker 2: Listen, how have you been?
Speaker 3: Amazing? Amazing, amazing, amazing.
Speaker 2: Yes, Lord, I love to see it.
Speaker 4: You look good, Thank you, thank you. I just wrapped
Speaker 4: up a work. I'm tired, but I'm good.
Speaker 2: Come on, are you in La or where you at
Speaker 2: right now?
Speaker 3: Yeah? I'm in La Okay, all.
Speaker 1: Right, So y'all he really is the Chicago kid, born
Speaker 1: and raised in Chicago, got his start singing in Chicago
Speaker 1: in the church. Don't get into a stee He comes
Speaker 1: from a very amazing musical family.
Speaker 2: All right, Thank you, Aaron Sledge.
Speaker 3: Y'all.
Speaker 2: Just it's something in y'all, something right here in y'all.
Speaker 2: Y'all can't see my girl, but it's something right here
Speaker 2: between the chin, before you get down to us, before
Speaker 2: you get to the stern them. Something resides on the
Speaker 2: inside there.
Speaker 3: I take that. I take that. I take that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, shout out to my brothers Aaron and Scooter. Man,
Speaker 4: that's pretty much where I get it from. Anything they
Speaker 4: touched growing up that was interesting. I touched it to
Speaker 4: Are you the baby?
Speaker 2: Are you the baby?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Yeah, boy, yeah yeah yeah yeah. I'm the youngest.
Speaker 2: I love y'all in. Scooter, by the way, is awesome.
Speaker 1: As far as percussion, is he into production now or
Speaker 1: has he?
Speaker 3: He's always been into it?
Speaker 1: Uh?
Speaker 3: He?
Speaker 4: Scooter does everything. Scooter sing to scooterul whistle like I sing?
Speaker 5: Right?
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, So y'all could whistle
Speaker 2: Rodney so good, y'all. This is whole whistling thing, y'all.
Speaker 2: I can't whistle.
Speaker 3: I don't have not like they can me either. They
Speaker 3: too cold. They like next level, top top tier. I'm like,
Speaker 3: they need mad control.
Speaker 2: It's mad control.
Speaker 1: They need to have like a whistle, cortet or something,
Speaker 1: I don't know, something.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they sick with it, you know. Yeah. Scooter is
Speaker 3: into everything. But I the singing bug, I kind of
Speaker 3: never left alone out of.
Speaker 4: All the things that they touched before me just as
Speaker 4: a kid, playing drums was the first love.
Speaker 3: But yeah, singing never stopped to me.
Speaker 4: Playing drums for me was almost like basketball as a kid.
Speaker 4: When you played basketball in the backyard, you like, I
Speaker 4: can make it to the NBA.
Speaker 3: Come over, you get out there. You can see all
Speaker 3: this competition.
Speaker 4: You're like, man, I don't even think I want to play.
Speaker 4: I don't got the marble mentality in this. I got
Speaker 4: the marble mentality in this. So this is what this
Speaker 4: is where my marble mentality is.
Speaker 1: Yeah, music, the confidence you know it is. I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: you know, some of the best come out of the Midwest.
Speaker 1: Some of your vocalists are musicians and athletes come out
Speaker 1: of the Midwest.
Speaker 2: Do you think it's something in the water.
Speaker 4: I do, because a lot of musicians can sing sing, sing, sing,
Speaker 4: sing for real, for real.
Speaker 3: You don't catch that a lot.
Speaker 4: Some musicians just amazing that that craft and spreading that
Speaker 4: craft maybe to another instrument. But in the Midwest you
Speaker 4: mess around and catch a drummer that can like s
Speaker 4: a g like saying saying. So I think it is
Speaker 4: something in the water. Honestly, you know to a certain
Speaker 4: level and to a certain degree that the competitiveness makes
Speaker 4: us better, the healthiness of the competitiveness. Back back home,
Speaker 4: shedding and practicing runs all the stuff that youb just
Speaker 4: used to do back in the day. Whatever the case may,
Speaker 4: I've been for your instrument. I think the competitiveness just
Speaker 4: kind of kept the iron.
Speaker 3: Sharp, you know.
Speaker 1: So to those of y'all that don't know, tell them
Speaker 1: what shedding is, they'd be like, well, I got shed
Speaker 1: skin hair, what is shit?
Speaker 3: Okay? Okay.
Speaker 4: So in the musicians world, in terminology, shedding is when
Speaker 4: musicians come together and just get it out. They just
Speaker 4: get it out. They get it out, they learn from
Speaker 4: each other. A lot of the stuff is instinct, so
Speaker 4: they try things they probably have always started off but
Speaker 4: never done. A lot of times you have a younger
Speaker 4: musicians here recording it to study and to capture the moment.
Speaker 4: It's just a room full of iron shopping and iron.
Speaker 4: Whether it's for now, whether it's for later, whether it's
Speaker 4: for now and later. But it's like one of the
Speaker 4: most amazing things to see because you see some.
Speaker 1: Of the what you did there Pineapple now later twenty twelve.
Speaker 3: I take that, I take that, I take that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, It's just it's just an incredible time of musicians
Speaker 4: exploring without songs that can keep them chained to a
Speaker 4: certain style.
Speaker 3: Of play. You could just kind of be you. That's
Speaker 3: what shedding is to, all right.
Speaker 1: So that being said, you can shed in someone's garage
Speaker 1: at a church because it be called in Chicago, so
Speaker 1: we ain't gonna be shedding, all right. So lots of
Speaker 1: times sheds would happen in church. Now this is before
Speaker 1: social media, before you can put your phone. Now, y'all,
Speaker 1: y'all can just google put in church and shedding, and
Speaker 1: you'll be able to find some of the best who
Speaker 1: get together.
Speaker 2: I haven't even seen musicians and singing shed after a funeral,
Speaker 2: you know, because unfortunately everybody come together. Let's just buy
Speaker 2: about for a minute, you know what I mean.
Speaker 4: And so at night that night they get they get
Speaker 4: together whatever spot that they normally it is the best
Speaker 4: place for musicians to gather.
Speaker 3: And they pay.
Speaker 4: Tribute to musicians all the time. It's just one of
Speaker 4: the dopest things that you can kind of get. And honestly,
Speaker 4: it doesn't last because these musicians soon spread out to
Speaker 4: get the plans for all people all around the world.
Speaker 4: Some become producers, some become artists. But the evolution begins.
Speaker 4: So to have this magical moment with all these guys together.
Speaker 3: It makes it really, really, really special.
Speaker 1: Speaking of evolution, you went from Chicago to LA and
Speaker 1: if y'all stick with me, I'm going somewhere here. How
Speaker 1: was that transition for you to say, I'm gonna take
Speaker 1: a chance and I'm gonna move out my comfort zone
Speaker 1: and go to LA for real?
Speaker 3: For real?
Speaker 4: I had a chance to move to New York or LA.
Speaker 4: That was my choices, right, My soul, my heart, my being,
Speaker 4: my style.
Speaker 3: Would have been in New York.
Speaker 2: I was just pointing over.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, but La.
Speaker 4: I knew more people musically that could teach me things,
Speaker 4: help me advance and evolves world musically. I didn't have
Speaker 4: that many people in New York that I knew, percy
Speaker 4: that was really serious, that could really help me. And
Speaker 4: knowing that I wanted to help myself more than they
Speaker 4: wanted to help me, Like I had to drive, I
Speaker 4: just wanted to be around the right people that I
Speaker 4: could learn from in advance, meet new people, network, you
Speaker 4: know that type of thing.
Speaker 3: And LA is the place for me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And that that was why because you mentioned a
Speaker 1: lot of external things. You got the look, you got
Speaker 1: the vibe, you got to this and as y'all if
Speaker 1: y'all can see him now.
Speaker 2: He's definitely given me New York. He's definitely given me Brooklyn.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so.
Speaker 1: That is so good and so y'all, I will never
Speaker 1: forget you. Were one of the singers that were singing
Speaker 1: for some background vocals for incredible artists, and there were
Speaker 1: tons of us me and cluded saying one day he's
Speaker 1: going to do something solo.
Speaker 2: Now, if I'm not mistaken.
Speaker 1: Back in twenty twelve, it was considered a mixtape or
Speaker 1: an EP. When you drive Pineapple now, laters, it's like
Speaker 1: twenty twelve was that?
Speaker 4: Yeah, it was twenty twelve. Pineapple was considered an album.
Speaker 4: To me, Okay, we paid, we paid for them beats.
Speaker 4: There was all original beats, pay producers, pay for the
Speaker 4: studio time, like we did everything. They had this physical CD,
Speaker 4: y wably could.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I still got.
Speaker 4: What's crazy is when I moved into my new house,
Speaker 4: I went through a box and I found a bunch
Speaker 4: of old stuff and I was like, Yo, this is crazy.
Speaker 4: So it was just so good just to hold a
Speaker 4: real authentic copy from that time. Yeah, man, but yeah,
Speaker 4: the Pineapple is considered an album for sure.
Speaker 1: Y'all have to get it because I want you to
Speaker 1: understand the musical journey, and it definitely paid homage to
Speaker 1: where he comes from, his parents, his family, his church relationships.
Speaker 1: I even think, you, what do I feel like you?
Speaker 1: Was there something at the shrine in Chicago? Was there
Speaker 1: a shrine in Chicago?
Speaker 3: And I thank you?
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's when I announced it. I was signed to Motown.
Speaker 4: My dad there, my family was there.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you have an incredible memory.
Speaker 2: Y'all because I love BJ like I'm a I'm a
Speaker 2: I'm a fan.
Speaker 1: I'm a fan. And so even when when y'all sometimes
Speaker 1: people reach out and say, hey, my client's got an
Speaker 1: album coming out. So I just saw the subject line
Speaker 1: BJ the Chicago kid. I said, yes, I didn't even
Speaker 1: read what you got.
Speaker 3: What's going on?
Speaker 2: It could have been like he owed eighty million dollars
Speaker 2: in child support.
Speaker 3: If I owe eighty that means I must have made
Speaker 3: come on, somebody.
Speaker 2: Three he met five hundred million.
Speaker 4: But no, man, I appreciate that. It's always been love, man,
Speaker 4: But go ahead, go ahead, you know.
Speaker 1: And so you got in my mind in twenty sixteen,
Speaker 1: you got eleven, twenty three, and I know all of
Speaker 1: those albums, and I'm excited about what's about to drop. So, y'all,
Speaker 1: I'm excited because his album comes out this week.
Speaker 2: It's called Gravy.
Speaker 1: All right, we're gonna get into all that because I
Speaker 1: like Gravy and I don't know. I just want to
Speaker 1: make sure that he talking about the same I'm talking about.
Speaker 1: I don't know, because a different.
Speaker 2: Time talking about it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we had different times. We different times too, terms
Speaker 4: and times.
Speaker 1: I remember a song that you demoed. I can't say
Speaker 1: the title. I shouldn't say. I can't say the title.
Speaker 1: But it was amazing, y'all. It was a really sexy song.
Speaker 1: I knew I couldn't sing it.
Speaker 2: Wait a minute, I'll be honest.
Speaker 1: I gave the song to be and I was like,
Speaker 1: at that time, y'all, that's how long he and I
Speaker 1: know each other. At that time, I was like, this
Speaker 1: might be too sexy for her, y'all. That's how sexy
Speaker 1: the song.
Speaker 5: Was.
Speaker 1: So so, I think you also had a song about
Speaker 1: you know, she wants me to stay tonight.
Speaker 2: But I got church in the yeah, yeah, which is
Speaker 2: such a duality as so many of us who were
Speaker 2: raised in church. Yeah, I want to do this.
Speaker 1: But now, because you were raised in church, the automatic
Speaker 1: thing would probably would have been for you to go gospel.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I mean, it's the most unguessable having to do things.
Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4: You didn't have to guess if somebody looked at me
Speaker 4: back then and somebody oh yeah for sure.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, And what made you say, Hey, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: just know I love Jesus, but I can be a
Speaker 1: light in the R and B industry too.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think number one, I think I really believe
Speaker 4: when preachers or pastors or ministers go on dates with
Speaker 4: their wife, they don't always play Kirrt Franklin. You know,
Speaker 4: there has to be a balance, a healthy balance. A
Speaker 4: healthy balance is kind of what allowed me to say
Speaker 4: yes to doing what I'm doing now, and you got
Speaker 4: me here now. Just I just.
Speaker 3: Promised myself to have a message.
Speaker 4: Don't just be too like what we used to call
Speaker 4: buck remember, don't be too bucked, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4: I try to have a little fun with it, but
Speaker 4: always always legal with messages that can help them out
Speaker 4: in life. Not just relationships that can help male listeners
Speaker 4: become better men, help the female listeners. Really just try
Speaker 4: to be the best that they can be and give
Speaker 4: them more confidence, tell them that they're beautiful, and help
Speaker 4: them understand they working. So that's that's been my balance
Speaker 4: and my promise to myself to allow me to even
Speaker 4: still feel comfortable doing what I do.
Speaker 3: But my family has been incredibly supportive.
Speaker 4: They never condemned me, and honestly, the type of tough
Speaker 4: skin that I have, I can't give a damn what
Speaker 4: they said. Not my family, but anybody else. My family
Speaker 4: the only people out there about these people, and they say,
Speaker 4: well they you know they go. I never met they
Speaker 4: in my life and if I ever met they, you
Speaker 4: probably got problems. They probably gonna catch these hands because.
Speaker 3: I never met him. They bullied everybody. Everybody's scared today.
Speaker 3: So good.
Speaker 2: I know.
Speaker 3: Yeah, ain't been smoked weed. It wasn't no secret. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I mean it has been in him.
Speaker 2: He has been himself.
Speaker 1: I was gonna say, like mom was a choir director,
Speaker 1: and you know my mom know I smoke weed.
Speaker 3: I mean nothing.
Speaker 4: We are very honest in our family, and we like uh,
Speaker 4: we also hold each other account and responsible so long
Speaker 4: as everything is respected. Many they except me for who
Speaker 4: I am. They understand that times are change it and
Speaker 4: it's actually more.
Speaker 3: Healing than it is doing. Damn it, you know what
Speaker 3: I'm saying.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, And by the way, with the whole thing about
Speaker 1: smoking weed, it was a joke. By the way, it
Speaker 1: took me a long time because I grew I grew
Speaker 1: up in a thing where you know, if somebody smokes
Speaker 1: cigarettes and you you almost looked down on them. But
Speaker 1: I was like, I know a lot of functional, amazing
Speaker 1: people with good heart that partake in the greenery. Now
Speaker 1: there is an extract of it that has helped my anxiety.
Speaker 2: In an amazing way.
Speaker 1: So I have no no, no judgment.
Speaker 2: I have no judgment. I think when you see people.
Speaker 1: From gospel to secular, secular to gospel, there just seems
Speaker 1: to be so much controversy.
Speaker 2: But y'all, he just spoke to the controversy. He said,
Speaker 2: who was they?
Speaker 1: I don't care about they as long as my family
Speaker 1: and I are good and we love each other and
Speaker 1: my friends are supportive, and I'm very excited about your
Speaker 1: new album. I feel like you took a little break.
Speaker 1: There was even a period of time where I didn't
Speaker 1: see you.
Speaker 2: On social media a lot.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I feel like my spirit was like, you know,
Speaker 1: he's just taking time. He's taking time.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 4: Yeah, if you don't live now, you ain't got nothing
Speaker 4: right about it. You definitely got no place to sing from.
Speaker 4: I think Quarantine was the time that I was in
Speaker 4: the studio a lot. Like I would say, right before Quarantine,
Speaker 4: I I've damned it locked myself in there just so
Speaker 4: I can get it out. I feel like I was
Speaker 4: making some of the best music of my life. Got
Speaker 4: the call from YETI that he was ready to pretty
Speaker 4: much move forward with the Gravy Project and he wanted
Speaker 4: to do that and mephis at our Green studio.
Speaker 2: I'm like, all right, how dope is that? That? That
Speaker 2: was That's the first question on my rundown.
Speaker 1: But I was like, I can't lead with that because
Speaker 1: I want we know each other, so I wasn't going
Speaker 1: to just go right into so tell me about your
Speaker 1: new album. Like, no, I agree in Memphis you are very,
Speaker 1: very soulful, but not It's like he BJ's not gonna
Speaker 1: have the suit and tie on serenading or or now
Speaker 1: he can he can croon the hell out like you
Speaker 1: can croon now, don't he can.
Speaker 3: That?
Speaker 2: You can do that? You can do y'all. He'll croon
Speaker 2: and You'll be pregnant And man, now.
Speaker 1: Listen, did you choose the studio depending on the flavor
Speaker 1: of what you wanted with the recording or how does
Speaker 1: that Did that make a difference in the music?
Speaker 4: Absolutely not, honestly, all that credit goals to Yetti. Yet
Speaker 4: he beats he picked the studio he I didn't even know.
Speaker 4: I thought he wanted to do it here in La
Speaker 4: to be totally honest with you, But we end up
Speaker 4: doing it in mephis at Al Green Studio, which is
Speaker 4: across the street from the projects.
Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying. Everything A Green was giving us.
Speaker 4: Everything he gave us was really trill like he it
Speaker 4: was tested there, I'm sure you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4: So that feeling was very authentic working there. I feel
Speaker 4: like the respect and the respect level and the quality
Speaker 4: of music that was made in that place, we wanted
Speaker 4: to respect and leave some for the next person. Yeah,
Speaker 4: we didn't want to mess up the train, like like
Speaker 4: you can tell being there that some magic was made.
Speaker 4: So we wanted to use that, that that feeling and
Speaker 4: that energy to kind of like help us with ours
Speaker 4: and leave something there for somebody else.
Speaker 3: But it was It was like singing in the museum. Yo.
Speaker 3: It was so cold. It was dope. It was dope.
Speaker 3: It was dope.
Speaker 1: And not only was it where magic was made, but
Speaker 1: artists came there as their authentic self, with their struggle,
Speaker 1: with their pain.
Speaker 4: With their joy in never met each other before for
Speaker 4: real too. For Gravy, I heard of the indications, but
Speaker 4: I never met them. They never met Charlie. Charlie never
Speaker 4: met YETI. So a lot of us got there getting
Speaker 4: to know each other through these songs.
Speaker 3: Come on, eating, eating.
Speaker 4: Together, vibing together, talking together, you know, finding out who
Speaker 4: got kids, who, how many brothers, sisters you got, you
Speaker 4: know those questions. You really get to know people being
Speaker 4: in there those late hours in those studios. Man, that
Speaker 4: pretty much it brought us together for sure.
Speaker 1: See the thing about not having a physical CD, you
Speaker 1: could actually turn and read the credits. But y'all, for
Speaker 1: those of y'all, for those of y'all that are on
Speaker 1: streaming music platforms, I go to a song Liquor Store
Speaker 1: in the Sky, which is on his Gravy album that
Speaker 1: is coming out within days. Okay, you go to the
Speaker 1: tap the thing that says view full lyrics that will
Speaker 1: give you the credits of producers and writers. So I'm
Speaker 1: looking at Aaron Frazer, Blake, Brain Booker Jones, Brian James, Le,
Speaker 1: Charlie Burrow.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Charlie started off Biggs throwing the sky like hands down.
Speaker 3: I think they was out there eating wings or something, and.
Speaker 4: Charlie picked up that big old Gibson that looked like
Speaker 4: a Cadillac and started playing that.
Speaker 3: Bloom boom blond boom dun.
Speaker 4: I was like, I don't want no wings either, No, no, no,
Speaker 4: you know what I.
Speaker 3: Was about to say.
Speaker 2: I was about to say, where them wings?
Speaker 3: Is that?
Speaker 2: So I could get some of that inspiration where the wings?
Speaker 4: They was eating the wings, But Charlie was just still like,
Speaker 4: I think that mother was just sitting on him. Cluse,
Speaker 4: I think for real, for real. That's probably the third
Speaker 4: time he played that.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 4: He's like, man, I love that song so much. I
Speaker 4: just keep playing it randomly sometimes. So while they was
Speaker 4: eating wings, he was playing that, and I heard him
Speaker 4: playing that, and I walked in there and it just
Speaker 4: began to be the first song we did after eating
Speaker 4: those wings, and.
Speaker 3: My my mind, I had that song title in my phone.
Speaker 4: Honestly, like producers got sounds in the computer and on
Speaker 4: their hard drive. I got song titles and themes and
Speaker 4: phrases all in my phone and my notes, just from
Speaker 4: stuff that just moves me over time. And that song
Speaker 4: title has been in there for a little bit over
Speaker 4: year at that time, to that date, because I was
Speaker 4: just waiting on the perfect time music or something something
Speaker 4: something to just like sound like what this felt like
Speaker 4: to me when I said it to myself, liquors store
Speaker 4: in the sky, it sounded like that ghetto heaven, you
Speaker 4: know what I'm saying. And when he played there, I
Speaker 4: was like, Yo, this is this liquor.
Speaker 3: Store in the sky over here. This is it. So that's.
Speaker 1: BJ don't don't record nothing no more and not tell
Speaker 1: me I want to be there.
Speaker 3: I want to all right.
Speaker 1: I want to eat the wings and all of that stuff.
Speaker 1: And so you've got someone else, dear to my heart,
Speaker 1: Corey Henry. We have the same management. He's on forgotten
Speaker 1: your name and the King himself. Did he come to
Speaker 1: Memphis or did he have to send his stuff in?
Speaker 4: I wanted him to come to mephis so bad. But
Speaker 4: he we actually okay. So when we were in Memphis,
Speaker 4: we traveled foot we were gone for seven days, but
Speaker 4: we were in the studio for five. Within that five days,
Speaker 4: we did pretty much like seventeen songs. We came back
Speaker 4: to LA with those seventeen we added strings and hums
Speaker 4: in La, tweaked the songs a little bit more, went
Speaker 4: back to Memphis to put the other layer of strings
Speaker 4: and horns, went back to LA, added a few songs,
Speaker 4: added the other touches like Corey.
Speaker 3: So in LA.
Speaker 4: When we came back to La, Corey Henry, We've been
Speaker 4: out a big studio and we had everything from a
Speaker 4: class to the Oregon to the Fender Rose like everything
Speaker 4: that Corey Henry specialized in, and he came in and
Speaker 4: just kind of like gave us everything we need on
Speaker 4: each song that we felt we needed him for. Corey
Speaker 4: is like, I mean, away from his talent, as a person, man,
Speaker 4: he's an incredible guy.
Speaker 3: Man.
Speaker 4: I mean, you wouldn't think you would find good people
Speaker 4: like this in the music industry because of the stories
Speaker 4: and the stigmas of this game and of this industry.
Speaker 3: But Corey is definitely one of the real ones.
Speaker 4: Man. Anytime I call him if he's available, my dog
Speaker 4: rock with me and I do the same for him
Speaker 4: in return us together, we've been having a lot of
Speaker 4: fun in the studio, lady outside of Gravy too.
Speaker 3: Wow, he came and knocked it out.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, y'all, it's I'm excited about this album, Gravy. Now,
Speaker 1: you gotta tell us how the title come about? Or
Speaker 1: is this something we need to discover? Do we need
Speaker 1: to discover it through the music? You can tell us that, No,
Speaker 1: I'm with you.
Speaker 4: I think me explaining it helps you even welcome the
Speaker 4: world of Gravy even.
Speaker 3: Better and tighter. So Gravy is the reason why I
Speaker 3: walked away. I walked out. I talked the way I talk.
Speaker 3: It's the great Granddaddy of sauce. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4: When theiggad be like, yeah, I got the sauce, just
Speaker 4: a great started with Gravy, got it. It's that thing
Speaker 4: that my great grandfather that he was working his his
Speaker 4: his his whole life just to elevate his.
Speaker 3: Hit, his wage.
Speaker 4: I think we all have people that when we were younger,
Speaker 4: we saw people that just did certain things the way
Speaker 4: we loved it and the way we wish we could
Speaker 4: have done. And when we got older and maybe financially
Speaker 4: was able to buy that pair of shoes or something
Speaker 4: like that jacket, or have a car similar, whatever that
Speaker 4: thing was that make you feel closer connected to that
Speaker 4: espirace you had as a kid.
Speaker 3: That's that gravy, but you taking.
Speaker 4: It, you translated it and evolved into something that's very
Speaker 4: translatable and it's complementable. That's that gravy. Gravy is that
Speaker 4: new s h I t all right. So it's the soul.
Speaker 4: It's soul music. It's purely the essence of dope, man,
Speaker 4: the essence of being great when you got on your
Speaker 4: favorite dress. It's that feeling every day when you got
Speaker 4: on sweatstoe.
Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying. It's that same yeah, because okay,
Speaker 3: and to let us talk about physical gravy.
Speaker 4: It's mother's It covers, it's seasonings, and you want it
Speaker 4: on a little bit of everything almost And if you
Speaker 4: get on somebody these poster.
Speaker 2: It's gravy. Baby, come on, baby now now, now, b J.
Speaker 1: I left a little bit of space without interjecting, because
Speaker 1: I said, this is a freaking interlude.
Speaker 3: Give it.
Speaker 2: We don't give you that.
Speaker 1: We're gonna give you this sound. Because even as you
Speaker 1: were speaking, I heard melody I heard almost sounded like
Speaker 1: you was tuning up a little bit in the pool pit.
Speaker 3: Yo.
Speaker 2: You know it's so real man, y'all, y'all gotta see
Speaker 2: the way gravy lit him up.
Speaker 4: And the way honestly did we did it in Memphis,
Speaker 4: Mephis you know, Southern, huggable, warm.
Speaker 3: Loving that plate. You're gonna love it when you get it.
Speaker 3: You know, it's why not gravy, you know?
Speaker 2: Why not? So all I could think of is like
Speaker 2: smothered chicken.
Speaker 1: Like I don't want unless unless it's like biscuits and gravy.
Speaker 1: I don't want my gravy too light skin. There's a
Speaker 1: certain gravy that it's gotta be right right here.
Speaker 3: I'm in my kitchen. Wait, let me sell you some
Speaker 3: Let me sell you something, Let me sell you something
Speaker 3: real quick.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 3: I just want to show them something that allows them
Speaker 3: to understand.
Speaker 2: Uh huh.
Speaker 3: You got to keep it brown, baby, you gotta keep
Speaker 3: it brown. You gotta have gravy, baby, you gotta.
Speaker 2: You got to have it.
Speaker 1: And you put that gravy on that piece of meat
Speaker 1: of your choice, and then it and you put them
Speaker 1: on some rice.
Speaker 2: Or put it.
Speaker 1: Get a ladle and put that thing on some mashed potatoes.
Speaker 1: Now this is not the Food Network.
Speaker 4: Okay, but you but you get the world. But you
Speaker 4: get the world with dwelling in you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: I'm hype so so so you said, gravy is in you,
Speaker 1: not on you?
Speaker 2: Can it be can it be learned? Can it be taught?
Speaker 2: Can it be given? Or it's something you're born with it?
Speaker 4: I think you're definitely born with it. But the language
Speaker 4: is still understandable to somebody that wasn't born with it.
Speaker 4: That's what makes them able to compliment it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yes, it was just.
Speaker 4: Such a stupid thing. They wouldn't even be able to
Speaker 4: recognize it to compliment it. But you definitely got to
Speaker 4: be born with ita.
Speaker 2: Come on, come on, what's the thing?
Speaker 3: The thing?
Speaker 2: Maybe she's born with it. Maybe it's mabeling like.
Speaker 1: Now that grave, it's that gravy. Another collab another collaboration.
Speaker 1: So y'all we got caught up talked about gravy'all wanted
Speaker 1: to talk about the song that you have with Cold
Speaker 1: Cole Jones. Now I could be I believe I call
Speaker 1: myself knowing a lot of your catalogs spend the night.
Speaker 1: Was that kind of a even though it's still soulful,
Speaker 1: but was that kind of a sonically different for you
Speaker 1: to do because I've heard I've heard some people consider
Speaker 1: it dance music.
Speaker 4: It's more it's it's more simpler for me to do. Actually,
Speaker 4: it's more easier to do my natural style that Gravey
Speaker 4: ben Bruins since I was a kid. That's why it's
Speaker 4: so easy for me to do my style. But this
Speaker 4: style is more simpler, more direct, more straight to the point.
Speaker 4: It's more it's a more popular sound. So that more
Speaker 4: popular sound is broadening the right places to reach a
Speaker 4: more broader audience as well. Yet he Beats is known
Speaker 4: for the likes of Doja Cat and some of the
Speaker 4: songs that caused us to even know her name and
Speaker 4: who she is. He's always wanted to do a soul album.
Speaker 4: I've always wanted to learn from a more popular sound.
Speaker 4: It's someone that I trusted. So we decided to put
Speaker 4: our two worlds together and somewhat learned from each other.
Speaker 4: But somehow mixed these beakers and what's in them to
Speaker 4: kind of form something that became gravy. So really this
Speaker 4: is not a typical BJ album. This is more like
Speaker 4: a like a gnaulge Barkley or something like that.
Speaker 3: It sort of speak.
Speaker 4: This is more of a collaborative effort of us having
Speaker 4: fun putting that experience of going to Mephis and the
Speaker 4: different faces and talents and gifts that came and like
Speaker 4: donated this stuff and they talented and gifts to this project.
Speaker 4: I mean, even the people that didn't go to Memphis.
Speaker 4: It's just to me it just came to be a
Speaker 4: real labor of love because it took time.
Speaker 3: It took time for sure. We recorded this during quarantine
Speaker 3: where we know.
Speaker 4: How long it was gonna be, you know, just just
Speaker 4: the whole not knowing the unknown of everything.
Speaker 3: We knew he was least gonna be making some music
Speaker 3: that was a part of our happiness through that time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you said something that I feel like a lot
Speaker 1: of us are scared to do. We feel like we
Speaker 1: know our recipe and we are not going to venture
Speaker 1: out or bend or waiver out of what we know. Sonically.
Speaker 1: This is what I am known for. But I heard
Speaker 1: you say you called somebody that you trust that maybe
Speaker 1: it might have you venture out and do another song.
Speaker 1: But I feel like this is still gonna this is
Speaker 1: all gonna mesh well with your.
Speaker 2: Catalog period when you do your.
Speaker 1: Live shows, it ain't gonna sound you know what I'm
Speaker 1: trying to say.
Speaker 2: It's gonna make sense.
Speaker 4: It all makes yeah, And I never I never wanted
Speaker 4: my catalog at the end of the day. Imagine if
Speaker 4: all of our catalogs were it was one wall, but
Speaker 4: everything was on this one wall. I would not want
Speaker 4: my one water to look the same. I wanted to
Speaker 4: look beautiful. I wanted to tell my story even in
Speaker 4: the framing. I wanted to be a beautiful piece of work.
Speaker 4: Some of it is tears. Some of its tears of joy.
Speaker 4: Some of it is pure celebration. Some of it is
Speaker 4: missing my friends that I wish could Seei's not quitting
Speaker 4: I wish. I mean, it's full of all of that.
Speaker 4: It's a it's a roller coaster of emotion. And I
Speaker 4: think even tempo wise, I needed to spend the night.
Speaker 4: I needed to spend the night. If you if you,
Speaker 4: if you love more than your genre, then you would
Speaker 4: want something more than what you could create by yourself.
Speaker 4: And I think that's what this allowed me to do.
Speaker 4: This allowed me to actually learn more things that I
Speaker 4: could implicate into my own music that is from more
Speaker 4: popular styles of music and things like that, just even
Speaker 4: in the studio before the people get it. It just
Speaker 4: gave me so much more to learn from Yetti, from Ryan,
Speaker 4: from Boo Mitchell, those guys, I mean, Corey, all of
Speaker 4: those guys. They didn't just play a punch, but they
Speaker 4: know how they wanted to sit in the song to
Speaker 4: make it be impactful. I sit there and I watch
Speaker 4: all of that. I don't do the single thing and
Speaker 4: go to the mall or go mess with a woman.
Speaker 4: I need to be in there because this is my
Speaker 4: video game. This is my new toy every day it
Speaker 4: so I always love.
Speaker 3: Learnning new stuff. Yeah, so this is this process has
Speaker 3: been pretty dope.
Speaker 1: And you've always you're always a student, which comes out
Speaker 1: even just as you're speaking. It's so passionate and I
Speaker 1: just from even personally like you've experienced some laws.
Speaker 2: You've been through a lot.
Speaker 1: Jay, You've been through a lot, and you know, I'm
Speaker 1: excited and encouraged that you continue to push through and
Speaker 1: do what you were born to do, which is to
Speaker 1: do music. You remind me of even like someone like PJ.
Speaker 1: Morton who felt like there was a time where he
Speaker 1: was questioned or even forced to almost change his sound.
Speaker 1: Did you ever go through that whereas somebody's like, you know,
Speaker 1: if you work with so and so, you know you
Speaker 1: might get a little more success. You know, if you
Speaker 1: changed your style, did anybody? I gotta feel like he
Speaker 1: probably would have custom them out. I probably think I
Speaker 1: know your answer that.
Speaker 4: There are there are people that suggest things that aren't
Speaker 4: suitable for me all the time, knowing who you are,
Speaker 4: trusting who you are, wanting to be better than who
Speaker 4: you are, to not settle in your talent and in
Speaker 4: your place, to still do things to keep the iron sharp.
Speaker 4: I think all of that is a part of understanding
Speaker 4: what to do and having the right people around you
Speaker 4: to trust to do so things. It's just it all
Speaker 4: kind of coincides. But yeah, people always have a plan
Speaker 4: for your life, if that makes any sense. Everybody, they
Speaker 4: always have a plan for your life. As long as
Speaker 4: you got a plan for your life, you definitely know
Speaker 4: what should be on your plate and what should the
Speaker 4: gravy should always.
Speaker 2: Gravey should always be on your planet.
Speaker 3: BJ.
Speaker 1: We got to give you the audio from this entire
Speaker 1: interview because you've said so many nuggets and I thank
Speaker 1: you for your time. I'm excited about Gravy. It's already ready, y'all.
Speaker 1: Listen on my phone like it's already. You see that
Speaker 1: check mark, That means because I got it, and I
Speaker 1: already got the way you get, Oh, you get faux
Speaker 1: songs right now if you go, just don't press play,
Speaker 1: but actually download the album.
Speaker 3: Hit the arrow, hit that green arrow, Hit that green arrow.
Speaker 4: Every every streaming site has that green era, hit the
Speaker 4: hit that Arrow.
Speaker 3: And so.
Speaker 1: Because people feel like because they play it, that means no,
Speaker 1: that's not a purchase.
Speaker 2: You just it's a stream and we thank God, we
Speaker 2: thank God for you. It's not a purchase.
Speaker 3: So we went and we thank God for you.
Speaker 2: But it's not.
Speaker 1: It's not a purchase, and you have showed through the
Speaker 1: years why it's worth the purchase. Right and before we
Speaker 1: get going, you know, checking in was birth out of
Speaker 1: my mental health journey, and it was a way to
Speaker 1: bring people in that I know and love to talk
Speaker 1: about everything you've got going on, but also to check
Speaker 1: in with you.
Speaker 3: B J.
Speaker 1: I mentioned that you know you've had some loss that
Speaker 1: maybe you don't speak publicly of. If I'm not mistaken,
Speaker 1: you lost your father that was a big loss for you.
Speaker 1: Did it did it impact how you make music?
Speaker 2: Did you fall into heavy grief at all? Did it
Speaker 2: paralyze you?
Speaker 3: All that?
Speaker 4: All of that, You don't really start grieving to after
Speaker 4: the funeral when it's somebody that close to you. Ain't
Speaker 4: seeing seeing seeing the body being at the church for real,
Speaker 4: for real, depending how close the person was to you,
Speaker 4: you not person at the funeral because you're too close.
Speaker 4: Your brain is just doing too much. Everybody wants to
Speaker 4: say hello, blah blah blah, just the things that happen
Speaker 4: at the funeral. But yeah, the grief didn't start to
Speaker 4: till I got back, until I got back home. What's
Speaker 4: so crazy is I was in Japan when my dad
Speaker 4: passed away. That was already my worst nightmare.
Speaker 2: Yes, you couldn't be being so.
Speaker 3: Far, being so far. Yeah, I'll tell you a small, fast,
Speaker 3: deep story. It's quick, but it's so.
Speaker 4: My dad taught me about music shaving in the bathroom
Speaker 4: as he used to do his night job. He was
Speaker 4: a bouncer for I mean clubs, the bulls, all type
Speaker 4: of crazy stuff. Muhammad, Ali, Oprah Winfree, all these people.
Speaker 4: But as he was as he was shaved he would.
Speaker 4: It was a radio that never if you took that
Speaker 4: radio at the bathroom, it was a real serious problem
Speaker 4: in the house. Nobody takes the bathroom the radio out
Speaker 4: the bathroom. So my dad used his radio pretty much
Speaker 4: teach me who Marvin Gaye was, who Nuther Vandross was, who.
Speaker 3: Stephanie Mill was, who Philis Hymen was.
Speaker 4: I mean, just certain people that we know something we've
Speaker 4: forgotten because there's so many greats that have come way
Speaker 4: before us. But my daddy taught me about this thing
Speaker 4: as he did that. So the fast forward this long
Speaker 4: story of me coming to La my dad finally tells
Speaker 4: us he has cancer.
Speaker 3: That living in Las.
Speaker 4: Vegas at the time, and he and our relationship began
Speaker 4: to change a little bit for the better. We began
Speaker 4: to talk a lot more. Certain things I would do
Speaker 4: just to kind of like help. But whether whether it
Speaker 4: was the B twelve shots help it's cancer, because the
Speaker 4: pills didn't feel like nothing, but the shot made him
Speaker 4: feel at least a little bit better for himself. He
Speaker 4: told me one day, he said I called him and
Speaker 4: he didn't answer, so he called me back and he said,
Speaker 4: man shaved and took a nap. Then you call me,
Speaker 4: and then I woke up used the bathroom. When I
Speaker 4: walked past the mirror, he said, his shave is crooked.
Speaker 4: He had like packages in his I knew something was
Speaker 4: wrong because this man could shave. He could shave on
Speaker 4: the train, don't and everything I'm talking about clean. So
Speaker 4: for you to not be able to shave yourself.
Speaker 3: They said a lot to me.
Speaker 4: And I was leaving for Japan within about seven days
Speaker 4: from this time. So this particular, let's say, if that
Speaker 4: was on a Tuesday. That Saturday was my brother's wife's
Speaker 4: birthday party. So at her party, I was like, y'all,
Speaker 4: I don't feel comfortable going to Japan without seeing him,
Speaker 4: and I think we should all go see him together,
Speaker 4: and we end up going.
Speaker 3: It was just so crazy of mex Yo.
Speaker 4: Antenna's always working, because that shave told me everything. My
Speaker 4: brothers went and have got it because they wasn't in
Speaker 4: that bathroom when he was teaching me about these artists.
Speaker 3: Why he was shaving. You know in the.
Speaker 4: Movie when you see them shoot, when they shoot the
Speaker 4: man at the beginning, but they showed a tattoo on
Speaker 4: his hand, remember that tattoo. This is yes, life is
Speaker 4: like that. That shit ain't for nothing. It is not
Speaker 4: for nothing. I told my brothers, we need to go
Speaker 4: see him. We went to see him. I had to
Speaker 4: go to New York.
Speaker 3: The next day. I went to New York.
Speaker 4: They flew me back to Vegas from New York instead
Speaker 4: of la and my brothers and then were already there.
Speaker 3: They kind of like chill with him.
Speaker 4: My dad was just laying there and kind of like
Speaker 4: just vibing, chilling, just in his zone, like almost going
Speaker 4: back to sleep.
Speaker 3: But that was our last time seeing him alive.
Speaker 2: How long ago was this?
Speaker 3: Again, My dad's been going four years now.
Speaker 2: Four years.
Speaker 4: If I wouldn't have paid attention to that conversation about
Speaker 4: his shave, remembering how he taught me to do what
Speaker 4: I'm doing.
Speaker 3: Just having that and my intenda is being up.
Speaker 4: I just thank God because the situation and my grieving
Speaker 4: could have been way worse without that goodbye, without that
Speaker 4: time with him. So y'all keep your antennas up. One
Speaker 4: plus one should always make too. If it doesn't, it's
Speaker 4: something that you probably can. Yeah, And those type of
Speaker 4: things kind of help my my my downtime not be
Speaker 4: under the ground, you know. And I think it's been
Speaker 4: a process, and yes, I definitely had a time where
Speaker 4: I was losing it.
Speaker 1: Yet you shared with us, you know, moments of your grief.
Speaker 1: And by the way, everybody public figures do not have
Speaker 1: to grieve publicly for you to know that they're grieving. Okay,
Speaker 1: and thank you for the times and what you did
Speaker 1: share with us.
Speaker 2: Hey man, it's difficult for sure, tough.
Speaker 1: So my dad's my dad's birthday comes is like it's
Speaker 1: like a two days after your album drops, right, and
Speaker 1: so my daddy loved music.
Speaker 4: And and not to cut you off, my dad's funeral
Speaker 4: was on his birthday like like some type of weird
Speaker 4: mafia movie.
Speaker 3: It was so freaky, it was.
Speaker 4: It was I couldn't I couldn't hand them marriage, I
Speaker 4: couldn't put it all together. It was too much. His
Speaker 4: funeral was on his birthday. Never seen that everyone life,
Speaker 4: which is what.
Speaker 1: Day is his birthday to the first so really he
Speaker 1: just had a birthday. So we want to say to you,
Speaker 1: good sir, thank you, thank you for the lessons and
Speaker 1: thank you for what you taught BJ.
Speaker 2: Thank you for what you taught all your children.
Speaker 1: They learned so much, and thank you for sharing that
Speaker 1: in the way that you've shared it so.
Speaker 2: Real, so raw, so that other listeners can know.
Speaker 1: Like, everybody's grief is different, the intensities, the levels, And
Speaker 1: it's not that it just gets easier just after time.
Speaker 2: It just seems like you just begin to accept.
Speaker 4: You have to grieve positivety, You have to positivity grief.
Speaker 4: Negative grief only makes more problems. Okay, yeah, negative grief
Speaker 4: only makes more problems. Sometimes you want to be by yourself,
Speaker 4: be by yourself, and you want to be around somebody.
Speaker 3: Try your best to just be around.
Speaker 4: The the right people that can help support you and
Speaker 4: lift you back to an amazing place in the amazing
Speaker 4: mental space.
Speaker 3: Because there was a time I didn't want to do nothing.
Speaker 4: I had more questions when my dad died than when
Speaker 4: he was alive, finding out who I am, why I
Speaker 4: do this, why I am the way I am, why
Speaker 4: I respond like this. Yeah, a lot of these things
Speaker 4: are traits that I got from my dad. So yeah,
Speaker 4: for those that have their parents, ask those questions, man,
Speaker 4: how did you meet mom?
Speaker 3: Again?
Speaker 4: If you already know the story, asks again, get those details,
Speaker 4: because man, we always want to know more about ourselves,
Speaker 4: and a lot of it comes from where we come from.
Speaker 1: Well, unless you're in a place where you can constantly
Speaker 1: observe your parents day by day. Sometimes the best way
Speaker 1: to know yourself is to ask the one who created you. Right,
Speaker 1: your mom and daddy got together, did what they had
Speaker 1: to do and created you. But ultimately God is the ultimate,
Speaker 1: like you know, So in order for me to know
Speaker 1: myself while while my mam is still alive, I should said, definitely,
Speaker 1: ask the ones that got together to create you.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's yeah, because I think after why that story
Speaker 4: gonna change. The older they get, they're gonna some things
Speaker 4: might slip the mind or those details that you know.
Speaker 3: I think the.
Speaker 2: Older they get, Like my daddy would say.
Speaker 3: Man, that would make it a good story. That's make
Speaker 3: it fun.
Speaker 2: He I was like daddy.
Speaker 1: I was like daddy, Mama said a cuss word. He said, Man,
Speaker 1: don't let your mama fool you.
Speaker 2: I said, I don't want to know.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they're surprising, they're surprised. You don't want to know.
Speaker 3: We didn't discover none of the stuff that we've been doing.
Speaker 3: I thought we were slick doing when we were younger. No,
Speaker 3: we wasn't. We weren't the starters of that.
Speaker 2: We were not.
Speaker 3: They knew they did it. Yeah, yeah, we ain't begin that.
Speaker 1: The original gravy, the original gravy carriers are our parents.
Speaker 1: I am so thankful you came on here. Is there
Speaker 1: anything you want to share?
Speaker 2: You've been an open book and I sure appreciate it
Speaker 2: all day.
Speaker 4: Man, it feels good to remind them that we are human,
Speaker 4: because we, by default, we're not.
Speaker 3: I get it, I understand it. I get it.
Speaker 4: I'm not I didn't make it, but I understand. I
Speaker 4: might not agree with it, but I understand. But it
Speaker 4: feels good to remind them that we're human, that we cried,
Speaker 4: that we bleed, that we heard, that we smiled, that
Speaker 4: we laughed just like them. I think that makes the
Speaker 4: music even more better, you know what I'm saying. Yeah,
Speaker 4: I would love to dedicate a song to you from Gravy, right,
Speaker 4: so gif you get a chance. Listen to a song
Speaker 4: called never Change. That song for me to you. Never change. Man,
Speaker 4: you are the sweetest, you are amazing. You have never
Speaker 4: not been either one of those things where every time
Speaker 4: I've seen you in your presence on the outside. Now
Speaker 4: I love you, I love you, I love you, I
Speaker 4: love you so but now we listen to that song
Speaker 4: you gotta put your arms up and do the little box.
Speaker 4: It got a little box for you, so you ain't
Speaker 4: gotta feel like, Yeah, you can kind of dance and
Speaker 4: yeah yeah, got no grooves.
Speaker 1: So excited. I'm finna go learn how to make gravy.
Speaker 1: I know how I wanted to taste. I don't want
Speaker 1: no lumps.
Speaker 2: I needed to be smooth. Amen.
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, yeah, all right.
Speaker 4: Maybe next time we get you guys, we make we
Speaker 4: make chicken rites and gravy and a green vetch yourself.
Speaker 3: It's a calm bread. Yeah, showing what to do.
Speaker 1: The family likes my college greens. I can make some greens,
Speaker 1: for sure. I can bring some.
Speaker 3: I'm into that. I'm into that. Bring that.
Speaker 2: Say less everybody. We love you, BJ. We are so
Speaker 2: excited for you. Keep pushing, keep going.
Speaker 1: You never change as well because it's working for you,
Speaker 1: all right.
Speaker 2: Love you man, Thank.
Speaker 3: You, Love you too.
Speaker 2: I'm so much ooo.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 1: I just love being able to have conversations that just
Speaker 1: flow with people that I am fond of, people that
Speaker 1: I am.
Speaker 2: A fan of. I'm a fan of BJ the Chicago Kid,
Speaker 2: a fan of his music.
Speaker 1: A fan before he became a solo artist. A fan
Speaker 1: while he was singing background vocals for Mary Mary Usher,
Speaker 1: marriy J.
Speaker 2: But the list goes on. Gosh, I just remember him.
Speaker 2: So my folks, my family, my siblings, we would drive.
Speaker 1: Up to Chicago to hear, you know, some amazing musicians,
Speaker 1: choirs and singers, and BJ.
Speaker 2: The Chicago Kid was right there.
Speaker 1: So it's so good to talk to him as a
Speaker 1: fan of his music. Like I said, back from twenty
Speaker 1: twelve when he first dropped his first album, and I'm excited,
Speaker 1: I'm actually gonna go back and just listen to everything.
Speaker 1: BJ the Chicago Kid. Thank y'all so much for tuning.
Speaker 1: In twenty twelve, the album was titled Pineapple Now Laters,
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna just listen to all things BEJ the
Speaker 1: Chicago Kid for the rest of the day and make
Speaker 1: sure y'all go get his album titled Gray Bay.
Speaker 2: All right, love y'all soul so much again. I can't
Speaker 2: do what I do without y'all. All right.
Speaker 5: Bye.
Speaker 1: Checking In with Michelle Williams is a production of iHeartRadio
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