Speaker 1: Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: What if y'all it's unpaid bill Quest Love Supreme. We
Speaker 2: are back with part two of the Quest Love Supreme
Speaker 2: Interview with Steve Rick. You've co founded Loud Records or
Speaker 2: put out some critible albums by Wu Tang, Ray Kwan, Mob, Deep,
Speaker 2: and Mourn. If you haven't listened to part one, please
Speaker 2: check it out. Steve talks about growing up in his
Speaker 2: music industry, James Brown, coming to a bar mitzvah, his
Speaker 2: relationship with Tupac, and putting out some hip hop classic
Speaker 2: check it.
Speaker 3: I will say that my first listen to that.
Speaker 4: Album thirty six Cuban lens.
Speaker 3: Oh, thirty six Chambers.
Speaker 5: So the day that both Marauders and and the Wu
Speaker 5: Tank comes out, and we're driving up ninety five from
Speaker 5: Philly listening to this, and you know, I know it's
Speaker 5: not not since Princess fan Base with the album Dirty Mind.
Speaker 5: If I heard what I deem like revision on an
Speaker 5: opinion of the record when I first heard the Wu
Speaker 5: Tang record, and not that I was looking from like
Speaker 5: a commercial standpoint or an underground standpoint, but I just
Speaker 5: never heard something so dirty in my life I don't know.
Speaker 5: It's like this is way too underground for regular people,
Speaker 5: and yet it almost became the pinnacle of me.
Speaker 3: It's weird.
Speaker 5: It's like they became they became the epicenter in the
Speaker 5: mainstream of the system that they were against, which you know,
Speaker 5: I wasn't complainings power.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah they do.
Speaker 6: But I just mean they still are still they're not
Speaker 6: they still not look at it.
Speaker 5: I don't mean, I don't mean, like in a four
Speaker 5: letter word way, like they're mainstream, right, No, But I'm
Speaker 5: just saying that I there's no way you were going
Speaker 5: to tell me on that first listen that this group
Speaker 5: which was.
Speaker 3: Going to be the alpha and the mega in the
Speaker 3: epicenter of what.
Speaker 4: But let me ask you a question. Sorry for cutting
Speaker 4: you off when you heard when you heard Cream and
Speaker 4: can it be for the first time?
Speaker 3: Well yeah, well yeah, well yeah, what did I remember?
Speaker 4: I remember hearing Cream for the first time in the
Speaker 4: studio singles? I knew. I mean I knew actually before
Speaker 4: because I was on the road. I moved to New York,
Speaker 4: and I opened up the New York office, and I
Speaker 4: opened up and I took an apartment in New York,
Speaker 4: and now I was by Coastal. But but at the
Speaker 4: end of the day when Cream came out and I
Speaker 4: forget about the mess on dollar dollar bill and with
Speaker 4: that meant to me or whatever. But I just knew
Speaker 4: that this album there was something fucking special about it.
Speaker 4: Then three months later, my office in LA was on
Speaker 4: Melrose and King's Road where Cookies is literally the building
Speaker 4: with Cookies is, And I'm going to the deli to
Speaker 4: grab a sandwich and I see this white kid head
Speaker 4: down to hear on a fucking skateboard with the old
Speaker 4: Wu Tang Scully singing Wu Tank cleaning the up with
Speaker 4: and I knew, get go. I said at my age,
Speaker 4: now I'm sixty years old. Now, I said, when I'm
Speaker 4: fucking sixty, they're still going to be around.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 5: In my mind it was just like again, I gotta
Speaker 5: go back to the first Jungle Brothers record. Like the
Speaker 5: Jungle Brothers first album, Straight Out the Jungle was just
Speaker 5: like an inside secret for like real heads. Meanwhile, like
Speaker 5: mainstream America only feels Hammer Vanilla Ice like more you.
Speaker 3: Know, mainstream rappers.
Speaker 4: And one question, though, yes, Jungle Brothers was on Tommy
Speaker 4: Boy correct.
Speaker 5: Uh no, no, no, that's day lot Soul. Jungle Brothers was
Speaker 5: on Warlock and then went to Warner Brothers for the
Speaker 5: second album. Okay, and I was just like, just to me,
Speaker 5: I you know, once once Cream started picking them Traction,
Speaker 5: I was like, wait a minute, this is almost like
Speaker 5: if Straight out the Jungle by the Jungle Brothers really
Speaker 5: got a chance.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 5: I mean, there's a lot of factors into the success
Speaker 5: of Wu Tang Clan, but what I was basically leading
Speaker 5: up to was upon first listen of that entire record,
Speaker 5: you knew you had lightning in a bottle in your possession.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I knew we had Like Outcast was throwing a party.
Speaker 4: When did their album came out to summer ninety four.
Speaker 4: I know, I was at a party, an album release party.
Speaker 4: I was with Steve Staff, okay, and I mean I
Speaker 4: think I think Clark Hill was DJing. The HD record
Speaker 4: came on and we're talking, and also everybody just went
Speaker 4: straight to the to the dance floor and losing the
Speaker 4: fucking mind. And that's when I knew that there was
Speaker 4: That was like my first like I needed to see
Speaker 4: it with my own eyes, right, And that's why I
Speaker 4: like to be outside. So it was like at the
Speaker 4: end of the day, like when I see something with
Speaker 4: my eyes and that's what made me move to New
Speaker 4: York and open up shop in New York. And then
Speaker 4: you remember the new music seminar. Yes, right then said clock,
Speaker 4: let's find the club areas. Whose area? And they let
Speaker 4: me do a showcase with the Licks Twister and all
Speaker 4: of New York showed up.
Speaker 5: Shout out to G two Wu Tang's trustee, one of
Speaker 5: their many street team people that I've associated Wu with.
Speaker 5: G used to be part of the Princeton hip hop
Speaker 5: circle that you know, yeah, but you know he would
Speaker 5: also work the Philadelphia market like it would have like
Speaker 5: his side guys also or I don't know if G
Speaker 5: was part of Rifkins street promotion team or Brizes personal people,
Speaker 5: but that's how I got hit to them, all right,
Speaker 5: So I have to ask you the other side of
Speaker 5: the coin too, because a big part of my personal
Speaker 5: success was also being the guy on standby whenever somebody
Speaker 5: would mess up. I e blah blah blah, it's not
Speaker 5: going to make it to the show. Can you guys
Speaker 5: get here in twelve hours? Uh da da da just
Speaker 5: dropped out, yo, Can you guys fly in next week
Speaker 5: and literally at the beginning of Wu tank Forever, I
Speaker 5: swear to God, at least sixty percent of my entire
Speaker 5: output of doing shows were based on Wu Tang shows
Speaker 5: not attended.
Speaker 3: During the during the period of ninety seven.
Speaker 4: You talking about the Wu Tang grade to get some machine.
Speaker 5: To starting then, but just basically, you know, like the
Speaker 5: roots of mine as well have been you know, the
Speaker 5: twelfth member of the Wu Tang clan, because literally is like, uh,
Speaker 5: we were supposed to come or whatever designated who member
Speaker 5: was supposed to show up, and okay, we'll get the
Speaker 5: roots instead. So for me though in nineteen ninety seven,
Speaker 5: and I have my theories about this, what are year
Speaker 5: feelings on Wu Tang Forever.
Speaker 4: It's a double album?
Speaker 3: Right, but did you get goosebumps.
Speaker 4: On certain songs? All right? The album? I mean it
Speaker 4: was a double album. So, like I said, I never
Speaker 4: considered myself in a and I got goosebumps on Triumph,
Speaker 4: I got goosebumps. I've got the name of the kid,
Speaker 4: it's yours. And there was one and then and there
Speaker 4: was one more record which I would have well, I
Speaker 4: really got goosebumps. But at the end of the day.
Speaker 4: I put that twittergether between Wu Tang and Rage right right,
Speaker 4: and you know we first million dollar hip hop video.
Speaker 4: Brett Rattner directed it.
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, look, no nothing is, but I just from
Speaker 5: my perspective, ah that okay. So, first of all, I
Speaker 5: feel like the strength of Triumph was that it was
Speaker 5: the first offering. I mean, you know, it could have
Speaker 5: been like name any other song that it could have
Speaker 5: been dog shit, the song not actual dog shit. I mean,
Speaker 5: it could have been Reunited. It could it could have
Speaker 5: been whatever whatever. The first song from that album was
Speaker 5: gonna come forth, was gonna be everything.
Speaker 4: It Reunited was a song that it's Triumph, and right,
Speaker 4: why didn't reunite it? To me? The opening Reunited, I
Speaker 4: mean first, you know, was ridiculous in that. I mean
Speaker 4: they started fighting. So let me just tell you where
Speaker 4: I am, right, right, Dicky Passes few months before that, right,
Speaker 4: m H. Me and Puff had conversations before Big Pass
Speaker 4: who's gonna come first? We were Biggie and we were
Speaker 4: both coming with a double album. So Big was always
Speaker 4: gonna come first, right because I didn't really we didn't.
Speaker 4: We weren't having radio records, right, so we have bread
Speaker 4: through the video and like you said, whatever the video was,
Speaker 4: the video, the video was. But to me, they were
Speaker 4: a rock and roll group or they were a group. Right,
Speaker 4: So the Rage tour mm hmm was right. We sold
Speaker 4: date Leon records on that album if they finished that tour,
Speaker 4: mm hmm, right, because we already we started in Florida
Speaker 4: and we were coming up to New York, so that
Speaker 4: was already home base, like and sales were going up.
Speaker 4: Now we're gonna do the bump fuck you know, like
Speaker 4: the mid mid Indiana right the mid mid, mid, mid, Midwest,
Speaker 4: and West coast. That album would have sold twenty million
Speaker 4: records and that was always my plan if we should
Speaker 4: have went diamond.
Speaker 5: So I agree with you, it should have went diamond.
Speaker 5: I you know, I don't know the exact conditions.
Speaker 3: I don't you know. I know it was a fire.
Speaker 3: I always felt like, ah, whenever whenever someone gets a.
Speaker 5: Good formula and they change it. I wish they didn't
Speaker 5: make that record in California. I wish they would have stayed.
Speaker 4: Well. The problem was, if you saw the show, Ris's
Speaker 4: house got flooded. Everything was destroyed, right, so that he
Speaker 4: had he had to start from scratch, anyway, and with
Speaker 4: everybody having solo recket, I understand what you're saying. Right
Speaker 4: with everybody, with everybody having solo records in New York,
Speaker 4: you're being pulled ten different waves. Everybody's being pultended. Hot
Speaker 4: they were one plant plass, plat plat, So it's like
Speaker 4: they're getting so them being in one house together and
Speaker 4: to create that unity how they had it on the
Speaker 4: first album. Granted it wasn't hiding and it wasn't in
Speaker 4: a basement right right, but the house got flooded and
Speaker 4: everything was everything was destroyed.
Speaker 5: Can I ask though, I kind of feel like the
Speaker 5: end of that rain kind of not the end of
Speaker 5: that rain, but least the stronghold of that initial period
Speaker 5: was the Hot ninety seven situation.
Speaker 4: Uh, with that that was a bad situation. I was
Speaker 4: on my back.
Speaker 3: Could you have rectified that situation?
Speaker 5: Or like, how do you in terms of are you
Speaker 5: the type of CEO that has to talk to the
Speaker 5: artists to stop them from sabotaging their progress or whatever?
Speaker 5: Or could you explain the story that whole Hot nine
Speaker 5: seven situation and then like Hot ninety seven not playing
Speaker 5: Wu Tang anymore, and I.
Speaker 4: Wasn't I was. I was on a plane. I was
Speaker 4: it was my bachelor party, Okay, I was flying from
Speaker 4: Dallas to Atlanta, and you know we land and by
Speaker 4: phones blowing the fuck up. But you know, I have
Speaker 4: all pretty much my senior executives with me. You know.
Speaker 4: It was my brother, was a partner, my best friend,
Speaker 4: my childhood best friend, Rich you know, was a partner,
Speaker 4: Mojo who's you know, became a brother and running promotion.
Speaker 4: You know that they were all with me. And I'm
Speaker 4: getting just when everybody had to, you know, not even
Speaker 4: the two ways, just a page still and like what
Speaker 4: the fuck's happening? And I couldn't get Risen on the phone.
Speaker 4: And then Tracy, who was the program there had ninety
Speaker 4: seven yes, just called me. I'm getting married for fucking days,
Speaker 4: like called me and said scope fuck yourself, like you know,
Speaker 4: just like I mean, if she was a dude, who
Speaker 4: wouldn't want to fist, right, But she.
Speaker 3: Didn't know that, you personally like she she was venting, right.
Speaker 4: I don't even think she was so mad. I don't
Speaker 4: even think she went to the wedding. And she was
Speaker 4: invited to the wedding. Don't forget wu Tang was the
Speaker 4: first rap record that ninety seven fucking played. They were
Speaker 4: a dance station.
Speaker 3: Hot ninety seven was also on that new Rap work Day, right,
Speaker 3: more music, less rap. They were on that.
Speaker 4: No, they weren't a rap I mean, no said it
Speaker 4: was a dance station like right, and then Flex was
Speaker 4: I mean, between Flex and Angie, they're the ones that
Speaker 4: took it to a whole different place where Flex had
Speaker 4: to show on the weekends, you know, and then think
Speaker 4: you know, and then thank god, you know, Puff came
Speaker 4: a flavor in the year, and there was some you know,
Speaker 4: and then finally you know, right, and he was making
Speaker 4: those records like so thank god for him, you know,
Speaker 4: So there was it.
Speaker 5: Was absolutely unrepairable. I guess for our listeners that are hearing,
Speaker 5: you know, they're they're doing summer jam and uh, you know,
Speaker 5: I don't know if it's ghost face or I forgot who.
Speaker 3: Said something out of line ninety seven. They don't play
Speaker 3: our ship, you know.
Speaker 4: Listen, let's keep it one hundred. There were seventy five
Speaker 4: thousand fucking people that right, right, they're making a fortune.
Speaker 4: So we were we were on tour with Rage, right,
Speaker 4: and at the end of it, we weren't getting paid
Speaker 4: a lot of money yet right, yeah, really a rage
Speaker 4: tour and and ghost you know, should he have said it?
Speaker 5: No, but I'm about to say that don't help with
Speaker 5: your argument, which, like, just to to be clear, artists
Speaker 5: do not get paid for doing summer else.
Speaker 4: No, no, but no, now they get you know, they
Speaker 4: started getting paid a few years not a few years ago.
Speaker 4: There's a few years after that they were getting paid
Speaker 4: big dollars.
Speaker 6: I see, I see your Nicki Minaj is not getting
Speaker 6: paid these yeah, for Hot ninety seven.
Speaker 5: Well no, I mean, but just black artists in general,
Speaker 5: just you know, you just those radio step to black
Speaker 5: radio that you yeah, I'll do it for free, you know,
Speaker 5: as long as you keep playing my records. But so
Speaker 5: there was literally absolutely no.
Speaker 4: She no. So for a whatch they even banned all
Speaker 4: loud records.
Speaker 3: What yeah, this is the thing.
Speaker 6: But this is what was happening to, right, Steve, something wrong,
Speaker 6: That's what I mean.
Speaker 4: I mean, me and Tracy were friends. Who else is
Speaker 4: she gonna take that out of?
Speaker 6: But you know, amir, this happened in Philly with beans
Speaker 6: like it I had with Foxy Brown with death Jam
Speaker 6: when she cussed out Kobe and they said we pay
Speaker 6: ain't playing these records for a minute like that.
Speaker 3: I did not know that.
Speaker 5: Okay, So with actually you mentioned Puff, I was gonna
Speaker 5: ask with the with the opening sketch of side three
Speaker 5: or side two of the Purple tape of Ray Kwan
Speaker 5: when they kind of, you know, draw a line in
Speaker 5: the sand with bad Boy and Wu Tang, I e
Speaker 5: the I guess by that point in ninety five, Bad
Speaker 5: Boys establishing himself as more of a mainstream.
Speaker 3: Middle on the aisle.
Speaker 4: I mean no, I mean, look, we got to give credit,
Speaker 4: what credits to I mean, Puff had everybody. I mean
Speaker 4: he he had the palm the world in the palm
Speaker 4: of his hands. He was coming with it hit and
Speaker 4: you know what what ray Go said, you know, being
Speaker 4: Puff spoke. He goes, what was that about? I said,
Speaker 4: I don't know, you know, I have no idea, but
Speaker 4: I go, let's just keep it. We're in two totally
Speaker 4: different lanes. We're not even in the same freeway, like
Speaker 4: you know, I'm just using New York like you know,
Speaker 4: we're on the northern state. They're on the I E.
Speaker 4: You know, And it's just like I'm not trying to
Speaker 4: compete and think he's making radio radio records. We're still
Speaker 4: making records for the street, and I'm not like I'm
Speaker 4: trying to help Puff get as much as he possibly
Speaker 4: can like so and you know, and they worked it
Speaker 4: out a few months later.
Speaker 3: So I always wanted to know what the response was,
Speaker 3: because you know, I.
Speaker 4: Yeah, no, wh when Shulk said fuck New York or whatever,
Speaker 4: whatever the hell he said, it's the sorta wars right
Speaker 4: that that that's when we all they all reunited again, right,
Speaker 4: And that was that was like two weeks after we
Speaker 4: came out with the album Wow.
Speaker 3: So were you there for hip Hop's funeral? I was there?
Speaker 4: No, I wasn't there with my son was just born.
Speaker 4: So I pretty much was taking.
Speaker 6: Can I ask a question real quick about these records
Speaker 6: since you have such not made for radio records, but
Speaker 6: yet and still it seems like you got to a
Speaker 6: stride where y'all were picking like amazing singles I had.
Speaker 4: I had the best an our step to this day.
Speaker 4: That person there was a it was a team. Who
Speaker 4: was was a guy name of Maddie who actually discobbed Bigie.
Speaker 4: He worked at Yes Right was a guy right Scott
Speaker 4: Free started off as my assistant and he got himself
Speaker 4: into an r quickly stretched Armstrong who had the stretch
Speaker 4: of babidosh. Yeah, and then he was he was the
Speaker 4: first one. And then the guy named is Sean C.
Speaker 5: King Yes, yeah, yes, yes, speaking of Maddie C my deep,
Speaker 5: I remember getting shook one's part one. How in the
Speaker 5: world did you guys manage to on the second go
Speaker 5: round again capsure lightning in the bottom like the Street Team.
Speaker 4: So I was saying, the streets don't lie. The record
Speaker 4: was cool, it did what it was supposed to do,
Speaker 4: but it wasn't a fucking smash. And we came in there,
Speaker 4: you know, and I said, Mattie, what are we gonna do?
Speaker 4: You know, you know, we're cool, but this is not
Speaker 4: going to drive any anything home. And he goes, as
Speaker 4: a matter of fact, Havoc just did a remix last night.
Speaker 4: Here it is, and you heard it, and we heard it.
Speaker 4: And I was on my way to how can I
Speaker 4: be down? And I had a walkman, not even at
Speaker 4: this man, I had a walk man. And I was
Speaker 4: in a car with them stretching Barbido and I was
Speaker 4: on my me and Barbido. I used to play basketball,
Speaker 4: and there was like some type of celebrity game mhm,
Speaker 4: and they lost their mind. And you know they were
Speaker 4: they were the first one to play it. They played it,
Speaker 4: we gave it the flex. This is September October. And
Speaker 4: then when we came back after Christmas, it's the biggest
Speaker 4: record in New York.
Speaker 5: So but I'm saying, in your mind, it wasn't like,
Speaker 5: oh well that didn't make it all right? What else
Speaker 5: you guys got? Like no, I think another an R
Speaker 5: or CEO would have just been like, oh well that's
Speaker 5: still born.
Speaker 3: So what else? What else is down the pike? But
Speaker 3: now it's just when the data song like that.
Speaker 4: Well, when they when they came to the office, I
Speaker 4: knew they were the perfect bike. Who is your first child?
Speaker 4: And I got my first check and my first plaque
Speaker 4: and everything else like that. But you know, when you
Speaker 4: give a jab, you got to come with a cross
Speaker 4: or a hook right fuck right away? Right So Who
Speaker 4: definitely shook people and got everybody's attention. But when we
Speaker 4: came with Bob, that's when everybody we knew. Everybody knew
Speaker 4: that Lad was for real and I still had the
Speaker 4: marketing cope. So the bigger lab got the bigger the
Speaker 4: marketing company that the bigger the marketing company, the more
Speaker 4: people wanted to be a lab. And we were like
Speaker 4: we were like three for three. You know, well met
Speaker 4: cap we made a little bit of money, but it
Speaker 4: just did a little over one hundred, but you know,
Speaker 4: lick it and go go. But the licksid three hundred thousand.
Speaker 4: We did two million on the first record, and you know,
Speaker 4: and Mob did you know they won't planting them on
Speaker 4: the first alt So even with.
Speaker 5: You knowing, like because me, you know, I knew of
Speaker 5: and I had the fourth and Broadway Mob d from
Speaker 5: the back, Yeah, yeah, hit back and all that stuff like,
Speaker 5: but in your mind you were like, yeah, these guys
Speaker 5: are going to still be a thing.
Speaker 4: Yeah. I mean they came to the office they want
Speaker 4: I don't know if they were gonna smoke a cigarette.
Speaker 4: They were gonna smoke a blump. But they went to
Speaker 4: the bathroom and this is in like, you know, a
Speaker 4: corporate building, right, and they lit pro Proudigy wasn't there
Speaker 4: because he was sick that time. It was having and
Speaker 4: you know some of the guys twelve guys and the
Speaker 4: sprinklers just went off. I said, they're a perfect follow
Speaker 4: up to That's.
Speaker 5: So you there still had to be an edge or
Speaker 5: a rot or an element of of your groups that authenticity.
Speaker 3: I see, I see.
Speaker 6: Do you mind telling us like a prodigy story just
Speaker 6: because you know, we were one of the last shows
Speaker 6: that he did before we lost him.
Speaker 4: He was like a I mean, he was a brother
Speaker 4: to me. I mean, just like he had such a good,
Speaker 4: good soul and you know, he just wanted to learn,
Speaker 4: and he was like a sponge. I think his oldest
Speaker 4: son or is my oldest son that I think they're
Speaker 4: like four or five months apart. And he would say,
Speaker 4: is your son coming to the office. I'm like, I
Speaker 4: don't know why he was. I need to come up,
Speaker 4: and I got my kid with me. You know, if
Speaker 4: he was coming up, that means he must have been
Speaker 4: going over some artwork or whatever he was going through.
Speaker 4: So we were fortunate enough, you know, to have a nanny.
Speaker 4: So I'm like, I'll make sure you see what time
Speaker 4: are you going to be here? So I just had
Speaker 4: to get approval for my wife and you know, and
Speaker 4: then nanny would watch, you know, both babies, you know,
Speaker 4: and he and he was appreciated, like and you know,
Speaker 4: we could have arguments and say fuck you, to each other.
Speaker 4: But at the end of the day we would both say,
Speaker 4: you know, but I love you and you know, And
Speaker 4: it wasn't like we were just fighting for what we felt.
Speaker 4: And it was never about money. It was always about
Speaker 4: maybe a single or a tour or something like that.
Speaker 4: It's not like we already spent this and we're not
Speaker 4: going It was just it was about passion and really
Speaker 4: what was going to get to the next level.
Speaker 5: After the jay Z incident in two thousand and one,
Speaker 5: did you like, how does a lead we'll CEO respond
Speaker 5: to that to like your back just get the next
Speaker 5: record ready?
Speaker 3: Actually, wait, can you explain the situation to me? You
Speaker 3: know again, I was in.
Speaker 4: LA for the summer. I remember getting the call and
Speaker 4: I wanted to call Bain. I'm like, where the fuck
Speaker 4: did you get that picture? Like how did you get
Speaker 4: the picture? Right?
Speaker 3: So, oh, we're going to get you know, want to
Speaker 3: get on this show? Yeah? I got the t on
Speaker 3: that join all right.
Speaker 4: So so so at the end, at the end of
Speaker 4: the day, it's like, man, like, let's just get to
Speaker 4: work and not even about this and Jay or whatever.
Speaker 4: It's like, what's it saying? Sticks and stones may break
Speaker 4: your bones? But names will never army. So I mean, yeah,
Speaker 4: we got one on the chin, but you know what,
Speaker 4: we're still standing. And it's not how many times you fall,
Speaker 4: how many times you get up.
Speaker 3: Why did you decide to sell the label in ninety.
Speaker 4: Nine because I wanted, I you know, when I was
Speaker 4: selling to Sony, we willing to be the third major
Speaker 4: in the Sony system, right Columbia Epic and now it
Speaker 4: is going to be us And and it really wasn't
Speaker 4: about the money. It was more about my ego, which
Speaker 4: you know, was fucked up. I was like, all right,
Speaker 4: we're going to be the third major, and I'm going
Speaker 4: to be able to have this be on the same
Speaker 4: playing field as Jimmy as you know, as every as
Speaker 4: everybody else, because I always felt we weren't on the
Speaker 4: same playing field. And it ended up being the biggest
Speaker 4: mistake of my life.
Speaker 3: So you left in ninety nine. So like the whole
Speaker 3: Project Pat period, and that that whole.
Speaker 4: Came three six Mathia're like, we broke three six Mathild,
Speaker 4: We broke Project Pat, we broke Flip pun Past. During
Speaker 4: that time, we had Murder music. Divina was before Divina
Speaker 4: was like ninety five ninety six but ninety eight, right
Speaker 4: around the fun time, so that you know, and it
Speaker 4: was just I never played a corporate game before. You know,
Speaker 4: we went from a staff of thirty people to the coolest,
Speaker 4: most creative company out there on both aspects, on the
Speaker 4: marketing side of things and then on the record side
Speaker 4: of things. You know, we did the deal and next
Speaker 4: thing you know, I have the staff at three hundred people,
Speaker 4: and I'm like, what the fuck is this? Like there
Speaker 4: was this woman God bless us soul. Her name was
Speaker 4: Toba Hoffman, and you know, she was in the sixties,
Speaker 4: calling me mister rifkin I'm thirty five years old, thirty
Speaker 4: six years old, Like please don't call me mister Rifkett,
Speaker 4: you know, and she was just and I knew then
Speaker 4: it was like how much how much time do we
Speaker 4: have left in this fucking deal? And it was just
Speaker 4: like I was stuck for three years. I started having
Speaker 4: panic attacks and anxiety attacks. I was like, I just
Speaker 4: couldn't wait to get the fuck out. And it was
Speaker 4: the first time I didn't know which way to look
Speaker 4: because I thought I was getting hit every which way
Speaker 4: I got from corporate.
Speaker 5: Now there's another Philadelphia connection that you kind of have.
Speaker 5: My good friend Charles Stone the third, who directed many
Speaker 5: of Roots Video, made his debut with the Street classic
Speaker 5: called Paid Him Full, which is I believe one of
Speaker 5: your first loud film.
Speaker 3: Could you talk about the process of getting into the movies.
Speaker 4: Again, I didn't want to be in it. We were
Speaker 4: doing all we were doing all of Mirror Max's marketing
Speaker 4: through the marketing company. Now you know, we're branching out.
Speaker 4: Now I have every film studio MGM, Mirror Max, Warner Brothers,
Speaker 4: plus the records and the Street Team. Marketing went to
Speaker 4: Corporate America and I sold twenty five percent comp me
Speaker 4: to a company called in a Public at that time,
Speaker 4: which was the largest advertising holding company in the world. Okay,
Speaker 4: so Merri Max wants There's a guy named Scott Lambert
Speaker 4: who was an agent William Marris, who was just a
Speaker 4: really good good friend, a really good friend of mine.
Speaker 4: And he says, Merri Max wants to do urban films,
Speaker 4: like I can get you a three picture deal. And
Speaker 4: I'm like, huh, you know, he's like he was a
Speaker 4: brother to me. I'm like, got it, that's not gonna happen.
Speaker 4: Why would they give me a three picture deal? So
Speaker 4: he sets up a meeting. I don't want to say hard.
Speaker 4: I think it was Bob winste but I couldn't. I
Speaker 4: couldn't stand Bob. I already had a fight with him
Speaker 4: once and I beat this ship out of him.
Speaker 3: He meantphis, Oh yeah, yeah, all right, we have those
Speaker 3: questions too, like.
Speaker 4: I mean, he mean, he was just a fucking prick.
Speaker 4: I mean, but when the big earthquake in La happened,
Speaker 4: my office was destroyed. I had to send a reported
Speaker 4: because I don't give a fuck who died, who did who?
Speaker 5: That?
Speaker 4: And I said this, I said, the next time I
Speaker 4: see you, I promise you to smack the ship. And
Speaker 4: I hung it and I hung up the phone. A
Speaker 4: year and a half later, my son is four weeks old.
Speaker 4: He was born in June tenth July, fourth weekend, nineteen
Speaker 4: ninety five. I'm pulling off. I took a house in
Speaker 4: the Hamptons, and there's a guess. I go to take
Speaker 4: a piss and there he is here, has no idea
Speaker 4: who the fuck I am? Steve. I smacked him in
Speaker 4: the face, I said.
Speaker 5: And that is our promo, Ladies and gentlemen, Steve will
Speaker 5: be on quest Lops Supreme smacking motherfuckers up.
Speaker 3: I likes it. I like it a lot back, not
Speaker 3: just any kind in the hand.
Speaker 4: So now I got it. So now we're doing a
Speaker 4: presentation with the Vina you mentioned. So we're coming and
Speaker 4: my brother says, merrim Max is coming with Off. By
Speaker 4: the time we land was it was Dimension, which was
Speaker 4: the sister label to Merri Max. It was like the
Speaker 4: Indy side said, Jonathan, you're full of ship. We land
Speaker 4: and get to the hotel. There's a fucking contract. I
Speaker 4: don't know if my brother fortd my fucking signature. I
Speaker 4: don't even remember signing the deal. And next thing you know,
Speaker 4: I have a three picture This will happen within a week,
Speaker 4: a three picture deal. And they threw crazy fucking money
Speaker 4: at us. And then Brett Rattener says, Dame has an
Speaker 4: incredible story, right, But I go, who's gonna produced it?
Speaker 4: I don't know nothing about I don't even have to
Speaker 4: produce a record, like I'm going to now produce a
Speaker 4: fucking movie. He was, No, you gotta hire this guy Ron.
Speaker 4: We hired this guy Rock and and and the rest
Speaker 4: is history. And they you know, I'm not gonna the
Speaker 4: only thing that I did is we had the deal,
Speaker 4: but this was I gotta give credit to day Ding
Speaker 4: did everything he pictured. He did everything. I'm not trying
Speaker 4: to take his thunder. I mean he did everything. And
Speaker 4: you know, I just went for a ride. When he
Speaker 4: asked me to take my name as executive producer, I
Speaker 4: was taking my name off anyway. Was based on a
Speaker 4: true story and I didn't want any fucking heads people
Speaker 4: just coming.
Speaker 3: At it right, coming at you right.
Speaker 4: Yeah, So I was taking my name off anyway. I
Speaker 4: was like, that's not a problem.
Speaker 5: We now live in a time in which the African
Speaker 5: renaissance has truly arrived with like African music and African
Speaker 5: artists getting mainstream success.
Speaker 3: But you know, I know that you.
Speaker 5: I mean, I won't say a risk, but you were
Speaker 5: actually ahead of the game. And I believe you signed
Speaker 5: a Kon?
Speaker 3: Is you not? What was it about Akon? And you
Speaker 3: signed him early, like back in two thousand and four,
Speaker 3: two thousand and five.
Speaker 4: I believe that he was right when I left Glad,
Speaker 4: I started SRC Records right right, So I signed Banner.
Speaker 4: I'm a banner A yeah, yeah, I'm a basketball guy
Speaker 4: and I break my nose playing basketball. And the macho
Speaker 4: guy that I am like, all I really want to
Speaker 4: do is cry, but my son is watching and I
Speaker 4: want to show him, like I have blood all over me,
Speaker 4: and I want to show him that it's okay to
Speaker 4: like get hit and you don't have to cry. Meanwhile,
Speaker 4: I'm seeing three of everything. It's like, you know, if
Speaker 4: the basket's over there, I shot the ball over there
Speaker 4: right like then, I literally just I never felt paying
Speaker 4: like and I just passed out. And when they were
Speaker 4: taking me to the hospital, Kenny Burns with huh and Kenny,
Speaker 4: he goes, you got to hear this, and I'm like,
Speaker 4: what the fuck is this? And there was only one
Speaker 4: record that I wanted to hear. And I mean, there's
Speaker 4: only one record that I said, just keep on playing
Speaker 4: it over and over and over again. And my philosophy
Speaker 4: was like I never considered myself an A and R guy,
Speaker 4: Like it was always about the team.
Speaker 6: Wait, Kenny Burns said that, No, I said.
Speaker 4: Kenny had the tape and then he played with me.
Speaker 4: We were playing ball, and now I went to the
Speaker 4: hospital to get my nose ticks.
Speaker 6: Okay, I'm just I'm just tripping at Undy Burns. As
Speaker 6: a part of the Akon story, this is amazing.
Speaker 4: Okay, So in those days, I flew private MHM, and
Speaker 4: I just didn't know if I was laughed to fly.
Speaker 4: I don't know what the hell was the matter with
Speaker 4: my nose. I could have been like a full you
Speaker 4: know rain. Now I don't know what the fuck you know?
Speaker 4: They said they broke my nose and I couldn't really
Speaker 4: fly for twenty four hours for effect. So I just said,
Speaker 4: we're going to Atlanta set of New York, and I
Speaker 4: met the vine I at aicon. The rest was history,
Speaker 4: and I pretty much did the same thing. Universal laughed
Speaker 4: in my face. I said, this is gonna be the
Speaker 4: biggest office in my career, and they said, oh, this
Speaker 4: is couna be biggeran war. I'm like yeah, and they laughed,
Speaker 4: and I got so fucking mad. I was like, you
Speaker 4: know what, fuck you guys. And I had There's somebody
Speaker 4: that was with me at LAB who started off as
Speaker 4: an intern in the street team guy and then he
Speaker 4: just grew and grew and grew with me, and then
Speaker 4: when I started SC he became he was because I
Speaker 4: gave him a piece of a company me and he
Speaker 4: was my president. Got the name of his wife was
Speaker 4: pregnant at the time, and I said, God, you do
Speaker 4: the East in the South, I'll do the West in
Speaker 4: the Midwest. And we didn't have a video. We didn't
Speaker 4: have anything. He took a kN and I took a
Speaker 4: conm boo, and I mean, we may believe whoo was
Speaker 4: a kon and.
Speaker 5: We wait, wow, this is like the Little Richard James
Speaker 5: Brown situation. We're both Little Richard and James Brown. We're
Speaker 5: touring as Little Richard.
Speaker 3: I didn't okay, oh it.
Speaker 4: So we had no video. Nobody knew what any kind
Speaker 4: of looked like. And at the at the end of day,
Speaker 4: the record broke in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and so like
Speaker 4: so like you know, I fly fly into me York
Speaker 4: with the record club locked up with style.
Speaker 3: I was about to say, was locked up.
Speaker 4: Okay, right, I come to New York and this is
Speaker 4: where you know Republic was known for doing their research.
Speaker 4: I should you not. There's a fucking report like like
Speaker 4: this must have been fifty pages on every storm in
Speaker 4: Albuquerque and util. You wouldn't believe how many fucking stores
Speaker 4: that were, you know, between Target and Walmart, and the
Speaker 4: ship's going through the roof. So wise and We're like,
Speaker 4: what the fuck is going on? You know, and I'm like,
Speaker 4: I'm trying to bring it east and you know now,
Speaker 4: you know, and we had to change out philosophy because
Speaker 4: Republic was a radio company. They didn't understand street records.
Speaker 4: So I had a cover like like Philly came in, Boston,
Speaker 4: came in Connecticut, came in, Miami, came in you know,
Speaker 4: New York was the last one to come in, you know.
Speaker 4: And then who was Mother's Day? And I get a
Speaker 4: phone call from somebody who goes, what the fuck did
Speaker 4: you do in Brooklyn? I'm like, what are you talking about?
Speaker 4: We're talking about Akon, you know. And the truth is
Speaker 4: I really didn't do anything. We just we surrounded New
Speaker 4: York where it would just have to leak in and
Speaker 4: with the King's plasm mall. You know, the record was
Speaker 4: being played every fucking call, you know. That Monday, Abro
Speaker 4: calls me up and he says, we're adding the record,
Speaker 4: you know. And then two weeks later, like the research
Speaker 4: was like number one requested in like top three call out.
Speaker 4: I mean, the record broke and the right it was
Speaker 4: the first the first week, I think we scanned three
Speaker 4: thousand records. It was the lowest sound scanning record I
Speaker 4: ever had in my life. First week, but each week
Speaker 4: it didn't go three thousand to fifteen hundred. They stayed
Speaker 4: at three thousand, three thousand, two hundred, three thousand, one hundred.
Speaker 4: And when that fucking thing just took off, I mean,
Speaker 4: by by the fall, we were at sixty thousand a
Speaker 4: week and we didn't even come up lonely yet.
Speaker 3: So tired of that record.
Speaker 4: Good God.
Speaker 3: I have a confessor about Lockdown. I have an professor
Speaker 3: about Locked Up.
Speaker 5: And this is before the error sizam where you can't
Speaker 5: find out who the artist is. I swear to God
Speaker 5: for a good twenty one seconds, For good twenty.
Speaker 3: One seconds, I said, holy shit, roberta flex of the scene, yo.
Speaker 4: But yeah, but Locked Up with styles Pete was those storymix.
Speaker 3: I didn't hear his verse, but A Kon's voice was
Speaker 3: so I can't describe it.
Speaker 6: It's such a compliment to Acon, such a compliment.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and I'm saying it's androgynist, but I literally it
Speaker 5: was a woman singing, and because it was done in
Speaker 5: such a rich alto, and I never heard this voice before.
Speaker 5: For twenty seconds, I was like, hey, rich it could happen.
Speaker 5: I was like, if and Aretha Franklin working together, I was, yo, shot,
Speaker 5: let me find out that that's.
Speaker 3: ROBERTA Flag is about to come back like a motherfucker.
Speaker 5: Okay, wait before I let you go, there's one question
Speaker 5: I always ask of every label CEO, Can you tell
Speaker 5: me three x that you almost signed that were close
Speaker 5: but no Cigars.
Speaker 7: Jay Z?
Speaker 3: You could have you could have signed jay Z.
Speaker 4: B mvus hated me so much and because we took
Speaker 4: him for so much money, they didn't want to give
Speaker 4: us any more money to sign JA. I go back
Speaker 4: with Dane since he's fifteen sixteen years old when he
Speaker 4: was managing Original Flavor.
Speaker 3: Wow, Wow, so that's dope.
Speaker 1: So Jay.
Speaker 4: He wasn't an act, but he was to me one
Speaker 4: of the best executives, you know, IRV Gotti when he
Speaker 4: had Mike Geronimo. We tried to get the.
Speaker 3: Records ship.
Speaker 4: And we'll tell you this, whatever reason we couldn't get
Speaker 4: the sample cleared and then BMB is saying, you're wasting
Speaker 4: your time. And this was literally I just signed my DAP.
Speaker 4: They said, you're wasting your time and we're not going
Speaker 4: to give you the money to do it find something else.
Speaker 4: So if I didn't deal with Mike, I'm sure would
Speaker 4: ended up being with me.
Speaker 5: Are you talking about Master I See or the single
Speaker 5: that he had that was more puffy ish? No, the
Speaker 5: first single, the first Master I See, that's a goddamn masterpiece.
Speaker 3: Oh wow, jay Z and then m and you got
Speaker 3: a chance to sign him.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: But but the thing was this, if he stayed with
Speaker 4: us and I had to do with Paul Rosenberg a
Speaker 4: few weeks ago, he wouldn't have been Eminem four hundred
Speaker 4: million records later, right, he would have been eminent. He
Speaker 4: would have been Eminem fifty million records. He was an
Speaker 4: underground rapper, you know. And you talk about Genie and
Speaker 4: no Battle, right, so you're talking about him and Dray
Speaker 4: just creating magic that that you know, he would have
Speaker 4: been Bob Deep. He would have been Wu your pun.
Speaker 4: We had a pop record on. I was still how
Speaker 4: to play it, but you know he would have been
Speaker 4: just in that length. That was the only thing we
Speaker 4: knew how to do.
Speaker 3: Wow, So I know that you know what.
Speaker 5: The thing is also interesting about your story is the
Speaker 5: fact that how the lineage goes down from your grandfather,
Speaker 5: your father, you and now your your son is an MC.
Speaker 3: Correct.
Speaker 4: So my youngest both my sons played ball, you know,
Speaker 4: one played college, another one played for a famous high
Speaker 4: school out in LA and he didn't want to go
Speaker 4: to college, and out of nowhere, he just started rapping
Speaker 4: and he put out a record and shouldn't put the
Speaker 4: record out of himself, and he did you know, a
Speaker 4: few hundred thousand streams. Flex played the record on his own.
Speaker 3: Without knowing the connection, no knowing knowing the connection.
Speaker 4: But it was during the holidays, so he hit a
Speaker 4: two week run and he was going to music school
Speaker 4: in Florida full sale, and it was just you know,
Speaker 4: my son, he doesn't want to read it. He needs
Speaker 4: to see it and feel it. So he lost his
Speaker 4: love from doing like real school work. That's not him.
Speaker 4: So you know, he has twelve twelve of his friends
Speaker 4: like his crew. They're rolling in the NBA. So he's
Speaker 4: going to be an intern for Rich Paul starting December.
Speaker 3: The way you're talking about basketball, I feel like your
Speaker 3: true passion is owning a team.
Speaker 4: Or now I've lost so much money in basketball. I mean,
Speaker 4: I'll I'm just I'm just a fan now that that's
Speaker 4: all I'm I've lost tensive millions of dollars.
Speaker 3: Did you try to No, never try to own a team.
Speaker 4: But like my philosophy in life, and this is what
Speaker 4: I've learned from my dad. If I can help one
Speaker 4: one person and save their life and put him in
Speaker 4: the right direction, then I did my job on her.
Speaker 4: No money, could you know that feeling of saving somebody?
Speaker 4: You can't put a price on that. And you know,
Speaker 4: so when me and my wife split, my kids are
Speaker 4: into racial okay, and they all came out different complexion,
Speaker 4: all three of them, you know, and one came out
Speaker 4: really like skinning, like Jack the Rapper. So when we split,
Speaker 4: she moved to Florida and there's an area called Delery
Speaker 4: Beach and in this one area in Dowery Beach is
Speaker 4: probably the most gang affected in all the flower in
Speaker 4: a five block radius. And there was a gym there
Speaker 4: and she threw him in there, and she goes, you
Speaker 4: got to learn how to stand on your own. And
Speaker 4: she wouldn't let me go to any games. And then
Speaker 4: finally like I didn't know what au was or anything
Speaker 4: like that, and then I don't know where I think
Speaker 4: she was coming out to. I don't know where she
Speaker 4: was going but she goes, oh, you got to pick
Speaker 4: the ballots at two o'clock as a game at twelve,
Speaker 4: I get there one to watch the game, and I
Speaker 4: knew he was gifted and then, but I didn't know
Speaker 4: that he had two of the games at night, you know,
Speaker 4: one at six and one and nine. I was in
Speaker 4: heaven and I just started going to the games, and
Speaker 4: you know, they respected him for who he was, and
Speaker 4: I just minded my own business. I wasn't gonna try
Speaker 4: and buy a team. But I didn't know that he
Speaker 4: was eleven and he was playing on a fourteen on
Speaker 4: the team and they didn't win a game. Right but now,
Speaker 4: and he wasn't talking to me with me and his
Speaker 4: mom separating, but now he was back in my life.
Speaker 4: And I said to the coach, I said, the season
Speaker 4: can't be over, and he still, well, you know it's over.
Speaker 4: I'm like, you got to find something. I go, he was, well,
Speaker 4: there's a tournament next week for twelve and under team.
Speaker 4: I said, well, alex is eleven. How old to say?
Speaker 4: And like, we end up putting six guys on the team.
Speaker 4: He goes, who will, coach? I said, I will. He says,
Speaker 4: what do you know about basketball? I said enough, I
Speaker 4: should you not? I go seventy and oh that whole
Speaker 4: fucking song seven zero. So Florida is known for football.
Speaker 4: I know nothing about football. Half my team of professional
Speaker 4: football players right now. So they were just the best
Speaker 4: athletes in the world. And I just had him pressed
Speaker 4: and they could all shoot the shit out of the
Speaker 4: ball and jump and they were how old was Alas?
Speaker 4: He was eleven to twelve at that time, right, yeah?
Speaker 4: And I really thought I was going to become a
Speaker 4: professional basketball coach, like I had him traveling. We won States,
Speaker 4: we won Nationals, we won the World Games, and I
Speaker 4: just thought I'm taking on challenges. And then I get
Speaker 4: a phone called to buy a tournament, which is like
Speaker 4: a record convention, And just like one thing led to another,
Speaker 4: and I mean, I lost my shirt. But at the
Speaker 4: end of the day, that is my happiness. Music, right,
Speaker 4: Music is the closest thing to God right right, make
Speaker 4: your laughing and make you cry, just your memories, It
Speaker 4: just it touches your soul. Sure, and basketball just it
Speaker 4: just touches me too. Where I get fucking crazy, do you.
Speaker 3: Still get an itching or like just one more hit?
Speaker 3: Metaphorically speaking as in drugs not like a hit single,
Speaker 3: but just is I mean, are you addicted at all
Speaker 3: to the adrenaline? Yeah, I'm finding that rare Jim.
Speaker 4: So I got. I got this kid right now, same
Speaker 4: as Take forty five from San Diego, California, eighteen years old,
Speaker 4: self contained, produces himself. He had eight monthly uses on
Speaker 4: Spotify and now he's closing in and I want to
Speaker 4: say a little under two hundred thousand. He had twenty
Speaker 4: five who was on TikTok and we're closing in on
Speaker 4: three hundred thousand files and all this kid is just
Speaker 4: keep on putting out music and putting out music, and
Speaker 4: his energy is fucking ridiculous. And people will say to me,
Speaker 4: it's you know, it's nothing what people are used to
Speaker 4: be putting out. But you know what, my old day,
Speaker 4: one of my old day in our guys on the
Speaker 4: West Coast brought it to me and it's it's it's different.
Speaker 4: He's self contained. And each day we're going up slowly
Speaker 4: and he's gonna break. I just don't know when I
Speaker 4: don't know how to read records. Yeah, but the adrenaline
Speaker 4: that I get every day and just seeing it if
Speaker 4: we're up ten streams or a thousand streams, or getting
Speaker 4: on a new playlist I have. I was sick for
Speaker 4: a while. I had a mess heart attack eight years ago.
Speaker 4: That's why you lost the weight. No, I just was
Speaker 4: away because I don't want to get another heart attack.
Speaker 6: That's what That's what I'm meant, that's what I'm in.
Speaker 4: So yeah, I was sent three times.
Speaker 6: Oh man, what was that like?
Speaker 3: Was it just overworking? Was it stress?
Speaker 4: It was never going to the doctor and not taking
Speaker 4: care of myself. If I went to a doctor and said, hey,
Speaker 4: your blood pressure is high, you gotta do something. You
Speaker 4: gotta lose ten times. You gotta do this, you gotta
Speaker 4: do that. But it was I'm not blaming my x y,
Speaker 4: I'm not blaming anybody. It was just me not taking
Speaker 4: care of myself. You could say stress, you could say that.
Speaker 4: You could say that, but it was just you got
Speaker 4: to know your body and you got to just take
Speaker 4: care of yourself.
Speaker 3: You know, you got to make yourself a priority.
Speaker 4: And that's what it is.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know you are learning that in the pandemic.
Speaker 3: Thank god.
Speaker 4: No, you can't be a victim. And you know, and
Speaker 4: just like who wants to hear a victim story?
Speaker 5: At least not of your own self, so you don't
Speaker 5: feel like a stranger in the strange land in terms
Speaker 5: of like.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I do, I have no idea? What the fuck?
Speaker 3: Okay?
Speaker 6: Good?
Speaker 4: I mean, I have no truth. I call the Empire
Speaker 4: distributes us guys. Who is the smartest guy in the
Speaker 4: music business. I don't want to bother him, so I
Speaker 4: speak to him, like what can I do today? Like
Speaker 4: I used to make a clall shoot, right, two hundred
Speaker 4: people be some mix guys by streeting guys.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 4: I got five guys, right, and they all work with me?
Speaker 4: Who are all at the DSPs. I mean I sit
Speaker 4: here like just twiddling my fucking thumbs and I'll take
Speaker 4: a nap at three o'clock.
Speaker 3: But I'm just saying that today, Like how is it
Speaker 3: different now promoting? Especially with the internet at the helm
Speaker 3: you have no word of the internet in the early nineties.
Speaker 4: But you have nobody promotes to Like you can't promote,
Speaker 4: you can't promote Spotify the record. They don't want the
Speaker 4: record on the radio yet. So my day was today.
Speaker 4: I got him a booking agent at UTA, right, mm hmm.
Speaker 4: And I was really excited to do your thing. So
Speaker 4: I went to lunch, made a few calls, and just
Speaker 4: thinking about the podcast all day.
Speaker 3: Sound like freedom to make That's a dope day.
Speaker 5: Wait a minute, I'm gonna get crushed if I don't
Speaker 5: ask one to asker roth question.
Speaker 3: Oh all right, could you talk about your your your
Speaker 3: work with and Scooter?
Speaker 4: I mean at as great as the ASHU was. I
Speaker 4: know he's from Pennsylvania, you know, right. The guy the
Speaker 4: name of Jerry Clark introduced me to Scooter. I was
Speaker 4: in Atlanta and Scooter, I think was still in college
Speaker 4: mm hm. And he just reminded me a little of myself.
Speaker 4: I thought he was a little bit more full of shit,
Speaker 4: but I thought he was brilliant. And I offered him
Speaker 4: to become president of company with no experience huh.
Speaker 3: And he gave Scooter his start.
Speaker 4: I gave Scooter his first record.
Speaker 6: Yip.
Speaker 3: Yeah, shit.
Speaker 5: Now I feel like there's a question that I should
Speaker 5: be asking that I don't know to ask, because again
Speaker 5: you keep on pulling these historical.
Speaker 4: I gave so this, this is what I'm proud of.
Speaker 4: I gave Scooter his his first record deal with I
Speaker 4: gave guy Siri. I got him his first deal with Henji,
Speaker 4: and evil ly with Ruber and Rodriguez at Pendelum America.
Speaker 3: Wait what so I just didn't start at Maverick.
Speaker 4: Guy was eighteen years old.
Speaker 3: You gave oh shit, Okay.
Speaker 4: No, I didn't. I didn't sign him. I made the
Speaker 4: deal for guy.
Speaker 3: So guy was was managing Henji. Yeah, e belie at
Speaker 3: the age of eighteen.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you're I think at the age of sixty. And
Speaker 4: I begged him to go lists an independent record company
Speaker 4: and he said no.
Speaker 3: Wow, okay, all right, gods another So it was another one.
Speaker 3: I want one more at like, give me some more.
Speaker 3: Start bragging. Brag on yourself. This is minory moment.
Speaker 4: I mean, I can't brag on myself. But you know Scooter,
Speaker 4: I opened him to become president of s r C.
Speaker 4: He said no. I said the guy, let's start a
Speaker 4: record company. He said no, And I made the deal
Speaker 4: and then on and that's you know, and then me
Speaker 4: you know me raz and fetch up you know those
Speaker 4: you got it them?
Speaker 6: Can I ask you an awkward question that probably nobody
Speaker 6: ever asked? Was it ever awkward to have that many
Speaker 6: five percent on the labels?
Speaker 3: Thank you good night, Dante? Also, I mean the black.
Speaker 6: Maid has got it the White Maiden's Devil.
Speaker 4: They were all on my wedding. I mean I never
Speaker 4: thought about it, just now, like and it never came
Speaker 4: to my you.
Speaker 6: Know, I also asked that to know. I wanted to
Speaker 6: know at some point, where the where did they stop
Speaker 6: because I feel like also at a certain point you're
Speaker 6: helping to make money too, so.
Speaker 3: You don't how much. But that's interesting. Yeah, you never
Speaker 3: with the bag.
Speaker 4: The only one that we had issues with was that press.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I forgot about the press.
Speaker 4: But at the end of the day, I probably handled
Speaker 4: it wrong. It was my my ego was hurt. It
Speaker 4: was like, how the fuck are they not trust me?
Speaker 3: Are you serious?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 3: I mean I mean were the first record? Were you
Speaker 3: there for the second album?
Speaker 4: No?
Speaker 5: I can tell okay, Oh no, I wish I wish
Speaker 5: that second that second album should have blown up, and
Speaker 5: it didn't.
Speaker 4: But you know, but then you look at you know,
Speaker 4: m p any up. You know it's just like those
Speaker 4: are records to this day, you know that still give
Speaker 4: me goosebumps.
Speaker 3: Yeah, stay around forever. No, I mean, this is the
Speaker 3: first time I think you and I are talking, man,
Speaker 3: But I've heard them, but stand up.
Speaker 5: Things about you and you know, all the respect that
Speaker 5: you had, and this is like a long, long, long, long,
Speaker 5: overdue conversation. Man, I thank you for coming on the show.
Speaker 4: You in New York? Are you? And l A?
Speaker 3: I'm currently in New York. The next time we got
Speaker 3: to go to dinner, no doubt, no doubt.
Speaker 7: Well that's right, you got a daughter too, Right, where
Speaker 7: do you guys want to go for dinner?
Speaker 1: I'll set it up and.
Speaker 3: Wait, So good Bill, nothing, no questions.
Speaker 7: Well, I just I mean, Steve, it sounds like like
Speaker 7: you made a lot of close friends and and a
Speaker 7: lot of people hate you, which makes you an authentic Steve.
Speaker 7: So congratulations on that. And but what a great career
Speaker 7: I mean, no, just just too much, too much to process.
Speaker 3: Incredible.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I really wish I was there at Radio City
Speaker 5: for that night at uh celebration.
Speaker 4: That night was so fucking special. I mean it was.
Speaker 4: I mean, I think it was Ex's last performance. It was,
Speaker 4: and it was right before everything shut down.
Speaker 3: Yep, yep, it was amazing.
Speaker 4: I was in a radio City would never be the
Speaker 4: same after that. They they never saw so many people
Speaker 4: backstage and in their life.
Speaker 3: I also wanted to know how that was organized and
Speaker 3: what not.
Speaker 5: Well on behalf of Siga, Steven and Bill and Fan
Speaker 5: Diegelo and Laya, the Great, the Great Steve Rifkin.
Speaker 3: Yes, thank you, Supreme.
Speaker 4: This was amazing. Oh I didn't talk too much.
Speaker 3: No, we live for Rabbit, Holy trust?
Speaker 4: What is that?
Speaker 3: What are those works?
Speaker 2: They go together?
Speaker 4: Talk too much?
Speaker 3: We don't know.
Speaker 5: So until next time, ladies and gentlemen, and I promise
Speaker 5: you that I will have better camera working and Steve
Speaker 5: look professional. I'm just I feel like a drunk here.
Speaker 5: But anyway, thank you for doing our shows.
Speaker 7: You're getting You're not a drunk, but you're getting high
Speaker 7: too much.
Speaker 3: All right, We'll see you on the next go around.
Speaker 3: Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen.
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