Speaker 1: R and B money.
Speaker 2: We are.
Speaker 3: Thanks, take out the child. We are the authority on
Speaker 3: all things R and B. Ladies and gentlemen, my name
Speaker 3: is Tank.
Speaker 4: Everybody podcast the A Thorty on all things r.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, I have been waiting.
Speaker 3: I have been prayed.
Speaker 2: The time has come.
Speaker 3: I have been I have been hoping.
Speaker 1: I said, Lord, if you send us anybody, send us that.
Speaker 3: Name doesn't mean it doesn't doesn't name name one of
Speaker 3: the coldst ever.
Speaker 1: That's simple, ladies and gentlemen, mister Rob, I want to
Speaker 1: do this because to me, to my brother Jay, what's
Speaker 1: going on, this is this is really special. I want
Speaker 1: to let you know that. And so for me, I
Speaker 1: have a bottle of champagne. Come on, what you're gonna Donna?
Speaker 2: I was wanting to celebrate.
Speaker 3: I wouldn't like to because we we we've been talking
Speaker 3: about this for a while.
Speaker 2: They got to stop me from celebrating.
Speaker 5: You know, they don't they don't earned Listen, you have
Speaker 5: earned the right to celebrate one of your favorite songs.
Speaker 3: Come on, it's a celebrate this another I have I have.
Speaker 1: You know, we've talked about this and we've at the
Speaker 1: time will come, and the time has come. And this
Speaker 1: is not and the time is right better late than never.
Speaker 1: This is in God's own time. The universe is saw
Speaker 1: fit for this to be the moment. Yes, and what
Speaker 1: we're gonna do is that's that, Mama, Lord, what we're
Speaker 1: gonna do. We're gonna pop.
Speaker 3: I told you the muscle. I told you, sir, it was.
Speaker 3: Your shirt was all nicely iron. Now you're just ruined.
Speaker 3: The want your shirt. I saw you walking in. I
Speaker 3: opened that looking like you've been doing dishes.
Speaker 2: Now and stuffs.
Speaker 3: Open up at the bottom of your your shirt. Any
Speaker 3: by any means necessary, you've.
Speaker 4: Been just that your pain, not not yet not your brother,
Speaker 4: travel to meet it.
Speaker 2: Get us right, championship.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I don't know if you know, but those are R
Speaker 3: and B glasses my brother money. It was money. You
Speaker 3: know glasses say R B money on them. They don't.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes they do, My lord from.
Speaker 1: The United Center, Come on, United Chicago, United, the United
Speaker 1: Center gave us our own glasses, our own Uh.
Speaker 3: Yeah. The house that Michael Jordan's in, the house that
Speaker 3: R and B Money lives in.
Speaker 1: This is this is this is for us. You being here, brother,
Speaker 1: it means the world to us. Man, we have been fans,
Speaker 1: and we have been brothers for a long time. Man,
Speaker 1: but today we get to celebrate you, man, the way
Speaker 1: we've always wanted to.
Speaker 3: Man. You know, R and B runs in my blood. Man,
Speaker 3: what's my name? R O B.
Speaker 1: Come on now, all, I'm gonna take you back to
Speaker 1: the beginning. I'm gonna take you back to the beginning.
Speaker 1: There's a there's a there's a good friend of mine
Speaker 1: by the name of Dreno, and Dreino says to me, Nicole,
Speaker 1: I got I got some I got some shoes. You
Speaker 1: need to hear. He about to kill every body, to
Speaker 1: kill everybody.
Speaker 3: Was crazy.
Speaker 1: I was like, let me, let me hear this person
Speaker 1: who's supposed to be messing with me and all of
Speaker 1: my R and B constituents. And he begins to play
Speaker 1: this song. Oh god, he's the man, he said. It
Speaker 1: hadn't even dropped yet, because I'm going to bring a
Speaker 1: full circle for you. That was the late Great Andre
Speaker 1: heralds cousin O'Neil Dreno. Okay, who is playing this music
Speaker 1: for me? He said, Andre has him has the one
Speaker 1: and and he showed me a picture.
Speaker 3: Of you with with the Lord Jesus.
Speaker 1: With the whip and I said, he's going to kill him,
Speaker 1: all of them.
Speaker 3: And I had I had never heard anything like that before.
Speaker 3: And I was going for the first album.
Speaker 2: I wanted to just make something that never existed, bro,
Speaker 2: and that was that was a fun album to make. Man.
Speaker 1: I think it was like, you know, because I think
Speaker 1: we all have we all have a natural judgment when
Speaker 1: it comes to things and all, and it all starts
Speaker 1: from it all starts from the look in the appearance.
Speaker 1: And it's like when I first when I saw the picture,
Speaker 1: I heard the music first, then I saw the picture,
Speaker 1: I'm like, how how the fuck did that happen? Because
Speaker 1: I'm saying, I'm saying this like almost like disco esque
Speaker 1: vibe with the with with the with the with the
Speaker 1: Tony Montana.
Speaker 3: So I'm like, what is this? And how is he
Speaker 3: doing that?
Speaker 7: How?
Speaker 3: How are you doing that? Robin right on the back cover,
Speaker 3: right like.
Speaker 1: Take me to the beginning to where you even where
Speaker 1: you even start constructing the fibers and the textures that
Speaker 1: that design who you are.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, the funny thing is, you know, I
Speaker 2: come from six generations of musicians. My grandfather was a
Speaker 2: jazz trumpet player. His father was a jazz trumpet player.
Speaker 2: My dad was a soulful guy, you know, love to
Speaker 2: write songs, love to sing h you know, wrote with
Speaker 2: Richard Pryor and you know, and all these kind of things.
Speaker 2: So my dad was a soulful guy and enlightened for
Speaker 2: his time, you know. And my mom her number one
Speaker 2: song was Friends and Lovers in the eighties with Carl Anderson,
Speaker 2: a black R and B singer.
Speaker 3: So all of this this stuff has been built.
Speaker 2: I joked that my family's been trying to be black
Speaker 2: from sixth generations, and I'm just to get it.
Speaker 3: Right, you know what I mean. We made it. We
Speaker 3: made it, Joe Shit, we did it, Joe, It did it?
Speaker 4: Joe.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I mean I love.
Speaker 2: I really loved the culture just as a kid. I mean,
Speaker 2: whether it was Eddie Murphy or or you know, Michael
Speaker 2: Jackson and Prince And when I was a seven between
Speaker 2: seven and twelve years old, it was all black music,
Speaker 2: black culture, and and then and then rap music and
Speaker 2: then then hip hop and then when Joe Desy and
Speaker 2: Boys to Men and that era happened. I was thirteen
Speaker 2: and I was very impressionable, and I was in a
Speaker 2: singing group with three other black guys, and it was
Speaker 2: all legit. It just you know, And so my whole
Speaker 2: life and my whole culture has been black music and
Speaker 2: black culture. And when you come to my shows, it's
Speaker 2: ninety percent black people. Like it's not even you know,
Speaker 2: that's just, oh, we were as one as one, you know, fourteen,
Speaker 2: because we're all black. And I'm fourteen years old and
Speaker 2: I'm wearing a double breasted Steve Harvey suit and I
Speaker 2: got a cigar in my hand and my hair slicked.
Speaker 3: Back, gangster like, you know. So I've always been what
Speaker 3: I am, you know. And I love R and B.
Speaker 2: I love really soul music, R and B music, hip
Speaker 2: hop music, black coach, black comedy I watched, I watched
Speaker 2: B e T. I showed up to school with the
Speaker 2: Jet magazine when I was fourteen.
Speaker 3: Out of here. We all grew up on the Jet
Speaker 3: Beauty a week, Beauty a week No my mom.
Speaker 2: To have that, got to check it out when I
Speaker 2: was fourteen. So and you know, then then being married
Speaker 2: to Paula Patten and just you know, my whole life
Speaker 2: has been embedded in the black experience in black culture,
Speaker 2: and that's that's where I belong.
Speaker 1: You know, it was you know in hearing that in
Speaker 1: your first entry, it was like there was no there
Speaker 1: was no try, there was no there was nothing extra
Speaker 1: on it. It was very author I was like, I
Speaker 1: was like, where is he from?
Speaker 2: I don't want to go nowhere else because.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's he's not living a lot. He's telling the
Speaker 1: truth in this music. What he's doing.
Speaker 2: I mean, I got I got the same guy in
Speaker 2: me that you know that the Baptist Church got in
Speaker 2: and you know what I mean. Whatever it is like
Speaker 2: like we feel the music, we feel the soul, we
Speaker 2: feel the pain, we feel the history, We understand the
Speaker 2: journey where we need to support each other, we need
Speaker 2: to believe in each other. We need to you know,
Speaker 2: stay on the right paths and and and just be
Speaker 2: a family. Like when I go to the BT Awards
Speaker 2: or something like that, that's like a family reunion for me,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean.
Speaker 3: And that's that's just who I am. And it's always
Speaker 3: been real to me. Yeah, when did is your is your?
Speaker 2: Is?
Speaker 1: You're coming up in this family of so many generations
Speaker 1: of of of really incredible musicians. When does someone point
Speaker 1: out that you are actually going to continue in that line?
Speaker 1: When does somebody say oh he's got it too.
Speaker 2: Well, I think it doesn't. I'm sorry, how do you mean,
Speaker 2: like at what age.
Speaker 3: Did did did you discovered or did or did somebody
Speaker 3: say you have it?
Speaker 2: Well? It started with you know, my good friend Tabiso
Speaker 2: and Kye, who ended up writing hit songs and being
Speaker 2: a music manager and a music publisher. And he was
Speaker 2: the first. He was when I was fourteen. He was
Speaker 2: in the group with me as one.
Speaker 3: He was my group.
Speaker 2: Tab was in that group, you know Tab. So this
Speaker 2: is what so Tab was my first So Tab had
Speaker 2: Tab told me how to take pictures, how to go
Speaker 2: into the office. We would go to the office and
Speaker 2: I would sing jodasy and commissioned songs.
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, yeah, I am here. Yeah, running back to you,
Speaker 3: running back Yeah yeah.
Speaker 2: It starts with Tab.
Speaker 3: He becomes mine.
Speaker 2: This is how you're go I started dressing like him.
Speaker 2: I started, you know what I mean, like he was
Speaker 2: like he was just this is stuff. You know how
Speaker 2: long I've known Tab? Yeah, and this is the first
Speaker 2: time ever hearing this story.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's my brother.
Speaker 2: And then so then we did some demos that got
Speaker 2: heard by Tricky Stewart's camp. M So I go in
Speaker 2: the studio at fifteen years old writing with Tricky Stewart.
Speaker 2: So this is how much information I'm getting as a
Speaker 2: fourteen to fifteen year old songwriter and singer. Then next
Speaker 2: door working to Tricky Stewart is Brian mckknight, who I
Speaker 2: had studied. Brian McKnight's whole first album that was a
Speaker 2: huge album and a huge influence on me. Brian, here's
Speaker 2: what I'm doing with Tricky. He brings me in. He
Speaker 2: signs me to his record label at Interscope Records when
Speaker 2: I'm sixteen years old. So now I'm writing with Tricky Stewart,
Speaker 2: I'm working with Brian mckknight. Then Jordan Knight from New
Speaker 2: Kids on the Block. Here's the work I'm doing with
Speaker 2: Brian McKnight. I go in the studio with him, I produce,
Speaker 2: I write and produce his whole first solo album. And
Speaker 2: guess who Jordan Knight takes me around to work with
Speaker 2: and be in the studio with Jimmy jam and Terry Lewis,
Speaker 2: Walter Affinasif Raphael Sadik, I'm seventeen years old, he A'm
Speaker 2: seventeen eighteen years old, and I'm writing with all and
Speaker 2: producing with all of those guys.
Speaker 3: So the I went to school.
Speaker 2: I went to Harvard and yale A Music when I
Speaker 2: was sixteen, seventeen, eighteen years old. Brian McKnight, you know,
Speaker 2: I mean, the Take six would come by and be
Speaker 2: singing Army. I'm just sitting there learning, just listening watching.
Speaker 2: I mean, and Take six is how I learned how
Speaker 2: to riff the main group that I that I studied,
Speaker 2: and that's when why when Brian and I came out,
Speaker 2: we were also excited because I was a huge Take
Speaker 2: six man.
Speaker 3: But I learned every Take six song and riff. That
Speaker 3: was it. That was the training that was that was
Speaker 3: done right there. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2: Once you learn how to sing Take six, you could
Speaker 2: sing anything. You can sing anything anything.
Speaker 3: Well, are you actually going to school at this point too?
Speaker 4: There?
Speaker 3: Are you are? You know?
Speaker 2: I was out my senior year. I decided to move
Speaker 2: out my senior year. My dad was very disappointed. Shout
Speaker 2: out to Alan Thick, we love you and miss you.
Speaker 5: Dropped out because I had a record deal, I had
Speaker 5: a publishing y Jody saying yeah pretty much.
Speaker 2: No. No.
Speaker 3: What I did was I got the tutor and like
Speaker 3: and like paid three hundred dollars for the tutor to
Speaker 3: give me a bee, you know what I mean. And
Speaker 3: then I just showed up a graduation and with the
Speaker 3: cabin gown and all that. Everybody was like, what hell
Speaker 3: you doing a day? You were here like the first
Speaker 3: week in September and they had come back like.
Speaker 7: You ain't paid at three hundred read my god right here.
Speaker 3: So so yeah, so I just snuck out.
Speaker 2: But really my senior year, I already had a record deal,
Speaker 2: I had a publishing deal. I was in the studio,
Speaker 2: you know, ten twelve hours a day with these kind
Speaker 2: of talents, you're professional. Yeah, I mean I was in
Speaker 2: and the training that you know here those ten thousand hours,
Speaker 2: the outliers theory and stuff. I got ten thousand hours
Speaker 2: by the time I was twenty one, and then it
Speaker 2: was time for me to focus on my own career.
Speaker 2: And then who comes into my life? Andre around because
Speaker 2: I knew what to do.
Speaker 3: I didn't know.
Speaker 2: I'm not saying I was having a great time as
Speaker 2: a songwriting producer, but I didn't know who I was
Speaker 2: going to be as an artist. And the album that
Speaker 2: I made with Brian Knight by the time we started,
Speaker 2: when I'm sixteen. But by the time I'm nineteen, Jimmy
Speaker 2: I mean, was like.
Speaker 3: You know what it it's okay, it's good.
Speaker 2: I give it a B plus, you know, but we're
Speaker 2: not going to spend a lot of money promoting and baa.
Speaker 2: I was like, you know it, don't even put it
Speaker 2: out shelfit.
Speaker 3: I'm out of here.
Speaker 2: Let me go work on myself and and figure out
Speaker 2: who I'm going to be as an artist. Then Andrea Herrel,
Speaker 2: like the angel comes into my life. Teaches me how
Speaker 2: to walk and talk it, how to connect with people
Speaker 2: instead of just paint, how to make the painting connect
Speaker 2: you know what I mean, And how to be a
Speaker 2: part of the culture. Executive. He taught me, you know,
Speaker 2: he took me shopping, he bought me, you know, he
Speaker 2: told me what music. So he walked in with the
Speaker 2: fifth of Beethoven. He when I was making the album,
Speaker 2: he said, you know this Saturday Fever album. He said this,
Speaker 2: this is the kind of sound. This disco. Everybody loves
Speaker 2: this go just go last for everybody. Want to celebrate,
Speaker 2: everybody want to dance, listen to this album. So I'm
Speaker 2: listening to the album and first thing that camera mout
Speaker 2: I wrote that in about ten minutes, you know, and
Speaker 2: that ended up being.
Speaker 3: The first single of my artistic career. You know, did
Speaker 3: you did I perform that song? I do now.
Speaker 2: Sometimes, but I didn't. I didn't perform it live in
Speaker 2: our shows.
Speaker 3: No, why not?
Speaker 2: I know, I probably should all the time? What I
Speaker 2: probably should all the time?
Speaker 3: Shoot?
Speaker 2: Well, you shooter most of the time. Yeah. Oh, the
Speaker 2: set's different. The set's different since I, uh, what, yeah,
Speaker 2: we do that, we do that usually.
Speaker 3: Said, this guy's been robbed before. Guys had to be
Speaker 3: And I was in.
Speaker 2: The bank when it got robbed. Yeah, I was laying down.
Speaker 2: The whole story is true. Hold on what that whole song?
Speaker 2: I was eighteen years old, Paula was sitting in the
Speaker 2: car outside waiting.
Speaker 3: I was.
Speaker 2: I went in to get like three hundred dollars, but
Speaker 2: we're going to go to Santa Barbara to my dad's
Speaker 2: ranch and spend the weekend together. A romantic eighteen year old,
Speaker 2: you know, get away and I go in the bank
Speaker 2: and all of a sudden, they get get down on
Speaker 2: the floor, but get the buck on the floor. I
Speaker 2: turn around. Three guys. One's coming right. He points the
Speaker 2: gun right at me because I'm standing at the counter.
Speaker 2: He points the gun right at me. I get down.
Speaker 2: Of course, he comes to the counter, he hops over
Speaker 2: the counter, you know, goes for the money. And then
Speaker 2: the rest of the story that develops. Lady walks into
Speaker 2: a shotgun surprise. A lady walked in to the guy
Speaker 2: that had a shot gun at the front door. Every
Speaker 2: word of that song is true. The fuck out of
Speaker 2: here at eighteen, story at eighteen. And then you know,
Speaker 2: luckily nobody was hurt in the end. But when even
Speaker 2: when I say when I say, lady walks into a
Speaker 2: shocking surprise, drops down to her knees, saw her life
Speaker 2: for her eyes. He said, bitch, she's gonna get at.
Speaker 2: Everybody going regret it. I'm your That was he did.
Speaker 2: He said, if anybody moves this, bitch is gonna get
Speaker 2: so those all those words in this song are true.
Speaker 3: My hands up, my hands up. They want me with
Speaker 3: my hands up?
Speaker 2: No shooter.
Speaker 1: Wow, I never knew that that might be the best
Speaker 1: songwriting story that I've ever heard.
Speaker 2: Write your life the second verse just for the funny
Speaker 2: it because that's what we're doing. The second verse is
Speaker 2: thiefs flying off at the mouth talking about dumping and
Speaker 2: wetting me something because they were like, you're about to
Speaker 2: get dumped on.
Speaker 3: You're just about to get wet up in here. And
Speaker 3: I'm like these white people don't know what translator. I'm like,
Speaker 3: lucky on me. I'm like I told you I'm part
Speaker 3: of the cultures. I'm I'm like, I know a dumbing
Speaker 3: and wedding is. But again, but lay down, guys.
Speaker 2: What they're saying, yeah, okay, everyone, they're trying to They
Speaker 2: just want you to lay down.
Speaker 3: You're gonna get dumped on and get wet on. Okay,
Speaker 3: I mean shooting. You don't want that. They're gonna shoot,
Speaker 3: and none of us want that to happen. Are you
Speaker 3: kidding me? Yeah?
Speaker 2: That's a great part of art, man, is that it
Speaker 2: can come from anywhere. And when I was younger, I
Speaker 2: really challenged myself for those kind of things.
Speaker 1: Give me your energy as this album drops, because I
Speaker 1: think the album the album dropped and the first single,
Speaker 1: of course, where we all heard the first single, but
Speaker 1: comparatively speaking, this wasn't the blast off as we as
Speaker 1: we as we know hindsight looking.
Speaker 2: Correct, this is where the magic happens.
Speaker 1: What was your where are you artistically? And even mentally
Speaker 1: after this project drops, because there's still so much work
Speaker 1: to do, even with this great music you have.
Speaker 2: Well, what happened was there was so much hype in
Speaker 2: Andrea Herrel connecting me to the most fabulous people in
Speaker 2: in you know the world. At times, I was very
Speaker 2: ahead of my accomplishments.
Speaker 3: I had.
Speaker 2: All of the cool people were listening to it. Jay
Speaker 2: Z was listening to it, Forarre was listening to it.
Speaker 2: Usher had it. You know, every they all had it
Speaker 2: because Andre had was friends with all of them, so
Speaker 2: it was easy for him to get all of the
Speaker 2: coolest people in music.
Speaker 3: Mariah had it.
Speaker 2: So I threw a Halloween party before the album came out.
Speaker 2: Naomi Campbell was there, but Mariah Carey was there, Paul
Speaker 2: Thomas Sanderson and the movie director Mariah Maria's is the
Speaker 2: Halloween party. Maria's got pom poms and she's dancing on
Speaker 2: the dance floor till you know three am. So we've
Speaker 2: got oh Seal was there, So yeah, so, and we're
Speaker 2: just listening to my album before it even comes out
Speaker 2: in my studio at my house at top of Blue
Speaker 2: Jay Way, you know what I mean. So I was
Speaker 2: so I thought I was about to beat that thing,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean. I'm you know, so then
Speaker 2: all of a sudden it drops, sales don't happen.
Speaker 3: I go to Jimmy, I'm you know.
Speaker 2: Months later, I'm like, Jimmy, don't feel like you you know,
Speaker 2: with support of the record, Jimmy goes in, he goes
Speaker 2: tell me, tell me the Robin Dick numbers. Tell me
Speaker 2: the numbers on Robin Dick goes six million, six million.
Speaker 2: I spent on this, you know whatever it is, so
Speaker 2: so everyone believed. Everyone believed it doesn't hit, it doesn't sell.
Speaker 2: Culturally praised, uh, Rolling Stone magazine said it was Marvin
Speaker 2: Gaye backed by Radiohead, and you know, so so we
Speaker 2: had that, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3: But but then what happens next is I go through Uh?
Speaker 2: Who am I without success? What am I going to
Speaker 2: be in this world? If if my music doesn't hit?
Speaker 2: I was born to do this and and everyone said
Speaker 2: it was going to be a big success and I
Speaker 2: had all the right people around me, and it still
Speaker 2: didn't hit.
Speaker 3: What what do I do now?
Speaker 2: And that is the evolution of Robin Thick. All those
Speaker 2: songs were written. Next, I got to be down with
Speaker 2: Faith's evans. I'm too complicated?
Speaker 3: Would that make you love me?
Speaker 2: I'm lost without you. I got to ask myself what
Speaker 2: I'm going to be.
Speaker 3: You know what I mean? I need love.
Speaker 2: Can you believe when all hope is gone? I need
Speaker 2: to look to the sky lonely world. Don't you worry, babe?
Speaker 2: How will you get by angels?
Speaker 3: You know what I mean. You are in a space, maam.
Speaker 2: And that's when the magic happened, man. And that's those
Speaker 2: are the best songs in the best moment, you know.
Speaker 2: That's those songs are hard to repeat, and yet they
Speaker 2: mean even more to me today, after twenty years later,
Speaker 2: of everything I've been through. They're even more powerful to
Speaker 2: me today when I sing them, Absolutely yeah, because I
Speaker 2: spoke it before it happened. Lonely World, those lyrics are
Speaker 2: pretty much the story of me meeting my new lady,
Speaker 2: you know, my relationship with my son, all before it
Speaker 2: ever happened. All these things spoke into existence and then
Speaker 2: manifested in the next twenty years.
Speaker 3: We need a song process for a loss without you.
Speaker 3: We need a process. What was the process?
Speaker 2: That was a quick one where with my bass player
Speaker 2: Sean Hurley, who ended up working with John Mayer for
Speaker 2: twenty years and one of the most amazing musicians I've
Speaker 2: ever worked with. And he just comes over and you're like,
Speaker 2: got this little thing, and he goes, diod Oh and
Speaker 2: my my producing partner of twenty years from the beginning,
Speaker 2: pro J, shout out to Proj and he does everything
Speaker 2: to me. He grabs the the sweeper that you use
Speaker 2: to sweep out the fireplace, and right next to it
Speaker 2: while Chris Sean Hurley's playing and I'm singing, he goes
Speaker 2: and that we recorded to I said, that's so cool.
Speaker 2: That's so it's actually a fireplace sweeper. Is the shaker
Speaker 2: on Loss Without You? But yeah, So about a couple
Speaker 2: of weeks later, I started thinking to myself. I was
Speaker 2: trying to write the verses, and I actually thought, I
Speaker 2: was like, you know, if I was writing for Usher
Speaker 2: or something, because I really wanted to be a big,
Speaker 2: big hit, you know, and usually I just kind of
Speaker 2: go to art up and I was like, if I
Speaker 2: was writing this for Usher, how would I do the
Speaker 2: verses because I just worked with Usher on his project
Speaker 2: blah blah blah. So so I kind of wrote the
Speaker 2: verses thinking that I was writing for usher.
Speaker 3: How funny is that smash? Some mash smash?
Speaker 5: So okay, So all these years you put in your
Speaker 5: twenty thousand hours at this point, like no, seriously, right,
Speaker 5: like you put it, you put it, you put in
Speaker 5: real time. Like I remember when I got my first
Speaker 5: solo deal.
Speaker 3: They took me to your house. They took me, yes, yeah,
Speaker 3: they took me.
Speaker 5: Daryl Williams from from from Elektra took me to your house.
Speaker 5: And you hadn't had your music out yet either though.
Speaker 3: Oh wow.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so yeah that ear he was writing, writing for
Speaker 2: a lot of different y Stone up there.
Speaker 3: I mean, you know, we seen in me a line
Speaker 3: we had people were.
Speaker 5: And I'm like, yeah, maya and they playing in pro
Speaker 5: jus like the whole thing. So I saw the process,
Speaker 5: you know what I mean really really early on. So
Speaker 5: after you you've done all that, you're writing for people,
Speaker 5: you working with everybody, now you have your first smash.
Speaker 3: Yeah, what's the feeling for you at this point? Oh man?
Speaker 3: Just you know, I remember just being feeling like, Okay,
Speaker 3: I'm not crazy, I'm okay. I thought it was good.
Speaker 3: I thought it was pretty good music.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but yeah, no, you just you just kind of
Speaker 2: say thank you God, you know, and you just you
Speaker 2: just enjoy the moment and and then the ride happens
Speaker 2: quickly and then you know, next thing, you know, I'm
Speaker 2: on Oprah twice. A couple of months later, I do
Speaker 2: a summer tour with Beyonce.
Speaker 3: So that's all within like six summer tour with beyond.
Speaker 2: Oprah twice, Yeah, and Oprah com Oprah had me back
Speaker 2: a month later because she, you know, was a brad
Speaker 2: the album I loved and Yeah, and the numbers were
Speaker 2: so high once once I was on Oprah, the number
Speaker 2: the sales sales from your Yeah, so it was just
Speaker 2: like weekly and again it was all you know, we
Speaker 2: had number one R and B album for like twelve weeks,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean, Like it was Yeah, it
Speaker 2: was we was in there. Wow.
Speaker 3: And you know, it's just you just stay grateful.
Speaker 2: And then and then comes, you know, the roller coaster
Speaker 2: of fame and the stuff you've been you know, waiting
Speaker 2: for for twenty years and all the complications that come
Speaker 2: with that.
Speaker 1: Did you perform I could be mistaken, but I feel
Speaker 1: like you performed lost without you on the Grammys or
Speaker 1: good they were doing, we were doing and everything amazing performance.
Speaker 3: Amazing performance. Thank you. I appreciate that, absolutely amazing. I
Speaker 3: was like, he's really good.
Speaker 1: Because it's like you said, those type of hits, the
Speaker 1: those are once in a lifetime moment for people because
Speaker 1: we'll get.
Speaker 2: To even just the songwriting connection, like when you when
Speaker 2: you write a song and you know the feeling and
Speaker 2: that song comes on in the audience and there's this
Speaker 2: collective wave of love and appreciation and sentimentality and positivity
Speaker 2: that just flows out of that song. Makes people feel yeah,
Speaker 2: because they they had so many good times to that song,
Speaker 2: and you can't take that away from them. They they
Speaker 2: were in the bed with somebody they loved listening to that,
Speaker 2: you know. They they were on vacation dancing with the
Speaker 2: one they loved when they heard that, you know what
Speaker 2: I mean. And that's I can't take away that that
Speaker 2: that feeling and that connection.
Speaker 1: I feel like anytime a song can fill in the blanksh.
Speaker 3: It just it just takes voicemail. This is what I
Speaker 3: want to say to you. It feels in the blanks.
Speaker 3: It's just it's just something about it.
Speaker 1: And as you say, these songs mean so much more,
Speaker 1: Like you know, twenty whatever years and you're you're like
Speaker 1: when they come on, it's like it's deal and puts
Speaker 1: you back there.
Speaker 3: And now it's like.
Speaker 1: These songs are refreshing because of everything else that's going on.
Speaker 3: Now that's just not like it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I mean, you know, the best things standard
Speaker 2: test of time, and and love is in the end.
Speaker 2: You know, love is that connection we're all looking for
Speaker 2: and the best songs. You know, a man or a
Speaker 2: woman or whatever you're each side of the partnership can
Speaker 2: listen to the same song and feel the same connection
Speaker 2: to it, even though you know they're both on different
Speaker 2: sides of the relationship. Yeah, as the song just when
Speaker 2: it speaks for all of us, it connects to all
Speaker 2: of us.
Speaker 1: You know, I want to ask you a question before
Speaker 1: before we go to the monster, I want to ask
Speaker 1: you a question. Me and me and Jay talk about
Speaker 1: this a lot. You came you you you came up
Speaker 1: and not only just a very talented family, but.
Speaker 3: Pops was guy.
Speaker 1: Pops was a god like you had You had the
Speaker 1: you had the fame, you had the money, you had
Speaker 1: the you know, probably all the things that you needed
Speaker 1: to just be cool. But you are still chasing this
Speaker 1: with a hunger like like you don't have it, like
Speaker 1: you don't come from it. Yeah, yeah, what does that
Speaker 1: come from? I think it's just you know, it's that rare.
Speaker 3: Thing that that.
Speaker 2: All of us have it. But when you when you
Speaker 2: know it early and there's no doubt about it, Like
Speaker 2: when people try to tell me, like, you know, what
Speaker 2: do I need to do to be? You just are
Speaker 2: you just are? You already see it? You already know
Speaker 2: what's going to happen. You've are you know, you just
Speaker 2: know it very early on, Like nothing's going to stop
Speaker 2: me from learning what I need to learn, practicing what
Speaker 2: I need to practice, out working the guy or girl
Speaker 2: next to me, and sooner or later, you know, my
Speaker 2: some form of these dreams will come true and I
Speaker 2: will I will get to that that place.
Speaker 1: But it's like most people who are in this comfortable
Speaker 1: space growing up in this we already have it, don't
Speaker 1: have that level of hunger or even confidence in their
Speaker 1: own ability to get their own.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Was there like was there a thing in you to say, Okay,
Speaker 1: popsot his, but that's his, I gotta get mine.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Of course there's a competitive spirit and that that happens
Speaker 2: in a lot of families. Whether it's if you're a lawyer,
Speaker 2: sometime just becomes a better lawyer or bigger, or because
Speaker 2: he had the connections or he had the information. Because
Speaker 2: Dad's connections didn't totally help me that.
Speaker 3: Way, but his belief in me. He put me in
Speaker 3: the room with David Foster.
Speaker 2: When I was thirteen, I was in the studio like
Speaker 2: these with Natalie Cole when she was recording Unforgettable.
Speaker 3: I'm glad we got I got to come. He's poor
Speaker 3: in it.
Speaker 2: But the last, the one, the coupe de gras, the
Speaker 2: one that takes the cake is One day I'm at
Speaker 2: Joe Tory baseball camp in an Encino and I come
Speaker 2: home and Kevin Costner is there at the piano with
Speaker 2: this beautiful black woman and David Foster sitting and playing
Speaker 2: a song and they are practicing I Will Always Love You.
Speaker 2: Before they give it to Whitney.
Speaker 3: I knew where he was going.
Speaker 2: I knew, and I just walked past the piano and
Speaker 2: I go into the uh, you know, going to my
Speaker 2: room like it's not none. Then, like, what's Kevin Costner
Speaker 2: doing here?
Speaker 3: You know, my dad's not even there.
Speaker 2: He just let David use his house because David was
Speaker 2: working on another project at a studio right around the corner,
Speaker 2: probably you know, one of those, and he said, I
Speaker 2: need enough. I'm gonna have to come to your house,
Speaker 2: Alan and use your piano and meet with Kevin real quick.
Speaker 3: So that was that was what I walked in. That's
Speaker 3: what my dad knew.
Speaker 2: Everybody everyone loved him and he was, oh yeah, no
Speaker 2: on linder Sin's day one did Lyndon was around when
Speaker 2: I was born.
Speaker 3: Oh this is great. Oh yes, this is great, bro.
Speaker 2: That is how crazy is that? It's a good time.
Speaker 3: I don't know, that's the quzy. It's just my life.
Speaker 3: Probably it's my life.
Speaker 2: And you know when when my dad passed away, Magic
Speaker 2: Johnson sent me a note and was or he said
Speaker 2: in the paper actually and he said it to me
Speaker 2: personally again when I saw him recently, but he said,
Speaker 2: Alan think was the first celebrity that I met when
Speaker 2: I came to Los Angeles. My dad was at every
Speaker 2: basketball and hockey game. He lived at the Forum. He
Speaker 2: didn't miss a game. In fact, I was born when
Speaker 2: he was headed to the Forum for a game and
Speaker 2: my mom was like pregnant two weeks early. And I
Speaker 2: remember my dad, you know, having fun of joke. Well,
Speaker 2: you better be right, because I've got VIP parking passes,
Speaker 2: you know, forever the comedian.
Speaker 3: But yeah, he just lived in those games.
Speaker 2: He lived in that culture, and he was great friends
Speaker 2: with Jerry Buss and Magic and Wayne Gretzky. Actually, when
Speaker 2: Wayne Gretzky was traded to the Kings, he was staying
Speaker 2: at our house with Janet for two weeks. My dad
Speaker 2: was in Russia with my older brother, and I was
Speaker 2: at home at Joe Tory camp again.
Speaker 3: And this is na storry to comedian guys. Yeah, this
Speaker 3: is coach.
Speaker 2: Of the New York Yankees Championships. But so I come
Speaker 2: home and oh no, I'm at home in the morning.
Speaker 2: At seven o'clock in the morning, the phone rings. I'm
Speaker 2: getting ready to go to camp. And I answered the
Speaker 2: phone as Bruce McNall, the owner of the Kings, and
Speaker 2: he says, hey, Robin is, can you put me on
Speaker 2: the phone with Wayne? And I go, well, he's sleeping.
Speaker 2: You know, I really don't want to wake him. He goes,
Speaker 2: you need to wake him. I need to talk to
Speaker 2: him right now.
Speaker 3: I go in there.
Speaker 2: I say, hey, Wayne, Bruce is on the phone. You
Speaker 2: gotta get it, he says. So Wayne answers the phone.
Speaker 2: I go to camp, I come home Wayne's and Edmonton
Speaker 2: at the podium. He was traded that morning. That was
Speaker 2: the phone call when he got traded.
Speaker 3: You took the call.
Speaker 2: I took the call and told Wayne to get on
Speaker 2: the phone. The day he was traded to the Kings.
Speaker 2: It's pretty crazy. Your life was crazy, crazy crazy. This
Speaker 2: is absolute And that's just by the time I'm twelve,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean, we didn't even we ain't
Speaker 2: even got into nothing yet.
Speaker 5: So there's one thing though, as we talk about these
Speaker 5: great songs, because I'm like a I'm a deep cut guy.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm a deep cut guy. You've got this song
Speaker 3: called Teach You a Lesson.
Speaker 2: Yes, sir, Yeah, I love that song. That's special, that
Speaker 2: whole I still do that in the longest shows because
Speaker 2: it's just such a moment, you know, because the way
Speaker 2: you talk to people, like when you when you talk
Speaker 2: to somebody and you really oh and you know how
Speaker 2: personally that moment was. That was a real moment where
Speaker 2: I felt every word of that.
Speaker 3: You know what I mean. Amazing that a cocaine Oh
Speaker 3: that was that was a true story. Well, it was
Speaker 3: about all the temptations.
Speaker 2: I'd never done cocaine, and it was all about the
Speaker 2: temptations surrounding me in this fabulous lifestyle and these Hollywood
Speaker 2: people and yeah, and as I was getting into the
Speaker 2: world of these superstars and you know, the late night
Speaker 2: parties and some of that kind of stuff and so, yeah, manies.
Speaker 3: But the funny not me. I wasn't arrested. But I
Speaker 3: saw a friend of mine in that world.
Speaker 2: And I was driving through Beverly Hills and I just
Speaker 2: saw him in an alley getting getting put into a car,
Speaker 2: and I was like, that's my homie, and I just
Speaker 2: I just didn't know if it was cocaine or whatever.
Speaker 2: But when I was getting into all that world, that Hollywood, No,
Speaker 2: I just.
Speaker 3: Don't know what it was.
Speaker 2: I remember that visual and being afraid for him. It
Speaker 2: turned out he was carrying a gun and it wasn't drugs.
Speaker 2: But but the fact that I saw a friend who
Speaker 2: I thought might have gotten caught with cocaine inspired the
Speaker 2: line of I'm standing in an alley with my hands
Speaker 2: behind here.
Speaker 3: I am listening to the album like man rob up. No.
Speaker 2: No, I never, man, I had never. It was all
Speaker 2: about the temptations and how do you stay away from it?
Speaker 3: And that that.
Speaker 5: Songwriting, but that is actually a song where you put
Speaker 5: people in a place. No matter what it is, it
Speaker 5: could be good bad whatever.
Speaker 3: You write screenplays, bro, Yeah, man, there's some good ones man,
Speaker 3: you know.
Speaker 2: But I love That's the thing. I love music, and
Speaker 2: my songs are my story, you know, and that's what
Speaker 2: I leave behind, you know. And so when you listen
Speaker 2: to my songs that they are literally telling my life story.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: Besides, if you dance record, yes, and then dance records,
Speaker 2: like when you make a dance record, you just want
Speaker 2: people to dance, you know.
Speaker 3: I'm in record playing right there in the in the
Speaker 3: first room on the right with a guy by the
Speaker 3: name of t I. He's working on some music. I'm
Speaker 3: in there with him. Were actually working with me this
Speaker 3: story after you heard it, Actually esp actually working.
Speaker 1: On We have an artist we're working on together. At
Speaker 1: the time, we had a little partnership. We're doing it.
Speaker 1: So we're just in the studio kicking it and somebody
Speaker 1: walks in and says, hey, I need you to get
Speaker 1: to this Robin record.
Speaker 3: He's like, He's like, hey, all right, do it up.
Speaker 3: Pull it up.
Speaker 1: He said, this is the record. We think it's going
Speaker 1: to be a big record. We need you want it.
Speaker 1: He's got to have you on it. And he's like,
Speaker 1: all right, played that motherfucking record. The T I says,
Speaker 1: turn the micael I love it, goes in the booth,
Speaker 1: listens to it maybe one more time and does that
Speaker 1: entire rap from top to box.
Speaker 3: No, he does not. Absolutely watched. I watched him do it.
Speaker 3: I was like, no way, I've never seen him in
Speaker 3: studio before. For a moment, I didn't know that.
Speaker 2: That's amazing.
Speaker 1: Top to bottom, didn't write nothing, nothing. Yeah, it's a talent.
Speaker 2: And I looked that said oh that's why you okay
Speaker 2: r T I, Yeah, that's that's that's amazing. I can't
Speaker 2: believe he just went in and dropped.
Speaker 3: It like that. And I'm there and I'm like, this
Speaker 3: is going to go crazy. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Jay and Wayne did the same thing when I worked
Speaker 2: with them. Yeah, incredible how they.
Speaker 3: Can do that.
Speaker 1: But I just I remember hearing that song and knowing
Speaker 1: that nothing or no one was going to be able
Speaker 1: to stop you. When this record came out, and then
Speaker 1: the video. I saw the video and I said, everything
Speaker 1: was right.
Speaker 5: Everything made all the right decisions, man, at least from
Speaker 5: the outside.
Speaker 2: I remember Jimmy I having called me as soon as
Speaker 2: he saw the video. It calls me at seven thirty
Speaker 2: am and goes, Robin.
Speaker 3: Is going to be the biggest record of your life.
Speaker 3: There's going to be number one all around the world.
Speaker 2: This is incredible.
Speaker 3: I love this record.
Speaker 2: I love this video.
Speaker 3: It is the best thing you've ever done.
Speaker 2: It's gonna be huge.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna make sure of it. And I remember, and
Speaker 3: now it's not just on the radio. It's not just
Speaker 3: you know.
Speaker 1: I remember being an Arenas with you watching every night
Speaker 1: this song shake the fucking arena.
Speaker 2: Wow, not a couple of nights, those were times every night.
Speaker 2: Those are times every night.
Speaker 3: That's Temple records are tough for soulful guys anyway already,
Speaker 3: but that that's different, man.
Speaker 2: As the brilliance of phar Real Mania was the most
Speaker 2: talented person I've ever been in a room with. You know,
Speaker 2: he's so the story behind it, well, we had three
Speaker 2: days in the studio. We did three records, one record
Speaker 2: a day. Blurred Lines was on the third day. My
Speaker 2: dad actually came by the studio just to say hi.
Speaker 2: But he happened to be there the night Blurred Lines
Speaker 2: was made, and it was the kind of song like
Speaker 2: you know, people were hearing it from the other studios,
Speaker 2: and the lady at the front desk and the manager
Speaker 2: of the studio and everybody just kind of started putting
Speaker 2: their head in, you know what I mean, and wanted
Speaker 2: to hear it. And then and as we were adding
Speaker 2: those last little ad libs whatever, but you know, we're
Speaker 2: playing it loud, we're figuring out what the little pieces
Speaker 2: that are missing, and but right from the start, next thing,
Speaker 2: I know, the whole room is dancing, and you know,
Speaker 2: it was just that kind of and people couldn't stop
Speaker 2: coming in from outside to uh to hear the record.
Speaker 2: You know, Here's and there were like some other there
Speaker 2: was a crew of other rappers that Farah was working with.
Speaker 2: I can't recall right now, but they all wanted to
Speaker 2: come in and hear it. And that's when we kind
Speaker 2: of knew like we had something.
Speaker 1: Here's a questions as a vocalist, right, this song, this
Speaker 1: song has so many different things stylistically that you did
Speaker 1: vocally that was different. Was that Pharrell saying no, do
Speaker 1: it like this? Or was that you just in character,
Speaker 1: saying I feel like this right now, like this.
Speaker 3: Is where I think.
Speaker 2: By then, I had already learned a lot from Pharrell,
Speaker 2: And you know, when we did want to Love Your Girl,
Speaker 2: he was like, make it sound a little more a
Speaker 2: Britch and I did a little more British because he
Speaker 2: wanted it to sound you know what I mean. But
Speaker 2: by then him and I it was our third day together,
Speaker 2: which is very rare to get three days in a
Speaker 2: row with Pharrell anyway, and by the third day the
Speaker 2: flow was just so pure. He would say, yeah, because
Speaker 2: I think the record just opened itself for being really
Speaker 2: silly and playful, where a lot of times, with being
Speaker 2: an R and B soul singer, are you trying to
Speaker 2: emotion emotion emotion? But that song has a lot of
Speaker 2: humor in it, you know, And that's why I think
Speaker 2: it just it's just so much fun to listen to
Speaker 2: because it's sexy, it's funny, and it's got the humor
Speaker 2: in it.
Speaker 1: The first of all, I want to say that Pharrell
Speaker 1: owes me a studio session. He came to me one
Speaker 1: day and said, man, I want to work with you,
Speaker 1: and I was like, well, I want to work with you.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I want to work with you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm available now I'm not sure and I've never
Speaker 1: gotten my studio session with Farrell.
Speaker 3: If you talk to him, you know, you know that.
Speaker 2: Man is on a different plane. I mean what he's
Speaker 2: doing with us Vuitton and everything. He's just he's evolved
Speaker 2: into all things and and an inspiration in all categories,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean, just as a human being
Speaker 2: and a man of the community and a man of
Speaker 2: art and every facet and he's a leader generation with
Speaker 2: question you.
Speaker 3: Uh, first, congratulations for getting Struck by Lightning.
Speaker 5: Song now twelve million, Yeah, so all time, Okay, Yeah,
Speaker 5: we did all right on that one.
Speaker 2: There's you know, in years in ago, I got I
Speaker 2: got divorced, I got sued, my father passed away, my
Speaker 2: manager passed away, my house burned down, Andre Herrel passed away.
Speaker 2: So all that was like boom boom, boom boom for.
Speaker 3: Me, you know.
Speaker 2: And so so this album is about how I got
Speaker 2: through that, where I'm at now, what's important to me
Speaker 2: now and my family and trying to replace that broken
Speaker 2: family that I lost when I was a kid.
Speaker 1: I love that because you know, you're sitting next to
Speaker 1: fathers are who are actually fathers, yeah, real real dad
Speaker 1: And you know, people always ask like, how do you
Speaker 1: find balance, and I'm like, there is no balance. There
Speaker 1: is just there's just ripping and running and trying to
Speaker 1: be all you can be in those spaces, but more
Speaker 1: important portantly for your kids. Like you want to be
Speaker 1: all you can be in the space that provides for
Speaker 1: your kids, exactly, but you also want to be all
Speaker 1: you can be in the space with your kids.
Speaker 2: And if you think of it percentage wise, if I
Speaker 2: have six people, I mean five people, you know, my
Speaker 2: lady and four kids that I need to provide love, attention, humor, cuddles.
Speaker 2: You know, they all need it. They all need it,
Speaker 2: they all want it, you know what I mean. So
Speaker 2: that's that's twenty percent each of my time. And now
Speaker 2: I haven't even gone to work yet, absolutely, you know.
Speaker 3: What I mean.
Speaker 2: So now you cut that in half, that's fifty. Now
Speaker 2: they're down to ten percent each of them of my
Speaker 2: time and my love and my energy. So you really
Speaker 2: have to conserve it. You have to stay present in it,
Speaker 2: and you have to make sure that that the time
Speaker 2: is being spent valuably so everybody is getting enough to
Speaker 2: feel that, you know, Papa's love or whatever that is,
Speaker 2: you know, and so we have a lot of work
Speaker 2: to do.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you get into this space, and especially you know
Speaker 1: in your career and and how you've how successful you've been.
Speaker 1: When of one of my friends, Terry's, hit me with
Speaker 1: a phrase a few a few weeks ago, he said, well,
Speaker 1: I don't think that would be the best use of
Speaker 1: my time, and you gotta right, And so you gotta
Speaker 1: you gotta make those decisions.
Speaker 2: And older we get that, you know, we really want
Speaker 2: to spend time with the people that make a smile
Speaker 2: and laugh and dance and and feel loved and feel appreciated,
Speaker 2: and that's where that's what we want to be.
Speaker 5: When you when you first sat down before the cameras
Speaker 5: went on, you're like, bro, I just did six shows.
Speaker 3: Six cities and seven days.
Speaker 5: Yeah, oh no, you that's that's that is the real grind,
Speaker 5: and that's how you look up and you've done this
Speaker 5: thing for thirty years at the highest level.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Like people don't understand that. People don't understand that.
Speaker 5: Like even when you talked about how you you know,
Speaker 5: you spend your time, like that's time, Yeah, that's really
Speaker 5: time dedicated to the craft.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and the rest is dedicated to the kids. Absolutely, yeah,
Speaker 2: And that's that's what it's all about, coming up right
Speaker 2: And you know what yet, well, I've been touring. Actually
Speaker 2: I'm with Boys and Men right now. I've been now
Speaker 2: doing shows Boys Men. That's a great night because you know,
Speaker 2: once again like getting to work with your idols or
Speaker 2: just have like I learned every single harmony and ad
Speaker 2: lib on that first album for sure, you know, and
Speaker 2: then once they started doing work with Babyface and getting
Speaker 2: that end of the road and I'll make Love to
Speaker 2: you and you know and on bend and knees and
Speaker 2: so these are records that I listened to driving as
Speaker 2: a sixteen year old, like I want to be that
Speaker 2: I'm going to sing like that. I want that kind
Speaker 2: of a hit, you know what I mean? And that's
Speaker 2: that that hunger is good for you.
Speaker 3: You know. Well we're about to segue, please do yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: how you feel Robin? Because because you look good? You
Speaker 3: walked in smelling good and looking good. Do you do?
Speaker 3: You feel good?
Speaker 2: Right now?
Speaker 3: Now?
Speaker 2: I feel delicious.
Speaker 3: There ain't nothing wrong with that.
Speaker 1: Special segment where we want to go to right now
Speaker 1: and get some information from you know, You've written a
Speaker 1: lot of songs for a lot of people, written songs
Speaker 1: for yourself.
Speaker 3: We just know that there are songs that have inspired you,
Speaker 3: songs that have made you who you are. And we
Speaker 3: don't want all the songs.
Speaker 6: We just don't want.
Speaker 3: We just want a few of the songs. And we
Speaker 3: just like to call this your.
Speaker 6: Top fun, your top five, top five, your top.
Speaker 3: Fun, your top R and B singer. Whatelse R and.
Speaker 7: B songs.
Speaker 4: Were Dogs and doom be more you go bere on
Speaker 4: this show. We don't good blow. I mean, yeah, hurrah, Yeah.
Speaker 3: Break it down, break it down, your five Robin think
Speaker 3: your top five R and B singers.
Speaker 2: Oh, top five R and B singers. I mean that's
Speaker 2: the at least the name my favorite because because I'm
Speaker 2: I'm more of an old school man. Otis Redding. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: you can't get past baby locked the door. Yeah, start
Speaker 2: with that and then goes solve. I mean the way
Speaker 2: he sings, uh uh, try a little tenderness, you know
Speaker 2: what I mean, Just try so. Yeah, Otis Redding for sure. Stevie,
Speaker 2: of course, gotta gotta get Stevie up in there. How
Speaker 2: green Ain't nobody know how to keep it that's small
Speaker 2: intimate intimacy that he provides. Marvin, of course, I can't
Speaker 2: go without Morvin.
Speaker 3: And then oh, oh well, I'm you know, I'm on
Speaker 3: a guy.
Speaker 2: I'm doing all my favorite guys because mostly I would
Speaker 2: listen to but Whitney. Then yeah, just you can't. You
Speaker 2: can't make it Whitney and Aretha. I gotta do like
Speaker 2: five six, Just I gotta have my two favorites, my
Speaker 2: two favorites. I listened to so much Aretha and Whitney
Speaker 2: that sculpted my vocal career. But as I got older
Speaker 2: and you know, becoming a grown man and listening to
Speaker 2: other grown men's stories at that same point in my life,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean, that's when I started to
Speaker 2: gravitate more towards Otis and Stevie, Marvin and al As
Speaker 2: I got into my twenties and stuff like that, you know.
Speaker 2: But early on, when I was in my teens, Whitney
Speaker 2: was it. You know, you couldn't if you could do
Speaker 2: a Whitney run, you knew what she was doing. She
Speaker 2: was so quick and powerful.
Speaker 3: Oh and just the.
Speaker 2: Taste, precise, the taste, impeccable taste.
Speaker 3: Robin, think your top five r and B songs.
Speaker 2: Okay, Well, let's stay together. What's going on?
Speaker 3: Uh?
Speaker 2: What's I always.
Speaker 3: Forget the talents out of Bens guy, I always have
Speaker 3: been there.
Speaker 2: And uh for me, because of the effect it had
Speaker 2: on me and my life and career, I would say forever,
Speaker 2: my lady.
Speaker 3: Why not? Why not? Yeah? Yeah, come on? That did
Speaker 3: everything for me, everything for me, Look at me. That
Speaker 3: was everything changed my life. Come on that record right there?
Speaker 3: Who I used to order that on the jukebox. Remember
Speaker 3: to talk about the box, that money.
Speaker 2: If I had a girl come over. The first date
Speaker 2: that was I was singing. I was standing in front
Speaker 2: of Jodasy like I was a member of the TV
Speaker 2: behind me, and oh you know, I went you got,
Speaker 2: you got. I went right to my vocals.
Speaker 3: Teaching early. Oh yeah, yeah I was. I was a
Speaker 3: magic mic you know that can sing. Now I'm doing
Speaker 3: town type dances, you know what I mean? One more
Speaker 3: one more song?
Speaker 2: Okay, okay?
Speaker 3: And B songs?
Speaker 2: Oh you know what I gotta I gotta get a
Speaker 2: Lauren Hill in there. Guys, you know you better watch
Speaker 2: out some girls. And that's that's culture forever. That speaks
Speaker 2: so many things to both do, both sexes. And cultures
Speaker 2: and what a song, what a video? What the musical production?
Speaker 2: Just incredible.
Speaker 3: We're gonna build your vultron your music. You're a super
Speaker 3: R and B artists.
Speaker 1: We want to know who you're gonna get the vocal
Speaker 1: from the performance style, the styling, the passion of the artist.
Speaker 1: And since you're so great at it, who's going to
Speaker 1: write and produce for this artist? Let's start at the vocal.
Speaker 1: What vocal are you grabbing to build your super RB artist?
Speaker 2: You know what I think because of the most dynamic
Speaker 2: I mean, for me, I love the I would pick Marvin,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean, just because there's just there
Speaker 2: was something he just when when he sings, it feels
Speaker 2: like the gates of heaven are opening up, and you
Speaker 2: know we're all welcome, you know what I mean. And
Speaker 2: uh and and there's a piece and a and a
Speaker 2: hope and a warmth. It's like a big warm hug,
Speaker 2: you know every time he sings. Yeah, performance style, performance style.
Speaker 3: You know I would go.
Speaker 2: I'd go James Brown. I mean I don't think I
Speaker 2: think it all just starts the hardest. Yeah. I mean,
Speaker 2: of course this is Michael, which which is just magic
Speaker 2: that doesn't you can't even really quantify that. But for me,
Speaker 2: just like the the way James Brown and hits with
Speaker 2: his band and just he had he created this whole
Speaker 2: thing that inspired everybody that came after. And you know,
Speaker 2: and I'm a sweat you see me, I swear it
Speaker 2: out when it's time to really go, It's James Brown.
Speaker 3: You know what I mean? The styling of the artists.
Speaker 2: Styling of the artist. Okay, okay, you know what. Then
Speaker 2: I would go Mike because he really he there was
Speaker 2: something that classy. It was dazzling, but it was every
Speaker 2: man could wear it, you.
Speaker 3: Know what I mean?
Speaker 2: And and uh, he just kept evolving and and that's
Speaker 2: what inspired Kanye's type of you know, metamorphosis as a
Speaker 2: as a fashion icon and h And then you can
Speaker 2: go right to who's the songwriter producer? That's Pharrell, you know.
Speaker 2: And I would just go Pharrell, but we.
Speaker 3: Gotta go passions, passion of the artist, the heart of
Speaker 3: the artist, heart of the passion. Oh.
Speaker 2: Then I would go with Otis. I'll go with Otis's
Speaker 2: heart because you know he we lost him early. I
Speaker 2: mean you know that I believe he wrote and finished
Speaker 2: sitting on the dock of the bay and then passed
Speaker 2: before it was released, and and then it became sitting
Speaker 2: on the dock of the bay. Wow, I mean, come on,
Speaker 2: you know. So there was something about the heart, especially
Speaker 2: in the era also the era that he came from,
Speaker 2: you know. And once again I'm picking mostly male artists
Speaker 2: and producers, but but that's uh yeah, I mean the
Speaker 2: heart heart of Otis and Aretha. You know you could
Speaker 2: you could do the same thing like what came out
Speaker 2: of Aretha when she sang it.
Speaker 3: But oh oh oh no, I got a better one.
Speaker 2: Just the fun Nina Simone, the heart of Nina, the
Speaker 2: heart of Nina. Listen to that voice who for real
Speaker 2: writing and producing it, the passion of Nina Simone. Yeah,
Speaker 2: from the era she came up in as a black
Speaker 2: woman in those times, and the songs she wrote.
Speaker 3: It was so it was so many layers to that
Speaker 3: music and her songwriting, her lyricis, her lyrics.
Speaker 2: It's an amazing.
Speaker 3: We got one more thang for you, please do we
Speaker 3: got one more than because I got to go, I
Speaker 3: got I got to go, got to get home.
Speaker 7: I said, yeah, saying no, Nick, saying no name, are you.
Speaker 3: What you did? Don't say I ain't saying no.
Speaker 5: It's a very important sec very important secment song, not
Speaker 5: a song because now you wrote so many damn songs.
Speaker 3: Fat segment of the show, Will you tell us a story? Funny?
Speaker 3: Fucked up? Are funny and fucked up?
Speaker 2: Okay?
Speaker 3: Only rule to the game is you can't say no names.
Speaker 2: Okay, okay, funny story.
Speaker 3: Life and time, Life and time, I'm robbing.
Speaker 2: Thick, okay, okay. So after the met ball, oh, she
Speaker 2: know what?
Speaker 3: You know what?
Speaker 2: I was, Yeah, yeah, yeah, and it was a great
Speaker 2: night because uh and yeah, I won't include the name
Speaker 2: that has the punchline, but I'll use some other names
Speaker 2: to help.
Speaker 3: Get the story go. It right's part, but I won't
Speaker 3: use the punchline.
Speaker 2: So Jennifer Hudson is performing, which was amazing because that
Speaker 2: was the first time I'd ever seen her live. And
Speaker 2: after that I was so inspired. I went home and
Speaker 2: I wrote on her debut Grammy winning R and B album,
Speaker 2: and so she was performing. I actually was sitting at
Speaker 2: the table with Rihanna, who was very young in her
Speaker 2: and I had just done a photo shoot together for
Speaker 2: GQ mag It was a GQ Yeah, I think it
Speaker 2: was GQ magazine. Very early in her career.
Speaker 3: And so that night we end up going out.
Speaker 2: It's after party after party. We end up at Richie's
Speaker 2: Butter in New York City. Richie Akiva shout out to
Speaker 2: Richie Kieva at Butter in New York City. And I'm
Speaker 2: hanging out with this very famous, very talented Grammy Award
Speaker 2: winning artists and We're making friends, We're having a blast,
Speaker 2: and he's like, you know, I after this, man, let's
Speaker 2: go back to my studio and and uh, you know,
Speaker 2: make some music.
Speaker 3: And I was like, man, not tonight, not tonight. I
Speaker 3: was like, you know.
Speaker 2: And so somehow he was affronted by you know, like
Speaker 2: felt rejected or something, and uh, and then it got
Speaker 2: to I don't want to do that, you know, and
Speaker 2: he was like, hey, man, you know I'm better than you.
Speaker 2: And I go, I go what I said, I'll take
Speaker 2: the Pepsi challenge with Joe asked.
Speaker 3: The Pepsi challenge.
Speaker 2: And we had already we already spent the night complimenting
Speaker 2: each other, we had met, we had met at the
Speaker 2: met Ball, we had already spent the night when we
Speaker 2: didn't really leave, we were like hanging out. We ended
Speaker 2: up going to like, Paul, let's go there. Now, let's
Speaker 2: go there. So we were making friends very quickly, and
Speaker 2: by the end of the story, Uh yeah, I think
Speaker 2: he was offended that I didn't want to go to
Speaker 2: the studio when we're at this incredible party to you know,
Speaker 2: I just didn't want to go afterwards, and I think
Speaker 2: he thought that I didn't, you know, that I was
Speaker 2: dissing him or something. Just finished with I'll take the
Speaker 2: PEPs of challenge with Joe.
Speaker 3: Did you guys remain?
Speaker 2: You know, we saw each other many years later at
Speaker 2: an airport Terminal six baggage.
Speaker 3: Claim, you know what I mean, and just was like it.
Speaker 3: You know, but man, you know, man, Man, you too.
Speaker 3: We don't really keep we don't really keep beef. We
Speaker 3: just don't hang out. We talk about the beef. Man.
Speaker 2: That is great.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was a good time. Robin you are you
Speaker 1: are who you are, man. Thanks for having me. Thank
Speaker 1: we appreciate you. Man, Hang with you continue success and
Speaker 1: for you.
Speaker 2: Congratulations on the rise of this show. You know, you
Speaker 2: guys are really taking over in a in a category
Speaker 2: that we really needed. We needed, we needed all this
Speaker 2: talk and all this laughter and all this appreciation of
Speaker 2: great R and B Culture and Music.
Speaker 3: Well, thank you, bro, I couldn't have closed it out better.
Speaker 1: My name is Tank and this is the R and
Speaker 1: B Money Podcast, the authority on all things R and B.
Speaker 3: I don't I don't even know what to say. Man,
Speaker 3: my brother, man, you know I love you.
Speaker 2: I taught so much with you as an artist and
Speaker 2: a human being in it. And h and Jay you know,
Speaker 2: you know I've always loved you, and we've been around
Speaker 2: each other for so long in this business.
Speaker 3: But you guys are doing great.
Speaker 2: I'm so excited part of it. God bless you.
Speaker 3: Listen, big ladies and gentlemen, R and B Money.
Speaker 5: R and B Money is a production of the Black
Speaker 5: Effect Podcast Network. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the
Speaker 5: iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
Speaker 5: favorite shows. Don't forget to subscribe to and rate our show,
Speaker 5: and you can connect with us on social media at
Speaker 5: Jay Valentine and at the Real Tank. For the extended episode,
Speaker 5: subscribe to YouTube dot com, forward Slash, R and B Money.
Speaker 2: Yeah,