Brian Alexander Morgan

On this week's episode of The R&B Money Podcast, Tank and J Valentine welcome the legendary 100 percenter, writer and producer, Brian Alexander Morgan. Hailing from Wichita, Kansas, Morgan's musical journey took him from the Midwest to Sacramento and ultimately to the heights of the R&B world.

Over his illustrious career, Morgan has worked with R&B royalty, including SWV, with whom he crafted numerous hits like "Weak," "Right Here/Human Nature," and "Rain." He's also collaborated with luminaries such as Chante Moore, Usher, and Charlie Wilson. Morgan shares captivating stories about his rise in the industry, from getting his start with Jay King and Club Nouveau to becoming one of the most in-demand writer/producers of the 90s.

Tune in for an engrossing conversation as Morgan reflects on the life-changing moments, challenges overcome, and indelible music he's created while leaving his mark on the R&B landscape. Brian Alexander Morgan is Now on The R&B Money Podcast!

 

Extended Episodes on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/RnBMoneyPodcast

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Tank: @therealtank  

J Valentine: @JValentine

Podcast: @RnbMoneyPodcast

 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
R and B Money, Honey, we are.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Thanks.

Speaker 1 (00:09):
Take out of chat. We are the authority on all
R and B ladies and gentlemen. My name is Tanking Valentine.
This is the R V Money podcast, your thought, your
authority for all things R and B.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
Tell her what it is.

Speaker 1 (00:34):
I'm talking big ship today, hundred percents, timeless.

Speaker 3 (00:43):
All timers catalog.

Speaker 2 (00:47):
Yeah, yeah, you wanna break the artists. You want to
break something.

Speaker 4 (00:52):
Yeah, you might get a week, you might get weak, breaking.

Speaker 2 (00:56):
Some You want somebody to sample your ship in years
later because it was so good. Come on, come on,
let it rain, let it ring.

Speaker 1 (01:06):
I don't like them niggas do good.

Speaker 3 (01:14):
Too good, too good.

Speaker 2 (01:17):
You guys, I love it man.

Speaker 3 (01:19):
Thank you guys, fans, I'm a fan first, Thank you both.
Appreciate're just happy to be here this. You guys are killing.
What are we talking about over here?

Speaker 1 (01:28):
At the reason, the reason why we even have a platform,
the reason why we were even inspired to have this
conversation is because this is one of those conversations that
needed to be had. We're talking music that that shaped
generations of music, that's wow like in real life. Appreciate

(01:51):
music that that drops right now and it's sang word
for word, note for note, copying your flow. It's a blessing, bro, Yeah,
better huge blessing, Yes it is. And we're gonna we're
gonna get into those blessings and let you talk your talk.

(02:14):
You know as a musician, you know what I mean.
Like for me, it's like it's like, wow, you know
what I'm saying. It's the same reference I give Davante,
you know what I'm saying where it's like, Okay, that's
that's a different type of musicianship that you're adding into, Like,
that's different to be able to get that off like

(02:35):
the first person we ever seen like go crazy like
that from a music musician standpoint, to make musicians go
crazy with Stevie wonder Where, it was like, how do
he do all of that but make it digestible to
where anybody could write anybody could understand it?

Speaker 2 (02:50):
Right? Right?

Speaker 3 (02:51):
That's it's not easy, No, not at all. It's complicated
and simple at the same.

Speaker 1 (02:57):
At the same at the same. All right man, Yeah,
let's let's go back to the beginning. Where is where is?
Where is Brian Alexander Morgan born? And who who who
passed these gifts down? Or where do who did you
sit under to to to find this magic born in Wichita? Wichita?

(03:19):
What are they doing in which town?

Speaker 3 (03:20):
Oh my god? Well, you know, not.

Speaker 5 (03:23):
A lot, not a whole lot at.

Speaker 2 (03:28):
Least doing that.

Speaker 3 (03:29):
But I always like to say this Wichita is landlocked.
Not a whole lot to do outside.

Speaker 2 (03:35):
Okay.

Speaker 3 (03:36):
So there's no ocean to go to like in the
Bay or East Coast, and we ain't running the no
beach doing nothing. And all the lakes were where the
white boys were, so they drowned every year. So we
wasn't doing that. So that leaves church and the club.
So it's Wichita, like it's black enough, but it's very segregated,

(04:00):
segregated because how far is They're from Kansas City, like
two hours okay, so that's the closest we have to
we go two hours before we get to a real city,
a big city, any kind of big city. So which
the unlike Chicago, were just talking about that to Mahomie,
like twenty minutes is Gary, aiandas twenty minutes from Chicago,
you know what I'm saying, there's nothing like that. So
when you landlocked, as we were, the competition in the
church circuit is so heavy, and I know you can

(04:22):
relate to this between. Okay, so you got two tiers.
You got your Baptist competition stuff and what they're doing,
and you got your church Got in Christ stuff and
what they're doing. Well, what I learned early, because I
had lots of church, you got in Christ friends.

Speaker 2 (04:38):
Right.

Speaker 3 (04:39):
So when my young ear was listening to when I'm
coming up trying to figure out how to play Stevie stuff,
but I really want to play Herbie stuff. I really
want to be Herbie or Patrice Russian. I'm ten and
I'm twelve, and I can't comprehend all that complicated stuff.
So I noticed that my Baptist this is note this
at all, but my Baptist folks was very very straight

(05:01):
ahead and very straight and traditional. You're James Cleveland, You're
Andre Crouch, You're very straight ahead. But when I would
go just a couple of blocks down to my church
Got in Christ folks, they was playing the complicated, funky
chords that I needed to know. For example, at offering,
my man would play on the order the Hammer. He

(05:21):
would play the theme from Mash.

Speaker 5 (05:23):
And I was like, what he was like knocking, Wait
a minute, wait a minute, it is just offering hold
out and.

Speaker 3 (05:35):
Then they might do a cheer. I mean, I'm sorry, taxi.
So that's really about James. So I'm like, you feel
in church, yes, but.

Speaker 2 (05:48):
They were sneaking them in.

Speaker 3 (05:53):
I was like, you know what, but what? So I
was like, I'm at the wrong church. So I start
dipping into those eat services and understanding the difference between
just a how we just worshiped. Right, So all the
all the all the praise music and the shop music
and all those things, those things didn't really happen at

(06:14):
my church. They happened in a different way. Like, so
I started I started to get them. That was like
seventy seventy I was like twelve but old when nineteen
seventy nine hit when I was fourteen thirteen and the
very first Clark Sisters.

Speaker 2 (06:29):
Thing hit big, It.

Speaker 3 (06:31):
Is my living in vain. That was That was a
watershed moment for people like me who was in straddling
both those worlds Baptist coaching.

Speaker 2 (06:40):
So all of a.

Speaker 3 (06:40):
Sudden, the coaching people was like, oh you ain't y'all,
ain't never doing nothing like this. It's my living what
And so once tweaking them start doing anything. It was
a rap. And then by eighty one, when I was
fifteen sixties, you brought the sunshine went crazy. So then
I was like, Okay, now she's combining my hero Stevie

(07:00):
Wonder with the church thing, and I just I knew
that was it. That was my calling. I was like, well,
then and now and then that just leads us to commission,
which we'll get to. But I'm just saying what he
was saying. I was playing, Yeah, absolutely, playing in my
own church, Saint James. I was playing my Baptist church.
But then they weren't really paying like I thought.

Speaker 2 (07:20):
There's always so, but this particular one was thirteen.

Speaker 3 (07:24):
But I was looking at the I was looking at
the game, and I was like, hmmm, so how much
work he was putting in? And I need a stereo equipment.
I needed stuff. I needed to rent a drum machine.
I needed to sound like I needed to sound like
Jimmy Jame Terry Lewis all of a sudden like Prince,
I need to program. I need that Len drum, you do.
I need to rent these joints on the weekend. And
so look, so this one Kochic Church needed the player

(07:46):
one and I just took took it. So I left
my church and started playing exclusively for this other particular church,
which out of my denomination, but I didn't care. So
they let me put my drum machine in the pool
pit and I would play and I would program the
whole performances, like when I did Your at the Sunshine.
It was the drummers doing this in eighties. In the
early aces. No no, no, this is like no, I said,

(08:09):
like eighty two, eighty three, So now I'm like sixteen seventeen,
and that's what I was doing, So I would program
all the fields on the drum machine. It was really
a training ground. So by the time, and that's early
so mid eighties, when Commission came like a eighty five
with that first album, then I was like, Okay, now
I see it's possible to have these pop sensibilities on it.

(08:30):
That's what Commission is to me. It's what I don't
hear people talk about a lot. So what I heard
Michael Fred Hammond and those guys do is that they
took records because I'm from the Midwest, so Chicago and
bands like that were huge. So Peter Setera and heavily
melody based things like let's see, uh.

Speaker 2 (08:48):
You say your loves man to me?

Speaker 3 (08:51):
All the open, the open tones, that is that Commission
church thing. So I made the connection between the Chicago
pop joints and black gospel cords. So then I was like, oh, well,
this is the thing I wonder because that was so
different from the Winings, the other previous family that had

(09:13):
been killing it. But we can't ignore the Winings contribution
and what Bill Maxwell, the producer, had my ear because
when he would do these productions, they were sounding like
earth Wind and Fire productions. I remember andre Craft, It's
going to rain. I was like, ooh, I feel like
serpentine fire kind of like they was nasty. I was like,

(09:35):
whoa these tracks are. So that's Bill. Bill Maxwell, the producer,
the drummer did those records. So that aesthetic came into
play when commissioned. When drum machines became more prevalent than drummers,
then commission took it over. And now you're hearing program
and live drums together, because they would have live drums too.
But the point was they putting these pop melodies on

(09:57):
these gospel joints. So running back to you, on all
those joints that we loved. Had to me Peter Setera vibes,
and I love that because I always loved Chicago. So
that's how it all started. As far as my development,
when I'm leading up to getting out of Wichita, I
got out of Wichita because there's a man j King

(10:17):
from Club New Vaux Sacramental legend came through Wichita. I
had a demo at this point because now we now
I thought I was the clark Sitsens, and we thought
we were all these things. So I had a demo
that returched it Church. No, it was a it was
a okay, let me, I gotta I gotta interject. Tremaine
Hawkins had came out in eighty five with a joint

(10:39):
called fall Down on A and M Records. Now that
was to me the hierarchy, I mean the high the
high burd for what I wanted to do. It was
a message joint, but as funky as hell was hitting
in the clubs what Clarks had done when you're about
to sunshine, but now in a new way. So it's
like four on the floor kind of housey. So that
was crazy. If you look up fall Down by tremainn

(10:59):
Hawkins nuts, uh and so that, and then combined with
the wine is we're doing message music through Quincy and
his labels. I was like, man, I think that's what
I want to do. I want to have through what
we do, the message thing. But I wanted to be
through a mainstream label. So I start submitting this demo
that we had to all the labels and then we
got turned out everywhere. But when Jay Kane came through town, Uh,

(11:20):
I had a groupie buddy that loved. He was a
groupie of Club Mebo and I just never was me
and you know, we know he's vocal snobs. All of
us could be vocal snobs. So when they came out
with that, I was completely.

Speaker 2 (11:36):
Who's this guy singing flat like a laud.

Speaker 3 (11:38):
And trying to sound like this person that.

Speaker 2 (11:41):
All that? So what?

Speaker 3 (11:45):
So in this instance, my friend who was that groupie
of them, he went to their show, he followed them
to their hotel, like crazy groupie ship. But he always
had a tape of my stuff on his person. He
gave he gave that tape to JK. Jay King listened
to it. Now this is at the era of Guy.

Speaker 2 (12:02):
Now.

Speaker 3 (12:02):
Remember Guy is out now now we're talking eighty eight,
so it groove me and all that stuff was out.
So now Jay King, here's the tape. Now, this is
like two in the morning at Mama. I'm still with
my mom at my mama house. Right, get a phone call.
She was like, I'm here with Jay King and he
wants to take your tape. Now. I had just seen
a Word Up magazine at an article talking about how

(12:23):
he was beefing with time Ax Social Club because the
rumors and all they was fighting and legal. I was like, ah,
not that dude. Don't get that dude my tape. And
at the exact same time I had told you I
wanted to be on A and M. John McClain was
killing with Janet with control was out. John McClain was
the guy he had, he had done fall down with
Tremainso I was like, John McClain gets it. We can
do what we do through A and M. And so

(12:45):
I'm telling j King and this Jay King is like, what,
I will get you a deal at Warner Brothers in
two weeks if you let me take this tape.

Speaker 2 (12:53):
And I was like, oh, man, I don't know.

Speaker 3 (12:56):
And I was like, he's why.

Speaker 2 (12:57):
They have a legal problems. So are you telling him,
I'm telling rocking him. We didn't neither know.

Speaker 3 (13:02):
I'm telling you, I'm not sure in this moment, I'm
not sure. Then I'm looking around at my mom's little
two hundred square foot little shack I'm in, and you know,
I'm like, and I'm also getting older. I want to
get the hell out of my mom's house.

Speaker 2 (13:13):
Right. So Jay King's he said, I promise.

Speaker 3 (13:15):
You, Benny Medina will sign this if you just let
me take this tape.

Speaker 2 (13:20):
I said, all right, man, all right.

Speaker 3 (13:22):
And he took it and literally, in two weeks, I'm
washing dishes in my mama's kitchen. J King phone onto
one one of those schools, put put it on my head.
Jak's like, you ready to get the hell out of
winch Tar. I was like, what he said, Benny Medina
is signing, y'all. It's a wrap. Make it, make a
list of all your bills, pay your mama bills, and
you out of there. And I moved to Sacramento for
in nineteen eighty seve So what's the name of the group.
The name of the group was Cache Cache.

Speaker 2 (13:46):
It was me and ok, okay, don't don't forget that
what's the what's the whole name?

Speaker 3 (13:49):
Cachet?

Speaker 2 (13:50):
Dave? Why? Okay, what why Nigga?

Speaker 3 (13:53):
Because here's why because we was we was trying right,
trying to fit into the friends thing. They was doing
New Baux.

Speaker 2 (14:00):
So it was just me trying to feed it to
other people else. You didn't really want you didn't really
want to fuck with JK, but you want.

Speaker 3 (14:06):
To take it and once you get it, and once
you get in, you coming.

Speaker 2 (14:11):
In.

Speaker 3 (14:12):
And he thought it was cool perspect I just had
it that cache, but he was like, we added to
Dave why because it was like, oh, it's French still.

Speaker 2 (14:22):
You feel it's French still?

Speaker 3 (14:24):
Wow? Yeah, yeah, it's supposed to be a unique voice.

Speaker 2 (14:27):
Yeah yeah right.

Speaker 3 (14:29):
So and I have that album by the way, that
never came out. I have a whole CD. Okay, so
y'all signed the Benn but then we signed through Benny Okay.
Jay had an imprint King J so we signed through
my come on you feel my Daddy Man come out?
So he signed and then and then I did a
whole album for Warner and it never came out, and
it was on CD. Right now, I have the whole

(14:50):
CD and everything I wrote every single song written produced
by me, and I'm twenty one.

Speaker 2 (14:56):
Now.

Speaker 3 (14:57):
The weirdest thing is we got dropped a couple of
years later, like eighty nine.

Speaker 2 (15:00):
You're Always was signed for Oh for You.

Speaker 3 (15:02):
I did the whole record for you, and then we
got drop because Jay pissed off the wrong people and
we got dropped. His whole thing got dropped when we
got dropped.

Speaker 2 (15:09):
Now check this.

Speaker 3 (15:09):
Now I'm struggling to just work and maintain any type
of presence, and you're scrimental. I mean Sacramento, so thank god,
people like Derek Allen.

Speaker 2 (15:17):
Are there, Raphaelsa Dik is there.

Speaker 3 (15:19):
So it's a lot of energy, a lot of energy
and Wayman Tisdale think God was there Sacramento King and
base based play.

Speaker 2 (15:25):
Oh I was.

Speaker 3 (15:25):
We got dropped in nineteen eighty nine from Warner and
I was devastated because now I'm the boy from Kansas
that was.

Speaker 2 (15:32):
Supposed to let's let's go into dropped.

Speaker 1 (15:34):
I mean that because was that because you guys had
tried to put out music and it didn't work. It
was just a relation. He came out, he came out,
it was unreleased. So the relationship.

Speaker 3 (15:44):
Relationship with the head person and charge, uh went since
went back, and then he and they dropped his whole thing.
And Jay was a real high head at the time.
He'll tell you himself. He was like he was you know,
you know what Jay can be like. Hell, he was
just threaten to beat your asses.

Speaker 2 (16:00):
Period.

Speaker 3 (16:00):
It would be like, I'll beat your fucking ass right
in here right now. He was one of them dudes,
and so but said it to the wrong person, dropped
the whole thing. So now I'm like, oh shit, I'm
just out here in Sacramento, two thousand miles away from home,
you know, broke with no deal, no nothing. So I
started panicking and going like what am I gonna do
to stay in this business at all? So I started

(16:21):
trying to do business, record business adjacent shit. So I
was like, I love Charlie. Let me write something for
Charlie Wilson. Because at the time they had just had
out the record of the Year before, they had out
into song on there called Wednesday Lover. You know that one,
Holy shit the guy bands Wednesday Lover. If y'all don't
know it, look it up. One of the coldest songs
ever and it stills classics sounding right now, So I

(16:41):
say I can write something in that vein of Wednesday
Lover for Charlie.

Speaker 2 (16:44):
That's when I start writing Week.

Speaker 3 (16:47):
But at the exact same time, Chante Boord was in
the camp because she had been signed to Warner Brothers
through Bennie too, So we all lived in Sacramento in
the same place. This and I got kicked out of
my apartment for reasons because of maybe cheated on somebody
that was I was close to.

Speaker 1 (17:02):
And then so so you were you're in a relationship
kind of that involved lodging.

Speaker 3 (17:09):
Girl that was in the group that we was in CAE.
We grew up together, so she was like my childhood but.

Speaker 2 (17:15):
She was she was handling the lodging.

Speaker 3 (17:18):
No, we both were because we were both signed together.
So we were in that situation.

Speaker 2 (17:21):
But at a certain point, your money ran out.

Speaker 3 (17:23):
And I met a new person and she caught me
with that person, so I was instantly out the house,
so boom.

Speaker 2 (17:29):
Because to kick you out the the man, I'm out.

Speaker 6 (17:35):
She had a job, Jacon, she was.

Speaker 3 (17:51):
At that moment. Here's literally did not have a job.

Speaker 2 (17:56):
He also cheated without a job out of.

Speaker 3 (18:02):
Without a job, you can't, So that's how I ended
up without a place to stay. And that's so now
that looks who took me in though it all goes
back to Jay again because rumors was by his TIMEX
Social Club.

Speaker 2 (18:17):
But how rumors.

Speaker 3 (18:18):
So the guy that actually wrote that did the music
on that, his name is Alex Hill. Alex Hill was
my best friends. He let me literally move in with
him in this in this apartment in a place called
Park Cities. Shantey lived in the same apartment Chante. More
so I lived there and I wrote Week in his
bedroom using his equipment.

Speaker 2 (18:36):
Okay, so it's.

Speaker 3 (18:37):
All crazy, but I'm writing it for Charlie, but I'm
writing it about Chante because that's the whole scenario that
was happening, Like there's no way in the world I
could ever get with her, but the energy was there.
So the Week is about not getting with her, whereas
Shirley Murdoch's uh as We Lay is about after Mine

(18:59):
is about ain't never. So that's the difference between those
two joints. But I writing again from the same did
you ever?

Speaker 2 (19:06):
Does she know the song was about her cards? She
talked about it on a Quest Loves podcast.

Speaker 3 (19:10):
Okay, okay, okay, so this is no no oh yeah,
but it's coming from a real place, and now I'm devastated.
And then also I don't have to play say it's
all bad, so I'm just trying to get on Charlie's joint.
So that didn't happen. I don't know. I never submitted
it to Charlie. I was maybe fearful that he wouldn't
like it. I couldn't take the rejection from one of
my heroes, so I just never submitted it. In that interim,
waiting on that to happen, Martha Wash did a couple

(19:35):
of Martha Washing the dance Steva amazing. She had done
a couple of records that I absolutely loved everybody. Everybody
what her voice, So I loved her. I always loved her.
And then C and C had their problems with her
where they didn't use her in the video and she
got you know, she sued them. She won, she won

(19:56):
a record deal out of it. She was on RCA,
so I said, uh, oh, there goes my opening. I've
always loved Mark to watch. I can write for her.
But you knew her, You didn't know, didn't know it all,
but I had. When I was twelve years old, I
used to DJ for the white kids in my school
in lunchtime. One of my biggest records I played in
seventy eight and when I was twelve was Disco Heat
by Sylvester. Martha was in the background on that record, killing,

(20:19):
killing the background. So I was like, I always wonder
who was that voice in the back, and it was
all it was her, and so it just stuck with me.
So I always felt her spiritually in my heart. I
felt her. And then with everybody dance. Now I was
so huge in ninety everybody. I was like, Okay, I'm
about to write some joints for her, just to try
to have an income, right, So I wrote five joints

(20:40):
and I sent them and now I did them on
the demo. Little Cassette sent them to her management.

Speaker 2 (20:44):
I get a phone call.

Speaker 3 (20:45):
It's her manager, Doug Kibble. Rest in peace. Doug Kimble
called me and goes, somebody wants to talk to you.
He puts Martha watching on the phone. She goes, I
don't know who you are or where you are. She said,
but them five songs you sent, can you come to
New York And we're recording off those? And my whole
life changed right in that moment. So I went from
being dropped out, dropped from Warner till now all of

(21:08):
a sudden, I'm a producer, I guess, and I'm a
writer and I'm being flown to New York.

Speaker 4 (21:13):
Technically even know what that is at that moment, and
is just like the actual occupation of being a producer,
because yes, you come from the group and you're writing
and producings for the group, but that's just part of
the group.

Speaker 2 (21:25):
Right now, we're talking about you going.

Speaker 3 (21:27):
To an individual who is a star, a huge star
with a high profile at that moment, because this is
her joint she's doing after she suits to see and
see music factor, So I know it had to be
one hundred percent on point. So yeah, and I was
ready because A I was broke.

Speaker 7 (21:41):
B B.

Speaker 3 (21:43):
I loved her like with my heart and soul. So
I was like, if she likes those songs that I'm
gonna get in here and just kill it with her.
I don't care what the hell happened. I'm going. I've
never been to New York in my life, by the way.
So I took the engineer that from Kansas that I
had originally done my original demo with.

Speaker 2 (21:58):
I took.

Speaker 3 (21:59):
His name is Larry Funk. I love him right now.
He's hope he's listening to this, Larry, I love you.
So Larry and I went to New York, the two
country Bumpkins in Manhattan all of a sudden recording this
dance diva that's the legend and that one of the
songs I did on her is called give It to
You is a video. The first single went to the
number one on Billboard's Dance chart. That was my first

(22:19):
chart ever, a whole year before I ever even heard
about STBV. So that's how I got into the RCA world.
The A and R guy for her album was Kenny
or Tez, the guy who had who had this demo
of these girls that he told me, Hey, b I
got these girls and.

Speaker 2 (22:36):
It was stabb.

Speaker 3 (22:51):
So when he sent me those the girls, he was like, hey,
I've been trying to get these girls signed. I haven't
had any. Look they've been you know, been shopped around
and no luck. He said, I got a feeling with
your style. That's gonna be what they need. I was like, okay, cool.
So Simmony so back in the day's Federal expressed it
a cussat I put the cassette on and the first thing,

(23:13):
I'm struck by his Coco's voice. That tone. I was like, ohoo,
because I love Gwyen Guthrie. That was the closest thing
to Gwenguthrie I had ever heard. And Shirley Murdoch. Yes,
it's kind of like a cross between Shirley Mirock and Gwnguthrie.
So I was like, ooh, that tone. I could work
with that. I know I could work with that. But
then she was really sharp singing over the notes all
the time, like super sharp singing. So it was like, really,
this is too much. And she was singing really big

(23:35):
and loud all the time, so churchy, churchy. She used
to singing in choirs type of thing. I said to him,
I said, man, if I can get her under control,
like I think.

Speaker 2 (23:44):
You got something. So he said, okay, dope now.

Speaker 3 (23:47):
And remember I purposely hadn't played him weak or nothing
like that yet, So I played him right here.

Speaker 2 (23:53):
And I played him.

Speaker 3 (23:54):
I think I played him always on my mind.

Speaker 2 (23:56):
One of the He's like, yeah, yeah, cut those, let's
cut those. You'd already have them.

Speaker 3 (24:00):
I had those just sitting around in the cut Yeah,
and so because the Charlie thing was from way back
in eighty nine, Charlie Records. No, the week was Charlie Records.
But the other stuff was just me doing stuff. And
right here was definitely just an idea.

Speaker 2 (24:13):
I didn't know. I have no idea what that was,
how that was gonna land.

Speaker 1 (24:16):
But those are the records I had, and I missed
those days when I used to just have records, right
I was just going to the studio and just we
would we would just make records.

Speaker 2 (24:27):
Yeah, we have nobody in mind, are just doing some
deu we have.

Speaker 3 (24:30):
We would just make records every day and feel good
doing it. All felt great, and it translates because the
truth of that translates when you're just doing something that's
not contrived and you just feeling it. I think that's
the well, that's the answer to why they keep using
the stuff if you really want to. Yeah, because it
was from a real place. But in that instance, I
played those things for him he said, oh hell yeah.

(24:52):
So he asked me, he said, when you come back
to mix the Martha, can you record now? I said yes,
thinking okay, she's dope, it's gonna be cool. But in
the interim something happened. Kenny Ortez came from New York,
from RCA and New York to a meeting at RCA
here in LA with the head guy, Skip Miller rest

(25:13):
in Peace. When he went to this meeting, he was
walking through the creepicles that you do at a record
company and boo boo, and he heard a demo playing
and it was this guy, Jeff Bowenes, who used to
work at King J Records as a like a cleaning
up the place, vacum men cleaning that guy. So now
that same person is an A and R person at RCA.

(25:34):
Now this this many years later. He's playing week my
demo that I had done in eighty nine. Kenny or
Ts walked by. He says, I know that voice, that's
Brian Morgan. What the fuck? What the fuck is that?
And so Jeff played the rest of the song.

Speaker 2 (25:51):
Kenny called me.

Speaker 3 (25:51):
He's like, how the hell you gonna not send me this?
When I asked you to send me shit for them girls,
I said, cause I want that for myself. Maybe he's like, na, bro,
you got to record this when you come to New York.
Fuck that, I said, I don't know.

Speaker 2 (26:05):
Kenny's still an artist. Mo too. I'm thinking, I am.

Speaker 3 (26:08):
Okay, right, and so he goes. I said, I don't know, man,
I'll give you ten g's just a demo it, I said.

Speaker 2 (26:14):
Cool.

Speaker 3 (26:17):
So we were there. So we were there because I'm finishing Martha.
I just decided we cut weak. And that's the famous
thing you hear Coco talk about. She didn't like it,
and it was really she really hated it. Coco did
not get it. She didn't understand what it was about.
She did. She was like, I don't like it. So
I was like, I got I started to get at first.
I tried to be cool, and then it got ridiculous

(26:39):
and she hid herself in the bathroom and wouldn't come out.
And I was like, oh my, she did not like it,
for she ain't lying when she says it. And so
I told Kenny, I said, man, I'm cool, bro't I
don't need to do this.

Speaker 2 (26:50):
I'm good. I don't have to. I'm not trying to
force nobody to do my shit. She came out. He did.
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (26:55):
He's sweet talked for some kind of way. She came out,
and so when she finally got on, I'm like to
cut it. It was such through such an attitude, but
I didn't care at that point. I was just like,
I'm not letting a single line go unless it's exactly
what I want, because now you tried me out here,
so every line is what I wanted. And if you
hear the demo, which I will play for you, the

(27:17):
demo is exactly what she did. It's like everything on
the demo is just this there. So when I played
that demo for people, they're like, holy shit, like it's
everything is there, the ad libs, every single thing. Because
she wasn't an ad liber she didn't like the add limb,
so I was like, there's no reason for me to
pull teeth. Let me just let her do what I did,
all the ad libs. So that's how that happened, and

(27:37):
then we get the million sellar number.

Speaker 2 (27:40):
So they're signed at this point though.

Speaker 3 (27:42):
There no we cut it when you do it, and
they got so.

Speaker 2 (27:45):
So Kenny or Tees is paying all this out of
his pocket.

Speaker 3 (27:48):
I think that I don't know how much he paid
out of the pocket, but I think in that moment
he had done lots of demos with lots of people
and stuff, So how I think they got signed after
that for sure. I knew that they were signed. All
I know is once that had happened and we was recorded,
they was they were signed in for sure. And then
then we started having they had a real budget. Then
they came out to Sacramento and we did I'm Swearing

(28:08):
to You in Sacramento, and and and a couple other
things sisters and voices in the House and a couple
of other things in Sacramento, and then we went back
and I finished. I think I did always on my
mind in New York. I did, So it depends on
what it was. But some things got done in Sack,
some things got done in New York, but it all
got done.

Speaker 2 (28:25):
What were you what were you programming.

Speaker 3 (28:27):
On OOO at that time? Now that's funny you asked,
because on the Martha Watch stuff, I didn't have hardly
anything because I was so broke.

Speaker 2 (28:34):
So I had a like a.

Speaker 3 (28:36):
Nine o nine drum machine and we used to mediate
with this leasis six minute eleases. So you want your
percussion and live acoustic, you sound and ship from that,
and then you're hard hitting ship with the nine on
nine because that's what house kids music. They was poop
poop that thing. So then we had that, and then
that's how did all my Martha watch stuff. But after Martha,

(28:59):
the MPC sixty came out. Sixty the very first NPC
sixty was what I did all the SWB's first album
stuff on Right Here. I had to remake that because
I had already done them eight way back of Stay
in my friend's apartment when I still lived there. I
had to recreate right Here, and I had to recreate
Week from eighty nine. So I had to recreate that
demo a year we in there, we in ninety one,

(29:20):
in ninety, couple years, a couple of years, so I
had to recreate Week all of that, and I did,
and then I created I'm So Into You. The funny
thing about I'm Soon to You was it got reduced
down to what you hear because I was such a
fan of people like Eric Sermon and the.

Speaker 2 (29:34):
Hip hop guys. I'm a hip hop head period.

Speaker 3 (29:36):
People don't really know how much of people here I
am so much, so that when I was in New York,
It's like, I'm not gonna be in New York and
not go see Eric Sermon. So I went to his
joints and watch what he was doing on that workstation,
the Cork workstation.

Speaker 2 (29:46):
How he asked r ten he was just going and
finding people.

Speaker 3 (29:49):
Oh, Bro, I was like, I just like to be around.
I went to meet Bob Power because I love the
way he mixed the tribe called Quest records. I'm such
a sonics and for you're a scientist, Oh my god.
So when I just want to be in the space,
I'm like them Tried records are brilliant as far as
how they sound. I was like, I got it. Come on, man,
So Eric Hermon, I was so in awe of him

(30:09):
and how he put his ship down. I had went
back home and did this whole I'm swing to you
that sounds more like Eric Hermon, Like what he the mob,
crazy heavy big drums, kenyr T's heard it and he
said mm hm, take all that ship back out. He said,
I like what you had before. Take all that ship out,
just leave it the way it was. And I was like,
and that's what I'm swing to you.

Speaker 2 (30:28):
Is strep I just too talented.

Speaker 3 (30:32):
I was trying to be other people ship on top
of my ship and He's like, just be you.

Speaker 2 (30:36):
That's a lot of ship.

Speaker 3 (30:37):
It was right, and I'm so glad, he said, that
because when I stripped it back down, it was just
the basic, straightest, straight as fuck.

Speaker 2 (30:44):
What keys were you using that?

Speaker 3 (30:45):
That's a cord, that cored road, That roads is a
cord d W. What was it called one depth? That's
the cord, Yeah, right, cork I one W. And then
my base on I'm swing to you. I used this
sh one oh one from nineteen eighty one. It was
pre midy old as fuck, and I had painted it

(31:05):
and I was just that was just my little base joint.
That's the same base one always in my mind. I
was always been in my baseline. That was my kind
of signature. So boom, ohn ben and shit.

Speaker 2 (31:16):
I said, let me put this eight o eight in here. Though.

Speaker 3 (31:18):
Let these kids know we still you know, I'm still
it's still street and still fucking you know, to play
in the clubs. So I put the eight o eight
in there. But the biggest thing I compliment I ever
got was from Rodney Jerkins when he said, and you
can look at this on YouTube. It's on YouTube an
interview him interview with me. He said, the reason why
I'm swimming you changed the game in R and B
for him was because it was different from Jimmy jam

(31:41):
and Terry Lewis's approach, which was just a play and
they're playing straight through, no samples. Teddy Ridy was playing
mostly no samp with some hits, maybe some one off hits,
but it's still playing. He said, I was the first
producer that chopped shit. For example, the high hat, that's
a that's a sample from a record, but I chopped
it and let that be my high had instead of

(32:02):
playing the high hat on sound, I want that loop
to be the high hat because it made it dirtier
and nastier. And then and then when I did play
my in order to keep it more like a sample,
I just sampled myself. So every time you hear it's
the same thing, it's not me playing it in different
in different velocity. No, it's a sample because I sampled myself.

(32:24):
But that NPC made that possible. So now I'm chopping
my own keys, putting them back in the thing, and
I'm playing I'm producing my I'm playing myself like like
I'm a hip hop producer, sampling my own self. And
that made that sound sound different than Teddy and them,
And so all of a sudden, you had a record
that's not New Jack's Wing coming out of the New
Jack Swing era with a in a big hit record,
was a gold single, number six pop record, and a

(32:45):
number one Black record. That's absolutely straight as hell, no
New Jack, I'm nowhere. And then when I get to
that break, you're not. I want to remind them, I say,
remind them I'm still and shit. So that was breaking.
That was different for R and B's that with a
straight ahead girl group R and B song that had

(33:06):
that element in it. I think people perceived it as, oh,
what kind of street nigga?

Speaker 2 (33:10):
Shit? Is this okay? With some real singing?

Speaker 3 (33:12):
It's some church Wait a minute, this girl can really say.
So it's kind of like what I said about you.
You represented a real voice from what I know as
the church and commission, but on these ridiculously hot urban beats.
That's what you were to me. When I heard you,
I was like, yeah, this is there. We go YouTube
same thing you guys. Your beats were properly done. This

(33:33):
is what I'm trying to say, like, and then you
still got the truth of the voice on it right now.

Speaker 4 (33:37):
It was I mean like when SWV came out, it
just like you said, I mean from she just her
voice cut through, her voice cut through, And now it
all makes sense with you know, you being from the Midwest, yes, sir,
moving to the West coast and then kind of moving
again to the East.

Speaker 2 (33:57):
Coast to produce.

Speaker 4 (33:58):
Yeah, so you getting all of these different mixes, and
of course you're you're not going to produce the same
way that Teddy, who's from Harlem exactly, is going to produce.
You're going to produce with a little bit of the
club nouveau, with the church absolutely and kind of being
a transplant in New York, right, you know what I mean?

(34:20):
So your hip hop is going to be different, and
it was, and it was, and it makes so much
more sense now.

Speaker 3 (34:27):
Yeah, yeah, because that's the truth of it. Yeah, that's
just the facts.

Speaker 2 (34:30):
I mean, that's the exact facts.

Speaker 3 (34:32):
That's why it happened the way and when all the
ad libs she does and all those things like that,
that was me dialing back the church. Like everything can
be you know, if it's very specific. If you listen
to the ad libs that she's doing, I want, placement
was really important with me, Like every single ad lib.

Speaker 1 (34:50):
Well, that's just a science of that's a science of
old school records that it's tough to figure out in
an new age because now we're in the age of
no adlibs, you know what I'm saying, right, But back
in that day, the ad libs were just as important.

Speaker 4 (35:14):
Especially towards people are singing the ad libs word for words.

Speaker 2 (35:20):
Because of the science of how they're placed.

Speaker 3 (35:24):
Right, It's a part of it. It's a structure. It's
part of the structure for sure. For sure that we
are missing in today's time.

Speaker 1 (35:33):
And I think it's just only because music is moving
so much faster and the pieces of the record.

Speaker 3 (35:40):
Yesterday, yesterday, somebody sent me this image instagram of this
little Asian kid. He's got to be like four five
year old kid, and he's running through these all these
classic songs, hip hop and R and B songs, right,
and he does gets the umps on to you, And
that little boy does the ad libs when his mom

(36:00):
is prompting him.

Speaker 2 (36:01):
She sings, she sings the thing she's prompting him.

Speaker 3 (36:03):
She goes h so to you and then he does
the ad libs. I was so done that he did
the ad list. I was dead almost almost moved me
to tears. I'm like he could have done any part
of that. He's doing her ad lists. So if you
look at my Instagram, it's that little kids doing that
and that's going crazy on that. It's viral because he's
so cute. It's like a little five year old. And

(36:25):
when when she says come and talk to me, he
goes really one of me. He's answering every single thing
that she prompts him. It's great, it's amazing. So again
full circle, the little the new generation is they still
own it. Maybe because these kids are taking it to
their kids. And Jimmy jam told me his son did
a paper on me in college.

Speaker 2 (36:46):
What the hell?

Speaker 3 (36:48):
Bobby Rossa Villa called me with his kid in the
car because the kid that did a playlist and it's
almost all SWV. He's like, b I didn't tell this
boy nothing. But look he's eleven. So I'm saying, holy crap, man,
Like this is insane. This is insane. That's three generations
in yeah, two thousand and five now on Jojo, when
I did the Week on Jojo, that's a whole couple

(37:08):
of generations. You know, that's crazy. Now she's in her thirties,
but she was fifteen whatever when we did that. Bro
Usher fifteen when they brought him to me at my
house in Sacramento. I did a song on his first
album called Crazy.

Speaker 2 (37:21):
It's a lot.

Speaker 3 (37:22):
It's a lot, It's a feeling, like the weight of
it all. Now like holy crap.

Speaker 2 (37:27):
Man, come on man, Rain Okay.

Speaker 3 (37:29):
So thank God of two thousand Excel came out in
ninety six, so I got that.

Speaker 2 (37:34):
Now Rain is a product. When I got that, but
you said, to what the two thousand.

Speaker 3 (37:38):
NPCO, I said, now we're done to upgrade it to
the Excel, keeping it, keeping it, keeping a musician, you
feel what you feel. It a little box right in
the little and it's had another little sound to it.
But Layla Hathaway is the reason why that exists because
in ninety four I had always want to work with
related and one of my best friends, one of my
best friends and my current manager is Jane as A

(37:58):
James m two Mays, her brother, Jeff Foreman and too
Many's younger brother. Jeff is like one of the most
musical dope people ever. He was in them sessions with
Teddy Pendergrass and Stephanie and he was in there as
a kid watching his brother produce those records. So that's
my guy and he's a househead, huge house had so look.
So he signed Layla to Virgin in eighty nine ninety

(38:21):
and I had always said I want to work with Layla.
So when the girls s TOBV blew up, Layla was
a fan, and then we got back together and I
was like, yo, I got to do something it. So
I did this song called let Me Love You.

Speaker 2 (38:31):
Have you heard it?

Speaker 3 (38:32):
Layla Crazy? And I'm in the background. Sleayla came to Sacramento,
Uh knocked it out in one take, insane. She played
the whole game, Galag. I had a Gallica machine the
stand up time. She beat my high score winning and
did the vocal and got back on the plane.

Speaker 2 (38:46):
Gallagher is.

Speaker 1 (38:49):
Such an important part story because that's my ship.

Speaker 2 (38:52):
Come on, gal you gotta make sure grab you so
you can get the double man.

Speaker 3 (39:00):
Now you got two guns. Come on, man, come on.

Speaker 2 (39:06):
We actually made a song shout out to Charlie Barrell.
We did a.

Speaker 3 (39:09):
Song to.

Speaker 1 (39:13):
My Gosh songs in a Jamie's house love See Crazy,
And I don't even thought I was gonna even tell
that part of the story, but that was.

Speaker 2 (39:21):
Let Me Love You. Please look it up.

Speaker 3 (39:23):
She murdered that and so, and she just added it
to her set recently, and so that happened. But while
we were vibing before we recorded, I came to see
her at her apartment in La. She started playing me records.
She pulls out Jocko and this is ninety four, nineteen
ninety four.

Speaker 2 (39:39):
I never heard of Jocko, didn't know who he was.
She pulls it out.

Speaker 3 (39:43):
I'm struck by the cover because I'm like, Wow, this
is crazy that I'm flipping over.

Speaker 2 (39:45):
I realized Herbie Hancock is doing the line of those
he's introducing Jocko.

Speaker 3 (39:49):
I was like, oh, you got my hero and it
so I had to listen. So we put it on.
We dropped it on portrait of Tracy and I was like,
oh shit, what is that? She said, that's poor trace it.
But he goes into all these crazy other things. They
don't have no tempo at all. Right, So I just
put it in the back.

Speaker 2 (40:05):
Of my mind.

Speaker 3 (40:06):
I say, if I ever ever used that, Lord, that's
gonna be crazy. That was in ninety four. So three
years later, I'm in my shower. I had came up
with this hook to rain and it had been you know,
high bounced around your head for a few days.

Speaker 2 (40:19):
You're like, I keep this hook, won't let me go
rain down.

Speaker 3 (40:21):
I mean, so when I was in the shower in
this moment, for some reason, some light bulb went off.

Speaker 2 (40:28):
I was like, wait a.

Speaker 3 (40:28):
Minute, If I fucking use that Jocko hear on this hook,
Oh my god, if those go together, that's gonna be crazy.
So I put on my towel. I didn't even wait
to drive now. I just put on my towel, ran
to my studio. I had bought the record, pulled out
the vinyl, put the thing on the needle. It was
the exact key I was hearing my hook, and I
was like, I'm gonna take that as a sign because
it was it went do do do do doude what

(40:50):
I was like. So I said, okay, so let me
do this beat right now. So I did that beat
in the spirit right in the moment. I did not wait.
I did that beat right then and there. When I
put the beat together and played the keys, I was like,
I think the Jocko part has to be the verses because.

Speaker 2 (41:09):
I already had the hook.

Speaker 3 (41:10):
The hook already existed, so I was like, I just
got to make those two things work, So I just
figured out how to do the transitions from the hook
into and back and forth. So that's how I had
to add cords to it because they're not there those
there's two bars of the jocko. It's not even two
whole bars, it might be a bar and a half.
So I had to make connect those dots with cords
that weren't there. So that's what you got all these

(41:32):
other cords that connected to it.

Speaker 2 (41:34):
You feel me? Was that a hard sample to clear?

Speaker 3 (41:37):
I never sampled it, no sample it. I just played
every played it.

Speaker 4 (41:41):
Yeah, so okay, So even the clearance of that, No,
it wasn't because at that time, because I know he
was kind of you know, like JACKO document and it's like,
since did they hear it?

Speaker 2 (41:55):
Or you were just like you can hear it? Yeah?

Speaker 3 (42:00):
Yeah, there's no way in hell. Yeah yeah, there's no
way in hell.

Speaker 4 (42:03):
So I gotta asked you a question too, though, because
in the midst of these things and these records that
you guys are doing and this new group and they're
blowing up now, people are remixing your records too though,
right right, because you're like right here, right here, ends
up getting remixed that was.

Speaker 2 (42:22):
In real time.

Speaker 4 (42:23):
That's what I'm saying. No, I'm talking about real time. Yeah,
where you got these records going. And I'm going backward
a little bit because obviously the rank came later. But
I wanted to mention you know, that's always a tricky
thing for producers when when someone else comes in and
does a remix right and the remix hits, and the
remix hits, you know what I'm saying, and it's like, Okay,

(42:45):
well I did the record, but they then they.

Speaker 3 (42:47):
I was cool with it because I'm like, all that's
doing is is making me more money, because that's now.

Speaker 2 (42:52):
Here's the deal.

Speaker 3 (42:52):
When right Here came out as the original joint, it
only went to like twenty something on the R and
B chart and never even the ninety something on the
pop chart. So I felt like that was a other
life of giving my the first single a chance to
do what it's supposed to do. And it went to
number two pop, kept out only by Maria's dream Lover,
which I remixed myself that year, So it was I
remixed dream Lover for her.

Speaker 2 (43:13):
She called me specifically said would you.

Speaker 3 (43:15):
So she was number one with dream Lover and I
was number two, and right here human nature.

Speaker 4 (43:28):
I was meticulous in a lot of those types of
man Through all of it, I always had my father
in my head. Who was who was my first manager?
You know what I'm saying?

Speaker 2 (43:37):
Who? Really?

Speaker 4 (43:40):
He really just didn't take no ship. So I was
trying to find a happy medium between that, you know
what I mean. But you know I had I had
managers in management that that that worked with me along
the way. But even when even when I had management,
I managed us, you know what I mean, because I
just understood the business from such a young age.

Speaker 2 (44:00):
Right.

Speaker 4 (44:01):
But I also, like I said, when I look back
on it, sometimes I look back on it like, damn,
maybe I should have done that deal, or maybe I
should have written in that session instead of it being
like you know, but but you know, like Tank said,
you gotta you gotta take what comes along with making
that decision. And I just as the young niggas will
say now and certain things I just stood on business.

(44:24):
I ain't make some millions that I probably should have
made though by being a little.

Speaker 3 (44:28):
Too extra with that ship. Yeah, So I watched a
media I watched.

Speaker 2 (44:32):
When people be like, oh, well, you know, I didn't
do this and you have a choice.

Speaker 3 (44:36):
When he did, it cost me my whole ship for
that first time out. But it was but I wasn't
supposed to come out at that moment. But you couldn't
tell me that then I was.

Speaker 2 (44:45):
Like, you just destroyed my whole shit from.

Speaker 3 (44:48):
One fucking outburst, right. I was never stated to the
point where like fetal position, crying like a baby, like
what am I gonna do? We just I just made
this whole album and if nobody's ever seen this, not
gonna see the light a day. I could have never
predicted what gonna happen in the next four years, you know.

Speaker 2 (45:01):
What I mean.

Speaker 3 (45:02):
So, I mean those are the things I really like
sharing with you guys, because A we can share those
war stories. B we survived them, right, and so hopefully
we're on the other side of it with some knowledge.

Speaker 2 (45:13):
We are not. Hopefully That's what we're here to do, right.
You know.

Speaker 1 (45:18):
The music part of it is, you know, of course
we have that, we do that, But the information.

Speaker 2 (45:23):
Is it's everything. It's everything, every god and that's why
we're here.

Speaker 3 (45:28):
Yeah, the more you.

Speaker 1 (45:33):
Know, Morgan, because I played this Superman, it's what you are,

(45:53):
my brother. The people want to know a lot of
your music has been and a lot of our favorite peoples.

Speaker 2 (46:07):
What is been? But now we want to know yours.

Speaker 1 (46:12):
Okay, you have a lot of musical information, a lot
of musical gifts.

Speaker 2 (46:17):
And talents, and we're asking m h m hmmm five
your top five time five? I mean not talking about remixes,

(46:39):
your whe Do you want to know?

Speaker 5 (46:50):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (46:51):
Pop on you tall? Which time we'll go go.

Speaker 4 (47:00):
Wow?

Speaker 2 (47:11):
Okay, alright, yes, sir, that's that's why you went over
to the Church of God, to Christ. Do you want
to hear that?

Speaker 3 (47:27):
That's what you want to hear it? Okay, right, deliver
all right? Top five in no particular order?

Speaker 2 (47:34):
Still playing course, you know what?

Speaker 3 (47:36):
Of course he is, he's still playing courts.

Speaker 2 (47:47):
You know what?

Speaker 1 (47:51):
Brown Morgan, Yep, thanks, I'm here all week, all week.
I play so fine, don't you agree? Your top five
R and B artists artists? So he first, he said,
sing is not artist.

Speaker 2 (48:08):
Artists.

Speaker 1 (48:08):
Artists listen listen, singers. Artists is the whole thing. Okay,
Can I do? Can I I'm asking for?

Speaker 2 (48:17):
Can I do Top five male and then Top five female?
Can I do that?

Speaker 5 (48:21):
Or no?

Speaker 2 (48:21):
If you would like to, I think I would like
to do top five. That's your top Okay, got it
all right?

Speaker 3 (48:31):
So top five male? Obviously, Stevie wonder my first influence?
Why not Michael Jackson?

Speaker 2 (48:37):
Why not?

Speaker 3 (48:37):
Because he's the only person that's ever had three different
voices and had hits and all the talk to talk
talk to three voices. And for those who don't believe,
I like to name the joints. Uh, there's there I
want your back voice, and then there's the dance machine
get it together voice, and then you're off the wall
and the rest of his stuff voice.

Speaker 2 (48:54):
That's three differ go four with them with the bad voice,
but keep going all right?

Speaker 4 (48:57):
Boom so Butterfli's voice here, yes, Uh, Stevie, Michael sly.

Speaker 3 (49:06):
For the Deacon, the layo's own deacon soul, brilliant messages
and lyrics and melody that I still with to this day.
I just finished his book this morning. I was reading
that for the last couple of weeks. His autobiography is amazing.

Speaker 5 (49:22):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (49:23):
Donnie Hathaway for the vibration of his that is some
kind of otherworldly spiritual thing. And and I gotta go
with Luther because of just how he just did a
thing that nobody had done, and it was a thing
that was his own.

Speaker 2 (49:43):
I think he was the He was the cleanest straight
ahead singer.

Speaker 3 (49:47):
That ever just was all tone. It was all grace tone.
So that's my fot.

Speaker 2 (49:53):
That was my guys, my ladies. Okay, uh ritha, you
start with the Queen. You gotta start the Queen.

Speaker 3 (50:00):
Shaka oh Gladys Kim Morell's in there, and I'm gonna
put for the old school classic Ella.

Speaker 2 (50:13):
Yeah, this is my five. The Lady list is crazy.

Speaker 7 (50:19):
You feel me listen because I'm so real, you feel
me a lot of the because a lot of the
other people that came are derivatives of one of those things,
for sure in some kind of way.

Speaker 1 (50:31):
All Right, So they're my top ten, your top five,
if if we could do five, your top five R
and B songs?

Speaker 3 (50:38):
Oh oh, rock with you?

Speaker 2 (50:43):
Mhy not uh oh.

Speaker 3 (50:53):
I love Golden Lady Stevie hm hmm so much, but
then I also love as mm hmm b Stevie, and
also love knocks me off my feet.

Speaker 2 (51:06):
Man, you know, I know, are you trying to pick
one of those?

Speaker 3 (51:12):
Are you just so torn?

Speaker 2 (51:13):
Because five is too short?

Speaker 3 (51:16):
I gotta go with I love stand by slide for
what it's saying, love stand There's a midget beside him
like he's got just the metaphors and stand are just ridiculous.
There's a midget standing tall and a giant beside him
about the fall. I love couples like that. Let's say
so much with so little.

Speaker 2 (51:37):
I guess that would be my top five of those
R and B songs. Yeah three, Stevie, Yeah, because that's
how impactful. Yeah, he's.

Speaker 1 (51:47):
He's lord Lord Stevie for sure. Let's make a vultron,
let's make a super R and B artist. What we're
gonna do is we're gonna get the vocal from somebody,
the performance style from somebody, the styling from somebody, the
passion from somebody. Are you talking to drip? And then

(52:08):
and then we want to know who's gonna write and
produce for this artists? When to add this for you?
So yeah, sometimes we do that. Who you're getting the
vocal from for your super R and B artists, Twinkie
Clark ship Wow, Twinkie Clark for the vocal, I mean
not ship.

Speaker 2 (52:32):
That don't go together? And what was the next thing?

Speaker 1 (52:36):
Performance style Michael perform Twinkie voice, Michael okay, Michael moves,
Michael moves Okay. The styling Diana Ross m Yeah, yes, yes,
I'm not you're gonna dance in that gown, but I
get it.

Speaker 3 (52:51):
And she's doing runs in it too.

Speaker 2 (52:55):
Had that ship on.

Speaker 3 (52:58):
Always the top dollar twice in the last five years,
still blew me away. Oh my god, seventies and the
seventies killing by.

Speaker 2 (53:08):
Passion of the artist the heart uh by Marley? Mmmm
yeah yeah by Marley because I just saw that movie.
My god, you watched him original videos. He was giving
it all totally. He los hisself and lose itself my god.

(53:28):
Yeah yeah. And who's writing and producing for this artist?
Us three? Hey, come on, we.

Speaker 1 (53:36):
Made the cut, a gentleman, We made the cut, Thank
you sir, and we will be actually producing.

Speaker 3 (53:50):
This was great.

Speaker 2 (53:56):
Love love love love.

Speaker 3 (53:59):
Wow. Yeah, you got me with that. I've never heard
that set up before. That's an incredible setup. That's crazy.
Could you even imagine that, Voltron? That's crazy.

Speaker 2 (54:15):
We got something special for you though, A saying no
saying no name, saying no names, no names.

Speaker 1 (54:27):
Who was.

Speaker 2 (54:30):
What you need? He's saying no name. Yeah, we've come
to that part.

Speaker 4 (54:49):
Come to the segment special, very special party show, very
pensive part of the show.

Speaker 2 (54:53):
What's that?

Speaker 4 (54:54):
So we're here now and you know we need we
need you to give us a story, funnier, fucked up
and your travels. I mean, you already told us the
ship that was wild.

Speaker 2 (55:05):
You know what I mean it was.

Speaker 4 (55:06):
You know, this time you gotta say without saying nobody name.
You know what I'm saying, you know, and in the times,
in the life and time Brian Alexander Morgan, ship you've seen,
I mean, you know, maybe a story maybe on.

Speaker 2 (55:20):
The field of which it maybe funny, fucked up or both.

Speaker 4 (55:24):
Yeah, yeah, they can be funny, are fucked up or
funny and fucked up.

Speaker 2 (55:29):
The only rude to the game is you can't say
no names.

Speaker 3 (55:35):
Huh, that's interesting. I think one of so many things
are going through my head, but like random stuff that
has iconic moments that were weird. I walked onto the
set of the video for Missy's The Rain already I'm sorry,

(55:56):
damn fucked up, but.

Speaker 2 (55:58):
It's not her.

Speaker 3 (55:58):
But it's not about her though, That is where I was, OK. Yeah, uh,
I can't do this then, because I can't say that's
too many names.

Speaker 2 (56:09):
How am I gonna convey? You can do, you can
plain the situation, can't say today, man, I think I
gotta switch through descriptive that story is. I can't even O.
Can't let me change.

Speaker 3 (56:21):
Okay, So no names, it's.

Speaker 2 (56:26):
So let me get this wreck. You you don't want
no names? Okay.

Speaker 3 (56:37):
Oh this is a management issue.

Speaker 2 (56:42):
Okay. So when.

Speaker 3 (56:45):
I got signed, didn't have management. When things fell apart,
we got management trying to think that we're going to
fix what was falling apart. It was a crook. We
got a crook as a manager. That was a person
who was a criminal, and we didn't know that so

(57:07):
too late after you already signed to the management.

Speaker 2 (57:10):
Oh you signed to the criminal, to the criminal okay, okay.

Speaker 6 (57:13):
And.

Speaker 3 (57:14):
That almost got me killed in real life because that
criminal tried to come up against the powers that be
and it all went bad. So that was scary for
a young person like me at that time, in my
early twenties that had never been confronted with Oh I.

Speaker 2 (57:32):
Could die.

Speaker 3 (57:34):
Like holy crap, Like what do I What the hell?
I didn't sign up for violence. So that was a
life lesson that I learned that loyalty can be more
important than.

Speaker 2 (57:50):
An immediate.

Speaker 3 (57:53):
Gratifact. Gratification like ultimate loyalty is important when if you
have to have somebody like in your corner that absolutely
got your back back even when business might be afft
up this I learned that the hard way I had
went with some other people that I thought had my back,
but it almost cost me my life. Literally, Yeah, it

(58:17):
was bad because the person who's I should have had
my loyalty too, was so offended that I brought this
outside person in who was absolutely a criminal, the kind
of shit you can't even make up like, And I
didn't know any of those things, so I was learning
all of it in real time, like whoa what what?

Speaker 2 (58:36):
What you know?

Speaker 3 (58:37):
So that it's probably not the story you was looking for,
But that's that happened.

Speaker 2 (58:42):
That happens.

Speaker 3 (58:43):
It's scary, scary. So I say to any people in
this game or when you're doing what you're doing, and
I've heard horror stories. We talked about people hanging people
out windows, all that stuff that all those things that
have happened to certain people. When I hear those kind
of stories, I'm like, I died the bullet for compared
to those stories. So I don't take my being alive

(59:06):
for granted. Nice Ever, maybe that changed my life. I
think it might have changed my life my perspective on
just being alive and being grateful for being in the
position that you are in, even when it looks fucked up.
Like every day I wake up, I'll be like, I'm
not in Gaza. That's just how I think I'm grateful
or humble. And sometime I had it, y'all. Tell me
if this is y'all, I can have a moment where

(59:27):
I just absolutely lose it and cry just for pure gratefulness,
just lose it and just being thankful. I don't have
a moment of praise by myself. Nobody needs to know,
just me being thankful. I don't know if I'm the
only one that does that, but I do. And to me,
it's you talk about a cleansing, that's a cleansing.

Speaker 2 (59:45):
To me.

Speaker 3 (59:46):
When I have those moments, I call them my private
spiritual moments where I'm just like, let it out, whatever
it is, thank the universe, thank God, whatever it is
you pray to. I do all of that as a
as a weekly thing because it helps me keep myself grounded,
be honest with myself and spiritual.

Speaker 2 (01:00:09):
I still like you if you follow my page.

Speaker 3 (01:00:11):
I talk so much shit against organized religion and because
the way I came up, and there's a whole other stories,
there's a lot, and I have really bad feelings about
organized religion and people trying to tell you how to
do your connection with your higher power. So I spend
a lot of time on my page trying to tell
people you don't have to do it some other person's
kind of way. You can do your connection direct and keep.

Speaker 2 (01:00:33):
The middle stuff, middle people out. That's what I do.
I don't know why I went there, but I don't know.
Somebody needs to hear. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:00:41):
I want to share that with you because that really
is real, Like that's one hundred percent like for real,
And so all my praise happens privately. I don't need
to do it in front of folks. I don't need
to impress nobody with nothing. But it's very real.

Speaker 2 (01:00:56):
And since I lost my mom at in two thousand
and six.

Speaker 3 (01:01:01):
Lost my sister in two thousand and four, lost my
mom in six and so I feel like when those
moments happened, it's her reconnecting with me and re reminding
me of what she taught me about gratefulness and humbleness
and all the things. I learned to have nothing to
do with any of this business stuff. So I carry
it with me. You mentioned when you said your father,

(01:01:23):
it made it instantly made me feel that about my mother. Yeah,
my father still lied. We cool, But when I lost her,
she was the force that kept me one hundred percent real,
you know. So she was super proud of me for
doing what we like. Her son was working with Aretha.
I'm in Detroit with Aretha?

Speaker 2 (01:01:41):
What her son? What do you do? What? You know?
She grew up on Aretha, so like that's crazy.

Speaker 4 (01:01:48):
Yeah, this music does for us. That's what it does
for us, man. It takes us expenses in places that
we never imagine.

Speaker 3 (01:01:55):
Right right, right right, And again, I'm still thankful to
be here, just to be here, thankful for you guys,
with your platform that I made it on.

Speaker 2 (01:02:05):
Because everybody watched this. Do they love this? They love y'all? Man,
they do. I know that for a fact. Everybody.

Speaker 3 (01:02:10):
You know, I mean, people have been asking what you're
gonna do on there?

Speaker 2 (01:02:14):
I don't do that, don't want that pressure.

Speaker 3 (01:02:18):
I really got to know, like they see me on
other people's things, like when you're going through the real
joint out.

Speaker 2 (01:02:25):
That I'm not even joking.

Speaker 3 (01:02:28):
And I was felt bad because like when I tried
to reschedule that first time when it wouldn't work.

Speaker 2 (01:02:32):
I was like, oh they with me, Oh my god,
I know, No, you're a guy.

Speaker 4 (01:02:38):
Appreciate you that we have the most respectful for what
you've done man, and what you're doing and just you know,
just your just.

Speaker 2 (01:02:44):
Your presence in this music.

Speaker 4 (01:02:45):
GANI coming in here with with that type of energy
man that you know you've been in this game for
as long as you've been in it and still love
it man, you know, because you know we we're around everybody.

Speaker 2 (01:02:56):
Everybody don't love it no more. Facts, you know what
I mean.

Speaker 4 (01:02:58):
And I when I when I'm I'm around people who
have been in it who don't love it anymore. It's disheartening. Yeah,
you know what I mean, because this is obviously something
we do from our heart. This is something that it's
really been embedded in all of us and has, like
I said, taking us places and put us in, you know,
situations that we.

Speaker 2 (01:03:16):
Never could even even imagine.

Speaker 4 (01:03:18):
So when we get that and we get here, I
just hope they remember, you know, how good it is
to be in this position, right, you know what I mean,
and to see you and to see you still enjoying
it the way you do and still you can still.

Speaker 2 (01:03:31):
Call it all up and it is this that it's amazing, bro,
that's amazing. Amazing. Course.

Speaker 3 (01:03:36):
So Wayne was just at my house two days and
two nights ago. So I have a whole other side
of me that I do house music, like very religiously
and seriously. Really, I'm a real student of house music.
So Wayne and I are doing a partnership with here
Terry Hunter, the DJ for Chiciago. He's amazing. So I'm
doing a whole separate house music thing with those guys.
So I just am thankful that I have all these

(01:03:57):
outlets to do these things like and then my hip hop.

Speaker 2 (01:03:59):
Stuff is like with I also sing on house tracks.

Speaker 3 (01:04:04):
I hope y'all really come over, like, don't dun't.

Speaker 2 (01:04:09):
I need those guys.

Speaker 3 (01:04:12):
Hills please, because I'm telling you, like, I want nothing
more than to get you guys's ears on some of
these things I'm working on because I'm excited about them
and I want I just want to see what gets
some feedback from you absolutely and some huge business wise
like there's I have a couple of people are trying
to do some things with me, heads from people right now,
some things with these records, and I'm trying to figure

(01:04:35):
out the best way to move to get these records
out because I know I'm sitting on gold.

Speaker 2 (01:04:39):
I know it.

Speaker 3 (01:04:40):
I haven't felt this way about certain these particular records
like in a long time as far, and I know
there's this particular audience that's waiting for these records. Is
they are ready, big time ready, especially after verses and
after all these things. Right, So, I'm sitting on these
records and I need to get them out, but I'm
weighing a couple of situations and I feel very alone
and trying to make the decisions. It's good that I

(01:05:01):
have these options, but I need to have people to
bounce some options off of them. And you guys are
the perfect guys because you've been in multiple, multiple situations
and deals like there's ways to do these records and
get them out, you know what I mean. So after
y'all hear what I got and when I'm sitting on
I want to y'all want you guys to really share
with me what you guys how y'all think I should move.

Speaker 2 (01:05:19):
I need that.

Speaker 3 (01:05:20):
It's easy because every time I talk to other certain
people about it, they don't understand it like y'all do
they more approaching it more like if they're not approaching
it all the way from a hedge fund only perspective,
or they're approaching it from Okay, you need to do
this or do that with your catalog. Well, I already
did the thing with my catalog. I got that part
or that so, and I haven't sold my old catalog
like a lot of people. I still got most of
my catalog. But I did do a little piece and

(01:05:42):
it got me what I wanted.

Speaker 2 (01:05:44):
But here's the deal. At this juncture with.

Speaker 3 (01:05:46):
These things I'm sitting on, it's time for me to
figure out how to leverage the physical stuff I have too,
not just my intellectual property. You feel me so in
that way, I feel like you guys are going to
be a good asset to tell me, Hey, be.

Speaker 2 (01:06:01):
A B or c.

Speaker 3 (01:06:02):
Yeah, in the moment where I'm trying.

Speaker 2 (01:06:04):
To make the decision because I'm keep all the way
a thousand, it's crazy. I know you will.

Speaker 3 (01:06:08):
That's what one hundred percent love, And I just want
you guys to hear it as musicians and singers and
writers and the kind of ship you guys.

Speaker 2 (01:06:14):
Know, erfect perfect Boo boo.

Speaker 3 (01:06:16):
Bring some sushi over, bring like I don't need sushi,
but go ahead. Anything Midwest cabbage dreams, I said, cabbage
and green that white.

Speaker 2 (01:06:31):
Ur don't know. No, we went and we went everywhere.
Anything but what you think you know, some soulfu ship
just ponders. You want me to go down to duelings.

Speaker 3 (01:06:50):
With the greed?

Speaker 2 (01:06:51):
Keep it we that's perfect. So look, I swear you're
going to close, you know, like all right, I'm just
it up. Ladies. First of all, I love you brother.

Speaker 1 (01:07:04):
We appreciate you, you know, as a brother, as a musician,
as a great Yes, you are thank you you are that.

Speaker 2 (01:07:13):
You know what I mean? This is this is this
is your flower day, my brother. Hey.

Speaker 1 (01:07:17):
So if people can't understand who and what you are, wow,
and you get to talk that talk and share that
good energy with Was this a good show?

Speaker 2 (01:07:23):
Did we do? It's great? It's great? Yea.

Speaker 1 (01:07:31):
And this is the R by Money podcast, your story
on all things R and B.

Speaker 2 (01:07:35):
And this has been a good episode. What our brother more?

Speaker 3 (01:07:42):
Amen?

Speaker 2 (01:07:43):
R and B Money.

Speaker 4 (01:07:45):
R and B Money is a production of the Black
Effect Podcast Network. For more podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
your favorite shows. Don't forget to subscribe to and rate
our show, and you can connect with us on social
media at Jay Valentine and at the Real Tank. For

(01:08:05):
the extended episode, subscribe to YouTube dot com or slash
R and B Money