Episode 446 w/ John Legend

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
He is drinks chests, motherfucking podcast. He's a legendary queens rapper.
He ain't agreed that your boy in O r E.
He's a Miami hip hop pioneer. What ups d J
e f N? Together they drink it up with some
of the biggest players you me and the most.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Professional unprofessional podcast and your.

Speaker 1 (00:30):
Number one source for drunk drinks.

Speaker 3 (00:33):
D is New year c That's it's time for drink champs,
drink up?

Speaker 1 (00:37):
Mother would it could be hoping He's winter should be
it's your boy in O R E? What up is
d J e f N?

Speaker 2 (00:48):
This is mina tepic crazy have you have gonna make something?

Speaker 1 (00:54):
And when we started, when we started the show, we.

Speaker 2 (00:57):
Said we wanted to interview legends. Yes, man here as
a legend. This man is an icon. He's the only
person I know what an e guy and even know
what the fucking e goot was I dropped out a
seventh grade.

Speaker 1 (01:09):
God damn it, it's mo fucker E got is he?

Speaker 2 (01:12):
NAACP Awards nominated at least thirty forty nine a thousand times,
thirteen goddamn Grammys.

Speaker 1 (01:19):
This motherfucker is a legend on a legend and his
name is a legend. And in case you don't know
who we talking about, we talked about the one, the
only dampeccable. Yes, you can take a quack before me.
You beat me to the blest of intro. I like
to hear. Man, So what's going on which brings you
to Miami?

Speaker 3 (01:38):
Man?

Speaker 1 (01:39):
I came to see y'all. Oh, I just fix the
fucking up.

Speaker 4 (01:45):
I was in New York doing press and they were like,
do you want to come down to Miami and do
drink champs?

Speaker 1 (01:50):
And yes. I was like, it's about time. Yes, yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:55):
So recently you letting your skills and you sang for
the fire department, but now it's not a normal fire department.
This was a fire department that was sent prison.

Speaker 1 (02:05):
Yeah. So I wasn't there to sing.

Speaker 4 (02:07):
I was just there to highlight what they're doing, to
thank them because these guys they're currently incarcerated and they
volunteer for this program to fight fires in California, which
California has a lot of fires, and so they're going
they train, they go hike up the mountains, go back
up and back and forth and up and back and forth,

(02:29):
and it's a crazy training program. But they grow so
much through it and they end up getting time taking
off of their term in prison and it improves their
lives a lot. But we wanted to highlight what they
do them and thank them, and also advocate that they
get paid better, that the conditions are still better for them,
and they get more opportunities after they leave prison so

(02:52):
they can actually work as firefighters and they leave and
other things like that. So I was there just to
talk with them. I sat there just building with them
for like an hour, and then at the end I
sang like a versus ordinary people and everybody's like John
Legend just went and sang ordinary people to the fire
like that was all I was doing there. I went
there to talk to them, highlight them, thanked them, advocate

(03:14):
for them, and they were asking me questions at the
end about my life and getting advice from me. And
then at the end they were like, John, what you
sing for it? So I sang a little ordinary people.

Speaker 1 (03:24):
Some of the top of people in the world love
R and B. That's a fact. Yes, thugs love R
and B. That's so.

Speaker 2 (03:30):
Let me ask you something to me. You are hamanitarian,
you're a people person. How did you develop that like
type of you know what I mean, like you put
people before you, like from outside of looking at this inside.

Speaker 4 (03:39):
Well, I always thought that I wanted to be an artist.
I always thought I wanted to sing for a living,
but also always thought that the greatest artists that I
looked up to were the ones that gave back.

Speaker 1 (03:50):
And if you look at Stevie.

Speaker 4 (03:55):
Sidney Poitier, mam and Gay, Sidney Poitier, Paul Robson, Nina Simone,
Aretha Franklin, Harry Belafonte, all of these artists, they were
successful as artists. They were huge artists, sold a lot
of records, so a lot of concert tickets, and then
they were also funneling money to doctor King to make
sure that the movement was going forward.

Speaker 1 (04:15):
They would fly and meet him.

Speaker 4 (04:17):
At these at these marches and bail him out of jail.
And so I always looked at being an artist as
partly not just being an artist for myself, but using
the platform to give back and to be humanitarian.

Speaker 2 (04:32):
I mean, I'm gonna give straight to it. It was
like Trump was your nemesis.

Speaker 3 (04:41):
I feel like he's NICs nemesis.

Speaker 1 (04:45):
They're not mine because.

Speaker 2 (04:46):
He ran against Hillary Hillary side. Yeah, he ran against Kamala. Yeah,
and he was on commona side against body. Now was
on Biden's side. You know, if Trump is running, there's
a good chance I'll be against him.

Speaker 1 (04:59):
Do you I think he follows you on Twitter secretly? Well,
I'm not on Twitter anymore? Okay, good? Yeah, all right,
come on Twitter. It's not good. It's gone. It disappears.

Speaker 2 (05:09):
Whenever I'm having too much of a good day, I just.

Speaker 1 (05:12):
Go on black Twitter. I just have to broke. You
got to get base, Yeah, base only Fans's son retired.
He has a fan base. He started. It's a black owned.
There's a couple other ones that are, but.

Speaker 3 (05:28):
All of them are kind of smaller than Twitter used
to be.

Speaker 4 (05:30):
And then a lot of people left Twitter. I left Twitter,
and I think a lot of people are gone from it,
so there's not really one place where everybody is. I
do most of my communicating on ig but even that,
I don't really do as much of what I used
to do on Twitter.

Speaker 2 (05:44):
Right, Yeah, But you think you think Trump separly follows
you on I G Well, I would.

Speaker 1 (05:49):
Say he was.

Speaker 4 (05:52):
He's like the only time he really acknowledged us when
he was president.

Speaker 1 (05:56):
The first time I.

Speaker 4 (05:57):
Did this criminal justice reform event at.

Speaker 1 (06:02):
Sing Sing in New York.

Speaker 4 (06:04):
And yeah, so we went up there to the prison
and we're meeting with the inmates and we're just having
a conversation about reform and everything that we work on.
And for some reason, on a Sunday night, the President
of the United States was watching the show and he
was mad that we didn't say enough about him, give

(06:26):
him enough credit because he passed one criminal justice reform
bill and he was upset and so he was like
that boring singer John Legend and his filthy mouthed wife, Christy.
Christy wasn't even there, so I don't know why she
catches stress, But I'm like, why are you watching the show?

(06:49):
You like you're the president, Like, don't you have something
better to do? But no, he likes he likes to
watch cable news. I don't know what he's doing on Twitter,
but I think he's on his own app. He got
his own that now he has his own, Yeah he did.

Speaker 1 (07:04):
I'll be seeing him on ex a lot, well his
boy on it now. So yeah, like like I'm.

Speaker 2 (07:10):
Sorry to get political, because I'm gonna go. I'm gonna
going We'll talk about everything. But but his it's crazy
right years ago recipe of IRV Gotti years ago, IRV Gotti,
J Prince Sug and I forget who's the other It
was one of other Prince Sug Sugar Gotti was there
somebody else.

Speaker 1 (07:28):
I hold, don't think they're Dang Dang. I believe Dave.

Speaker 2 (07:32):
Yeah, huh yeah, I believe Dame was down and these
were these powerful black men that was getting together. People
automatically said, this is a Illuminati right now, right now,
in our face. They met in private just because they
couldn't get get it together. And from what I heard,
but you seeing Eli must with Dan a white uh

(07:53):
huh woof Joe Rogan in your fucking face and a
meeting in public, bark Zuckerberg. He used, he was down
with a Democrat and he does twitched over, he doesn't
change his watches and everything.

Speaker 1 (08:11):
Yeah, he went over to that other side. Well, I
think they saw what Elon was able to do.

Speaker 4 (08:15):
He was able to donate over two hundred million dollars
to the campaign, and he basically bought a presidency. So
he bought the right to ride shotgun with Trump and
be his co president. And so now he's running through
the government doing what he wants to do because he
bought the right. You shouldn't be able to buy the
right to do that, but he did it out and ope,
and he bought it. And Trump is letting him be

(08:37):
co president with him.

Speaker 1 (08:38):
Because what's the thing you just said.

Speaker 2 (08:41):
That's a different Twitter, Isaac Hayeson.

Speaker 4 (08:43):
That one's called fan Base, But there's a Blue Sky,
there's true Blue Sky is another new one.

Speaker 1 (08:50):
Threads is part of Instagram. I know, I know.

Speaker 3 (08:53):
You can invest in fan base too, like apen source
where you can invest in it.

Speaker 1 (08:56):
Absolutely, yeah, yeah, so what if we all got together.
That's that's what Isaac's trying to do.

Speaker 4 (09:01):
He's trying to do that's what But there's a couple
others that are trying to do it as well, and
it's just, uh, what was the other one? There was
another black owned one. I can't think of the name now,
but goddamn, everybody's trying. But it's hard because you got
to get everybody in the same place for it to work,
you know, because they don't have the same energy that
Twitter had at the beginning. Because everybody's not in the
same place.

Speaker 2 (09:21):
I think the reason why I like Twitter to take
the truth is because like when, like I said.

Speaker 1 (09:25):
When I'm having a good day, they will humble me.
That's the worst humanity, you know.

Speaker 2 (09:32):
I could post the most positive things in the world
and somebody black, somebody.

Speaker 1 (09:37):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (09:38):
And by the way, it works for me because I'm like,
all right, cool, it keeps you humble.

Speaker 1 (09:41):
I'm off my high horse. You want to be like,
fuck you right, bular, that's what you want to The
ig comments are the same, though, is kind of nice
to me.

Speaker 2 (09:50):
I heard you say something about that. I'm gonna get
to that. But when you was fifteen, you wrote an
essay of exactly who you was going to be you
grew up.

Speaker 1 (09:56):
So I wrote an essay.

Speaker 4 (09:57):
This was like a Black History Month essay comp Titian
McDonald's was the sponsor, and one of my teachers is like, John,
you should enter this. You would be good. And so
the question was just how you plan to make Black history?
And so I said, I'm going to be a famous artist.
I'm gonna be a famous singer, and then I'm gonna
use my success as a platform to help my people

(10:20):
to stand up for what's right, stand up for justice.

Speaker 1 (10:22):
And that's what I've been doing. Wow, since I manifest
and manifested. I know you did that.

Speaker 2 (10:29):
I know you did that for school, But do you
recommend that kids that age fourteen, fifteen sixty years years
old write an essay not the cebrity in school. Sure,
I write an essay of who they should be in
that in the next fifteen years.

Speaker 4 (10:41):
Absolutely, start setting intentions for yourself at that age, and
you know, we as parents can start encouraging them to
think about that.

Speaker 1 (10:50):
You know, I don't ask my eight year old what.

Speaker 4 (10:52):
She really wants to be when she grows up, Like
we say it, but we don't really know that they
know what they want to be yet. But I think
once they getting those teen years like start, you have
them set intentions for what they want to do in life.
And when you set those intentions, you start to put
yourself in that path.

Speaker 1 (11:08):
To do it. And I think that's what I was
thinking and that's what I started doing. Yeah. I did
a vision board with my six year old this year.
My wife. You know what a vision board? Ye, same thing.

Speaker 3 (11:18):
It's like manifesting, but you know it's a kid level.
But you start doing little things like that with them,
they start to understand.

Speaker 4 (11:23):
Yeah, and once you say it, it makes you want
to work to it too, you know. And so I
think it's a good thing.

Speaker 1 (11:29):
And you would you were what they call a prodigy, Yeah,
a child producty. Yeah, I skipped a couple of grades.

Speaker 4 (11:35):
So I graduated high school when I was sixteen, graduated
college from houses.

Speaker 1 (11:40):
Yeah. Yeah. They literally called me Doogie high school.

Speaker 4 (11:45):
So I get to high school, I'm twelve years old.
Everybody else is fourteen. They start calling me Doogie. And
but you know, I was a nerdy little kid. I
wanted to read everything, do everything, sing everything, and went
to Ivy League college afterwards.

Speaker 2 (11:59):
And yeah, yeah, I watched you on OPRAH when you
went to your your old block.

Speaker 1 (12:06):
I was literally cold.

Speaker 2 (12:08):
I was like, oh my god, you have so much
snow there ray for Ohio. Man, do you still fun
with the snow? I can't funk with the snow.

Speaker 1 (12:14):
I'm good with it. You're good with it? Yeah, fun
with this too, it's snow. I was just in New York.
I love New York. You're from New York. Yes, I
don't go there too? May I mean I heard it
right not to go.

Speaker 2 (12:28):
There, Like I earned the right not to be Like
I literally kept rewinding your ship and I was like,
oh my god, I'm so cold, like I can't see
you fun with snow.

Speaker 1 (12:38):
Miami right here. I grew up in Ohio. I live
in l A now. But when I go to the
snow like, I enjoy it. So you missed the snow.

Speaker 4 (12:46):
Sometimes we intentionally will go somewhere cold for like Christmas,
because I.

Speaker 3 (12:49):
Want that Christmas snow feeling. You know, it makes me
feel at home, not me now, he.

Speaker 1 (12:54):
Said, I see you tracking through it, and ship did you?
Did you you watch the Grammys recently? I was there.

Speaker 4 (13:04):
Yeah, so I just played piano. So if you if
you miss me, I don't blame you. I was just
playing a piano. We were supporting the.

Speaker 1 (13:11):
Band DAWs Dows.

Speaker 4 (13:13):
Their lead singer and their drummer were with us on
stage and they performed I Love La and it was
a whole tribute to La to open the show. And
they lost their homes literally, the lead singer and the
drummer lost their home. Their family was from there too.
They lost home, and they lost a lot of their
studio and music equipment. So they lost a lot, and

(13:34):
so the recording the Academy, we have a lot of
you know, folks that live in l A and we
wanted to show love to all those musicians that lost something.
And so Dawes was the lead performance of the show,
and they had a bunch of us other artists come
and support them and play. I played piano, Brittany Howard
from the Alabama Shaks played guitar, Brad Paisley played guitar,

(13:54):
Saint Vincent played.

Speaker 1 (13:55):
The keys, Cheryl Crowe played the bass, and then we.

Speaker 4 (13:58):
Just supported this band that had lost so much in
the fire.

Speaker 3 (14:02):
They did a lot of fundraising during that whole Yeah,
they raised like twenty five million dollars.

Speaker 4 (14:05):
Money really gets oh yeah, well twenty five million dollars
raised and it's going to go to help a lot
of people. And you know, Music Cares is a part
of the Recording Academy too, and Music Cares is basically
the music community supporting each other because not all of us,
you know, we're not all millionaires. A lot of our musicians,
like they fall on hard times. They're dealing with addiction

(14:26):
and dealing with loss, something's happening in their lives.

Speaker 1 (14:28):
And they need help.

Speaker 4 (14:29):
So Music Care supports them all throughout the year every year.

Speaker 2 (14:33):
So let me ask you right in Miami, they got
this scheme that they do right when it rains scheme.

Speaker 1 (14:40):
Yeah, that's what I'll be doing out here. I'm watching y'all.
But they're talking about like we all to deal with climate,
like when it.

Speaker 2 (14:46):
Rains, they'll let they'll let their car get flooded or
whatever and then they'll claim it.

Speaker 1 (14:50):
Oh you talk about it from yeah yeah yeah, So
hey man, I know the'se gots.

Speaker 2 (14:58):
I know people right, but but in their assurance, it's
a difference between hurricane insurance and flood insurance.

Speaker 1 (15:07):
So is that a difference? And there's fire insurances.

Speaker 2 (15:10):
That's because because a friend of minee uh left his
car out in a hurricane and he had he didn't
have flood insurance. So they said that it wasn't calls
from a hurricane, it was called from the hef his car.

Speaker 1 (15:24):
Yeah, he tried to be slipped. He should have checked
his policy before Miami schemers.

Speaker 4 (15:30):
Insurance companies their job is to find a way to
not pay like that's that's their job.

Speaker 1 (15:36):
So you gotta check the fine print.

Speaker 4 (15:38):
You got to check everything with insurance, health insurance, everything.

Speaker 2 (15:41):
Their job is the final reason to not pay that.
So what these California flyers. Do you think people were
insured fire?

Speaker 1 (15:48):
What did they have to Hell, I think a lot
of them were.

Speaker 4 (15:51):
But even if you are, they only ensure the actual home,
so it's a land. So see, it's always the loophole,
So definitely so, But theoretically it makes sense because if
you lose your home, you still own the property and
you can build it back, so they'll reimburse you for

(16:12):
building it back, but they won't buy the land from you,
So it basically requires you to stay there or sell
the land to somebody else to really make your money back.

Speaker 1 (16:22):
And I heard a lot of people lost their policies.
They were canceled before.

Speaker 4 (16:26):
Yes, so some of them got canceled before, and maybe
they didn't check their mail, they didn't notice that they
got canceled, and so they find out after the fire they.

Speaker 3 (16:34):
Don't have a policy, which is crazy, and then all
the conspiracy.

Speaker 4 (16:38):
Yeah, and the thing is what's going to happen more
and more in Florida, in California and all these places.
It's going to be hard to ensure a house and
so a lot of people are not going to be
able to buy a house.

Speaker 1 (16:49):
And it's not because the mortgage.

Speaker 4 (16:50):
It's going to be because they can't afford the mortgage
and the insurance.

Speaker 1 (16:53):
Right, Yeah, so you're in the fire, right, I'm not there,
but you got one bottle of water. Let me tell you,
Let me tell you, Let me tell you, Let me
tell you.

Speaker 3 (17:10):
How.

Speaker 4 (17:10):
How we how we experienced the fire. Like we landed
on January seventh. We had just been on family vacation.
We heard, oh, there's a fire in the Powersades. We
didn't know it was going to be huge. With normal, Yeah,
we have fires all the time.

Speaker 3 (17:25):
In that area, especially Malibus.

Speaker 1 (17:30):
Malibu is my favorite place. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (17:31):
So Malibu is right around the corner from the Powasades,
and Malibu gets a lot of fires. Palsaids is not
as much. But so we land and we see smoke
pluming from that area.

Speaker 1 (17:41):
You think it was we I was like, it's no,
right here, and we literally saw the flame.

Speaker 4 (17:51):
Usually when there's fires in l A, I don't see
the flame, Like I see the smoke coming from it,
but I don't see the flame. But I'm looking in
the hills and I'm like, oh, that's an actual flame.
And so we're driving back to our houses in Beverly Hills.

Speaker 1 (18:03):
So it's between.

Speaker 4 (18:06):
The Pasadena fires and the Malibu fires, Palastates fires, and.

Speaker 1 (18:10):
We're like, should we leave, should we get out of here?

Speaker 4 (18:12):
And we never ended up in an evacuation zone, but
when there was a fire in the Hollywood Hills that
fell a little too close for comfort, so we were like,
we're getting out of here, so we left. We went
down to San Diego for like a week, and then
we came back home after a week.

Speaker 1 (18:29):
So we didn't lose anything.

Speaker 4 (18:32):
Some of our very good friends lost their home and
had relatives lose their homes, and a lot of people
just it just got wiped.

Speaker 1 (18:40):
Out and it all happened. Most of it happened in
that first.

Speaker 3 (18:43):
Day or two because if you looked at the video,
it was a hurricane.

Speaker 1 (18:48):
Of the wind.

Speaker 4 (18:49):
The wind was blowing as fast as it blows down
here during a hurricane. It was eighty one hundred miles
an hours tornadoes in that mo Yeah, it was literally
whipping the fire around, and it like it looked like
like a movie, like it couldn't be real, and it
was insane, and it took over entire areas really fast,
and I never seen anything like.

Speaker 1 (19:11):
The tragedy was crazy. I hang out with a lot
of conspiracy theorists. Yeah, I don't believe. Some of my
family I don't believe. I love to listen, I mean
some of these things. And somebody.

Speaker 2 (19:23):
Conspiracy theorists of mines said to me that these were
caused by the way.

Speaker 1 (19:28):
This is not me, This was not me.

Speaker 2 (19:32):
This was caused to the areas of the rich so
that they could rebuild l A and have this smart
l A.

Speaker 1 (19:39):
That's what that's what he thinks, right, what do you
think of that?

Speaker 2 (19:43):
No, because they said the fires didn't come to the hood,
is that true or the fires did hit that well,
it hit a black neighborhood, hit a black outa Dina
so Auta.

Speaker 1 (19:50):
Dina was one of the first neighborhoods in Los Angeles
that allowed black people to actually live there. I didn't I.

Speaker 2 (19:58):
Didn't know about this, uh until until the fires. Like
I didn't know this area, this is Altadena is not
really close to like a lot of portions of LA
that's like kind of far northeast near Pasadena.

Speaker 1 (20:12):
But there was a black neighborhood there.

Speaker 4 (20:15):
And a lot of the folks there are like middle class,
working class, so not everybody was like Hollywood celebrities, but
the Palisades. That's an expensive area, Malibu, extremely expensive. These
are like some of these are like fifty million, seventy
five million dollar homes and so definitely a lot.

Speaker 1 (20:33):
Of rich people got hit. But I have a hard
time believing that somebody intentionally did that. Did it to
Bill smart La, What does that mean?

Speaker 3 (20:43):
They're saying the same thing, the same conspiracy that happened
in Malway. They said it's a laser that hit to
take that property over.

Speaker 1 (20:48):
Yeah, I just hear that. I'm always SKEPTI I'm always skeptical.

Speaker 3 (20:55):
I always feel like usually the most obvious explanation is
the real explanation.

Speaker 1 (21:00):
But I could be wrong. Sometimes it was probably caused
man made, which the fires.

Speaker 4 (21:06):
Happened accidentally, yeah, or even sometimes it's on purpose. But
the wind and the dryness just accelerated everything. We hadn't
had rain since like last fall rain Soulls of California,
that's what.

Speaker 1 (21:22):
But we literally we normally would have like they said.

Speaker 4 (21:25):
Five or six inches between October first and when the
fires happened, we had point one six inch, So that
on its own was an accelerant. And then the wind
was something we almost never see. The Santa Ana winds
at that wind at that speed, So you out there,
you combine the speed of the wind and the dryness.
That's why it happened. Were you out there we landed,

(21:46):
you know after it started.

Speaker 3 (21:47):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (21:47):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (21:48):
But we never were in the fire, so we didn't
see it up close and personal. But close friends of
ours were and uh, you know they lost their homes.
They didn't make you evacuate. No, we were not in
evacuation zone. We were like between evacuation zones. But we
left anyway, just for.

Speaker 1 (22:03):
A little bit. There's people that lost everything.

Speaker 2 (22:05):
Be honest, I thought New Yorkers was stubborn until I
moved to Miami.

Speaker 1 (22:10):
They won't move for the hurricane. You're like, hurricane is
going to kill everybody. They don't really tell everyone is
gonna die in Miami. They were like, it's okay, I
guess sawtcula go to home. People in public about to
get you, and then the ship goes out with listen, yo,
but y'all take it. You'll take it too far. Soon
as it's a hurricane.

Speaker 2 (22:30):
They rack up hurricane party hurricane parties.

Speaker 1 (22:35):
The nigga store is gone. They're used to it here many.

Speaker 2 (22:39):
Now I'm gonna be honest with you, John Legend, you
look like you never had a bad day.

Speaker 1 (22:46):
I'm gonna be honest. I'm a little jealous. Man.

Speaker 2 (22:48):
I look at you, and you look stressed. Fucking you
look like nothing you have had bad days.

Speaker 4 (22:56):
But I would say I am probably one of the
most kind of, like even killed people you'll ever meet.

Speaker 1 (23:03):
I don't have a lot of I don't get really
angry very often. I am as chill as you think.

Speaker 4 (23:15):
And he compares me, song compares me to Seinfeld because
there's this episode of Seinfeld.

Speaker 1 (23:20):
Show me the episode I'm ready for it.

Speaker 4 (23:22):
Where they say everything always evens out for Jerry.

Speaker 1 (23:25):
Oh yeah, because.

Speaker 4 (23:27):
Yeah, Son always called me Seinfeld because he's like, everything
always evens out for you. Man, you got something happened,
something some for some reason, it just always evens out.

Speaker 1 (23:46):
So I don't know, Oh my god, oh my god.

Speaker 2 (23:53):
Hang out with you, then that's that's my that's you
watched Kirby Enthusiasm.

Speaker 1 (23:57):
Yes, I love it.

Speaker 2 (23:58):
Oh that's my favorite ship. I love shows a lot.
I've seen every episode. Okay, yeah, which one you will pick?
Curb or or side fel.

Speaker 1 (24:06):
Or Curb Curb? I mean too Yeah, most people would
say I can love. I'm sorry, man. I love Larry David. Man,
I'm love I love them. I love so much.

Speaker 2 (24:17):
I don't want to meet him because if I meet
him and he'd be like, hey, what the fuck, I'm like, oh.

Speaker 4 (24:21):
Man, his whole persona is that he probably wouldn't be
nice to you when you met him, and so you're like,
maybe that is being.

Speaker 1 (24:28):
Nice being not nice to Like.

Speaker 2 (24:30):
I was like, it's this restaurant called Club I mean
Hotel COASTI is in Paris. Yeah, very nasty people like
they're like a little French root the French Route. And
one time I went there on my birthday and they
were nice to me, and I would say, this is
not what I paid for. You're like to me, they

(24:52):
got a cigarette when I used to smoke cigarettes and
have a cigarettes section all that.

Speaker 1 (24:55):
And it was nice to me. One time I didn't
like it. Yeah. Yeah, I was on Larry David show.

Speaker 5 (25:01):
I was.

Speaker 3 (25:02):
I did a guest of parents on he was. He
was nice then, and but I hung out mostly with Jeff.

Speaker 2 (25:08):
And uh Susie yeah yeah yeah yeah, the lady with
the bad mouth and the manager.

Speaker 1 (25:15):
Yes. So so what episode was this? This was the
bot Mitzvah. I was singing at the bat Mitzvah for
their daughter. Uh and uh.

Speaker 4 (25:24):
The conceit of the show was that I was one
of Jeff's clients and he got me to sing at
the bat Mitzvah.

Speaker 1 (25:29):
So I sang a song there. This is early, like
six early in my career. But that was cool.

Speaker 3 (25:34):
And I just sat there and talked to Jeff and
Susie the whole time, and they had me cracking up.

Speaker 2 (25:38):
Like, yeah, they were funny, Okay, yeah, they were really funny.
Now you also got to do a movie with the
late great Bernie Mack. Yes, so man, Yeah, you know,
you know one of the best lines I ever heard
in the world is in that movie when Bernie Mack
moves into the old folks home behind and Mike f says,
you know, because now you can spend some time with

(25:58):
the kids, and Bernie Mack looks to him with all
honesty and.

Speaker 1 (26:01):
Says, that's an iconic line. That line has been used
since then. But how was me and Bertie Mack?

Speaker 2 (26:11):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (26:12):
Man, he was funny too in person.

Speaker 4 (26:13):
You know some comedians they're not funny in person because
they they it's like they're saving it for the stage.

Speaker 1 (26:18):
Because he's himself.

Speaker 4 (26:19):
You can sell Yeah, I have another it's like they're
saving it for the stage. But Bernie was really funny
in person. Jeff and Susie were very funny in person.
And then some people they like they clam up and
they don't give you no jokes until you see him
on stage.

Speaker 1 (26:32):
Yeah, you never met Prince. Yeah, I met Prince. I
met Prince of Future. I didn't. I didn't know whatever
the story.

Speaker 2 (26:41):
Let's put my seatbelt. That's kind of like I was
about to ask you did he float? Did he float?
When you met him?

Speaker 1 (26:53):
I was starstruck. This is one of the first big
celebrities I met that I really like, truly was starstruck
when I met him. As out Prince on no ass out,
his ass was in. I'm sorry. He was close. So
at the time he was signed to the same label

(27:15):
I was.

Speaker 4 (27:15):
He was at Columbia Sony Urban and we had the
same exact Lisa Ellis and he was doing a concert
at MSG and Lisa was like, you want to come
see friends. I was like yeah, so and then he
did an after party at bb King's and he he Princess,

(27:36):
the craziest musician because he'll do the whole show and
then go play the after party.

Speaker 2 (27:41):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (27:41):
He he would do a three hour show and then
go play at the after party.

Speaker 4 (27:46):
I've never seen anybody that just loved playing music and
kept playing music, kept playing music like he did.

Speaker 1 (27:52):
And it was amazing seeing him.

Speaker 4 (27:55):
The first time I met him, he was just like,
you know, he was on that protect your rights, make
sure you get.

Speaker 1 (27:59):
Your master's black when you can all that.

Speaker 4 (28:01):
And then the next time I saw him, he had
one of those after parties that he had after the
Grammys or the Oscars in l A. And uh it
was a jam session and a bunch of artists were
there and I got up.

Speaker 1 (28:13):
On stage and jam with him, and STEVEE was there,
and uh it was fun. Man, God damn me. Before
I get to the Eguy, Michael Jackson met Micah.

Speaker 4 (28:26):
Yeah, I met Mike. I met Mike, and Bahrain put
back on my hand weird. So this is where he
was living.

Speaker 3 (28:32):
So he was dealing with all his you know, legal things,
and uh, he was living in Bahrain for a while.

Speaker 1 (28:38):
Over in the Middle East. It's in the Middle East.

Speaker 4 (28:40):
It's overbody like Saudi Arabia and uh, and uh they
were having an F one uh event over there, and
they had like a celebrity invitational and they were like
just trying to get celebrities to come to the F
one and I was a new celebrity. I was like, yeah,
I'll go to Bahrain on whatever. I heard Michael Jackson,
we might get to meet Michael Jackson.

Speaker 1 (29:00):
And then, uh, the Crown Prince has a dinner.

Speaker 4 (29:05):
At one of his homes and Michael Jackson just walks
in and I sit there and it was like a
few like round tables, and I'm sitting at the round
table where Mike's.

Speaker 3 (29:16):
Sitting and We're all just sitting there talking, talking about
music whatever. You don't remember the subject we talked.

Speaker 1 (29:24):
We talked about We talked about music, we talked about
you know, life. I don't know. Is it true about
his voice?

Speaker 3 (29:31):
He said that he when he were normal, Yeah, he
just he doesn't have the same high pitched voice.

Speaker 1 (29:36):
It was still pretty. It wasn't deep, Nah, it wasn't deep.
It was you know, walking night.

Speaker 2 (29:43):
You know, the pictures with Michael Jackson would have grip
stories about him not created. He fought all kinds of
Mike get crazy.

Speaker 1 (29:52):
I'm glad I don't hear a lot of conspiracies. They're fun.
Am I here the debunk Conspiracy Factor fiction with John.

Speaker 2 (30:09):
So John leszend. We want you to know, man, our
show is about giving people the flowers.

Speaker 1 (30:13):
Appreciate you. I love the show, but we want to
give you your flowers. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Speaker 3 (30:23):
For it matches my wine bottles too. You know this
is my l B E wine and it matches perfect.

Speaker 2 (30:29):
So it's not love, it's l v E. Yeah, we
call LB, but it's been calling it love too. You
can call love to all right?

Speaker 1 (30:35):
Cool? You ever drink Whispering Angel? Yeah, this Whispering Angel killer,
it's better. You know what I'm saying. It's the killer.
It's the killer, the killer Whisper better better than LV.
I've tried it plenty of times and and ours is
better than their. Yes, fact, Just to say, what did

(30:57):
you drink Whispering Age? Drying France? I've drank like the
Hampton's France Rich Rich in France. I try to do French,
you know brands out there, but now we're doing LV.

Speaker 4 (31:12):
Man, that's the only one we're doing. Ours is French too, though,
What do you drink in France?

Speaker 1 (31:16):
What does it?

Speaker 3 (31:18):
Well, I drink a lot of Burgundy wines. So my
partner in this wine is a Frenchman. His name is
Jean ch.

Speaker 1 (31:27):
Rich money to hold.

Speaker 4 (31:32):
So he grew up in Burgundy in France, and so
his family has been making wine forever and so.

Speaker 2 (31:37):
So he's my he's my connect in France. So how
did you come up with the wines? Let's talk about that. Yeah,
that's a cabernet. Yeah, that's a cabernet. We got a rose.

Speaker 4 (31:44):
We got a sparkling rose. We got a sparkling white.
We got uh, chardonnay, sauvignon blanc. We got a nice range.

Speaker 1 (31:52):
No, uh, we do have a small run of pinoa,
not a lot of you know, it's just right now. No, great, ye.

Speaker 2 (32:03):
So look, we're gonna want to splain them in the
rules quick time.

Speaker 1 (32:06):
You got right? Are you ready? You got you gotta
ask him what he would like to drink? Please? What
we got? Yeah, I'll do shots? Yeah, I take mins chilled?
All right, remind me of rules of again. Let's go.

Speaker 3 (32:22):
So we're gonna give you two choices. This is to
bring up any stories you got with anybody. But if
you pick one, we don't drink, don't pick drink. Okay,
so you say, but I just got to commit one
way that h we drink with you got there?

Speaker 2 (32:36):
Yeah yeah, we haven't we having fun, so I gotta
set it off off Okay, Yeah, this is not waiting
for my shots.

Speaker 1 (32:44):
Okay, yeah, yeah, Okay, I think I said I like this.
You're ready with the shots coming?

Speaker 2 (32:53):
Okay, Chris Brown or Asha, I'm gonna say Usher, okay
because the roller skates, because.

Speaker 4 (33:04):
Of the rollers, both of them are like supremely talented.
But I was on tour with Usher. Me and Kanye
were opening for Usher. This is like, this is the
Confessions era Usher. So this is right after College Dropout
came out and right before Get Lifted my album came out,
and Usher's, you know, on top of the world, eight

(33:26):
million albums sold, and he's touring arenas for Confessions.

Speaker 1 (33:31):
And we're opening for him. So I'm seeing the work
he's putting in every day getting the show right. And
I see that same.

Speaker 4 (33:38):
Level of work ethic and effort and then just pure
talent from him still twenty years later.

Speaker 2 (33:45):
So I'm a Usher fan for life. You don't go
to take a shot because you're right picked. But let
me ask you a question. This is off catalog. Your
lady asks you to go to Usher concert. Huh and
Usher comes over.

Speaker 1 (33:59):
Like Kiki, Yeah, ushers out here ruining relationship ship and strawberries.
He sees, your lady, are you getting is John Legend? Well,
the thing is I slow danced with women on my stage.

(34:24):
I understand the guy. I respect the game. You know,
he's like a show business business show business. It's cool,
but it's cool. She's not coming up volunteering her.

Speaker 2 (34:35):
But I respect the game because he literally ruined short
these relationships.

Speaker 1 (34:43):
Oh boy, he left like he one girl.

Speaker 4 (34:48):
It was Keky's baby's father. And uh they weren't married,
but you know he he wasn't happy. She was having
too much fun.

Speaker 1 (34:57):
Who side was you on? He was you on his side?
Unher soide?

Speaker 2 (35:00):
He like, oh Swiss bell swims.

Speaker 1 (35:03):
I said, what up? I just saw him Sunday, But
uh listen, Uh like, I say, you got it. That's
the game.

Speaker 4 (35:11):
It's a show man like he did it in front
of everybody. She was sneaking up to his hotel room.
It's like in front of everybody. This is fine, it's good.

Speaker 1 (35:19):
Your arm b Niggs don't leave your girl. He a
song Sidney Poitier or Harry Belafonte.

Speaker 4 (35:34):
I gotta go with my guy Harry, because I was
close with him before he passed away. I didn't really
I met mister Partier, but I spent a lot of
time in mister Bellafonte.

Speaker 1 (35:43):
And him both missed up. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (35:46):
Uh, we really called him mister b and like he
was the example of how to be an activist and
an artist. And uh he took a lot of classy dudes. Yeah,
a classy like extremely talented, and he was the biggest
selling artist of his era. Like when he was big,
he was bigger than everybody. And so for him to

(36:10):
take that and then put it on the line so
he could.

Speaker 2 (36:12):
Support doctor King and do what everything he did, Like
I always look up to him.

Speaker 1 (36:18):
He picked. Yeah, Okay, Patti LaBelle or Tina Turner.

Speaker 4 (36:24):
Miss Patty that's right, Yeah, I mean Tina was extremely talented.

Speaker 3 (36:29):
But I just like Miss Patty's music more. It's like
more more of my speed.

Speaker 1 (36:33):
Yeah. And I love to drink yeah, and I love
Miss Patty. She came on drinking chance for her own glass. Yes,
when you spent time with her, she's so real so real. Yeah,
like I love her, I really love her. Jada kiss
or Nas, I'm ready to drink.

Speaker 4 (36:53):
I'm gonna say this is that this is not easy. Actually,
I'm gonna say Nas, Okay, we ain't drinking at all today, Okay,
this one.

Speaker 3 (37:04):
I've done records with both of them, and I love
both of them.

Speaker 4 (37:07):
I think I just like NAS's voice just a little better,
like this, his flow and his voice just a little better.

Speaker 2 (37:13):
But Shade is incredible, y'all all you Nas, all of
y'all go to light skin karate class.

Speaker 1 (37:19):
I know, I know about y'all. I know about meeting meaning.
You can't drink out Franklin or Nina Simon. I might

(37:40):
drink on this, man. I don't know if I could pick.
These are two of my favorites of all time.

Speaker 4 (37:46):
Uh, I'm gonna say, Nina Simon, Oh you don't drink shot,
don't take a shot.

Speaker 1 (37:53):
I take a shot for these are the smallest shots.
Usually it's a lot of shots. It's a long game.
We didn't think. We didn't think. We thought she was
going to be like very well correct. Don't know, man,
I'm telling you my truth. He saying that shit was
hot as hell, yeah, you want it Whitney Houston or
Amy Winehouse Whitney. That was easy. I should take a
shot for knowing that I love Amy though I love

(38:15):
her music. I met her. I met Amy when she
was brand like when that Back.

Speaker 4 (38:22):
To Black album, So she had already had another album
that didn't really pop, and then the Back to Black
album was about to come out, and I was on
later with Jules Holland, which is a British show which
I love. And the show is just different artists in
like the round, and so one band will play and
then another band will play, and then the other band
all play and they're all five or six bands in
this room together in this big studio in London, and

(38:45):
Amy and I were both on the set, and so
she had a couple of her songs, she did Rehab
and something else from.

Speaker 1 (38:52):
That album, and then I.

Speaker 4 (38:53):
Did a couple songs from my second album, and she
walked up to me like like she was a brand
new writers, like handing me her a demo and handing
me Back to Black, which ended up, you know, taking
over the world right after that, but at that point
it hadn't done that yet and it was about to.

Speaker 2 (39:09):
But that's when I first met him. Wow, yeah, Sam
Cook or Teddy Pintograph mm hmmm taking a shot.

Speaker 1 (39:21):
It's not easy. I'm gonna say Teddy just because there's
just more jams that I love, you know. Yeah, you
see look at Teddy Pograd. Baby, that's a Philly man.

Speaker 5 (39:33):
You know.

Speaker 1 (39:33):
He uh fly Eagles Fly? Is this gonna air after
the super Bowl? Yeah?

Speaker 3 (39:37):
This would be at the super Bowl. Yeah, you knows
what happened. I'm over the Chiefs.

Speaker 2 (39:42):
You know.

Speaker 1 (39:42):
If I got to choose, you patched him my home cousin.

Speaker 4 (39:48):
I got family look more like Jayleen Hurston. But I
went to scoring Philly. I went to you, that's right. Yeah,
so I got you know, yeah, I got love for Philly.

Speaker 1 (40:04):
Okay, Jesus man, Philly. Get to the kig on like
that Biggie or Big L Biggie. I never was like
completely into Big L like, but I was definitely into Biggie. Okay,
DJ College or DJ Drama. I gotta go with College man.

Speaker 4 (40:25):
I did like twenty records with College and legendary record
with niy Hustle exactly believe that was his last video
and to take it all the way back, we did
a record with good music me a consequence. We did
a record called Grammy Family with Collein.

Speaker 1 (40:43):
That's a big record.

Speaker 4 (40:44):
That was like when that was the early days when
Colin first started making those compilation albums, and uh, he
didn't win a Grammy. Colin didn't win a Grammy until
we wanted together with Nipsey for Hire.

Speaker 1 (40:58):
Oh wow.

Speaker 4 (41:00):
It was called the Grammy Fan and the early record
was called Grammy Family. But years later we wanted his
first Grammy together.

Speaker 2 (41:06):
I needed this is any criteria you want Yay or Pharrell? Mhmm,
I say Yay, Okay, yeah right.

Speaker 3 (41:22):
I just started working with Pharrell recently, yeah, on music.
So we stepped in the studio and we started working
on some new music. First time working together.

Speaker 1 (41:31):
We'd only done a couple of songs together.

Speaker 4 (41:33):
Okay, but you know, obviously Yay and I have done
a thousand records together, and I'm truly a fan of
Yay as a producer and an artist over the years too.

Speaker 1 (41:42):
So, but I love both of them.

Speaker 4 (41:44):
I mean, just think how influential both of them have
been to all of our culture, not just what we
listened to, what we wear everything.

Speaker 2 (41:51):
It sounds like we're taking a shot, no, he picked
a okay, okay, okay, so like we're taking it like a.

Speaker 3 (41:56):
Like a.

Speaker 1 (41:58):
Honorable shot. Let's mean you take a shot and oh
ship okay, yes, La or Miami. Mm hmm.

Speaker 4 (42:15):
Well I live in l A, and I think Miami.
I enjoy partying here more than I do l A.

Speaker 1 (42:25):
But I live in LA. It's like, you know, my
kids go to school there, l A.

Speaker 4 (42:32):
Like you want to say, Miami's more Miami's more fun
in doses, and then La.

Speaker 1 (42:38):
Is where I stay.

Speaker 2 (42:40):
Okay, it's all you, this is me sein fell a
Kirby enthusiasm. We've established this curb. Yeah, yes, but let's
explain to the people why.

Speaker 4 (42:50):
Well, I think the fact that on HBO gives it
more leeway to like say all the jokes, you know,
say all the funks they want to say, and everything else.
But also I think us getting to know Larry, who
was the creator of exactly, I think that was a revelation.
So I think that's what makes kurb better is his

(43:11):
his personality. Because George was always a really funny part
of Seinfeld anyway.

Speaker 3 (43:16):
But having the real George, having Larry there is.

Speaker 1 (43:20):
Like it makes it better, all right.

Speaker 2 (43:23):
Now I want to ask you what is your favorite
Seinfeld episode and what is your favorite curb episode?

Speaker 1 (43:29):
Now this is this is not with drink Chance, but
one in one. I don't know, that's a good one.

Speaker 4 (43:34):
I like the one where they're doing the contests in Seinfeld.
That's a good one where they're like seeing who's going
jack off first?

Speaker 1 (43:41):
Oh yeah, come out you were JBS? Move is Kramer?
And yeah like that?

Speaker 2 (43:52):
Yes, he's like the black you went with the episode? Yes,
se felt it's called the con. Now that's your favorite curve?

Speaker 1 (44:07):
My favorite curve? Oh, man, I gotta think about that.
I don't know, I really have to think about it.

Speaker 2 (44:22):
You know what my favorite curve when they he hired
the people to be Christians in front.

Speaker 1 (44:27):
Of down and the Nativity said, because you know he's Jewish,
so he hired Christian, but his wife is Christian. His
wife is Christian Christian, and I think he didn't feed
them or something wrong. So that's my favorite. If you
think about it, we'll come back to yes. The next one.

(44:48):
Swiss Beachs are Timberland.

Speaker 3 (44:51):
I'm gonna say Tim, it's fucked up because I know
all these people very well, so.

Speaker 1 (44:58):
I'm gonna see yes, I'll say Tim.

Speaker 4 (45:03):
Honestly, there's more Tim records that I'm like, are some
of the greatest records of all time? That then I
think of Swiss, But I love a bunch of Swiss
records too. But I'm gonna say Tim. Okay, Most Deaf
or to Live, Most Deaf or Black Dog Black Dot Okay.
I just think if Most was still giving us material

(45:28):
then it would be closer. But I think because Black
Dot has been so prolific, h and consistent and prolific.

Speaker 1 (45:37):
Uh, you got to show up? Is this show biz? Man?

Speaker 4 (45:40):
If you show up and you're making records, then like, uh,
there's there's points.

Speaker 1 (45:46):
For that, you know, like the montaue to show up? Okay,
analog of digital?

Speaker 4 (45:54):
Well, we we run everything through analog before we put
it on digital.

Speaker 1 (45:59):
To this day, we run it through the tape. Really.

Speaker 4 (46:01):
Yeah, when I make a record, we run it through
the tape first and then.

Speaker 1 (46:05):
Put it to digital. We say tape you meet real, Yeah,
get the out of school, Yeah yo, let me make
some noise. You know. Cartel said that yesterday too on
the rail Oh ship. Yeah, you can run into tape
before you put it on digital. Oh man, So there's

(46:25):
best of both. It just gives it that flavor. That
home you picked that digital. I'm goinging analog.

Speaker 3 (46:31):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (46:32):
That's not going all the time. Marvin Gay or Al Green, Marvin, Damn,
It's easy.

Speaker 1 (46:37):
I was flying through this. I'm just willing to commit.

Speaker 4 (46:41):
You know, I'm gonna make it, even if I like
I might have second thoughts later, I'm gonna decide, you know,
Dre or Quincy Jones. Oh, it's like apples and oranges.
But I'm gonna say Quincy just the range of probably musicianship,

(47:01):
you know, because you think about Quincy's career. He was
producing and arranging and composing for Frank Sinatra and Ray
Charles in the fifties and sixties, and then giving us
Thriller in the eighties, and to me and everybody else
and all the R and B artists he produced over

(47:21):
the years. Nancy Sinatra, he did everything, so just the breadth.

Speaker 1 (47:25):
Of work he was able to do. Yeahgazine, heay, he.

Speaker 3 (47:28):
Produced a fresh Prince of bel air, roots, color purple.

Speaker 1 (47:34):
He just gave us everything. Yeah, thanks one.

Speaker 4 (47:40):
Get lifted or my favorite dream, get lifted. It's a
good segue. Let's promote get listed. Twenty years so this
is the twentieth anniversary. It gets listed right now. And
we just did the luxe edition of the album with
the original album first, but then a whole extra album,

(48:03):
the whole I did it all over, Yeah, a whole
extra album of remixes. So I did The Ordinary People
with Thames, the APPROB version.

Speaker 3 (48:10):
I did Approb version of Refuge with Semi.

Speaker 4 (48:15):
Both of them are from Nigeria. And then I did
a couple of hip hop remixes. I did Black Thought
on used to Love You with ninth Wonder I'm making
the B and then uh You making the ninth d Yeah,
and then on Let's Get Lifted Again, I had Killer
Mike and Lil Wayne each do a verse and uh

(48:35):
So the remixes are dope, but we have the original
versions first, and then at the end of the album.

Speaker 1 (48:40):
You can listen to the remixes. M that's fine, m
J or Prince.

Speaker 3 (48:49):
Childhood. Tell this is a shot A you got four
shots us to do four times at least.

Speaker 1 (48:59):
I'm gonna say both MJ.

Speaker 2 (49:06):
If I'm just going record for record, like the songs
that had the most impact in.

Speaker 1 (49:11):
My life, I feel like MJ had more. They say,
they say MJ is just as famous as Jesus.

Speaker 4 (49:24):
Do you believe that now at his peak, at his peak, yeah,
I'm sure, yeah, yes, but if you ask a kid now,
like I don't know, but during that time, he was everything.
Like the first like merch I ever had was a
Michael Jackson Thriller folder for school.

Speaker 1 (49:43):
Zipper jacket. Yeah, zip jacket too. You look like you
had to go. Yeah, so you definitely had.

Speaker 4 (49:52):
I was born in seventy eight, so I was born
in seventy eight, so my first time going to school
was like mid eighties, and like.

Speaker 1 (50:00):
That was everything when Thriller, when that video came out.

Speaker 4 (50:03):
My parents were very religious, so Prince they like thought
Prince was a little too like uh crazy, a little
too wild he was. Yeah, so he was like forbidden
through at the house for a while. But MJ, you know,
we could get away with that.

Speaker 3 (50:17):
That's just great because both of them had very religious families. Yeah,
and Prince was very religious. Yea, Prince became even more religious.
I think it was Jehoah's witness. Our Seventh Day venis
one of Stevie Wonder or Smokey Robinson, Stevie you know.
Snoop Dogg said that Stevie wants face thoms him.

Speaker 1 (50:35):
Yeah, Steevie facetimes, what's just the one that Georgie Clinton.
Jorine Clinton said that he saw him across the busy street.

Speaker 3 (50:48):
Everybody's got everybody got Stevie. Give everybody. Everybody's got Stevie's
not blind.

Speaker 1 (50:55):
Stories.

Speaker 2 (50:56):
Shaq said he seen he seen Stevie getting the elevator, said,
what's up, Diesel.

Speaker 1 (51:04):
Black. I don't remember that bar, but we need to No, I.

Speaker 3 (51:09):
Mean, everybody's got him. Like, but I went to his studio.

Speaker 2 (51:13):
You've seen him rolling up and he was just walking
around like like he was seeing everything.

Speaker 1 (51:18):
But it was also his studio, so so like he's
he's been there a lot. He walking around.

Speaker 3 (51:28):
He's literally blind, but he's actually not one hundred percent
blind because I don't know.

Speaker 1 (51:33):
I don't know. I never asked. I never had when
I never asked.

Speaker 3 (51:40):
Because men, the stories are crazy. Stevie family calling him like.

Speaker 2 (51:46):
We spoke about him almost every but he likes to
make jokes about it too, Like he makes blind jokes
all the time.

Speaker 1 (51:52):
He has blind jokes all the time. He'll just say
like yeah, I'll drive over there, I'll see you when
I like he'll drive over because Oprah board him with
may back. He said he was gonna I'm dropping exactly.
He says it all the time, though he'll joke about
it all the time.

Speaker 2 (52:08):
We would love to have him one, but I've never
asked him. Stevie, be real with me, are you really blind?

Speaker 1 (52:15):
You're pulling? You know what's crazy. Like most blind people,
they feel your face to see how you you look.

Speaker 2 (52:21):
I've never seen Steve. Steve touch anybody's face. I've never
seen I'm just being I love. I mean, you see
him as a famous person. He's had someone next to
me like you're about to see.

Speaker 1 (52:31):
Yeah, he's always got somebody next to her. All right.

Speaker 4 (52:37):
If I'm betting, I'm betting he's blind. Okay, okay, Uh,
Brothers of the Parliament, Isaacs. Just more records that you
know resonate with me.

Speaker 3 (52:51):
Tony Tony Tony or BBD Tony Tony.

Speaker 1 (52:54):
Tony, same answer, More records that resonate me.

Speaker 3 (52:56):
I mean, I'm I'm close with Raphael too, and he's
produced a couple of my albums.

Speaker 1 (53:00):
And uh and.

Speaker 4 (53:02):
Raphael sadiqu the you know, lead singer and one of
the great producers. He's just one Album of the Year
with with Beyonce for the country album. Uh, he was
part of that, and he's part of that and part
of renaissance, and he's a part of everything like that.
You don't even know, like di'angelo Lady Untitled by di'angelo,

(53:22):
like some of the great R and B records of
all time, he's behind.

Speaker 1 (53:25):
And then all those Tony Tony records.

Speaker 2 (53:27):
Are amazing too, great new addition or BBD No, No
Jackson five, Jackson five, my bad Jackson Fine, Okay, it's
the guys from Boston.

Speaker 1 (53:37):
He's mad Tony, Tony Tony or BBD. I know we
did that one. We did that one. Hmm. I'm gonna
say Rion Alicia is my friend too.

Speaker 4 (53:54):
But as a fan just listening, I probably listened to
Rihanna Moore and again more records that I'm like in
love with of hers.

Speaker 3 (54:02):
Yeah, y'all got a couples b something you just swiss
And no, man, I don't really love both of them. Man,
I truly love both of them. They're like wonderful people.
I'm just speaking as like a as a as a
non biased man.

Speaker 1 (54:17):
And they both drink chancelortle. Oh soul man coming to America. Oh,
coming to America. This is coming into America too. They
put yes, oh coming to America too. Wow, so man,
we'll good it to so man. Both movies.

Speaker 3 (54:35):
Those are both Malcolm Lee movies because you SWI Okay,
oh shot, that's my guy, Malcolm Lee. He just texted
me this week.

Speaker 1 (54:46):
All right. This last question they get back in the interviews,
loyalty or respect? Mm hmm.

Speaker 4 (54:55):
I'm gonna say that's a good question, m respect. And
the reason why I will say I think I think
we should want respect more than we want loyalty from people,
just because, first of all, respect will come with loyalty anyway, but.

Speaker 1 (55:23):
I want.

Speaker 4 (55:26):
Sometimes loyalty can bleed over into being blind loyalty and
people not telling you what you don't want to hear, etcetera, etcetera.
So like yes, man, yeah, so I would rather have respect. Okay,
this makes noise for that, John Legend. I'm gonna tell

(55:48):
you something. I'm not sure if anybody ever told you this.
I think you should run for president.

Speaker 1 (55:54):
No, someone has told me that before a few times,
but I don't think I have put coporations. Look you, honestly,
I love California.

Speaker 4 (56:04):
I love being involved in everything, and I'll stay involved,
but I just feel like I would not enjoy running
for it or being at Let's let's say you.

Speaker 2 (56:17):
Let's just say you you did like you woke up
the next day tomorrow and I'm tomorrow, I'm gona run
for president. Who would be your vice president?

Speaker 1 (56:27):
Who would you? I don't know?

Speaker 3 (56:32):
She got real?

Speaker 1 (56:37):
So seriously, who who? Who you pick?

Speaker 3 (56:38):
Who? Right now?

Speaker 2 (56:39):
Like tomorrow, I don't know now, I don't know loaded
would it be dope if you was to pick Barack? Yo?

Speaker 1 (56:49):
I just feel like backs my man pronounced it, Barack
Obama Obama? Sure would that would that'd be crazy? John
legend run of a fucking president?

Speaker 3 (57:02):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (57:03):
And Borack come out he quit walking or something like.
You know what I'm saying, like he do something like
coming out to be.

Speaker 1 (57:10):
You know, I'm not bad. You know, I'm going over
to place. I'm excited. I'm excited. Lexic kids, Who would
you pick? Who would you pick? You know?

Speaker 4 (57:24):
I feel like it shouldn't be a celebrity, No, no, no, whatever.
If it's going to be me, it shouldn't be a
celebrity that it should be a politician. Yeah, that may
be so so let's get wild. Let's George Clinton or somebody.

Speaker 1 (57:37):
I'm just just your choice. I'm sorry.

Speaker 3 (57:41):
Uh, Kerrie Washington, she's an actor, okay, yeah, playing president
she was a scandal.

Speaker 1 (57:51):
She was a scandal. Okay. Well the thing about Carrie
is I've seen her.

Speaker 4 (57:56):
Behind the scenes and she's like really politically aware, and
she's really great at organizing and motivating people, and she
would be amazing and she's a great communicator.

Speaker 1 (58:07):
Okay, I thought that through. You can give him. I'm
thinking for I think he's gonna pick for real. You
wanted to make the best beats for the way out?

Speaker 2 (58:19):
This should be being wrong, yes, okay, all right, twenty nineteen.
How many haters did you get?

Speaker 1 (58:26):
Of course of this cover? So many see now this
is this is.

Speaker 4 (58:33):
When if I was on Twitter. I was on Twitter
back then, and I made an intentional choice to not
check my Twitter.

Speaker 1 (58:42):
It wasn't on black Twitter when this game. I did
not check my Twitter when that cover came out. It
was gonna be because I knew it's not gonna be
nice because there's no win situation for you.

Speaker 3 (58:54):
Becuzin some people are like, hey, great, but most people
are gonna be like fuck him.

Speaker 4 (58:58):
Somebody else should have won. And then and then they
let all the other people that should have won. So
I'm like, fuck, y'all, I'm not.

Speaker 1 (59:05):
Reading your tweets, but how did they call you for
this couple?

Speaker 3 (59:11):
My publicist called me and they're they're like, we got
big news.

Speaker 2 (59:16):
John, Let's take a shot for you. That's not a
part of the show. I was just taking a shot
the sexiest man alive.

Speaker 1 (59:24):
Jesus Holy Ship.

Speaker 4 (59:26):
They said we got big news, and I was like really,
And I was already thinking like, oh man, I'm gonna
get so much ship for this.

Speaker 1 (59:35):
But I was like, all right, let's do it. And
so then they set up the photo shoot. They did
the whole thing.

Speaker 2 (59:40):
Did that at our house, and you know you did
the photo shoot. Yeah, the help come to me. Did
you charge you for that? We usually do charge like
a location field. Goddamn, you gotta double it. We gotta
talk about EGOT. Yeah, all right, listen, I'm gonna be

(01:00:01):
honest with you. You're probably the only EGOT Award winner
I'm ever gonna meet, not life.

Speaker 1 (01:00:07):
Well, you could meet Jennifer Hudson. You can bet Jennifer
she is now. She might not have been when you
met definitely.

Speaker 4 (01:00:14):
The first here on Drink Champs, and then whoopee Whoopy
was the first black person to become a EG.

Speaker 1 (01:00:21):
I was the second.

Speaker 4 (01:00:21):
I was the first black man, and then Jay Hudd
and now Viola also is.

Speaker 1 (01:00:26):
An E guy Davis, Yes, okay, so all right, let's
explain to mother fuckers.

Speaker 2 (01:00:31):
So he got it's an Emmy, a Grammy, yeah, Oscar? Yeah,
and I forgot what the last one?

Speaker 1 (01:00:48):
Tony?

Speaker 3 (01:00:48):
Did you say?

Speaker 1 (01:00:49):
What is? That's Broadway? Broadway, That's what we produced, were
to play.

Speaker 4 (01:01:01):
We produced a play called Jitney and it won a Tony, and.

Speaker 1 (01:01:05):
So that's my tea.

Speaker 3 (01:01:08):
That's awesome, man, congratulations, So which one did you get?

Speaker 1 (01:01:14):
First? The Grammys?

Speaker 4 (01:01:16):
So my first Grammys were three Grammys for my debut
album Get Lifted twenty year anniversary this year, goddamn.

Speaker 1 (01:01:24):
Oh.

Speaker 4 (01:01:26):
So I won Best New Artist, Best R and B Album,
and Best R and B Male Vocal Performance for that
album and for Ordinary People. And then since then I've
won thirteen Grammys. Thirteen and then I won an Oscar
for Glory with Common.

Speaker 1 (01:01:44):
We wrote that for Selma, and then.

Speaker 4 (01:01:48):
After that I won the Tony for Jitney, which is
a play written by August Wilson, and we produced a
revival of it and we won Best Revival on Broadway
and then only needed the Emmy, and NBC called me
up and asked me to start as Jesus Christ in
Jesus Christ Superstar Live production that they did for NBC and.

Speaker 1 (01:02:12):
That play.

Speaker 4 (01:02:13):
That musical was written by Andrew, Lloyd Weber and Tim
Rice and they all three of us only needed an
Emmy to get the egot, and we all wanted at
the same time.

Speaker 1 (01:02:26):
When we won Best Live Music.

Speaker 3 (01:02:30):
Is there a point where you're getting closer, You're like,
now you're shooting for You're like this.

Speaker 4 (01:02:35):
My team knew that all I needed was an Emmy,
and they're like, and I have a production company and
we produced TV and film, so like, if anything we
produced would get an Emmy, then I would have an egot.
So they're like, man, we're gonna get you this egot.

Speaker 3 (01:02:47):
So so we produced Jesus Christ Superstar Live.

Speaker 1 (01:02:50):
And it won the Emmy.

Speaker 2 (01:02:51):
So yeah, well, I'm gonna tall you well for first
of us to make some noise for that. Well, I'm
gonna tell you something. Uh, you know, I'm an artist first,
and I believe in I'm pro artist, super pro artist.

Speaker 1 (01:03:04):
Right, So we've been doing this nine years, nine years,
eight years, nine years.

Speaker 2 (01:03:09):
I was like nine years, nine years, right, and due
these nine years, no one has ever sent us a writer.

Speaker 1 (01:03:18):
You are the only one who's sitting there. I was
so happy the artist in me. I was like, he
has to send us a writer. It's funny because I
haven't even been to the dressing room, so I don't
even know if I have a rider. I was.

Speaker 2 (01:03:40):
The artist in me because I cool, this is this
is one thing, right, And I lost money on you too.

Speaker 1 (01:03:47):
I bet he was gonna be on time. We always bet.

Speaker 3 (01:03:49):
This is.

Speaker 1 (01:03:50):
This is how I was there two oh nine, No, no,
you said too, or nine you came here two and sixteen? Yes,
I lost.

Speaker 2 (01:03:58):
Literally bet and I I bet my mind. I was like, no, miss,
I'll called you miss the legend. I was like, the
legend will be on time, and he's gonna be on
But holy molyam those were saying before saying that he

(01:04:20):
was late.

Speaker 1 (01:04:21):
The writer, the writer that ship touched me.

Speaker 4 (01:04:24):
I was a writer because we got like small riders
and then big specifically purple grapes in there that.

Speaker 1 (01:04:32):
I like, I like, I love that we just have
like that.

Speaker 4 (01:04:41):
We have like the streamlined version and then I got
the full version for the show and everything.

Speaker 1 (01:04:46):
So let me tell you, I apologize, I love it.
Do not apologize. That is dope. Your team is dope.
Let me let me just tell you something. Sorry. I
was going to go to.

Speaker 2 (01:05:01):
I was on tour in Japan, right and every city
that I went to, the promoter was like, he just
kept hugging me because my writer was just like Hennessy
at the.

Speaker 1 (01:05:11):
Time, blunt and maybe kid like I had. I had
no fruit, I had no water.

Speaker 2 (01:05:17):
And he was And I said to him, I had
like a twenty four city tour with him, So I
was like, Yo, why do you keep hugging me every
time that I go in the dressing room?

Speaker 1 (01:05:24):
He was like, because I just had l L.

Speaker 2 (01:05:28):
Do you imagine what l El's writer was in Japan?
He wanted green apples. I don't even think green apples
go past He's ghost.

Speaker 1 (01:05:38):
So he was just happy. How he was just happy,
how simple you're I was? And I didn't so this
whole nine years. You know, he's Hollywood. You know I
believe only one of yell skittles.

Speaker 3 (01:05:51):
He wanted to open up everything that was all violator
old bout of the end. I booked you out here
for the first time and I got your writer.

Speaker 1 (01:06:00):
It was crazy.

Speaker 3 (01:06:00):
You had like to two palettes of snapples or something
crazy like gon ship.

Speaker 2 (01:06:08):
Dude, By the way, do you make your own writer?
Because I don't make my writer. I have input.

Speaker 4 (01:06:14):
Yeah, okay, I'll like like when I don't like where
we are with it, like because maybe like I wanted
this two years ago, but I want it now, then I'll.

Speaker 1 (01:06:24):
Go back and go through it and edit it.

Speaker 4 (01:06:26):
So the last tour we went on, I went through
and edited it and I haven't had to say anything
since then.

Speaker 2 (01:06:31):
You know what should have We should do a documentary
music people ride us? Yeah, because different people like different ship.

Speaker 3 (01:06:39):
They revolt, they they listen to my writer. Unfortunately, when
I got the what's the drink?

Speaker 1 (01:06:43):
I got you're drinking fireball? This is like a frat boy.

Speaker 3 (01:06:54):
To me.

Speaker 1 (01:06:54):
Here's your writer, oh ship? I went on from there.

Speaker 2 (01:07:00):
By the way, I'm sorry to switch the subjects up,
but if if, if God came to you right now,
and God says John Legend, I need you to make
one record to save humanity, and you got one feature
and you got one producer dead or alive, the feature

(01:07:20):
and the producer dead or live.

Speaker 1 (01:07:22):
You got one record.

Speaker 2 (01:07:23):
This record that you make John Legend is going to
save humanity and put people on motherfucking.

Speaker 1 (01:07:28):
Mars to live. Yeah. Yeah. He said, you don't want
to work with Elon Mark. I don't believe nobody. I
haven't worked with that. I love that. I shouted out
today Timberland.

Speaker 2 (01:07:44):
Tim, you can have a feature if you want, dad
or live. We're talking like a singer or a rapper,
whatever you want.

Speaker 3 (01:07:52):
This is John Legend, world's doing with a banjo.

Speaker 4 (01:07:56):
Uh, let's do Tim tim Bow and hove. I was
just listening to Dirt off your shoulder in the car.

Speaker 1 (01:08:02):
Crazy record. Yeah nasty. I just saw a video of
the first moment he showed whole that Tim eat the banana.
It was awkward, but it was it was banana in
his mouth. He just held it. What do you like more,

(01:08:26):
performing or making the record? I like to make the record, man, hmm.
I love both.

Speaker 4 (01:08:37):
I'm gonna say my favorite part is writing writing. Yes,
for other people, writing for myself, but I.

Speaker 1 (01:08:46):
Mean for other people too.

Speaker 3 (01:08:47):
But I love starting with nothing and ending the day
with something new that could change my life.

Speaker 1 (01:08:54):
That that's a.

Speaker 4 (01:08:55):
Special It's like, Hey, that didn't exist before today and
we made it, and it's amazing. You always think it's
amazing for the first day, and it's not always amazing,
but that feeling, there's nothing like him. Right, Okay, let's
take it back to the beginning. How did we start.
So I grew up in Ohio. Grew up in a

(01:09:16):
small city called Springfield. And uh my family is very
next with Dave Chappelle and that right, So if he
was on SNL, he was.

Speaker 1 (01:09:26):
Talking about my hometown the other day because.

Speaker 4 (01:09:29):
The whole eating Yeah, the Haitians are there and and
uh so Trump was making up shit about them on.

Speaker 1 (01:09:36):
On the debate stage.

Speaker 4 (01:09:38):
But that was my city. That's where I grew up.
So I grew up in Springfield, Ohio. My family is
very involved in the church. So my grandpa was the pastor,
my grandmother was the organist, my mom was the choir director.
So I just grew up around people who made gospel
music all the time. And so I piano at the house,
drums at the house, and before the piano hit for

(01:10:00):
you all right, yeah, but yeah, I just grew up
around music all the time, especially in church, and I
always loved it. I always wanted to sing, just grew
up around people who loved it too, and they encouraged me.
I took piano lessons when I was four, started singing.

Speaker 1 (01:10:17):
In church choir when I was seven, and you know,
it's been my life. God damn it, you love it.
I love it.

Speaker 3 (01:10:24):
But you said, you said you're celebrating your debut album,
but you had music that you had albums before this independently, all.

Speaker 1 (01:10:30):
Independent albums, A couple of them.

Speaker 4 (01:10:33):
They basically were like demos that I was, you know,
trying to get signed with, but I was also selling
them at my shows, so I would play.

Speaker 1 (01:10:39):
I was living in New York, and I was working
in the.

Speaker 3 (01:10:42):
Daytime as a consultant, so like this very like white
collar job in.

Speaker 1 (01:10:47):
The business world, corporate world.

Speaker 4 (01:10:49):
But at night I was trying to get signed, and
I would play gigs around New York, so I would
sell my little demos at the shows. And so that
I graduated college in ninety nine, moved to New York
in two, and I got signed in four and Get
Lifted came out four, So I had like those four
or five years out of school where I was just
trying to get signed, but also working.

Speaker 1 (01:11:09):
A day job. That's when I met Ya.

Speaker 4 (01:11:11):
That's when I met a lot of the people that
I wrote the first album with was during that time.

Speaker 2 (01:11:17):
Okay, we're gonna get back to that. But is this
true that you have to eat a rotesttery chicken meal
before every.

Speaker 4 (01:11:24):
That's in my show writer, that wasn't in this right,
that's in my constant. I don't need the whole chicken,
but I ordered half a chicken.

Speaker 1 (01:11:34):
Okay, why.

Speaker 3 (01:11:36):
I just like the feel of it. Boston Market. It's
Boston Market. The market, yeah, okay, Boston Market too. Was
it called Boston Boston Market used to be called Boston Chicken.

Speaker 4 (01:11:49):
It started as Boston Chicken, then it became Boston Market
because that's.

Speaker 1 (01:11:52):
That's how the chicken. I've been to Boston. I've never
seen that chicken in Boston.

Speaker 2 (01:11:56):
I'm just asking, like anybody else has That's a good question,
like I've never seen that chicken start in Boston. That
sounds from that's the reason why. But have you ever
had that Boston Market chicken in Boston?

Speaker 1 (01:12:08):
Ok? I love the market. He's serious about it, so
we established you don't get mad. I'm very very mellow guy.
It's rarely do I lose my cool. I got to
ask you this straight up.

Speaker 2 (01:12:26):
We had Kanye on this app on it I saw
and we had two different we had two different different episodes. Yes,
and this is this is your according to your words,
as you're saying, this is like your mentor somebody that
you looked up, somebody that puts you on. We made
a lot of great music together, and we came we

(01:12:46):
came up together.

Speaker 1 (01:12:47):
Right, Sometimes does it disturb you, Oh, how did you feel?

Speaker 3 (01:12:54):
Like?

Speaker 1 (01:12:55):
Oh? Absolutely disturbs me some of the things he says.

Speaker 3 (01:12:59):
And and I'm not as just serve for me because
what he said about me, I think.

Speaker 4 (01:13:04):
I'm like, obviously it was a good thing for him
and for me that he signed me. I wasn't worried
about the literal words that he said. I didn't take
it personally. But I just feel like a lot of
times he seems to be going through ship and and
every once in a while we'll get, you.

Speaker 3 (01:13:22):
Know, these flurries of outbursts from him, and it's sad.

Speaker 1 (01:13:27):
Man.

Speaker 2 (01:13:28):
I don't love seeing it. Man, I don't love seeing
it for him because you know him, like, yeah, like
these people to most people, and I don't want to
stay on this. I'll get you know, you know, well
most people it's entertainment.

Speaker 4 (01:13:41):
Right, yeah, And it's like, but that's your that's your brother,
and it is outrageous, and sometimes it's funny, like and
some of my friends will like, you know, text me
hear what Kanye said. Yeah, I'm like yeah, but like
part of it's sad, you know, it's sad seeing it.
And I still look at him as one of the
most important artists that we've ever had, and I still

(01:14:04):
like some of his music is just like truly incredible, groundbreaking,
world changing and still holds up now and and I
just feel like it's a shame that.

Speaker 1 (01:14:17):
That it gets clouded by all the other shit.

Speaker 3 (01:14:21):
God bless man, because to go more to the musical
side of it, like yeah, that journey that when you
guys connected in the beginning, but was that like how
so what stage of his career and for you, like, what.

Speaker 1 (01:14:34):
Was that whole that was good music? Correct? Yeah, So
it didn't even exist good music. It didn't exist when
we met. So I'm a new artist.

Speaker 4 (01:14:42):
I'm, like I said, working by day as a management
consultant in New York, one of my roommates I went
to college with. His name is Devo, and Devo had
a cousin from Chicago that was about to move to
the area and his name was Kanye West. So Devo
he's not known neither, no, but he had just started

(01:15:03):
working Jay and Dame and all them at Rockefeller and
he had just him and just Blaze basically did the
whole blueprint.

Speaker 1 (01:15:13):
That's right. That's right.

Speaker 4 (01:15:14):
So when I met Kanye was May of two thousand,
or like late spring or early summer in two thousand
and one. And I remember because it was at Jimmy's
Uptown and I recorded that show at Jimmy's Uptown and Harlem, Yeah,
Jimmy's Uptown.

Speaker 1 (01:15:30):
Yeah, We're gonna stab somebody.

Speaker 4 (01:15:34):
So I'm doing a show there and we recorded it
and we actually put out a live record to my
fans of that recording. So that's why I knew when
I met him, was because it was that day that
we record the show, and.

Speaker 1 (01:15:51):
My roommates like, you gotta meet my cousin.

Speaker 4 (01:15:52):
He just moved to New York and he's producing for Rockefeller,
and we met and then we started working together a
few months later. He was working on his demo and
he was trying to get signed as a rapper, but
everybody was like.

Speaker 1 (01:16:07):
Yeah, you keep that serious.

Speaker 2 (01:16:09):
Yeah, because not me for a second, because Farrell always
downplays when when like when me and Pharrell, Farrell was
cocky as ship, even as a person that was coming
up was Kanye Kky.

Speaker 1 (01:16:23):
Yeah he was cocky. Yeah cool is Susan right.

Speaker 4 (01:16:26):
He's not the same as he was back then, but
he was. He's always like had.

Speaker 1 (01:16:30):
A strong say yeah all.

Speaker 2 (01:16:33):
Right, yeah, yeah, was like he's so humble now I'm like,
none of the motherfucker I remember.

Speaker 3 (01:16:38):
But when the guy told you my cousin, did you
already know about his production?

Speaker 1 (01:16:41):
No, it wasn't out yet.

Speaker 2 (01:16:43):
So the Bluebird came out nine eleven, remember nine eleven,
on the day of nine eleven, and that's that's yeah,
he's debut as a productor that.

Speaker 1 (01:16:50):
Was his first big moment as a producer.

Speaker 4 (01:16:53):
So yeah, which was a single before the album came out,
and then he had a few cuts on the album
and then Blaze did the other side, so it was
just like both of them were the album basically, so
that soul sample sound was the whole blueprint sound and yay,
and just Blaze did the whole thing basically, and he's
telling you this and you believe him, Like I'm like,

(01:17:15):
let's meet him.

Speaker 3 (01:17:16):
Like at this point, it's like I'm trying to get
signed too, and I'm like, let's try it.

Speaker 1 (01:17:21):
You know, like I don't know him, but we'll see.

Speaker 2 (01:17:24):
And you never know what hip hop producers because some
aren't musical enough because they're more like being driven and
you know, I'm an R and B artist, some more soulful,
so I want somebody that still has some musical underpinnings.
And the good thing about Yay was he he was
using all the soul samples and the music was very soulful.
So it was like the perfect blend of soul and

(01:17:44):
hip hop for us to work together. So we start
working together, like late two thousand and one, early two
thousand and two, he gets in an accident.

Speaker 3 (01:17:54):
You met before that before the accident, and I think
he was signed by the time he had that SID But.

Speaker 4 (01:18:02):
Damn and m Our impression was they signed him just
so they could keep him in house for Beef, yes,
not because they really thought he was going to be successful.
We saw artists who were so much.

Speaker 2 (01:18:15):
You Meydan Sie like the crew, so we got this, yeah,
the whole crew.

Speaker 3 (01:18:22):
Yeah, so we and I started to get to know
them later. But you know, Devo was working with him,
my roommate. He was like basically running his production company.
And so you know, Kanye really believed in himself as
a solo.

Speaker 4 (01:18:35):
Artist, and a lot of his team did, but I
felt and a lot of us felt like Rockefeller didn't.

Speaker 1 (01:18:41):
So he gets an accident. Can I tell you real
question to add to the story.

Speaker 3 (01:18:44):
I was working for Deaf Jam at the time, and
they weren't pushing him as an artist. He went and
sent he got the list of all the street teams,
sent the white labels of his singles hustling, and started
a conference call with himself and all the street teams. So, yeah,
we're pushing this like himself. Yes, outside of the infrastructure
of the label.

Speaker 4 (01:19:03):
He was so entrepreneurial. He put out his own mixtape
and he got an accident and made through the wire.
And then he started just camping because he got an
accident in La. So he started just camping out at
the w and Westwood in l A. Yeah, And so
I would go out there from New York whenever I

(01:19:24):
had time, and we would work on College Dropout with him,
and I wrote used to love you out there, uh,
and some of my songs forget Lifted. And that's when
I started to see after the accident this new sense
of like this man is on a mission. And it
started with Through the Wire, but then I heard Jesus
Walks and all these other records. I'm like, yo, this

(01:19:45):
is gonna be And I played piano on Lauren Hill's Miseducation,
So what what what to so.

Speaker 1 (01:19:52):
You put on the whole.

Speaker 4 (01:19:54):
I played piano on Everything Is Everything on Lauren Hill's album,
and I said to ya when.

Speaker 1 (01:19:59):
I was listening to g Walks, I was like, I
feel like I was part.

Speaker 4 (01:20:02):
Of one album that changed the world in ninety eight
and this is album is about to do the same
thing in two thousand and four.

Speaker 1 (01:20:09):
And you got credit for Laurence Hill. Yeah, I feel
like John Stevens, Yeah I Stevens. Yeah, you know that's wild,
that's crazy, because how did you go the Let's just
finish this right?

Speaker 4 (01:20:23):
So anyway, that time was crazy because we're all out
in la We're meeting up with him, he's recovering from
the accident, but he's got this new sense of purpose
and uh, he's making the best music of his.

Speaker 1 (01:20:36):
Life up to that point, and it just felt like the.

Speaker 4 (01:20:40):
Momentum was was there and it was going to be
a big, special album and it was sure was Yeah, but.

Speaker 2 (01:20:47):
How about the Grammy family, Like, yeah, you had the
whole industry shook up?

Speaker 1 (01:20:52):
Yeah, every Monday at one point or we.

Speaker 2 (01:20:54):
Were doing the Good Fridays Friday my bad, I said,
Monday's lets you know how much I'll be drinking? Like
was that something that y'all all got together and said
we're gonna fuck up the industry?

Speaker 1 (01:21:08):
I think sometimes YA just gets in that like creative
like uh, like that just.

Speaker 4 (01:21:15):
Extra excitement and he's ready to like he's just got
all these ideas and he just wants to.

Speaker 1 (01:21:20):
Get him out and he's like, that's just good Fridays.
That was the time.

Speaker 4 (01:21:22):
He's like everybody at the studio needs to wear a
suit and tie, and so everybody was dressing like there
was in Reservoir Dogs.

Speaker 1 (01:21:29):
At the studio. They called it the Rose with Era.
It was like a whole thing.

Speaker 3 (01:21:33):
So sometimes he's just beyond one and he's like that's
his thing at that time.

Speaker 1 (01:21:37):
And that's what he be on.

Speaker 2 (01:21:39):
That's yeah, God damn, I wish y'all good into the studio.
Well a goddamn reservoir dog.

Speaker 1 (01:21:47):
Oh jesus. He called it the Rosewood era.

Speaker 3 (01:21:52):
So then you get so so now getting into your project,
transitioning from his Yeah, So it was all happening at
the same time though, so uh, we were working on
like used to Love You and some of the joints
from Get Lifted during the same time that we're working
on College Dropping Really at the same time.

Speaker 1 (01:22:09):
It was all happened at the same time.

Speaker 4 (01:22:10):
We're both trying to get I was trying to get
signed after he had already gotten signed to Rockefeller, and
I eventually signed to Good Music and my roommate was
running the label for him, so I was basically signed
to my roommate's.

Speaker 1 (01:22:23):
Label with his cousin.

Speaker 4 (01:22:26):
And eventually after College Dropout came out, that was when
the industry really.

Speaker 1 (01:22:32):
Started to be like, okay, we fucked with the whole crew.

Speaker 4 (01:22:35):
So before that, we took the same music to all
the labels and they turned us down or they gave
us a low offer. And when College Dropout came out,
everybody changed their tune.

Speaker 3 (01:22:47):
We had a bidding war and I signed with Columbia.
And who was the crew at the time? You consequence GLC,
don C. I mean those are the artists. Me consequence
GLC and ya that those are the artists. But then
don ce John Monopoly. The whole crew was you know,
we were touring together, we're opening for us, sure together.

Speaker 1 (01:23:08):
Uh that was the crew? Crazy, man? Did you ever think?
Because yeah, I was like almost like the modern day
Wu Tang clan right.

Speaker 2 (01:23:18):
Like like but not exactly okay, but with different like
you know, you had to push.

Speaker 1 (01:23:23):
Your te you had consequence, Yeah, you had you. You
had kick cutting Sean Big Sean.

Speaker 3 (01:23:29):
Like during that during that Good Friday's time, that was
a like latt Roster was crazy.

Speaker 2 (01:23:34):
I'm not gonna be honest as an industry person, we
were scared of that Friday. You did not like it,
Like I'm not gonna say I'm not fucking making.

Speaker 1 (01:23:43):
Music no more so.

Speaker 4 (01:23:44):
Yeah said the records like click and some of those
records were insane.

Speaker 1 (01:23:49):
Yeah, Like we were mad at y'all. We were like
why why did y'all want to just blogging? Yeah? It
was wow.

Speaker 4 (01:23:55):
And then right around that time, right after that time,
Jay and Kanye start working on Watching the Throne, like
probably this is the one, this is the main Washington, Yeah,
the only one.

Speaker 1 (01:24:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:24:09):
So this is around twenty twelve, twenty thirteen, he's he's
up in the Mercer. They talk about the song the
Mercer Hotel in New York.

Speaker 1 (01:24:18):
And I'll tell you something about car Let's let you know.

Speaker 4 (01:24:23):
So they were literally they were literally in the Mercer
Hotel and he just brought his studio equipment in there
and was making Watch the Throne with Jay and then
we made Love in the Future, my album that came
out in twenty thirteen, in that same hotel, and so
all of me was on that. I didn't do that
one with Yay, but Yay produced the whole like executive

(01:24:44):
produced the whole album.

Speaker 1 (01:24:46):
And that was another crazy time.

Speaker 4 (01:24:48):
So there's been these times when Yay's really on like
a creative tear and producing some of the best music
of that era. It was incredible.

Speaker 1 (01:25:00):
Again, like I said it earlier, I feel like you
never had a bad day.

Speaker 2 (01:25:05):
I just feel it because I just feel like you're
a positive person, which is really really, really really dope
to see in this day and time, because there's a
lot of negative shit going on?

Speaker 1 (01:25:16):
Yeah, is there anything that you regret?

Speaker 4 (01:25:21):
I mean, I have regrets all the I mean there's
things I would do differently now, But.

Speaker 1 (01:25:26):
I honestly, I don't think about regrets because.

Speaker 4 (01:25:32):
I feel like everything that happened happened, and I wouldn't
be here if all of it didn't happen, like the
good and the bad. Like, I just feel like all
of it brought me to where I am, and I
love where I am, and I learned from everything.

Speaker 1 (01:25:49):
Goddamn, that was the most people, John leg I gotta
ask you, do you we want time? I only got
a little bit right here, all right. I'm not trying
to get rid of it yet.

Speaker 5 (01:26:02):
I'm yeah, I'm coming out with Forwards. He's coming out
with the Great You. I got like ten Grays down here.
He's coming up with the Virgins. Where can make it
be it grayer?

Speaker 1 (01:26:16):
Yeah? Okay.

Speaker 2 (01:26:19):
One of the most beautiful records in the world, all
over the world, not New York, not America, ordinary people,
Thank you, thank you.

Speaker 1 (01:26:30):
One of the most like listeners in the world. Thank you.

Speaker 4 (01:26:36):
How did you make it so? That started with Will
I Am and the Black Eyed Peas? So I had
the same manager as them David Sonenberg.

Speaker 1 (01:26:47):
And we when he signed me, he was like, I'd
love to get you in with Will.

Speaker 3 (01:26:55):
I am from the Black Eyed Peas and at the time,
it was before they really blew up with Fergie and everything,
and they were still like an underground group pree Ferki Yeah. So,
but he was always a dope producer. And so I
went out to La the first time and we wrote she.

Speaker 1 (01:27:14):
Don't Have to Know.

Speaker 4 (01:27:16):
We wrote something for a compilation album that Will was doing,
and then Will really liked writing with me. I wrote
a hook for the Black Eyed Peas, and then after
I got signed, it was like the summer two thousand
and four. I just gotten signed in May and he
was in New York and he was like, can you
come by Hit Factory when we used to have Hit Factory.

Speaker 1 (01:27:36):
In New York? Remember that and.

Speaker 4 (01:27:39):
Fifty seven Street, Yeah, right around there. And then so
he was in the studio and he was like, can
you just write some hooks for us? I love writing
with you. So he would just play beats and I
would just see what hook I could come up with, and.

Speaker 1 (01:27:52):
I came up with wid and the repeat pople to
a beat.

Speaker 4 (01:27:57):
So it wasn't like stripped down piano ballot like it
was on my album.

Speaker 1 (01:28:01):
It was to a B and it was going to
be a hip hop song for the Black Eyed Piece
with me on the hook that mind, thinking of the
Black Eyed Piece.

Speaker 4 (01:28:12):
I wrote the chorus just listening to the music and
seeing what I recorded it that night, just the hook.
And then a few days later I'm like, well, you
can keep every other idea I wrote, but I want
to keep ordinary people for myself, and he was like, okay,
no problem.

Speaker 3 (01:28:30):
I was like, I'll let you produce it, no problem. Like,
but I feel like it'll be a better R and
B song than like a pop hip hop song.

Speaker 2 (01:28:38):
And I started messing with it on tour. I went
on a European tour with Kanye, and every.

Speaker 4 (01:28:44):
Soundtrack, every soundcheck, I would write more of the verses
to ordinate people. And so I basically wrote the chorus
in the studio with Will and the verses on the
road with Ya. And I recorded a demo back in
La on just piano, and I played it for everybody

(01:29:06):
and I was like, yeah, Will I Am is going
to produce it, blah blah blah, and everybody's like, don't
fuck with that. Leave it alone and so we ended
up leaving it stripped down, just vocal piano, and.

Speaker 1 (01:29:19):
That's how it came out.

Speaker 4 (01:29:20):
And back then, remember the samplers you used to get
at DJ, so they would hand out the samplers and
it was my first single, Used to Love You with
the Halla haa la Halla, and then three snippets of
other tracks from the album, and then it ended with
a full version of Ordinary People.

Speaker 1 (01:29:40):
So this is, you know, late two thousand and four.

Speaker 4 (01:29:42):
I'm out on the road with USHERINGA from August to October.
Used to Love You came out during that time, and
we're promoting it at every stop on the Usher tour.
I'm going to do radio and we're giving them the
sampler and in Chicago they were like, yeah, used to
he was cool, but they just decided at w g

(01:30:03):
C I they were going to start playing. They made
that the single ordinary People, and they made it to
single by it blowing up in Chicago first and then
took over.

Speaker 1 (01:30:16):
Because a lot of people thought you was from Chicago.

Speaker 4 (01:30:18):
Yeah, yeah, because ya and everybody, But I grew up
in Ohio, but uh never lived in Chicago, but you know,
I love Chicago. But yeah, but they really claimed me
as their own too, just because of the Yea connection
and and uh and they were the first ones that
loved Ordinary People and Yay loved it so much that
he wanted to direct the video. So he ended up

(01:30:39):
directing the Ordinary People video. So if you look at it,
that's him, that's his work.

Speaker 1 (01:30:44):
Did we'll ever get upset that he couldn't produce it? No,
he got some publishing. Really, yeah, he got some publishing,
and uh, you know I wound up producing it. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:30:54):
Well, he knew that it was better that way, like
stripped down it just it made more impact that way,
and you got to think about like what was coming
out in R and B at that time. There's nothing
else like just like that striped down pan Alicia a
little bit, but not even uh, it was just it
stood out from the radio and so like a caapella.

Speaker 1 (01:31:13):
Yeah yeah, but do you think you're an ordinary person?
I mean, what does that even mean? You know what
I'm asking they here's the writer, Here's what I think,
what you mean, Here's what I think.

Speaker 3 (01:31:30):
I think.

Speaker 4 (01:31:32):
When I wrote the song, I was thinking about my
parents because they had gotten divorced, then back together, then
divorced again right before my second my first album was
about to come out, and so I'm writing and thinking, like,
you know, we don't know which way to go, and.

Speaker 1 (01:31:49):
So I'm writing it based on their situation.

Speaker 4 (01:31:53):
But the bottom line is, I think, no matter if
you're rich or poor, celebrity or not, like, everybody goes
through shitting the relationships.

Speaker 3 (01:32:00):
And in that sense, yes, I'm an ordinary person. I
love that answer, but you're not.

Speaker 1 (01:32:14):
There's a lot of extraordinary things about my life. Yes.
Do you think.

Speaker 2 (01:32:23):
So many people say overnight success right right? That shit
doesn't exist. It almost never happens that way. It never happened.

Speaker 1 (01:32:30):
Yeah, But do you think that you fast forwarded from
that child prodigy to superstarter?

Speaker 2 (01:32:41):
Well, it didn't feel like fast forward to me because
I'm like working at days, y'all work.

Speaker 1 (01:32:45):
Asking for the people out there.

Speaker 4 (01:32:46):
I'm like, I'm like, and I didn't get signed until
I was twenty five, So it wasn't like I was,
you know, getting signed like some of these artists gets
signed when they're eighteen, nineteen, fourteen, fifteen, And you know,
back then, I thought I was ready. You know, when
I was fourteen, I was like singing the talent shows.
I'm like, why is somebody signing to me now, But
I didn't even know what went into getting signed, you know,

(01:33:08):
what went into being a real artist, not just a singer.
You know, I'm on the voice now and I'm always
like trying to advise these guys on what it means
to actually be an artist and not just somebody who
can sing. But I didn't know that back then.

Speaker 1 (01:33:20):
So you have to grow, you have to learn.

Speaker 4 (01:33:22):
And I thought I was ready then, but I wasn't
ready until my mid twenties, and then you know, it
was time, goddamn. And the you know, the cool thing
not to interrupt your plause, but the cool thing was
I keep bringing it up, but bringing it up being
with you a during that time, he became famous like
a year before I did.

Speaker 1 (01:33:40):
So it was almost like I got to you saw it,
watch it.

Speaker 4 (01:33:44):
While he was experiencing, and I was right there, and
it made it easier for me to transition into being
the front guy.

Speaker 3 (01:33:52):
What I was going to say is, do you think
that that process, which is a time frame now with
the internet, like you said, these kids are making themselves
viral and getting deals eighteen or younger, do you think
that process takes away from their careers.

Speaker 4 (01:34:08):
Well, I think I've said this before and I really
believe it that it's hard to be sustainable if you
haven't done like the prep work early on, like doing
shows like when nobody's there, like quote.

Speaker 1 (01:34:18):
Unquote development, yes, yeah, exactly, development, whether you develop yourself
or you're in a part of a real artist plot, like.

Speaker 4 (01:34:24):
Doing a show in front of fifty people before you
have to do one in front of fifteen thousand people.

Speaker 1 (01:34:28):
Like having that.

Speaker 4 (01:34:31):
Just foundation of performing and and building your career experience,
building your story, building your experiences. It doesn't mean you
can't make dope music then, but it's hard to do
everything right if you haven't spent some time preparing and
I really think performing.

Speaker 3 (01:34:48):
Practicing as a performer. You just look at like we
talked about Usher.

Speaker 4 (01:34:52):
And even Chris Brown and Beyonce and like some of
these artists, especially ones they have to dance and sing.

Speaker 1 (01:34:58):
It's like like the level of time you have.

Speaker 4 (01:35:02):
To put in in the studio, in the dance studio,
working on the coreera for getting every little thing right,
and a lot of that they did before they were famous.
They were like they were like developing that muscle before
they were famous, and that's why they're still here. Like,
that's why Usher did the Super Bowl, you know, over
twenty years after he debuted, because he made himself sustainable

(01:35:27):
by putting in the work.

Speaker 1 (01:35:28):
Of preparation and the reps that he needed to put in.
And you got to do it.

Speaker 4 (01:35:34):
And if you don't, if you're not prepared when you
have that TikTok hit or that viral sensation, then it
could be fleeting and not sustainable disposable.

Speaker 2 (01:35:43):
Yeah, exactly how was it speaking about the Super Bowl
when you got that phone call in twenty fifteen to
perform at the Super Bowl out?

Speaker 1 (01:35:51):
That was dope. Man. I was at the Detroit one.

Speaker 2 (01:35:53):
I forget which one that was, but I did want
Roger Goodell'll call you.

Speaker 1 (01:35:57):
Roger did not call you.

Speaker 3 (01:36:01):
They always call my agent, you know. I never't talked
to anybody. It's like they get to my agent eventually,
and they get to me eventually.

Speaker 2 (01:36:08):
Get all right, So where you at somebody and they
call you and they say they want you to perform
for Super Bowl.

Speaker 1 (01:36:14):
I don't remember, Honestly, I don't really remember that. Like
it's so dope, you don't know, But I never like headline.

Speaker 4 (01:36:20):
Like the halftime at the super Bowl. I liked it
like a pre I did God Bless America one year
and then I did a pre performance on that. So
I've never had like the the that prime big for us,
sir down it was it Usher or you know, Kendrick
or whatever. You know, it's not that that halftime spot.

Speaker 2 (01:36:40):
Okay, So let me ask you they call you next year,
twenty twenty six, John Legend headline.

Speaker 4 (01:36:48):
You know, I honestly, I don't think it's great for
artists that are more like if like most of my
hits are ballads. So it's like, I feel like it's
better if you got a lot of up tempo hits
for the super Bowl.

Speaker 1 (01:37:01):
It just feels more right. You got that. I got
a little little little something. Yeah, yeah, you will do it.
I can see you halftime show. It could be done,
all right. So if super Bowl calls you twenty six,
what is your your playlist? My set list?

Speaker 4 (01:37:20):
You know, I'll mix it up, do some up tempos,
some slows, so we'll do green light, we'll do ordinated people,
We'll do all of.

Speaker 1 (01:37:27):
Me probably like love me now, you know, I don't know.
I have to think about it.

Speaker 2 (01:37:36):
Some features, like some of the you bring along as
I've guessed it on like Grammar Family, bring it up
some Yeah, we'll figure it out.

Speaker 1 (01:37:43):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:37:45):
Yeah, we'll definite had some collapse. It's just on the
top of one artist. Will you Did you bring up.

Speaker 1 (01:37:53):
A snooper? Rick?

Speaker 3 (01:37:54):
Yeah, that'll be good, Rick Ross. We got a bunch
of Doubt records together.

Speaker 1 (01:37:57):
Yeah, yeah, yeah do.

Speaker 3 (01:38:00):
I was making playlists of like different collabs, and I
made a whole playlist just of me and Rick because
it was like ten songs Justice League, right. I think
it started with college and then.

Speaker 4 (01:38:12):
No, probably call it because colleg was his exec at
Deaf Jam South right earlier. Yes, so, so I don't
know what came first, but green Light came out and
he did like a remix that I heard and I
didn't even know him yet.

Speaker 2 (01:38:28):
Like a mixtape joint, Yeah, mixtape joint of green Light
where he was rhyming on him.

Speaker 4 (01:38:33):
And then not long after that he reached out to
us about Magnificent, But I think it was through Collin.

Speaker 1 (01:38:39):
You know, what's one of your favorite places to perform? Uh,
South Africa? Love it? I love Johannesberger.

Speaker 4 (01:38:46):
Yeah, crazy crowds there, Soul South Korea. Crazy crowds in Korea. Yeah,
I love like London and Amsterdam a lot. In the US,
I love DC area, Atlanta area, Miami's cool. It's like
i'd say, my best audiences are a no, no, no,

(01:39:08):
I'm not I'm not sure.

Speaker 1 (01:39:09):
I'm just being honest.

Speaker 3 (01:39:10):
My best audience is a DC area, Atlanta area, in
Chicago area, I would say so, and the Bay Area
in the Bank think a lot.

Speaker 1 (01:39:18):
You describe the blackest cities, yeah, the world? Yeah, you know,
let's make some noise. Yea.

Speaker 2 (01:39:26):
So my my wife, my wife, she's here, she's Latina. Right,
do you get like any type of thing for your
wife not being a black woman?

Speaker 4 (01:39:40):
Not really, But you know, I think when we first
started dating we probably got some. But we've been together
for so long. Everybody's like, yeah, yeah, of course that. Yeah,
we've been together since six.

Speaker 1 (01:39:51):
So what do they call that? Interracial data?

Speaker 4 (01:39:53):
Yeah, we're in the racial So my wife is half
Asian and half white and then I'm black, So interracial.

Speaker 1 (01:40:01):
Yeah, inter racial. Do we make a noise? Let's take
it block kids in confused? Now, this motherfucker were all
type of racist? Are we're human? Is your wife like
light skin? Latine my head. Yeah, so your kids will

(01:40:25):
be like in between, we got kids.

Speaker 4 (01:40:35):
My kids are actually the exact same color as me,
but they just got you know, less kinky hair down.

Speaker 1 (01:40:42):
Now got there's a little more waving. Okay, no wave, Grace, no,
no way, grace no no King of the Moon girl girl,
what place have you performed.

Speaker 3 (01:40:57):
As country wise that you were? You just were like,
this is wild that I'm even here in this country,
that they that I have fans here.

Speaker 4 (01:41:04):
Well, the first time I went to South Africa, it
was right at the beginning of my career, and you
don't really know how you're going to do internationally when
at the beginning and I went there and I was like,
I couldn't believe how much love I had there and
everybody knew every song.

Speaker 1 (01:41:19):
That was amazing.

Speaker 4 (01:41:20):
But then going to Asia, going to places where they
don't speak English, non English speaking, Yeah, so you go
to Japan, and you go to Italy, you go to Spain,
you know, all these different places where people don't even
speak the language that you're singing in and then they
sing the songs back to you. It feels pretty much. Yeah,
I was just there last year and how.

Speaker 3 (01:41:39):
Was that was?

Speaker 1 (01:41:39):
Dover.

Speaker 2 (01:41:40):
Yeah, I was into it. We had a good time.
I'll probably go back. And you got engaged in where
in the Maldives and then you got married at lake
Como in Italy.

Speaker 1 (01:41:58):
That's my place. I love. You've been to Maldives soon?
Of course? Oh yes, sir, yes, sir, yes, sir. I
ain't gonna lie.

Speaker 2 (01:42:05):
Me and my wife turned up just us, yeah, because god,
we didn't go.

Speaker 1 (01:42:09):
And you went with other people.

Speaker 4 (01:42:10):
Well, when we got engaged, it was just the two
of us. We didn't have kids or anything. So we
in the Maldives. Yeah, and so that was twenty eleven.

Speaker 1 (01:42:20):
Uh. And then we had already been to Lake.

Speaker 4 (01:42:23):
Como as a couple just dating, and it's like the
most beautiful romantic place.

Speaker 1 (01:42:28):
You could go. You feel like you're in heaven. And
then the little boats. Yeah, we're in a little boats,
you know, going on dates on a boat. You know,
it's like life is good. That's my staff. I always say.

Speaker 4 (01:42:44):
We fell in love at lake Como, and so we
decided we would get married there, and so we got
married there in twenty thirteen, and we shot the All
of Me video there too, So if you look at
the video, double dipped yeah, so the whole So it
was like I got to expend some of the trip.

(01:43:06):
But the craziest thing about the video is it was directed.

Speaker 1 (01:43:09):
By this guy named Nobille Elderkin.

Speaker 4 (01:43:11):
And he's the guy that is the reason why Christian
and I met because he was the director of the
very first video where we met, and Christian and I
started dating after we met on the video set, and
so this guy is responsible for us meeting and he
ended up directing the video for all of.

Speaker 2 (01:43:31):
Me, you know, seven years later. And did he directed
the proposal? No, we didn't shoot that. We didn't shoot that.

Speaker 1 (01:43:41):
That was just that was just us. That was just us.
I mean it's a very famous yea, a very famous guy.
So how was your proposal? What did you do? So?
You you're a very smooth guy. I want to compare you.
I was.

Speaker 4 (01:44:01):
It was like a few months I decided I was
going to do it, and I decided I was going
to do it on this trip, and I started getting
the ring together and everything, and I have this little
package trying to disguise the ring in my bag in
case she like saw it in my bag. And so
I had this nondescript just envelope with the ring package

(01:44:25):
in there, and so I'm just trying to make sure
she don't see it so I can actually propose in
the moment, you know where I want to do it.
And we're flying to the Maldi's and back then you
had to fly through Colombo, Sri Lanka, but now you
can fly direct to Malee.

Speaker 1 (01:44:41):
But before we flowed to the Dubai, spent a day
at Duba and then to Malee.

Speaker 4 (01:44:48):
But back then you had to go somewhere Dubai, then
to Sri Lanka and then it's horrible times. But nowadays
you can go straight to Malee from the Bye.

Speaker 1 (01:45:00):
So that's what we do now.

Speaker 3 (01:45:01):
Anyway, we're going through the airport and they're rifling.

Speaker 1 (01:45:07):
Through my bag. I'm like, y'all better not open this
fucking ring man. Wait wait customs.

Speaker 2 (01:45:11):
Yeah, you know the people can't say basically wipeople right there.

Speaker 1 (01:45:16):
Yeah, but this cer over in they about to blow
you up. Yeah. So they're going through, going through, going through,
and they were just about.

Speaker 4 (01:45:23):
To open that envelope. But God must have spoke to him.

Speaker 3 (01:45:26):
And said not now, son, right right right, right, right
right right, because he didn't open up the envelope.

Speaker 2 (01:45:34):
And I got to propose on the beach in the Maldives.
So it was for like Christmas Eve dinner on the
beach in the Maldives.

Speaker 1 (01:45:43):
One two three. We're about to have dessert.

Speaker 2 (01:45:52):
And I tell the you know, a way to bring
out the ring with dessert, and he brings it out
in a little tray and then she sees it starts
crying and she said, yes, that's similar to my proposal.

Speaker 1 (01:46:07):
But you just did it in about these no, no, no,
let me about you old so okay, all these she
says yes. She says yes obviously, and then we go.

Speaker 3 (01:46:24):
Then we go over to Thailand because her mom and
dad were living in Thailand at the time.

Speaker 4 (01:46:27):
Her mom's tie and uh. And then we show them
the ring. Uh when we land at the airport and
they're like ah. And her mom didn't really get it.
She was like, Okay, that's a nice ring. It's pretty
was the first.

Speaker 1 (01:46:42):
I doubt it. She lived in Bangkok, you know, it's
kind of Bangkok. Him the bank, the bankok, and they
lived Yeah. And then and they lived in America. Yeah.
So Christy was Christy was born in the Internet.

Speaker 3 (01:46:58):
You know.

Speaker 4 (01:46:59):
Christy was about Christie was born in America and her
dad was born and raised in America and he met
her mom.

Speaker 1 (01:47:06):
Her mom over there, but.

Speaker 3 (01:47:08):
Then they lived in America for a long time, but
then they moved back to Thailand, and that's when I
met them, when they had moved back to Thailand.

Speaker 1 (01:47:13):
Yeah, you like Thailand. Yeah, it's beautiful, beautiful back then,
I don't think I think they stopped I think they
stopped it. I think that's legal. Yeah, I think it was.
If you do some crazy.

Speaker 4 (01:47:30):
Singapore, Singapore, Singapore America, Singapore.

Speaker 1 (01:47:37):
Singapore is really strict.

Speaker 3 (01:47:38):
Yeah, Singapore is like you can't shoot gum and yeah,
it's very clean.

Speaker 4 (01:47:44):
It's very clean. Well, Singapore is beautiful, but it's it's
definitely strict.

Speaker 2 (01:47:48):
I went to Singapore one time, and this is the
time where the whole economy was tobacco, and I had
two carts a new Ports.

Speaker 1 (01:47:57):
I used to smoke, and they pulled me over like
I had like you got buy her, you got buy it? Yeah, yeah,
they this is how crazy it was.

Speaker 2 (01:48:06):
They made me throw out the cigarettes and then they
made me buy their cigarettes in customs and I bought it,
like I I definitely did it. You got to buy
a little what's your favorite country. The performer, well, South Africa,
Korea said, I love playing in Amsterdam and London, and yeah,

(01:48:28):
those are my favorites.

Speaker 1 (01:48:30):
I have a couple of times.

Speaker 3 (01:48:32):
It was before it got crazy experience. Yeah, it was
before it got crazy lately, like.

Speaker 1 (01:48:37):
With the war and everything. But uh, I was there.
It was like for a birthday.

Speaker 4 (01:48:41):
It was like a private birthday party or something and
some you know them guys with the big money, they
want somebody to come and sing their birthday party.

Speaker 2 (01:48:48):
It was in Moscow. Yeah, at like a theater. It's beautiful,
beautiful cities. Yeah, she's the Louis Properties. I've been just
about everywhere. There's a very few places I have been.
But yeah, you performed a kow not kouw.

Speaker 1 (01:49:05):
But I played Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, a
bunch of Middle Eastern places. Yeah. Yeah, Morocco, like I
just take a shot. But for him performing every yes, worldwide,
shots are gone. Here we go yeah shot yeah, yeah,

(01:49:28):
because we like if we don't want you, we don't
want to. Yeah, we want you to catch a flight
you know. Yeah yeous.

Speaker 2 (01:49:39):
So anything in your whole career, right, yeah, beautiful lovely career,
beautiful wife, beautiful children, beautiful everything.

Speaker 1 (01:49:47):
Apparently, never have a bad day, according to listen, being honest.

Speaker 2 (01:49:53):
I'm spreading the rumor you leave here. It might it
might read John Legend never has a bad joy. It
might just read that I just mean. But by the way,
this is one of my friends, right, this is this
is my friend Sonny d b T. He's never had
a bad day.

Speaker 1 (01:50:09):
I hate him. I love that for you in a
good way.

Speaker 3 (01:50:13):
He never had a bad day, and Haiti is the
source of everything.

Speaker 1 (01:50:16):
In a good way, like in a good way, like
he like.

Speaker 2 (01:50:19):
If ever I'm having a bad day, I call him
and he'll be He'll he'll simply say some foul ship,
like shut the fuck up, let's go outside on this
and we'll have a great day. Yes, I cherished people
like that. Yeah, is that who you are? Can I
call you on a bad day and you'd be like,
shut up?

Speaker 1 (01:50:40):
Nigga trying to find him bright side, trying to find
the right side for you, man, trying to find find
the right side for you. He wants you to start
a hot line. I got to be his friend, John Legend,
never have a bad day, never have a bad day.

Speaker 3 (01:50:57):
Back in the when they first started doing the voice
activated assistant for Google.

Speaker 1 (01:51:06):
They made me the voice of it.

Speaker 4 (01:51:07):
So really I had to literally go to the studio
and just record myself saying all kinds.

Speaker 1 (01:51:12):
Of words Jillian things, excuse me, check though. Yeah. It
was a good check but it was a lot of work.

Speaker 3 (01:51:19):
It was like literally ten days in the studio of
like six to eight hour days.

Speaker 1 (01:51:23):
Of just reading things. Does that still exists now?

Speaker 4 (01:51:26):
It was like a one year promotion, so you could
if you have one of those Google Home things, you
would have my voice on it for a year and
then you was like Siri.

Speaker 1 (01:51:35):
Yeah, I was like Siri for Google, I would buy
all Have you done more things like that in the
tech space, I've done a lot of stuff. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:51:51):
Well we worked with them on their AI project too,
Google's too. So one thing that I'm curious about in
the R and B space in terms of related to
hip hop space. Yeah, so, you know, in the hip
hop space generationally, we're looking at the differences in the sound.

Speaker 1 (01:52:06):
Uh huh. Do you see that in the R and
B space as well?

Speaker 4 (01:52:09):
But I think a lot of R and B artists
still like hold on to some of the classic sounds,
but they're always like. But the thing is R and
B and hip hop are so close, Like we work
with a lot of the same producers, and so a
lot of things that are happening in hip hop, we're
doing it as well. But there's still a lot of
R and B artists. I think that like the classic
sounds too.

Speaker 3 (01:52:27):
Do you ever feel like you are hip hop just
by the nature of how you came up?

Speaker 4 (01:52:32):
I feel I'm so connected to hip hop. I feel
like I've made so many hip hop records. I literally
was going through because we're doing some promotions for my
anniversary of Get Lifted, and I was going through all
the hip hop collapse I have and making a playlist
and it's massive, Like the list, it's crazy.

Speaker 1 (01:52:48):
So yeah, hip hop is so core to my.

Speaker 3 (01:52:52):
Career and my musical identity and everything.

Speaker 1 (01:52:55):
So it's John Legend rapped.

Speaker 4 (01:52:57):
I have go back and list listen to a record
with Consequence. He wrote the rapskay and.

Speaker 3 (01:53:07):
He like produced my session, but I did rap with him.

Speaker 2 (01:53:10):
On the song.

Speaker 1 (01:53:11):
Did you enjoy that experience? I did. I feel like
I'd be better at it now, like I just have
more understanding of whatever.

Speaker 2 (01:53:20):
So you've not and I've been writing raps actually for
a Broadway show.

Speaker 1 (01:53:24):
Really yeah, writing raps? Yeah, he rhymed. Well, he's talking.

Speaker 4 (01:53:29):
About how hip hop is so important to my career,
and I was talking about how many times I've been
on hip hop records the whole life, my whole career.

Speaker 1 (01:53:36):
But he was like, have you ever rapped?

Speaker 4 (01:53:37):
And I said, I did one record with Consequence where
he wrote the.

Speaker 1 (01:53:41):
Raps and I did him.

Speaker 4 (01:53:43):
But I've actually been writing raps for Broadway for a show.

Speaker 1 (01:53:47):
I'm writing.

Speaker 2 (01:53:47):
Oh, that's fine. What's your relationship with Consequence? He hit me,
like a couple of weeks ago. I love Yeah, Like
I don't. I don't talk to him a lot, but
all love. We were like in the early day, he's
a tour and we were roommates.

Speaker 3 (01:54:01):
Like uh so, so he'd have uh you know when
you when you have a broke artist and you just
on tour support, like everybody got double up, so you
sleep in the double rooms.

Speaker 4 (01:54:12):
He's in one bed, I'm in the other. So Console
was my roommate. Who was these other people that's on
the tour? Consequence you GLC, don c.

Speaker 2 (01:54:26):
Yay, Monopoly monop would come out a lot really really.

Speaker 1 (01:54:31):
Dough doing tour buses or not. We were on tour buses.
Those are rigorous. Yeah, those tour buses are. I like
tour buses.

Speaker 3 (01:54:38):
Man, Well I get the start bus now, yeah, I
get to stop goodse I got the bed, I got
the actual everybody else is.

Speaker 1 (01:54:46):
In bunks and then you're in a nice bed. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:54:50):
But I don't mind it because as a singer, you
don't love being up and down in the uh because
the air yeah mess with your vocal.

Speaker 4 (01:54:59):
You just get dry and going up and down all
the time for shows, and so it's easier for just
to be.

Speaker 1 (01:55:06):
On the bus. You know why I love good music.
I'ma be honest with you.

Speaker 2 (01:55:13):
I came up in an arrow where we had to
be gangster, right, and we had to keep up that gangster.
If you not gangster for one week, there's someone who
will come and try to take that slot that same week.

Speaker 1 (01:55:26):
Just you're just trying to chill.

Speaker 2 (01:55:31):
I got introduced to a person named for Real. His
first lines he ever said to me was I don't
have a gangster bone in my body. At the time,
I could have been like this egotistic maniac and been
like what because he had on a medium shirt. I

(01:55:52):
had on a five acts right, So this is the
time of Fox, right, No, I know, and I chose
to believe in that movement. Yeah, I chose to believe.
I was like, fuck that you don't have to be.
But if Pharrell knew how to make gangster beats for y'all,
you know, and me and Pharrell made all this. But

(01:56:13):
to me, I always remember those first words they said
to me, and then it trickled down to good music, right.
And I always loved y'all because that's what y'all represented.
Represent the gangster part of life, yeah, represented the I

(01:56:33):
don't want to the ordinary people part of life.

Speaker 3 (01:56:37):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:56:37):
And most people aren't gangsters, you know.

Speaker 4 (01:56:39):
And so and you know the thing about us being
attracted to artists that describe that life, It is attractive
because it's just like you want to watch Scarface or
you want to watch.

Speaker 1 (01:56:52):
Like you want to watch Against the movie.

Speaker 4 (01:56:54):
And so there's something appealing about that even if you
haven't lived that life, like you're fascinated by that life.
And so I see why people love gangst the rap.
But it also helped Kanye stand out when he was
like we're in the polos and talking about dropping out
of college. When he was on the same label with
guys rapping about Dylan Coke, it was like it made

(01:57:15):
him stand out, you know, And I'm giving it to
y'all in its entirety. It just because it was all
of y'all like yeah, like I mean, but I wasn't rapping,
so like I didn't.

Speaker 1 (01:57:24):
Have to be gast it was I was singing, but
you were singing. That was the outfit.

Speaker 4 (01:57:31):
But I didn't have to be gangster though, But as
a rapper, that was a bold thing to do to
like not to be the only non I was very.

Speaker 1 (01:57:37):
Gangster, Yeah, Kanye, to be that way, it's bold, it's authentic.
Yeah yeah, And now we have a whole genre of
that music. But then we have a whole genre of
dead music. Jesus Christmas.

Speaker 2 (01:57:54):
These people rhyme about killing people, and it's crazy because
I'm un quote against the wrapping and I listen to
this ship like, oh.

Speaker 3 (01:58:06):
No, but you're saying it wrong because you guys, you
guys are rhyming about killing people in a way, the
kids are literally rhyming about killing people for.

Speaker 1 (01:58:14):
Real, like you talking about like, yeah, we don't about
drill is mostly in New York, right, it's all over it. Yeah,
you know, I'm saying, where did that start?

Speaker 3 (01:58:24):
Chicago's gets Chicago gets yeah, gets gets.

Speaker 1 (01:58:27):
Scort starts, I think really and London.

Speaker 3 (01:58:32):
Yeah, London, like there's there's city, Like New York has
its own version that's.

Speaker 2 (01:58:37):
Drill and then yeah London, Like I'm so gree Like
one day I was just like I hit some really
talk about it.

Speaker 1 (01:58:44):
That's drill. I mean, but I think that's that was
for New York. But I even think it's changed so
much from them.

Speaker 3 (01:58:56):
It's gotten so much, like where they really like because
they're using souli media with the music to really like
this is what I'm really doing, but they're like outing themselves.

Speaker 1 (01:59:05):
It's just wild.

Speaker 4 (01:59:06):
It's it's what what do you think about the whole
movement to not hold like a record against the person,
Like like how with the uh in the case you
can't like quote the lyrics it blurs the lines.

Speaker 1 (01:59:21):
Complicated.

Speaker 3 (01:59:22):
Yeah, it's really complicated, man, Like I really think that
that art should be separated, yeah, from the judicial system in.

Speaker 1 (01:59:30):
That sense, Yeah, you could should be just can't be charged.
I agree. Like, also, like what the fuck I believe?
I believe you shouldn't. You shouldn't be able to hold
someone's song against them.

Speaker 4 (01:59:40):
You got to have real evidence that they did something,
not just that they rapped about something hard.

Speaker 1 (01:59:46):
That Nigga killed nineteen for sure, exactly sure, so he
really didn't that's the problem. But Rus, that is not that.

Speaker 4 (01:59:57):
But the point is, it's not enough proof to say
someone made art about killing somebody.

Speaker 1 (02:00:01):
You have to be able to prove they actually did it,
absolutely absolutely.

Speaker 2 (02:00:04):
Because I remember you being against the stopping chriss, Yeah,
he was fully against the stopping.

Speaker 4 (02:00:09):
Now I'm generally like trying to find ways to make
everything more just for us, you know, And so I
don't like the idea of them holding songs against us.
I don't like the idea of stopping frisk. I don't
like the idea of illegal searches in general. And I'm
just always going to be on the side of standing
up for us and not locking a.

Speaker 1 (02:00:28):
Bunch of us up. That's why are we running for
president twenty twenty? Excellent? But I don't know what God does.

Speaker 2 (02:00:42):
How long you live down here, mem I'm going on
like seventeen years.

Speaker 3 (02:00:47):
Yeah, you never going back? You said, I don't want
no more snow. No, I don't want to sound.

Speaker 1 (02:00:53):
You like the snows. I'm good with it.

Speaker 2 (02:00:55):
No, it's filming the fuck Korean Kareem is here, that's
what jamake.

Speaker 1 (02:01:00):
He don't stop working. Yes, yeah, you got eight jobs,
but you do. I don't like the cold.

Speaker 2 (02:01:08):
I'm sorry, Like that is that different people from I'm
Puerto Rican, but they're black? Okay, yeah, so yeah, I don't.
I don't think any side of my side wants to
reside wants to the cold, Like like why, like how
I put it in my whole time in New York.
Then I moved to New Jersey. I did all the

(02:01:31):
like walking with my tams in the snow, and now
like Louis Tims.

Speaker 1 (02:01:37):
So it's like a little different. You don't want him
to get up, Like why can't I just be like
who I am now? Like funk that I deserve the
right to where Louis tim. That's right, I deserve the right.
God damn it. And you said you're working before. What
are y'all doing? We just started working on the album.
We never a whole album.

Speaker 4 (02:01:57):
We never done like a whole big thing together. He
just did a couple of songs with me years ago.
And he just called me up in De Simmer. It
was like, uh, I really am inspired. Like I've been
thinking about your music and my vision for it. I
feel like we should just get in and see what happens. Wait,
he hit you out the blue saying this out the blue.

Speaker 1 (02:02:16):
That's that's type of it makes sense, makes sense.

Speaker 5 (02:02:20):
You know.

Speaker 4 (02:02:20):
He's so creative and he gets inspired and and so
I've been over to Paris to work with them, and
we're gonna do it again in March.

Speaker 1 (02:02:27):
Mm hmm, So we'll see what happens.

Speaker 2 (02:02:29):
That's your next album, yeah, I mean well, yeah to
the people that your next album is fully produced Buffalo.
I'm not gonna say fully produced, yeah, I'm just gonna
say executive produce.

Speaker 1 (02:02:40):
Yeah. I'm saying we're getting in and he's gonna ep
the record. So that's exact. H What is something that
you did back then you wish you could have did
right now? Like back then.

Speaker 2 (02:03:01):
I'll give you an example example. My friend of mine
is named Tata. I have this number one record. It's
called Equal Man. I'm I'm Latino, I'm all over thet.

Speaker 1 (02:03:17):
Comes all over the place.

Speaker 2 (02:03:19):
Tata comes to me and says, I want a girl
to do a remix to this record. This is Jay,
absolutely yes, and he says, I want to go to
do a remix to this record, and I got to
just listen to me.

Speaker 1 (02:03:35):
Somewhat. I don't want to say I said no. I
didn't say no. But when they asked me the payment,
it was like it's fifteen grand and I was like, Oh,
this woman wind up being Rihanna. Oh make this mistake
of my whole correct I don't have one like that that.
They don't have one. I don't no, I don't have one.

Speaker 4 (02:03:56):
That was like, John, we want you to feature with
this of that artists, and then they went on to
blow up when I said no, I haven't done that honestly.

Speaker 1 (02:04:03):
So if you've never said no to somebody that I'm
trying to think of something. I can't think of anything.
That means you say yes to everybody. No. It means
what I say no to I don't regret.

Speaker 3 (02:04:19):
You know, I said yes a lot, because you know,
I got a lot of collapse out there.

Speaker 4 (02:04:23):
But I definitely said no to something. But it didn't
come back to bite me, honestly, because not for nothing
Sonny did. He's got a record.

Speaker 1 (02:04:33):
I'll tell you a funny story had Nas on here? Yeah,
it was my brother and Nas.

Speaker 2 (02:04:38):
So I said to Nas, I said, because I feel
like the same way I feel about you, that.

Speaker 1 (02:04:42):
You have a bad day in your life.

Speaker 2 (02:04:44):
I feel like Nas, no one would tell Nas no,
Like I've been to the club with Nas and all
these gangsters.

Speaker 1 (02:04:50):
Everybody knows and they see Naves to go. He's royalty.
I love royalty. But I asked now, I said, Yo,
anybody ever told you no?

Speaker 2 (02:05:02):
And now I was like maybe no. And then I
was like, nah, nah, someone told you no. And then
he said Prince, Okay, there you go. And then I said,
why did Prince tell you?

Speaker 1 (02:05:12):
Know? You know what Prince told Nas? No? He said,
do you own your masters? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (02:05:17):
And now I said, I told him I don't own
my masters. He said, well, get back with me when
you do own your masters.

Speaker 1 (02:05:23):
Yeah. So now just part to that too, where he
said I don't want to put them through colleges on
like put your kids through college.

Speaker 3 (02:05:31):
I don't want to put the ekids college.

Speaker 1 (02:05:33):
Yeah. I want to ask you this question again. Has
it any ever been anybody in front of them on you.

Speaker 4 (02:05:41):
Front of them and like said no to me? Oh yeah,
there's been a artists that passed on. Like I'll reach
out and ask for somebody to feature on the record
and they'll pass, and they'll pass for different reasons. Like
sometimes I think with rap, especially if you want an
MC to get on a record, they really have to
hear that be and feel in spite of the right Yeah,

(02:06:02):
hit themselves on it. And sometimes they don't, and and
it's fine, give me a sample. I don't take it personally,
give me a sample who's passed. I mean, Andre just
passed on something three but like recently passed on everything, so.

Speaker 1 (02:06:20):
You could even play. They were like, the guy that
I go through is a good friend of both.

Speaker 3 (02:06:27):
Of ours, and he was like, if you have to
play flute, he might have done it, but.

Speaker 1 (02:06:31):
You should.

Speaker 4 (02:06:33):
Because it was a beautiful way. It was for the remix.
It was for the remixes. It was the one remix
on the remix.

Speaker 1 (02:06:40):
It was one of the remixes that we did it
for the Get Lifted.

Speaker 2 (02:06:44):
Adrey rapping more bro and he was like, if you
have them to play flute, he might say yes, but
you know, Andre be on what he's on at that time,
and if he ain't on, good shot.

Speaker 1 (02:06:55):
And saying no, because we should have we should have
dot it. I don't be mad at it.

Speaker 2 (02:06:59):
I'm like, Okay, you're not in the right place to
do it, you know, but you got a record with Andre,
but also Limpsey battle you I did Andre's record, yes,
but yes, we did green Light together.

Speaker 1 (02:07:14):
That was our you know single we did together. We
did the video.

Speaker 3 (02:07:17):
He really helped come up with the concept for the
video too, and uh.

Speaker 4 (02:07:21):
It was incredible working with him for that. And then uh,
when Christy was co hosting lip Sync Battle with l
l Uh, I came on and did hey, y'all do
with a full wig and everything? It was something lip
sync was a time.

Speaker 2 (02:07:38):
Yes, goddamn it, who's your favorite? Wrapper alls on Jay? Yeah,
I say Jay?

Speaker 3 (02:07:50):
And then uh, I feel like Kendrick is almost there now.
Like it's like I was talking to Charlemagne like probably
two years ago.

Speaker 4 (02:08:01):
And we were still like, are we putting him in
the top five already? Because he's younger than everybody else? Yep,
he was.

Speaker 1 (02:08:08):
Well, we were discussing it.

Speaker 4 (02:08:09):
We were discussing it because he was younger than everybody
else that normally you would put in there.

Speaker 1 (02:08:15):
And I was like, at this point, you got to
put him there prolific.

Speaker 3 (02:08:18):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:08:19):
Two years ago he was wait, yeah, and I was like,
at this point, you already got.

Speaker 4 (02:08:22):
To put him there because and he never lets you
down because all the records are dope, the singles are dope,
and the videos are dope.

Speaker 1 (02:08:28):
Different. Yeah, the videos are crazy. His shows are crazy. Like,
you got to put him right up there. Who's your
favorite R and B singer?

Speaker 2 (02:08:37):
Stevie Steve, Steve seeing Stevie or no, Steven Steve, He's
always He's always.

Speaker 1 (02:08:51):
Your favorite jazz.

Speaker 2 (02:08:53):
I'm not super into jazz. Truthfully, you look you look
like a jazz player. I'm gonna be honest, and didn't
look like on the flu. I'm not like deep into it.

Speaker 4 (02:09:04):
I'm more like, you know, I know some Miles Davis
records from John Coltrane, some like you know, like the
older singers like uh, you know Louis and Ella and uh,
I listen to some of that, but I'm not like
deeply into jazz zz.

Speaker 1 (02:09:18):
Damn.

Speaker 3 (02:09:19):
Who's your favorite jazz artists? Louis Armstrong, Yes, right, you
know the man?

Speaker 1 (02:09:27):
And I like to singing boy. I like to singing well.
I like the ratty singing boys too, like he was dope.

Speaker 2 (02:09:34):
Who's your favorite reggae artist Boo Nice Month, whom.

Speaker 3 (02:09:43):
I've done a couple of records of Boo I love,
I said.

Speaker 4 (02:09:46):
Reggae dance? Who's your favorite dance hall? Okay, so bo
dance hall? Yes, all right, we're being more specific. Yes,
just go back to Rake. Reggae Bob Marley, you made
records with I have a couple of records of the
first one we did together was on my Evolver albums

(02:10:07):
called Can't Be My Lover and.

Speaker 1 (02:10:10):
Yeah, and then I've been on a couple of his projects.
He's the weast Papa Cheese. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (02:10:22):
Reggae doesn't take or world Jamaican Today.

Speaker 1 (02:10:26):
M hm. Who's your favorite reggae throne artists? Regged throne?
Have you dabbled in that? No? Do we count Bad Bunny?
Is he regu? I think so. I think I'm not
very well versed, so I'm not. I mean, yeah, you
don't count what's your favorite reg I love Bad Bunny,

(02:10:47):
but I don't know very well honest And he got conscious. Yeah,
he got like he stands up for Puerto Rico because listen,
I ain't gonna lie to you. He said, it might
be a porter going up for the weekends.

Speaker 3 (02:11:02):
He stands up for Puerto Rico. Like, he's very political
and his music is crazy damn.

Speaker 1 (02:11:08):
So you will collab with bad Bunny? Absolutely love to
Would that be your go to feature? Uh life? I
had a record artist? Yeah, I mean Latin America. And
for the time, I've worked with like singers in Latin America.

Speaker 3 (02:11:22):
So I worked with like one Is and uh Sebastian
and uh like you got the Noel from.

Speaker 1 (02:11:33):
Uh who else? I haven't done a record with would
and uh Yeah, I've worked with a few Latin.

Speaker 4 (02:11:43):
Artists over the years, but singers, I have really done
your record good?

Speaker 1 (02:11:48):
Now his his is where we gotta go? Who's your
favorite dancehall artists? We kind we said, oka reggae artists.
I'm saying he's going to happen. He's going through, he said,
sucking up. Who's your favorite car? Who's your favorite DJ?

(02:12:12):
How about that DJ? If you're getting married, Maldi's who?

Speaker 4 (02:12:18):
Well, you know, we played my last big party jig Capri.
I went back, absolutely, I went back, you know, and he.

Speaker 1 (02:12:27):
It was amazing, honestly, and biz MARKI played our wedding.
Well that was so vapis he played a vabis No
he DJ bro DJ. Sure, he did a couple of it.
He usually with DJ song and performing a little bit
a couple, just.

Speaker 4 (02:12:42):
A couple, but mainly he's just playing records and uh and.

Speaker 1 (02:12:45):
Just the party was going the whole night. So that
was twenty thirteen and.

Speaker 4 (02:12:49):
Then we and then we did our tenth anniversary in
twenty twenty three and Bis Markey was no longer with us,
but k Capri came and kickza want that party ever?

Speaker 5 (02:13:01):
Do it?

Speaker 1 (02:13:02):
Crazy? You anymore?

Speaker 4 (02:13:04):
Jonnres And I'll tell you why I wanted him, because
I had been talking about this college party I went
to when I was in school. This is in like
ninety six, and I was like, I've never seen a
party like so turned for so long, Like he just
had the party on eleven the whole night and it was.

Speaker 3 (02:13:20):
Ca Capri and I was like my brother. I was like,
let's get him back. And so that was I sat
to him, no more, Genres, no, no, who's your favorite whistler?

Speaker 1 (02:13:34):
We're gonna keep it. Oh, this's writing.

Speaker 2 (02:13:38):
Because you have one of the best beautiful family stories, right,
But you know it started out it's.

Speaker 1 (02:13:46):
Like real fighting there was there was fighting in there.
Where is this going out? Because you picked out a model.
It was like, I like her, had to come to
the yea. So she she was in the video with me.
And then that's how we met. Yeah, and the is history.

(02:14:07):
See a lot of people listen, a lot of people
want to build up Oh I don't you ask. It
started out with the b what you said, Yeah, I'm
going to build up mom his wife. First day they
kicked it off, and they kicked off.

Speaker 4 (02:14:26):
He said, if you hear me, yeah right, And now
y'all eighteen years we met eighteen years ago ago.

Speaker 1 (02:14:37):
We got four kids. Four kids, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (02:14:42):
Four kids, the oldest ones eight and the youngest ones
one and a half. Wow.

Speaker 1 (02:14:48):
So director came to you and showed you a picture.

Speaker 4 (02:14:50):
Yeah, you said I'm in I was all right, what
And then we just had good chemistry and had a
show later that night, and then we hung out after
that and we've been hanging out ever since.

Speaker 1 (02:15:03):
God damn understatement.

Speaker 2 (02:15:06):
And you became a great father listen some years later. Yo, man,
I just want to be honest with you.

Speaker 1 (02:15:19):
Man.

Speaker 2 (02:15:20):
I really really respect your legacy. I really respect what
you're doing. I really respect how you represent for black people.
Every time there's a there's a there's a moment. I
know that John Legend is going to be there. I
know that you you'll be there in the forest fires.
I know that you'll be there during COVID. I know
that you'll be there.

Speaker 1 (02:15:38):
And that ship is just like a beautiful thing to me.
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (02:15:41):
You know what I'm saying, Like, because I want to watch,
but I don't maybe not be there, like, but I
want to watch still, like I want to be like,
oh ship, that ship is nice and you.

Speaker 1 (02:15:53):
Be holding it down don Lemon style. Okay, new one. Okay,
So what are we talking about? I don't know. I'm

(02:16:15):
a reporter now, So so what hold on? Going back
to the fires?

Speaker 3 (02:16:21):
Is there anything before you get out of here that
any true things that people could donate to that are
actually impacting and helping.

Speaker 1 (02:16:28):
Well, there's a bunch of charities that are doing great work.

Speaker 4 (02:16:32):
We always work with Baby the Baby a lot, and
because they help parents that have kids and need supplies
for their kids. A lot of people got displaced to
have kids, so Baby to Baby is great. Of course
the Red Cross is helping. Yeah, those are a couple
that we've donated to and helped out. But I would say,
baby the Baby, that one's close to our heart and
we've raised money for them a lot over the years.

Speaker 3 (02:16:54):
Any any artists that you know that personally have been
impacted are artists you don't like in the hip hop world.
Mad Lib he lost Yes, I saw.

Speaker 1 (02:17:03):
That concerts and Ico she lost her place. And then.

Speaker 4 (02:17:11):
The guys we sang with on the opening of the
Grammys that was a band, uh, a rock band, indie
band called DAWs and they grew up in that area
in Altadena and they lost everything. Their parents lost their
home in the studio and the instruments, everything, So a
lot of people lost a lot. It's crazy because when
you go to La unless you're in those areas, you

(02:17:34):
don't even see it because everything else looks completely normal.

Speaker 1 (02:17:38):
But when you go to those areas, they look like
a war zone. They're like, I don't, we don't see that.

Speaker 4 (02:17:44):
Yeah, it's like a war zone in those specific areas,
and then everywhere else looks normal.

Speaker 1 (02:17:48):
It's crazy though, it's surreal. Yeah. Well so, I mean,
all right, this this is one meme percent all me.
That's gonna be impactful.

Speaker 2 (02:18:00):
Of course, because you were really Trump's nemesis, right, let's
suppost didn't work this Trump says, I want to meet
with John in the middle of Central Park. Why because
let me be in New York.

Speaker 1 (02:18:19):
Why you hating?

Speaker 4 (02:18:21):
Honestly, I would meet with him with no cameras and
no like this is like I would. I would meet
just like on some could I influence him because I
feel like he's very easy, Like I think people people
getting his ear, I feel like.

Speaker 1 (02:18:34):
They can convince him of things, and so I.

Speaker 4 (02:18:37):
Would deal with no cameras and just try to use
whatever influence I had.

Speaker 1 (02:18:42):
But I doubt it would be useful, but it would
be worth a shot. Why not? But let me ask you,
I'm gonna keep it real. Are you gonna have jokes?

Speaker 2 (02:18:53):
You gotta have jokes, you gotta call him arms Asian arm.
You're gonna do something to bring yourself up.

Speaker 1 (02:19:00):
I'd be like, I'm not boring as singer with the
Filthy Mountain.

Speaker 4 (02:19:05):
I don't know, but honestly, I believe like anybody can
be talked to, and you don't need to do it
for like a photo op.

Speaker 1 (02:19:13):
Do it like actually trying to accomplish something, and he knows.

Speaker 3 (02:19:17):
And everybody should be talked to, like, if he's in
a position, especially if they're in power, you should talk
to them.

Speaker 1 (02:19:24):
But you would meet it. I mean, it's not on
the table, But yes, I think it's plausible. I think so. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (02:19:35):
I think I just think he needs someone in his
ear telling him something other than what Elon and all
these other guys are telling him.

Speaker 1 (02:19:42):
So if that needs to be.

Speaker 2 (02:19:43):
Me, fine, Okay, So let's let's talk about for a second.
Why did you change your name from John Stevens to
John So the.

Speaker 4 (02:19:53):
First person to call me John Legend was a guy
named Jay Ivy, and he just started calling me the Legend.
Jay Ivy's a spoken word ARTI. If you listen back
to Never Let Me Down on the College Dropout, he's
doing the.

Speaker 3 (02:20:05):
Spoken word piece on it. He's from Chicago, and I
met him when we were working on the College Dropout
album and he just heard everything I was doing in
the studio.

Speaker 1 (02:20:13):
I was singing on.

Speaker 2 (02:20:14):
Everything, playing on everything, and you just started calling me
the legend. And our whole crew just started calling me
John Legend.

Speaker 4 (02:20:21):
Not long after that, and I had to decide whether
or not I would actually use it as a stage
name or just you know, just a nickname among our friends, and.

Speaker 1 (02:20:31):
I decided I will use it. I was like, fuck it.

Speaker 4 (02:20:33):
You know, this is like, this is announcing my presence.
I'm gonna say I'm John Legend.

Speaker 1 (02:20:41):
And what was ever a thought of the of it
sounding like John Lennon. It started to come up later.
It's funny.

Speaker 4 (02:20:49):
Some people was like, hey, it's John Lennon, which is
kind of dope. Yeah, it's fine. And then some of
John Lennon's fans call him John Legend. I learned that later. Yeah,
but I didn't know that before. But I had to
check on their trademark and trademark that could infringe.

Speaker 1 (02:21:05):
I had to check on it.

Speaker 4 (02:21:06):
So we found out that once I got signed a
mass Sony and all the lawyers, you know they're about
to get my album ready and make sure the clearances
are right, they're like, we need to make sure we
trademark John Legend as your stage name. So they go
out and look for other John Legends. And it wasn't

(02:21:26):
an issue with the John Lennon, uh, you know, leg Estate.
But there's this porn producer named Johnny Legend.

Speaker 1 (02:21:36):
Legends. So there's a porn producer, but he also made music.

Speaker 4 (02:21:44):
So because he made music. Yeah, we had to clear
it with him for me to use the name. And
so we found him and my manager was like trying
to be chill about it. He didn't want to make
it seem like this big new artist on this Yeah.
He wanted to seem like we were just some poor
kid from Ohio. And so he was like, yeah, I

(02:22:06):
have this artist and he goes by John Legend, and
we don't want any trouble, just want to negotiate a
mutually non exclusive deal with the guy owned the name Legend.
He was Johnny Legend, Johnny and he was a musician.
So if he had a record at a store.

Speaker 1 (02:22:23):
And I had one at the store, he could be like, yo, confusing, Yeah,
there could be a suit. Yeah, that's confusing. So we
had to find him and he agreed.

Speaker 4 (02:22:34):
We gave him I think ten thousand dollars, which I
think was a very affordable bargain.

Speaker 1 (02:22:42):
Yeah for him, it's probably good. Yeah, and he was
like yeah, so he signed the deal.

Speaker 4 (02:22:47):
He was Johnny Legend, I'm John Legend, and he went
sue me and I wouldn't sue him. So you kind
of popping in the porn world too, Yeah, you know
you made it. You know you made it when fake
dudes are you, you know, use your name. So my
friend sent me. I don't know how you found it.

Speaker 1 (02:23:10):
You found this as a poor star that goes.

Speaker 4 (02:23:12):
By John the Legend and it's like a light stined
dude with a beard like trying to look like, yes,
you know you made it when you.

Speaker 1 (02:23:21):
Got a poor knockoff star and he's cocking and saying ordinary.

Speaker 2 (02:23:40):
John Lezard, Man, I really appreciate you man for coming
out and just hanging with us.

Speaker 1 (02:23:46):
Yeah, man, because this is what I've been looking forward
to it. Yeah, yeah, we were scared. Well you know
what happened.

Speaker 4 (02:23:54):
You know last time my friend was on the show
and it wasn't great, But I figured I should come
on at some point.

Speaker 1 (02:24:01):
Yes, and uh, either have our own conversations. This is
the first, not the last.

Speaker 2 (02:24:09):
Yeah, if you want to promote pink socks, I'm in
pink socks.

Speaker 1 (02:24:13):
We got the pink rose though from l v E.

Speaker 4 (02:24:16):
Yeah yeah, l l v E because just Love Love
Love Love LB stands for Legend Vineyard Exclusive.

Speaker 1 (02:24:25):
There it is there, it is say it again. Legend
Vineyard Exclusive, Legend Vineyard l v SO short for love too.
That's right, that's what Noy is calling. I love love. Yeah,
I love love you, love love. I love love you,
love love you. I love being married. I love love.
I'm happily married, happily happy to be a dad. Love

(02:24:47):
it all. It's good. Why why don't people praise that?
Like from friend Swiss called me earlier great dad. Loves
being great dad, and I love yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:24:58):
At lasta keys, Wow, we don't like focused on bigging
that part of hip hop.

Speaker 1 (02:25:06):
I love it. You know, we don't. I think we're
starting to, don't know. I think we're maturing more. Let
me tell you something.

Speaker 2 (02:25:13):
Swiss and at Leasta being at the Grammys was great, right,
But if Swiss would have been with another bitch at
the Grammys, thatsh it would have been top line whatever.

Speaker 1 (02:25:25):
But him's being a lawyer.

Speaker 3 (02:25:27):
But if it's God, yeah, if you're married consistently, why
would that be anything.

Speaker 2 (02:25:31):
It's not news, it's not news. But I think we celebrate.
You know, we said we should, we said, we said,
we said, picked that up. Like the thing about it, like,
I'm looking at Jay and his wife Beyonce. Yeah, I
mean that's my friend, so I'm.

Speaker 1 (02:25:48):
Looking at him.

Speaker 2 (02:25:49):
But I'm saying, why are we not bigging that up more?
I think they're celebrated as a couple. Yeah, I'm not
looking at you and your wife. Now, why do we
not bigging it up more?

Speaker 4 (02:26:00):
I think they're celebrated. I feel like not in pop culture. Well,
the thing is, people like news and they like controversy.
So people were excited when they saw Jay and Solange
and the Elevator because it was controversy.

Speaker 1 (02:26:14):
You know what I'm saying too, And so I feel like,
so I really.

Speaker 4 (02:26:19):
Think like it's not exciting when it's just bliss and
it's love.

Speaker 1 (02:26:23):
And so people get more excited for the controversy side.

Speaker 3 (02:26:26):
And the flip is it shouldn't be extraordinary for a
couple to be together a long time.

Speaker 1 (02:26:30):
That should not be an extraordinary thing.

Speaker 4 (02:26:32):
And the thing is with artists, especially with hip hop,
like a lot of our biggest stars currently, like in
the moment, are young, and they're not in that phase
of life, right, They're not like they're in the datings. Yeah,
they're they're in a bachelor phase of their life.

Speaker 1 (02:26:45):
Bachelor.

Speaker 3 (02:26:47):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (02:26:47):
But then but then by by the time their legend
status like Jay, then they should and have kids.

Speaker 2 (02:26:53):
Yeah, Yeah, but this because in our community, the just
promoted so much of you not having a fault. Now
you've got John Legend with his beautiful wife, you got
Jay with his beautiful wife, you got Swiss Beats with
his beautiful Why are we not saying yo, black man,

(02:27:15):
black all, all Latino man.

Speaker 1 (02:27:17):
Whatever. Let's let's just let's focus on that part. Yeah,
you know what's on that.

Speaker 4 (02:27:23):
You know, one of the myths about us is that
we aren't as present as fathers. We're actually more present
as fathers. The statistics statistics are that we are Actually
we spend more time with our kids than white fathers do.
We're more present, and so and so, like that's never told.

(02:27:47):
That story is really never told. There is not told enough.
But that's right. Like Black fatherhood is wonderful and we
are really good fathers.

Speaker 1 (02:27:56):
And we know that means to be present for our kids.

Speaker 4 (02:27:58):
And even if you're not married read to the mother
of your child, you can still be a great father.

Speaker 1 (02:28:03):
And and so I see that example all the time.
Like I have people, I have.

Speaker 4 (02:28:10):
Friends in my life who are really great fathers that
may not be married to the mother the child, but
they still make sure they're there for everything. Yeah, Like,
and I was raised around great fathers. My dad's a
great one. He was a single dad for us for
a while. My uncles all of them like really great fathers.
So I'm just I'm like, that's my example. It's like
I've seen great fatherhood and it's not everybody's example. But

(02:28:32):
the bottom line is, even when we're not married, black
fathers are very present in general, and we.

Speaker 3 (02:28:38):
Got to celebrate it. Yeah, take a shot for the
black fathers.

Speaker 1 (02:28:45):
Here. We got black father. Yes, he has a.

Speaker 2 (02:28:52):
Let's take a shot to fatherhood, fathershood.

Speaker 1 (02:28:58):
I might seem like a priest though, isn't it, John Legend?
What is? What do you see yourself trying to accomplish?

Speaker 3 (02:29:06):
Now?

Speaker 1 (02:29:06):
With all the things you've accomplished.

Speaker 4 (02:29:08):
Well, there's a couple of things I'm doing that are new.
I told you before I'm writing for Broadway.

Speaker 3 (02:29:12):
That's the first time I've ever done that, and neither
of the shows out even though you got the Tony already,
I was producing, but I didn't write. I'm writing music
for musical two musicals, so that these two shows are
the first time I've ever done that. And then then
I'm always just trying to tap myself as an artist,
like next album needs to be better than the last album,
Like every time, that's my goal.

Speaker 1 (02:29:34):
So that'll be my goal with this next album.

Speaker 4 (02:29:36):
What about acting, it's not a goal honestly if it
works out and it's the right thing at the right time.
But honestly, like you're kind of like starting from the
bottom as an actor because you're like, because I get what,

(02:29:56):
I get to go sing somewhere and I sing for
an hour, you know, Oh, do.

Speaker 1 (02:30:00):
You feel like it's starting over?

Speaker 4 (02:30:01):
Yeah, I'm not going to get that for being in
a film and it's going to take six weeks of
my time.

Speaker 1 (02:30:08):
It does, and it's like is that worth it? Most
of the time it's not.

Speaker 2 (02:30:13):
I feel like Common is the positive blueprint, Yeah, because.

Speaker 1 (02:30:16):
If you build long enough, then it can be worth it.
But you got to be able to put that time
in because Common has been building that acting career for
a long time. You can't just PLoP in and be
like I want, you know, ten million to show up
for this film, right Like, you just can't do it.

Speaker 3 (02:30:30):
And so it's like, do I want to put in
all that time to build up my price in there
when I've already built up my price as a singer.

Speaker 1 (02:30:38):
I rather just can't make money. Yeah, and I love making.

Speaker 3 (02:30:41):
Music, right, But okay, so I know we joked about
the political realm.

Speaker 1 (02:30:45):
Do you really ever see yourself? I don't, and people
do advocate.

Speaker 3 (02:30:51):
Yeah, absolutely, and I will continue to And people ask
me all the time if I ever want to run
for office, and I.

Speaker 1 (02:30:55):
Still don't believe I ever will, and I don't believe i'll.

Speaker 3 (02:30:58):
Ever want to. If I change my mind, and then
I'll change my mind, but I don't. I don't think
I will.

Speaker 1 (02:31:04):
I don't think he will either. Nor are you gonna run,
profess No, I'm running for offers you. I'm gonna be
honest with you. If you run for office, I'll be
like you know, the guys with the.

Speaker 2 (02:31:16):
Helmets security January sixth, niggah, my Hitchman, BECAUSEA be honest.

Speaker 1 (02:31:32):
I don't be.

Speaker 2 (02:31:33):
No, you will mind me of a rock in the
most beautifulest way it is. And I spoke to Killer Mike.

Speaker 1 (02:31:45):
Yeah. I love killing Mike, right, I love Mike. Kill
him Mike man. But I feel like Killer Mike should
be mayor of Atlanta. He could do it. I feel
like he might run. I feel like he should do it.

Speaker 2 (02:31:58):
I feel like he should do it unapologetically. I feel
like he shoul to do it eating peanuts like me.

Speaker 1 (02:32:07):
What up in his real self? Yeah?

Speaker 4 (02:32:09):
Yeah, well he cares a lot about lances and put
it that way. I don't know if he every wants
to run for office, but he's I feel like he's
great at knowing what the people want in his city,
and he loves his city. He advocates for his city,
advocates for.

Speaker 3 (02:32:25):
Our community, like having our own businesses and own property
or on wealth. And uh, he's a great man.

Speaker 1 (02:32:32):
But you you never thought about running for president when
I was a kid. I didn't since I've been in
an adult I love my life.

Speaker 3 (02:32:40):
I love what I get to do now, and I
don't think I would enjoy being president. Wow, I just
don't think I would. You know what, Actually, we got
to shut out his papa, Keith is running for office,
right commissioner shout out to from out here. Yeah, he's
a radio personality. He's been influential out here in the
community and now he's.

Speaker 4 (02:33:00):
I respect anybody that puts himself out there. My friend
Hill Harper, he ran for you don't want to he
ran for Senate in Michigan.

Speaker 3 (02:33:08):
I was like, man, it's just stressful. He didn't win
the primary, and it's like you put yourself out there,
they come at you. Yeah, and it's like into those I'm.

Speaker 1 (02:33:16):
Like, I already put myself out there enough and I
get enough ship for it.

Speaker 4 (02:33:20):
And I'm like, I don't want to like actually run,
but imagine you and dlugy.

Speaker 1 (02:33:27):
Dl DL's instagram be going. You know you wouldn't one?
Why give up? Give up on this lot of questions.
I'm just asking because to me, I will one job.
I want to go pisical ends to be a fucking
president like me. This is me. I guess the personal

(02:33:49):
open you can look at me out I got I believe.
I believe in you that much? Did I feel like
you can be the president? But why why? Why?

Speaker 2 (02:33:59):
Why can't we have our own community, support our own community.

Speaker 1 (02:34:03):
I appreciate it. I appreciate because you know why use
against Trump every every Yeah? So why not have you? Yeah,
I take a shot. It ain't even got nothing to
do with it. But why why why wouldn't you wouldn't you? Well?

(02:34:26):
We got here, Oh thank you, Sam? Yeah, here we go.

Speaker 2 (02:34:29):
Okay, I'm gonna take something cash. He's in the writer,
but why wouldn't you want for possident.

Speaker 4 (02:34:39):
I just feel like it's so much negativity and like
where's the positive side?

Speaker 1 (02:34:44):
And there's music. Music is now when you're.

Speaker 4 (02:34:49):
A musician, there's not a whole party organized to bring
you down like all the other R and B cats
don't have like organized party trying to destroy my career.
Like user fans aren't like outside my door with picking
signs like fuck John Legend. It might be, but like

(02:35:15):
if you run for office, like there's like literally half
the country hates you or they're being told to hate you,
and I'm like, I'm not interested in that feeling.

Speaker 1 (02:35:26):
But we interested in your ideology. I get it. I
get it. We will leave with John Legend believes I
get it. And I appreciate black people to say, you
know what, we need you? Yeah, we need you. We
want to get behind well.

Speaker 3 (02:35:44):
Crazy, I want to get behind you, Paulsey taking me
back two thousand and four but the pause days.

Speaker 2 (02:35:51):
But we need we need somebody in that office that
we can identify, would relate to because we can see
you don't think that's you.

Speaker 4 (02:36:01):
I hope Wes Moore runs for president. And there's some
great people that we can look up to. Let's let's
so Wes Moore. He's a governor of Maryland. Brother, very accomplished, veteran,
amazing speaker. Okay, beautiful wife. You know he can do it,
and I think he's he's already governor of Maryland.

Speaker 1 (02:36:19):
He could do it. So I'll support them. So are
we We're putting on money to him. Who knows.

Speaker 2 (02:36:28):
We'll see, we'll see, we'll see if he runs. But
he could, and I think he'd do a good job.
I'm looking at everybody here. What's his name, Wes Moore,
Wes Moore. But if we could pick Wes Moore, we
could pick John Legend. That's our next running candidate for

(02:36:54):
the president of the United States. Look at this nigga.

Speaker 1 (02:36:57):
This nigga is Obama's because it Okay, I appreciate it, nor,
I really do.

Speaker 5 (02:37:06):
I do.

Speaker 1 (02:37:06):
I appreciate what you're doing. Right now, you get an endorsement, right,
love and respect. I did no. No, you know why
because I trust you.

Speaker 2 (02:37:20):
The thing about it is, we're voting for the American President.
You want to trust him. I want to trust the person.
I'm gonna be honest with you me and that you
know I'm brown. Trust you all right?

Speaker 1 (02:37:37):
Well, I appreciate it. I pretty much on you. I'm
so sorry because you know it's all good. But but
why not, because you know why? The one thing that
we got to give Trump is he just outrageous. Yeah,
you don't give a fuck. So why wouldn't you, Why

(02:37:58):
wouldn't you be up? They be like this man himself
holds down. I don't know, I don't know this is president.
I don't want to. I want to.

Speaker 2 (02:38:15):
I'm gonna be honest that John John John legends resident.

Speaker 1 (02:38:22):
You gotta be writer. If you John let the president.
How many of us is rooting voting for John? I
make some No, I'm gonna be honest. I'm just sorry.
We believe in you. Curls is right, I feel it.

(02:38:42):
I feel it. The girls he's gonna be secretary of State.

Speaker 2 (02:38:46):
I'm gonna be something else, Like I'm gonna be like
what else, drinker of the drink?

Speaker 1 (02:38:50):
Girls stink up.

Speaker 2 (02:38:51):
I don't think think we're gonna make some new position.
I'm playing around, But in real reality, I was thought
about that. He's not with it because because look at me,
look at me.

Speaker 1 (02:39:05):
I'm looking at you. He's look at me, look at me,
look at you. I have no beef for Trump. Right,
but if I was to put you and Trump in
a spelling bee, I'm picking you. Yeah, I would win.

Speaker 2 (02:39:21):
If I'm picking you and Trump against like like, uh
of course we're a puzzle. I'm picking you.

Speaker 1 (02:39:29):
Jeopardy Yeah yeah yeah, travel so so so why wouldn't
you try to lead off monopoly a little bit? Why
would you? I just don't feel like I would enjoy it. Yeah,
it's wonderful man, running or being in office. I don't

(02:39:52):
think I would enjoy either. One very just one. Yeah.
I'm sorry because I believe mean you so much. I know,
I feel it. I feel it, I feel it. He's
your campaign, I'm your number one thing. I know, I
feel it. I feel if you feel like that next
to year, Okay, I'll hit you, please hit me. Yeah,

(02:40:12):
I'm gonna be like that. The John Legend man. Thank
you so much, man, thank you. I had such a
good time. What say it out? I say, I'll talk
about let's go make some money? Yeah, get it now.

Speaker 2 (02:40:36):
I'm truly I'm glad I got to come by and
see y'all. I've been wanting to do it for a minute.

Speaker 4 (02:40:40):
And I'm glad we got to come and celebrate the
twentieth anniversary because I'm just grateful.

Speaker 2 (02:40:45):
And you know, I told you all these stories of
like us on the come up, and like I think
back on all of that when I listen to that
music from Get Lifted, and I'm just grateful for everything
to happen. Yeah, good John, thank you so much, thank you.
I ain't gonna lie. You're the only nigga that ever

(02:41:05):
ordered beef.

Speaker 1 (02:41:06):
Jerky turkey, turkey, turkey jack turkey. Yeah no, no, don't
say that. That's in my that's in my rider too,
because you know with turkey. Come on, I don't eat beef.
I don't eat you sure that's turkey.

Speaker 3 (02:41:20):
I swear to god, you ain't gonna be able to
tell because it smelled the same.

Speaker 1 (02:41:31):
Already, Bro, somebody went to the grocery store in here.
They got it. Are you ready? You ate it already?
You had a dinner with a shot though, and then
we out of here. I appreciate you, y'all. Man, what
a pleasure. You gotta let him go. We drink Champs.

(02:42:00):
Drink Champs is a drink Champs LLC.

Speaker 3 (02:42:02):
Production hosts and executive producers n O r E and
dj e FN. Listen to Drink Champs on Apple Podcast,
Amazon Music, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks
for joining us for another episode of Drink Champs hosted
by Yours Truly, dj e FN and n O r E.
Please make sure to follow us on all our socials

(02:42:24):
That's at drink Champs across all platforms at the Real
Noriagon ig at Noriega on Twitter, mine is at Who's
Crazy on ig at dj e f N on Twitter,
and most importantly, stay up to date with the latest releases,
news and merch by going to drink Champs dot com

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DJ EFN

N.O.R.E

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Episode 446 w/ John Legend