DJ Clark Kent

DJ Clark Kent joins Questlove Supreme to discuss performing with Dana Dane, his incredible work with JAY-Z and Biggie Smalls, and signing Das EFX. The esteemed veteran also speaks about his fantastic sneaker collection and turning his passion into meaningful brand partnerships.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
What's Love Supreme is a production of I Heart Radio.
You have to understand, like, I don't want this to
be confused at all, and this is like maybe probably
the most important saying I want to say today is
I love Questions Like I'm like, like beyond beyond him

(00:24):
being my man, Like, can we say this V show
showing the show to I start the show? O, No, No,
listen to what I'm about to say. You might you
might understand. I just want to say it's truly an
honor to be considered for this show because this show
is so fucking good. Thank you, Clark. I appreciate that.
Thank you. He's preventing me from giving him a proper intro.

(00:48):
Ladies and gentlemen, this is quest Love Supreme. Where you're
a team Supreme. Should Steve take a load? Uh shout
off to Bill Sermons and I like, yeah, how are
you doing? I'm doing good. I'm doing rug good. I
was just what's what's I've been meaning to ask you?
What's the portrait behind you? That's my dad? Says that

(01:08):
our artists painted that of him playing the drums. That's
your dad. Yeah, okay, that's what? No. No, every time
I see I didn't know if it was a moon
or whatever. And that's a symbol, quest love, that's a symbol.
That's what they with drums they play. It comes with
a drum set. Do you know, I did not know
that one day. I will take that up anyway, y'all

(01:31):
check it. So I'm gonna say that, uh, you know,
we're nerds on this show, and we always uh sort
of salivate over a specific type of industry insider, behind
the scenes person and you know, like dream dream future
guest of the show. Like, you know, I would definitely

(01:52):
want to get Suzanne to pass on the show. We
definitely have to find the elusive John McClean as many
times as he's been mentioned by every artist that's been
on the show. But for me, I'll say that the
behind the scenes person mostly like offers uh kind of
like a different perspective and has way more details in

(02:13):
a way that artist who's in the eye of the
storm can't see. I don't think he could be in
it and of it at the same time. So for me,
I love talking to behind the scenes people, and you know,
and I'm seguating right into our guest today. This this
particularly gentleman He's everything that you've heard about him, probably
and more. And probably say resume is a little reductive

(02:37):
because I don't you know, it's not like like he
works for nobody. He's literally God's favorite DJ. And I
stand by that another guy that he's associated with. Let's
start with he is the reason why we know who
jay Z is. That's that's might drop a little, but
there's so much more than that one story I'm dying

(02:57):
to know about. Of course, uh in the toime Silverman
episode and um, you know Monica Lynch episode speaking of
them developing the new music seminar, and you know, one
of the most fabled things about it was the the
infamous battlef Awards supremacy tales that I've always heard about,

(03:19):
especially the Craig g versus uh Supernat. I always wanted
to know about that. I mean, this is also how
we know whose skills is as well. I mean, let's
just mention the classics. Brooklyn's finest guess he's backed by
rock Him, Biggie Sky's limit on life after Death needs
you tonight anyway, man. I can go on and on
not to mention this. This human being gave me my

(03:43):
true intro into the world of fashion because without him,
I would have never had my own Nike in print. Yes,
this is the man that's RESPONSI I'm telling you man this,
this this guy is a legend and he's on the

(04:04):
show today. Clark Kent. Thank you for finally, I won't
say finally, like it I realized that this has almost
been a year. So yeah, that you're right, the weight
falls on me. Yes, you're absolutely right. Clark Kent is
probably the guest that we've had to put off the most.

(04:26):
You know, it's always an emergency that happens on a
Clark Kent episode and then we're like, can we do
this in a month or so, So after four false starts,
we are finally here making it happen. How are you, sir?
I am truly blessed to be here on earth. But
I'm leaven, you know, Like I'm I'm very, very honored
to be a guest of yours simply because of how

(04:49):
much I am I admire you, And as I was
saying to you to your crew earlier, like almost like
sometimes I parallel the way you work to the way
that I work or the way that I worked. Like
when I was coming up, I did everything, and I
just I was trying to be always working, like never

(05:10):
not working. And then you know, like the rise of
quest love to me, it's like, I don't I don't
think you're understanding what he's doing. He's just not stopping.
And then I think about how I came up, like
I just never stopped, so even doing what I do now,
like it's like I never stopped. I don't even understand stop.
And I look at you and I think, Okay, I'm
not crazy for being that way, and I really really

(05:34):
really respect you. Thank you. I gave my first speech
to a bunch of high schoolers. Um, this show is
famous for putting me in right look at life's face
right now exactly. This show pretty much knows my weak
points and they know that I'm a person that is
shoes or avoids compliments. Um, I also avoid kids. You

(06:00):
many times I've been asked, hey, speak of my high school,
Hey talk to the kids, dada, dada. So I finally
got over my fear and went to a Bronx high
school last week from this taping, and I actually found
myself saying the opposite. Yes, I take those words, uh,
and I appreciate And this is also gonna be probably

(06:22):
the most polite quest of Supreme episode we've ever done.
But I will actually say that I'm trying to what
she says. No, I was gonna say that, Clark. It's
actually touching on on a truly legitimate saying that you exemplify,
which is work ethic and right. But I'm actually I'm

(06:48):
and I'm dead serious about this. I am trying to
do less work. I'm literally making a living doing things
that I love doing. But I know that for me,
and no way I'm trying to put a time on anything.
And I'm not trying to be all morbid. But you know,

(07:08):
when you're when you're in north of fifty, you know
you're you're thinking about your your your last you act.
You know I'm in the third quarter or the fourth,
you know, halftime is over. I'm in the third quarter now,
So I consider a third quarter the last act of work.
That's what you think. Yeah, And but I want to
do it so that I want to be the first

(07:29):
generation that can and I know it's weird to hear
me say this, but I would like to be part
of the first generation that when they say they're going
to retire, they actually mean it. You know, for a
lot of us, I hear like, oh, I'm gonna stop. Actually,
you know, I always tease Jay about remember when Jay

(07:50):
said he was going to retire after a reasonable doubt.
What do you remember that? Yeah, but I was the
one who was like, no, you're not Bull's right exactly. So,
but I would I think that you know, we're we're
seeing a new generation. I mean, we're gonna have the
first generation of black generational wealth. And I think that

(08:12):
we can also have like real retirement for us. You
get to relax and do what you want to do
and not and live the life that you're accustomed to living.
And it not affects you so well, it's gonna affect me.
You can't work less. I get paid by the hour,
so they can work out for everybody. Clark, I always

(08:33):
wanted to know this um. Usually in hip hop, when
a person comes up with their their moniker, they're non
the plume um. It's usually an overexaggerated position or something
that's larger than life or whatever. I find it very interesting.
I mean not that you know, DJ Superman would have

(08:54):
been a I don't know how logistics logistical that that
would have been as as idol. But I think it's
very curious that you decided to choose the the half
life version of Superman, which is Clark Kent. What was
your reasoning, you know, because we don't know any Peter
Parker's or I don't know the other there was a

(09:15):
DJ Peter Parker in Brooklyn Rady. But yeah, that's only two. Okay,
Well mine is pretty simple. I wore glasses since I
was five years old, and I got teased and called
Clark Can since I was a baby. So what when
when this started? That happen when when I'm like nine

(09:35):
and I started DJ and there was no name. But
by the time I'm like, okay, I'm gonna play a
park I gotta tell him something. So I told him
the name that everybody teased me about, and it just
never went away. I've tried other things throughout. Were what
were your other names that you were optioning. I used
to write graffiti when I was really young, and I
used to write blink, So I tried DJ Blink and

(09:56):
I thought that she was terrible and it didn't rhyme
with anything properly when I and rap groups, so I
think drinking. Yeah, just just no it didn't. It didn't
make as much sense later. But and then there was
a It's funny because I don't know how just Blaze
nude is for that. For like, for like three weeks,
I was grand Master Blaster And it's crazy because the

(10:21):
guy who would be on the mic when I was
when I was DJ and like Block probably Ship one
day just went grad Master Blaster cut faster. I was
like oh, And then after the joint, I was just
like that ship is terrible, and I just went right
back to it. But um Clark KM works for me
because I don't believe any man is superior to the
next man. So I'd rather be the version that that

(10:43):
is not a superman. I'm I try to be a
super DJ. What was your first musical memory of your life.
My first musical memory. My mother was a classically trained
opera singer. And wow, yeah she's sang to New York Philimonic.
She's sanging Link Center, Like it's crazy. I did Carnegie
Hall a couple of months ago with with d Nice,

(11:07):
and everybody was like, yo, win Carnegie all Win Carnegie Hall.
And in my mind, I'm thinking, my mother laft this
place three times like this this is not until I
know it four times. Until I do it four times,
I've done nothing, you know what I mean? Because because
I looked, I would go see my mother at Connie
all but again, she was a classically trained singer, so
around the house she sang and played the piano since birth.

(11:30):
And then my real real life music aha moments was
um when I stayed with my grandmother and that was
since I was like six, and she had this record
that she played like every day when she came home
for work. It was Happy Landings, and I would watch
her be happy playing this song, and then I would
just sit there and try to figure out how to

(11:51):
play all the records in the house. But when she's
coming home, I would put on Happy Landings for her
to walk into the house too, And I realized, like
maybe like a year later, like I am actually doing
something to her emotionally by putting this record on when
she walked through the door, and that made me always

(12:11):
want to be the person in the house that played
the records. So I didn't know that at five and
six and seven and eight that I'm becoming this DJ
until I heard records being mixed, and I was like,
what the fund is happening right now. So I know
that you are from Brooklyn. I was born. I was

(12:34):
born in Panama, but raised in Brooklyn. Okay, when did
you when did you come to uh? Two months old?
I was two months old. Okay, So can you give
us your your take of coming into hip hop culture
because you know, for a lot of people, you know,
we hear the folklore of the Bronx, the Bronx, the Bronx,

(12:56):
the Bronx, the Bronx. But as large as New York
City is, I'm s that the same development was happening
and the other boroughs. Here's the thing, I I don't
look at it like an advent of this thing that
that that we called hip hop I have. I just
happened to be alive and cognizant of what was happening

(13:18):
when I was really young. And the reason why it's
because I was being this DJ and because I knew
Grandmaster Flowers, you know what I'm saying. Because I knew P. T. J.
Jones when I was like a little kid, like knowing
those two guys and having the conversations about what was happening,
Like you know, it wasn't even like we didn't even
know that it was called hip hop when we started

(13:39):
playing the records differently, and you know, like we we understood,
okay that that's a section of the record. But then
I was also in the Bronx with with my uncle
and he would introduce me to Cool Hurt. He introduced
me to Bam and Breakout and Barn and j C
with Kid and and everybody from uptown like Charlie, Chase

(14:01):
and Tone. Like I've known him since I was like
twelve years old, you know what I'm saying, Like and
and did or like I was in his crib when
I was like twelve or thirteen, you know, so watching
it all and being able to do it all, like yeah,
by accident, you know what I'm saying. His brother, me Jean,
I was with my uncle. My uncle brings me to

(14:21):
me Jean's crib and then I find out theaters his brother.
I'm like, wait a minute, what's going on here? I
ain't that to dude, but the zigga zigger that we
all do, you know what I'm saying. But like it
was then, it was like so far. It was the
seventies and I'm really like witnessing and going to eighteen
Park and seeing flashing cast of Nova's ship and seeing
like Grandmaster casts can literally say, he's known me since

(14:43):
I was a kid, but because I was up there
with my uncle, and my uncle was cool with all
of them, so he would bring me around. Now, yes,
I'm in Brooklyn, you know, trying to figure out this
DJ thing. But the first set I ever played on
was my uncle set and he couldn't DJ, so he
couldn't even teach me anything, So like I would be
in his crib trying to figure it out, like at nine.

(15:03):
So he had DJ equipment but wasn't a DJ in
the sense of how we DJ. No, he didn't know
how to DJ at all. He bought DJ equipment because
he frequented clubs so much that he wanted to have
what they had in clubs in his house. So he
was a a Limitic. This this this guy, he was a
Plato's retreat guy. He was a Bonds inter national guy.

(15:25):
He was at four guy, you know what I'm saying,
Like he was. He was also a lawyer, so maybe
not being in a pad As garage would be good
for him. But an upbringing, all right, because you are
cognizant in the records in your house alone. Now. I
know in hip hop sometimes with with selective memory or

(15:48):
revisioning whatever, like people might mistake, you know, one of
the basic ingredients of hip hop break beats that they
discovered older making beats and all those things from like
what was there in real time but for you in
real time growing up, you know, in these formative years
like twelve thirteen whatever, when you're like getting into records

(16:11):
and all those things, like what was the record that
caused absolute panic? And like when you put it on,
it's like Jesus Christ, like clear the floor or not
clear the floor, get on the floor. Um. At that time,
it might have been Ecstacy by the Ohio Players because

(16:33):
it was literally my favorite. It was literally my favorite
record as soon as I heard it. To me, it's
still the best song I've ever heard, really great. I
got jokes, no, no, no, I love that song to death.
But I have so many jokes with the odd players
because get away with so many musical crimes, right But
and and the thing is, like the whole record is

(16:53):
a musical crime. And the reason why I say that
is because literally the end of a song like I
want to like, it's like they started right on the
song and there's no hook, there's no verse, there's no
there's no change whatever whatever. He sings the first line
like that's the name of the song, like right, But

(17:19):
by the time the end of the record comes, just
the most perfect thing I've ever heard, because the emotion
is raw, the music is beautiful, and it proves that
there is no real formula to this ship. It's just
when you listen, do you walk away going? That ship
fucked my soul up, you know what I'm saying. And
that record, since I was a kid. The first time

(17:42):
I heard it, I was just like, oh my god,
this might be the most beautiful thing I've ever heard.
And yes, I've heard tons of records, and yeah, I've
heard tons of records, but that record right there, that's
the reason why I sampled the records because and it
took me like four years to sample. Yeah, I'm gonna
tell you something. The anger, there's nothing like the feeling

(18:06):
of where you think the lane is clear and all
you gotta do is simply just put the ball in
the hoop and you know it's about to happen, and
then someone just smacks the ship out of the ball,
like get the fun I'm telling you now the anger
I had when I heard Brooklyn's Finest because at the

(18:31):
time we're working on Illodulf Half Life. I was like, Yo,
I'm gonna make some Life is a great album, I know,
but my my, my contribution to this jam was I've
been working so hard, like trying to hook up some
version of ecstasy to go on, and then I heard

(18:56):
it on a mixtape and was like, ah, this is over. No,
all right, I'm gonna make this crazy for you. I
sampled that record two years before on a remix for
the Future Sound, but I only took one loop, and
every time I listened to it, I was like, I
didn't do this right. I didn't do this right. And
again it was my favorite record. So every club I played,

(19:19):
I ended the night with the record, and it became
so popular that I would play this record that people
would be like, I'm waiting to the end because I
could hear that fucking record. And then when one day,
one day Dame and J just go, yo, so we
you got you gotta hook that up. So I mean,
sitting there with the sample, I'm just like, there's only
one way for you feel the way it feels, and

(19:42):
it has to be the whole five bar loop. Now,
of course five bars is very unconventional, just like three
bars is unconventional. Try but yeah, like try to call
a question. When that record was made, I like trying
to figure out where the fund do. I mix this
record all the time, and then I figured out where
I'm going to get that eight bars at It would
be weird, but it would always come off right, you

(20:03):
know what I mean? But with with Brooklyn's Finest, it's
almost like I had to go, I don't care if
they figure it out, because the music has to feel
and and and the thing is the music feels because
what they did too it was was great too. But
if they didn't, if it didn't feel, it wouldn't have
gotten to there. Have you? Have you heard um Lionel

(20:25):
Richie's version that Jimmy jam Terry list did Lina Richie
covered ecstasy not really but no, but like he didn't
cover ecstasy, but Jim kind of flipped it on that
new album that did that on No No on Louder
than Were not louder than Words? Um, what's the jew

(20:45):
on that? Um? He I gotta find the album. It's
Richie Yah, Like I could spend that ship in my
set and the ship come off. It's um, yeah, it's
the Louder than World, right, Oh, I want to take
you down. Look up, Lina Richie, I want to take
you down. And like I was like, all right, Jimmy, Jammy,

(21:07):
Terry Lewis, like they actually they flipped they flipped one
of Junie Morrison's ad libs so that it actually sounds
like he said, I want to take you down, but
like it's an album cut on the words like right,
like I wanna take you, du I wanna take you.

(21:27):
I was impressed. And but the thing was I didn't
know that Jimmy, jamm and Terry Lewis produced it. I
was just like, all right, so Lionel got some young
cat to hook up and this, you know, this came out.
So it's even weirder that both No. No, but I

(21:47):
was like, I know you're joking. We got jokes here. No,
but literally I was like asking jam like did you
know Brooklyn's fins or whatever? And he's like, nah, I didn't,
because I was like it leaked a good six months
before it came out, like I heard on someone's mixtape.
I think it might have been either Chubby Chubb or
a clue. It probably was maybe clue, you know, whatever

(22:11):
it was, it was enough to make me not like
I was like, well, my dreams a shadowed. It's one
of those rare records that like, no matter how many
years later, if anybody played you on the it's just
an automatic like yeah, yeah, it's because it's perfect. Wait,
all right, I always tell people this story, and I'm

(22:33):
going on over the timeline, but I got I gotta
ask this question because I don't know who ever talked about. Yes, yes,
it was hard to follow you at the Gold party.
Shut up, man, No, no, no, no, I'm talking about
but oh so you oh, y'all followed each other, and

(22:54):
I got it, Okay, I had to get on the
plane and go back to my day job. That's the
grammy party of the Oscar party. I can't remember the
infamous ja. Yeah, no, I was gonna ask. I'm asking you.
Do you know if anyone that has documented or recorded

(23:16):
I believe that was you on the turntables for uh,
the after party for Zebrahead the movie. Wow. Remember this
was a good party. It was a good party. But
I don't know anybody. You don't even know this the one,
the one and the last time I ever got on
the microphone to rhyme. You were you were djaying, You're

(23:39):
going back and forth on in vogues hold on as
an instrumental. Yeah, like no, it definitely wasn't booming system.
It was just going back and forth on hold on
and NAS gets up to rhyme, and then it just
became one of the things where like a thirty m

(24:01):
c s were on stage that I remember. So I
was rolling because Zebra Hid was a was a rough
House Records Association. That's where I was interning at the time,
and you know, we had like two bustlos going up,
so there was like all the goats, uh, Larry Lair
was there, like all the all the rough House people

(24:22):
were like there, and I don't know, I was on
stage and it was like microphone, you got the spirit
get this, and I like one, I had one verse,
you only got once to get check it rhythm, the
kid question whatever. So I was always abraid to tell

(24:48):
that story because my fears like someone's gonna be like
yeah and I recorded here. It is like literally I
remembered nas rhyme in a long time. And then like
then like a bunch of seconds tier I think Joe
Fader was there, and then by the time he got
to like the seventh or eighth m C. Then it

(25:08):
was like anybody's rhyming and then not like I was
number like seven. But yeah, yeah, sorry memories anyway, I'm
not mad at you. I had one of those moments
when I was like fifteen, and as soon as I
was done, I was like, never again again. I was.
I was, I was, I was at a pun jam.

(25:29):
Oh No, I didn't rhy him again. I just did
a hook and I did the hook Brooklyn. Yeah, yeah,
that's what I'm saying. I just so time out. They
made that song without a hook, and then you went
and listen. When Biggie came to do his verse, it
was like the day before mastering, so it was You're

(25:50):
gonna do this verse and then I'm gonna have the song.
Is gonna have to go get mad, I'm gonna have
to mix it, and then it's going to master the
next morning, so you gotta finish the song. He finishes
his verses, and him and Jay in the studio, it's
all revelry. I'm like, yo, I need a hook. He says,
Jay said, scratch something. Every single thing I tried to
scratch on that record sounded like blasphemy because the record

(26:12):
was so rich, right, so everything sounded terrible except brook
So instead of scratching, So Jay's like, yeah, I'll be back,
and he disappeared, and like twenty minutes later, big egos,

(26:33):
I'll be back, disappears. But I said to both of
them on their disappearance, like, yo, you gotta come and
give me a hook. And every time I said it
to Jay, he said, Yo, just scratch something. You can
make it right. And like I said, everything was like disgusting.
I felt so bad because all I'm thinking is how
long did it? Like how many attempts before? Oh no,

(26:55):
I attempted at least fifty different things to scratch. I
just had. I just had a crate full of records
that said Brooklyn. And this wasn't even because of them.
It was because that's what I'm thinking. I'm gonna figure
something out under their hook or maybe in a section,
but in the breakdown section, in the in the in
the fifth bar, I'm gonna scratch something every hook right,

(27:17):
And then so they're like, yeah, you you know you're
gonna scratch something. So I'm like, yes, I am, and
I got records that I'm gonna try to figure it out,
and nothing was figuring it out. Question though by nine
the term We're Booklyn was it was a known point,
but it wasn't. But it wasn't a recorded thing that

(27:40):
I could just go, I'm going to scratch and there
was no serato there you go. So after a million
tries and the only thing I got is Brooklyn Brooklyn,
I'm just like, I'm scared to death, and I just
I just kept listening to the record and I was like, Okay,
let me pull a piece man, and then okay, what

(28:02):
you're gonna do after that? Because all I got is
jay Z, Biggie Smalls, Nigga ship you draws, and I'm
like that's awesome. But then I'm like, what else? And
then I'm like, okay, shout out the sections in the burrows,
shout out the most important ones, bus Mossy, that's by,
you know, like, let's get to our ships first and
then the rest of the ship. I could just roll out.

(28:23):
So I did it, and I was in fear. But
for the whole time I was there, Damon was there
but he's not paying it no attention. He's there. He's
almost like, I don't know Clark's bugging. Cool. He doesn't
even say Clark your bugging. I'm just doing this thing
and I'm bugging in my mind. So I'm telling the engineer,

(28:43):
can you change the way my voice sounds? Can you
double it? Can you triple it? Can you quadjuble it?
Can you do all these things? Please do not make
it sound like me and everybody. He's like, well, what's
wrong with this sounding like you? I said in our
crew there is a pack. Clark will never rap like
j J and Sauce. Just one day we was in

(29:06):
my crib and it was just like looking at me
and I was just and I was like, yeah, they
were looking at me like clock, you don't rap, don't
ever be a rapper, Like let us do the rapping
and you make the beats. Don't do this. And I
was just like, no problem, because I never ever wanted
to be a rapper. So at the end of everything,

(29:27):
Dame is like, yeah, I like it, and I'm just
like okay, please, I'm like, please, do not tell them
that I did it. Don't tell whatever you do, don't
tell jaded. I did it. It goes to Mastering. Everybody's
at Mastering, they love it, and then the record like
after master and I'm just like, oh, Jay how like
I should have fired Who's that? That's kids? I found

(29:48):
downstairs later just so that he wouldn't be like, what
was you doing? Rappings? So later on it comes out, Okay, Clark, Clark,
not Clark do that, and he was just like, yo,
who told you you don't wrap right? And I was like, dog,
I wasn't trying to wrap you guys, left me here,

(30:10):
and he goes, no, It's really good though, and then
like weeks later, weeks later, we gotta show at the Apollo.
What's crazy is when I say we, I mean jay Z,
jam Ifia Biggie. So where else are we going to
perform this song? We at the Apollo. Now I'm just like,

(30:31):
oh shit, I gotta perform, yo, this is my word.
I'm all the way to the side of the stage
where almost like I wanted to hide behind the speaker,
but I'm like jay Z because crowds going crazy, I
started moving closer to the front of the stage. Man,
I'm hiding, no, but I'm hyped now because I'm talking

(30:52):
about my city in Hollom. You don't stop that stop,
you won't stop na banana crowds going bananas. First and
last time we did Bok Finest because I was just like,
I'm never going on tour with you, motherfucker. I'm never
doing this ship again. And unfortunately they didn't get to

(31:14):
be like now you are going and we are doing
it because a man passed. Yeah, I was about to
say you never were his official DJ. I was in
the very beginning. If you look at the first jay
Z record, Um, I can't get with that. I can't
get that right. My name is on the logo. It's
jay Z feature of DJ clark Camp. That was the

(31:35):
name of the group back then, jay Z feature in
DJ clark Camp. But I didn't necessarily care to be featured.
I care to be making the music and picking the
records and picking the tracks, and you know I want
to do I want to do the record making. I
don't want to ask you about your time with Dana Dane.
Dana Dane with things. That's the first take by of

(31:56):
her own and ship like straight up, that's dope. That's dope.
So yeah, talk about him. What was he like like
back in you know those days, what was that? And
when you're telling the story, he tells where the hell
is Herbie? How I feel like you're the person that

(32:21):
talks to Herbie like every day in the world, just
don't know where he is. You wonder what's crazy? I
wish I could, because I literally blame him for the
reason I produced. I blame Molly Mom for my style,
but I blame him for the actual thing happening. Because
we used to be in a studio all the time

(32:42):
and I would be looking at the drum machine, going
I wonder how that works? And one day he was
just like, oh, you funk with it? And he didn't come.
He was coming to the studio. We were all on
the studio and he let me sit in the studio
for like three hours before he came to funk with
the machine. And I literally got to learn how to
use it. Was twelve. Yeah, I literally still make every

(33:07):
single track I've ever made in my life is on.
He's serious even now, I'm dead serious. It's the center
of my studio. Have you used the updated version yet? No?
And I the reason why I won't probably is because
I think he's the price is just robbery. The prices.
You dude, it's like five thousand now, and I'm just

(33:28):
like dogs, Yeah, it's like, I'm dog, it's an S
twelve like it. I understand you've got a couple of updates.
Make it, you know what I'm saying, Like, do that?
Do three thousand even if you have to for five grand,
four or five grand now? And and and trust me
in my heart, I'm like, I want it because it's
a twelve twelve hundred. But I got originals, so I

(33:51):
guess I'm cool. It's just that the maintenance can be something.
But yeah, I was gonna ask, how do you keep
it maintained? Because you you you take it of money.
Who can clean it and make sure every button and
every screen and everything works? And you know, I'd rather
do the maintenance than I have to go giving somebody
grant respectfully, you know. And I just Steve, I'm surprised
you don't have a D'Angelo floppy disk joke. Well I

(34:16):
guess I don't. Well wait, if you still make it,
how do you are they still manufacturing floppy disks? So
when I was young and I started seeing other machines
coming up, I surplus those ts. You're like Neil Young.
When Neil Young found out, like the first round of

(34:37):
Ampex two inch tapes, we're about to be out of business,
he went and damn near did that too. I see,
Wait before you answer Fante's question, wait, wait, hold on,
I want to go back and stay. I wish I
could speak to her be all the time, just so
I could be like, yo, thank you. You know what
I'm saying. But I don't speak to him. I wish

(35:00):
I could. Um, I know, I believe Dana does, but um,
and I speak to Dana, so maybe I'll just ask him,
can you get me in touch with herby? But like,
I would just love to stay, thank you, And I
never let it go unmentioned that he's the reason that
I actually banged on the machine first. And then I
would be in Molly's CRIBV and that's when I was
just like, oh, so you went to the Morley House

(35:24):
of Hits. I used to be in the projects because
me and hot Day. Hot Day is from Queensbridge. We
used to DJ together a lot, and me, Molly and
hot Day used to play the same club once a week.
We used to play us a skating rink, so we
knew each other. But but like I'm talking like since
I was a kid, I was in Molly's priv you
know what I'm saying, Because that's the reason why when
Molly did his own show, he came and got being

(35:45):
being peaked. He was like Pete was the young guy,
but I'm the guy that he's known for forever to
be his DJs. What I'm saying, So, but yes, Molly
is the reason I make beats the way I make them.
But the reason I make beats in the first place
is Herbie because he gave me a moment in the
studio and he came and he heard Ship, and he
was like, no, that's good. No, that's good. Go wait

(36:06):
a minute, that's good. Hold on, that's good, you know,
saying where did you get that sample? You know what
I'm saying. I would give them samples and ship like that.
But if it wasn't for Herbie, I'm not sure I would.
Well maybe I would have, but I don't know if
it would have happened then. So like I never got
to make anything on the Dana albums, but those were
the times when I was learning how to make peace.

(36:27):
Did tour with him? Oh, I was then I was
Dana Stard GJ. We went on at least three tours
for one two. Yeah, yeah, I was. But yeah, it's
funny because in that time, the name of the whole
crew was called I Don't Make because it was Kid
and Play, quam Um, Salt and Pepper and Dana Dane,

(36:49):
and there was a couple of other groups. So it
would be times when I was DJ for Salt and Pepper,
it would be times that I would DJ for Kidding
Play because we were just a crew and if we
if I was there and they were there and they
didn't have to and with was me, I'm put the
records on the phone because we're recruited. So but my
main my main job was was daying of day And
I think what what made working with him so perfect

(37:13):
was he allowed me to help him make the show.
So it wasn't like all his idea dictatorship and just
play what I say. It was like, what should we do?
And that's that's what made me. Indeed, me and Biggie
works so perfectly. He walked in, he was like, I
don't know how to do this ship, tell me what
to do. Does that mean you never had to negotiate
your rates because I was just sitting here thinking like

(37:35):
that were ushering in a new time in that way?
Yeah yeah, I mean, how do you even figure out?
Are you even thinking that out? And when when Dana
and I started to work together, I don't, I don't.
I hope this doesn't sound a way. But I was
already being DJ clauk Kent in New York City. I
was already playing all of the clubs and being one
of the most work DJ. So when we got together,

(37:57):
it was just like, oh, he can make this better.
You don't care. And then when we worked together, I
made it better and to you, the music directed in
in a way like our first show together was at
the rooftop and walking into the rooftop as many people
who was going oh Ship day to day like there

(38:18):
was as many people going yo clul Kenneth did because
I played the rooftop with Brucey b a bunch of times,
so they were like, Oh, this thing is about to
get on the set, not the way that you think
we're gonna do this. I'm gonna be DJ for the
day to day. And we killed Ship because his records
was on fire, you know. So but um, the first
time I ever died. DJ form for real was at

(38:40):
Washington IRV in high school. It was at a talent
contest and he was the act and his record might
have been like three weeks old. And he comes in,
but the records flaming in the street, you know what
I'm saying. And he comes in and he does the
Ship and first song, the first song, Nightmails, went crazy immediately.

(39:01):
So three weeks later, he's the guest at Washington Urban
High School. My sister was a student there, and I
was just like, oh, Ship. So he's just like, yo,
can you drop this record for me? And I was like, okay, cool.
I didn't think it was gonna be much, but in
my mind when I'm hearing a wrap, I'm like, I'm
gonna pull it out here. Let me pull it out here.
He came over and and he was like, how did
you know to do that? And I was just like, well,

(39:23):
I just felt, you know, musically, I felt where you
were going and where the where the drop should be.
And he was just like okay cool. And he had
a DJ, so times was coming in. He got a
couple of shows and like his DJ would would not
show up at certain things. So one time He just
was like, Yo, would you be my DJ? And I
was like, let's figure it out. And he came to

(39:44):
my crib and we sat there for hours working on
a show, and he entrusted me and and to me
um because I care so much about the music. Like
I was just like, I want this to be like
an amazing show for you so that when they walk away,
they go this was to see it was entertaining in it,
you know, So that's what that was. The That was

(40:05):
the mission for what Dana Dane was to make sure
that his show was awful. And I just wanted to
add the reason I asked that question. And I was
just asking about it because it feels like this style
of DJ and and all of this art that it
takes is not necessarily translated into what people see these
days as a DJ on stage and lat performance. So
just make yeah, but the dj is on stage nowadays

(40:28):
aren't necessarily DJ and there they're standing up there within
a a piece of a piece of performance that's happening,
and they're just doing there there there look like it
part of emotions. And if they are doing some DJ
and they're basically just dropping records, they're not like switching

(40:48):
beats in the middle of the songs live. They're not
on turntables making it work and figuring out how yo
if if if the crowd doesn't go crazy, we gotta
figure something else out on the fly, you know, And
they're not they're not doing that. Let me just say this,
there wasn't no debts when we were when we were
doing it, and there wasn't no instant replaces. It was

(41:09):
you had instrumental records and you had to make it work.
There was no there was no rapping to your vocals
back there, right, I've seen l rocking viewers. Well, I
now know why dubb mixes were always on the B
side like Rocking would have. I came and the team

(41:31):
fighting me, fighting me like then, I was like, oh
that helps you on stage basically TV track. However, I
have a question, um, during your tenure with Data and Dame,
which was which was has there hold on home? I
didn't need to say that was some of the best
times for me because I learned so many things at
that time. I have a question, is at any point

(41:55):
was their talk of like I don't know who the
other two members of the Kango crew was, Oh Lance
and Omega. They were amazing. So what was there ever
talk of them doing something together? Like I know that
I still no one's still answered with with gave me

(42:18):
giving me a straight answer on why it took slick
Rick four years to go from Lotty Dotty to Great Adventures.
But you know, at the time when Dan and Dane
comes out, at least in Philadelphia, a lot of us
thought that was slick Rick, you know, because he had

(42:38):
like that's that Snaggle Puss flow And yeah, I knew
they were in the same crew. But okay, do you
remember Snaggle Puss. I'm older than your dogs? No, no, no,
I don't mean the cartoon. I mean was actual MC Yes,
I remember right everyone he actually had bar Yes, here's

(43:01):
what he had. Yeah, and so but just during your
period with Dana Dane, was there ever, Yes, it was
slick Rick. Did you have any slick excitings between of
course in like post Lottie Dotti Like absolutely, because like

(43:21):
I knew slick Rick like before the show came out,
you know what I'm saying, Like me and Doug were
friends since we like seventeen I knew, I knew Get
Fresh crew, haven't And you if you asked Chill, Will
and Barry. We were all teenagers will be at each
other and and we would. No one ever had the
conversation like, Yo, slick Rick, Dana Dane, do we join together?

(43:43):
It was actually it should have been done, but Herbie
was trying to get the Kango crew together. He had
Lance On Omega and Dana Dane and we were trying
to wrangle flick Rick at the same time. But Rick
was getting his ship together for what would be one
of the greatest rap albums. Yeah, uh, okay, great events.
Great eventually is a bar like if you tell stories,

(44:06):
you should be trying to tell stories better than that.
It's an impossible bar, right, which is which makes it amazing.
So that makes it really something to shoot for now.
I know in Philadelphia if you gotta know somebody to
ask the station Wagon or van or Mini to really
make it happen. But as a New Yorker, how does
one being effective DJ on the train yeah, or just

(44:31):
like walked me through Like what year was it that
you were like, okay, I'll do your black party, um,
and that's not your own neighborhood in nineteen seventy six,
seventy six and seventy six, I was seventy seven. While

(44:51):
in the summer seventy seven, I was I was eleven
it and I played at at a grand Master. I
was was was DJ and Lincoln Tervist Park, and everybody
was like, yo, you know that's a young DJ from
up the street. You know that's a young boy that
DJ's from up the street. And they keep telling him
and he's like where. He's like, come on back, come

(45:12):
on back, and he goes, you want to play some records?
And I was like, yes, you know what I'm saying,
like not a not an ounce of fair. So I
just start. He's like, yo, well, pick out a record
you want to play. I'm in his records. I'll pick
out like forty records. He's looking at me like he's
looking at me like you know these. I was like, absolutely,

(45:32):
keep going, a surety, give it a shot. By the
end of the of like thirty five forty minutes, he
was like, oh no, he's serious. And you know, he
was like, yo, you did a really good job. And
everybody was like yo, and I understanding when Lincoln terrorist
parks be hinting people and usually people get dead at
like the service park. So as soon as I got
off and I and he told me what he was saying.

(45:55):
He's like, yo, man, you you got something and you're
really good. To keep up, keep up at it, and
you sounded very good. I was just like, okay, cool.
So I left. I went home and I went right
to my grandmother and I was like, I'm going to
be DJ for the rest of my life. And she said,
as long as you finish school, you can do it.
And I was like, okay, back. I got to finish school,
but I'm a DJ all the way through it. But

(46:15):
the first time I played, I played a block a
block party with I was with I was on somebody
else's equipment, but I was playing the block party. I think.
I was like, well, and it was and I and
I put a hole in it because I'm not record.
What is one of the times that you bombed a party? Like?

(46:36):
What what is bombing for? Clock can't look like it
hasn't happened yet. Let me knock on some wood. No, no, no,
it's not that. It's just that I put so much
pressure on myself to make sure that it doesn't happen
that it just hasn't happened. I'm not saying it can't happen.
It was like my sixteen year old was like, hey,

(46:57):
come play my party like you can. You can play
for that crowd absolutely, okay, no, no no. I just
played for the New York Giants yesterday, and all of
them are in their early twenties and they listen to something.
They listen to sixthen year old music. All of them
were on the on the on the on the field.
Like I like drill music, I like I like these,

(47:20):
I like I love Young Thug, I love Dirk, I
love I love these. You gotta love it to play
it like that. The differences me. I don't love DJ.
I love music music, so I can appreciate all of it.
I understand why certain things won't make sense to some,
but I don't look at it for that. I look
at it for is the record good? Is the record good?

(47:42):
If the record is good, I'm gonna play the records.
I'm gonna play the good records, and that's all I think.
I don't care what kind of music it is. If
I if I can't understand the energy of it and
it doesn't get played, but when I do, I'm going
for it because I literally love the music itself. It's
much much more important than DJ. But I guess that's

(48:03):
the actual part that makes me a really, really a
very good DJ. All right, so you live in a
life of yes. So that said a life of yes.
We we we We did an episode with with DJ
Drama where everything was yes, yes, and a lot of
those things were things I would say hell no, no, no,

(48:25):
no no no, I don't mean yes. But just like
you know, if I'm done a gig, I want to
go home immediately he gets done a gig and then
an unknown t I is, you know, chasing him to
the car. You are rhyme. Okay, give me a number,
here's my number, Come to my basement. That's what Drama
was talking about. I would have missed that. Okay, think

(48:47):
about this. If I don't listen, I don't hear holds well,
I don't. If I don't listen my cousin Foxy. If
I don't listen. If I don't listen, I'm not the
first person to work with him. If I don't listen,
I don't have skills in my house before any battles.
You know what I'm saying. If I don't listen, I

(49:08):
miss it. If I don't listen, I don't know the records.
If I don't listen, I can bomb at a club.
I come from the context for the DJ, and because
I come from that era, I look at every single
gig like it's the last one. Some kids wants to spot.
My question is am I giving it to you? You're bucking,

(49:31):
You gotta take it. And if you try to come
up against me and a club, you're gonna lose. So
if if I bomb, it's gonna be because no one
else was there to and to to to edge me on.
And I just was like, fuck it. You know what
I'm saying, Like, if there's ten people, those ten people
are gonna walk away going. I don't know who that
DJ was, but you know what I mean. Patty Bell

(49:52):
went on TV talking about how club can't rock up
at a party. But I'm sorry, that's that's AUNTI Patty,
but like she's my mother's age, like, and she was
like that DJ Clark Camp was incredible. I was like, yes,
and that's a rep. Now you gotta keep up. But
you gotta keep that, keep going and keep going. Imagine
because when somebody said my names are recently, she was

(50:14):
just like, oh, my god, that motherfucker. And I'm just like,
if if I don't keep that up, it's over. It's
over because the chip on my shoulder is ignorant, you
know what I'm saying. So the one time my bomb
is gonna be the last night, somebody's gonna be like
never again because they wanted so bad for me to bright.

(50:37):
All right, let's go to when you're fourteen fifteen, when
you're like, I got some years and whatnot. So this
is what I want to know. I mean, now, especially
in the world of serato, probably the biggest problem that
we have as DJs is that it's too much information mhm,
way too many options I now. I mean I have

(50:58):
a I have a MacBook Pro that can hold about
four terror bytes of music, and so for me to
figure out I mean on an average, I mean, even
though I prepare for like three hundred songs, usually before
a gig, I'll have the two hundred that I'm ready

(51:19):
to rock or whatever. But back in the day when
there aren't that many records left before you say that,
I'm gonna ask you a question and tell me if
you believe this, Okay, would you believe if I told
you I don't go. I'm gonna prepare this said, Oh,
absolutely believe. I believe I'm the only human being that Well,

(51:40):
I'll put it this way. I'm preparing for the Gold
Party next year right now, and I got maybe thirty
songs that I like that I have to play in Ship.
But that's also like a fault of mine that I'm
trying to not do. You some I'm trying to be

(52:01):
not as calculating. Well, well, you should know there's plenty
of people that do that. I just I just can't
do it. No. I mean that's I believe you. I
believe that you can be in the moment and no,
this will work good. Next, this will work good next.
That comes from being a club DJ for my whole life.

(52:24):
I'm I'm a club DJ, so I don't, I don't,
I don't. I don't call myself a show DJ. I
don't call myself a radio DJ. Have I done shows?
Can I do shows? Yes? Can I do radio? Yes?
Can I do all of those things? Yes? I never
call myself mix it DJ. I'm a club DJ. And
because I'm a club DJ, like, I really can't prepare.
I gotta be Oh Ship, that's look, Oh, let me

(52:45):
turn the ship into some other shop. So you work
on the spot, Okay, Yeah, I'm gonna tell you where
I work from. I work from here. It's what my
heart's telling me to do every time I put a
record on. Oh so you take requests? Never, damn, I
just want to slide that in. Let me amend that. Okay.
Person I will actually pay attention to about her about

(53:08):
a request is my wife? Okay, but she probably don't,
don't She don't. But the other part is if she does,
she's so in tune to where my mind is musically,
it's almost like I can go that's a good one,
you know what I'm saying. And it's because she's been
around me for so long playing like she can damn

(53:30):
near tell this might work for him as well work
for me. No more, Rabbit, walk me through djang and
your formative years, like like, how many records do you
feel is needed for? First of all, how long are
DJ gigs? No less than six hours? Like? No less?

(53:50):
Because I was playing a club around the corner for
my crib when I was fourteen, and that's when I
learned how old how long you got to play? And
that night I had like six creates for records. Every
night after that I played there, I would have like
twelve see going through all of them? Or do you
have to repeat brick House four times already? Or no? Never?

(54:10):
And that's another thing I don't. I don't repeat records
in the party. I can't do it. I don't even
understand this too. There's too much music in the world
to do that. He said, Yo, quest, here's something else.
I never played slide, I never played line records told
me that records and I played, and I played. You

(54:34):
never did a wedding, No, I've done weddings that I
just I just tell them I'm not doing it. Not
no leg slide wild, but none of that. No dance
if you got if you gotta do a record like that,
that means that means you can't make them dance, and
the gay gets to make them not even remember that
they didn't even hear them records. You're right and and
and it's so many records that people do the electric

(54:56):
slide to. Why don't have to play right right them on?
I don't have to tell you to do the dance.
If you want to do what you wanna do, you're
gonna find a record to do it, and they will
do it. If they want to do it, he'll do
it the damn day anything. How does the format for
the Originals work when the five of you, y'll have
eclectic taste, but you guys are also kind of left

(55:19):
the center of that. Yeah, I mean, how do you
how do you guys decide? Because rich and especially in
times of like when you guys do your your um
your gigs, Like, is it just like all right, you
do three records, I'm gonna do three records. You do
three records, I'm gonna do three. How is it? What's

(55:40):
the format? The format is set up already. It's half
an hour each and we keep rotating the half hours.
If it's only three, then it's supposed to be an
hour and a half, and then then then I'm back
for an hour and a half and I'm back I
want half. If it's four, then it's two hours, and
I'm back two hours, you know, saying so if it's
all five of us throughout the night, you'll hear everybody
twice because it's half hour set and no matter how

(56:02):
many people is there. The idea of the Originals is
five DJs who are friends, who really care about each
other who just want to have fun. So whether we're
all there or not, we're just going to make sure
that the night is fun. Y'all killed it door covid.
I appreciate that when y'all will give us the love.
I feel like a big part of your your greatness

(56:24):
is kind of your social skills. When did you learn
the power of meeting people all right? Kind of making connections,
that sort of thing, because I mean, you're also known
as the man who knows everyone. There's literally no one

(56:45):
I can stump you on in terms of a notable
figure in history that you're not in contact with. So like,
at what point are you taking an extra step to
get to know this person? Take this person's card? And
they were called making moves literally literally it's about whether

(57:08):
I respect the person that I'm mean, and if I do,
then I feel like we can have a real conversation.
And it most times I'm having a conversation on the
spot two And that lets me know whether it can
be something else or not, whether it was YO, make
sure you call me or yo, let's let's set up
me in and I let it be on them because

(57:29):
you know, like I'm not I'm not pressing anybody to
do things with me. I'm just like, maybe we can't
do some cool ship. And if we can't do some
cool ship, then cool will do it. But I leave
it up to them and I let my track records
speak for everything that I'm doing. So like when I
meet somebody from a shoe company, like, I'm not gonna
sit there and be like, oh, I did this many projects.

(57:50):
I'm just like, how you doing. Nice to meet you. Look,
maybe we could figure something out and I'll let it
move that way and let the person decide whether they
should or they should And if they don't really know
everything and they started doing the history, maybe they'll walk
away going, oh, I definitely got to do something. I
mean and that and that. That goes across everything. That
goes across music, that goes across sneakers, It goes across everything.

(58:13):
Like like one of the first things I do when
I meet a new rapper is I asked them about records.
Like I'm talking like in the first three minutes, I'm like, yo,
have you ever heard America's Most Wanted? If you tell
if you're telling me you make an album, it's a
classic to me. You have to know what classics are.
So have you America's move wanted? Well, okay, cool, when
you do understand what that is, how at me? But

(58:37):
when you don't, you really can't talk to me about
no rap. You can't talk to me about rap if
you don't know what's the greatest adventure is if you can't,
If you can't tell me what it takes a nation
of millions, If you can't tell me low end theory
like Doc, you can't Yo. There's there's so many rappers
that are making records right now that think Reverend run
is a freaking reverend. Yeah, and that's it. That's all.

(59:01):
But I blame I blame us for that. I am
in total agreeens. We have a culture that doesn't cultivate itself. Fact,
so so I expect these thinks. But when you come
to me talking about you and m C and all
of that, if you say you and m C and
not a rapper, oh you got to know MC ship,
I'm gonna ask you about m C ship. And then

(59:23):
if you're a rapper, I'm ask you about rapper ship.
You know, Like, But if you can't, I'm just like, yeah,
when you do, I'll have MM hmm. What was your
first none djaying for notable m C figured job in
the industry, like your first Clark Kent as an R

(59:44):
Clark Kent as, Yeah, I was. I was a R
at A. It's funny because I was in and R
Epic Records for like two days. Oh oh my god.
This is right before I went to Atlantic. So this
is you're signed on Soul. No stop that I didn't

(01:00:05):
do that. Hanso was very crucial too. He paid it
for it. Okay, over very quickly. Um, but you worked
at what period did you work at Epic? It was nine? Um?
So one day to me calls me he was like, Yo,
I'm about to um send you to send you to

(01:00:25):
Epic Record. You're gonna go work over there. And I
was like what. He was like, Yeah, you're gonna go
do an R And I was like what is saying?
And he goes, you're gonna be looking for new artists
and trying to sign the artist. I was like, oh, ship,
they're gonna pay you this much. I was like what.
I was like that I gotta run the streets chasing
chasing it anymore like I can't. And then like when

(01:00:47):
I got into the first meeting, I was like, can
I still DJ clubs? Is that okay? And they were like,
we definitely want you to. We definitely want you to
stay on the radio. We definitely want you to want
you to stay in the radio. We definitely want you
to have your pulset on everything. So two days go by.
On the third day, Timmy called me. He was like, okay,
Hack of Ship, You're gonna quit. I'm wait, what what

(01:01:09):
are you talking about? You just sent me here. This
is your man that I'm working with, Like, what what
are you doing? Like he goes, you're gonna quit, You're
gonna go work with Merlin? And I was like, what that?
Because he's my man? And he walks me in a
silvere Rohan's office And then I met my mother and
the music business. Wow, she gave me a age. What

(01:01:35):
was that? What was something to Jewish? She gave why not? What?
What what she gave me was about understanding what we're
trying to pick, what we're trying to do musically, and
how the deals work, and how the business works, and
and all of the ugliness of it. And she kept

(01:01:57):
it funking a boy like this is ugly, but this
is this you know what I mean, Like, we don't
have to tell the artist to go figure out your business.
The artist should be trying to figure out this is.
And the reason why she said it like that was
because it's super duper clear. It's not the music, it's
the music business. So just because you know the music

(01:02:17):
doesn't mean you hear properly. That means you gotta go
figure out the business so when you get in it,
you've got something with you so that you can go,
I'm not taking that deal. And your lawyer is nine
times out of ten a friend with the lawyer at
the company, So you gotta have your lawyer working for
you instead of working to make those deals happen so
he can. Don't you think that's a little unfair to
expect that of people who have no fucking clue of

(01:02:41):
any of this, Like you know, someone who can have
a talent and say, Okay, you're a great rapper, sing
or whatever. Pante guess what you're right. So you know
what I did to every artist that came in the office,
I told them, please learn the business. Whether I'm giving
you a deal or not, please learn the business so
this don't happen. Let me tell you about this. Let
me pass him a passim in book or them too.

(01:03:02):
I'm just joking. It's not your responsibility. But all of
that I told them about. I told him about those
two books, every single artist at Kennedy, whether I liked
them or I didn't. I was like learning the business
because it's gonna be terrible. That's the reason why Dame's
Damon Dashes deals were good because you're sitting in the
office going, I'm about to give you a deal, but
you need to go do this so that your deal

(01:03:23):
can be that. You know what I'm saying. I understand me.
There is not an artist player team. You know I played.
I looked at it like I'm an artist and if
I'm gonna be producing some of you getting jerked up
is me jerking myself up. So let me make sure
you don't get jerked up. So it so it goes right.
M Just in that period, you know, especially in New York, Man,

(01:03:49):
it was like it was it was it was the
goal rest of the wild West. And you know, I
know that Dante is getting numbers on the boards for
like the act that he signed, But for you, um one,
can you talk about near misses of acts that you
tried to sign, that that that you close with the

(01:04:10):
cigar acts that you had, and what is the process
of you trying to get an act? Like are you
the sports agent that has to go to their crib?
And like, YO want the answer to that? The first
the first things first, I never really had to go
to an artist crib because again I was already being

(01:04:32):
DJ Claude Cancer. They would come into my office and
if I like them, I'm trying to sign them. So
I had nas before anybody. Like as soon as I
heard the bob with que I called a Canelli, I
was like, bring him to my office because I was
working on a deal between it was I was working
on a deal for Acnelli where I had a bidding
war with Jimmy Ivy and of course I'm just a

(01:04:53):
director of me and R I'm not a vice president.
Jimmy I Bean won that war easily, but Cocanelli lost
professor on my man's I was like, who's that kid
on the ball of que but that's not bring him
And I probably wasn't clear because I was like, bring
him and bring his demo. When he came, he sat
in front of me. It's me and him and A Cannelly.

(01:05:14):
I was like, Yo, give me a demo. He's like,
I don't have a demo. I was like what after that,
you ain't got a demo? Like if that's going through
my mind? And I was just like so I had
to say to him. I was like, yo, um, I'm
not a vice president, Like I'm not the president. I'm
a director. When I bring something, I gotta show him

(01:05:34):
the music, so like, you know, like I Cannelly had
a bunch of songs I was. I was walking it
through to him. I was like, I gotta I gotta
play the music to get to try to get to
that point. And and I said, you know, we just
signed dost Effects. They had damn the whole album done.
Like he walks out of the meeting rightfully, so there

(01:05:55):
was nothing to do. But I was just like please, like,
if you got some songs, get me the songs or whatever.
He walks out of the meeting. Years later, he makes
a record and then the record he goes Clark Kent
wouldn't sign me because he signed Dost Effects, And I
was like, that's that's not what happened. I was like,
you know what weed is something but like you know,

(01:06:18):
I Connelly, I lost a Canelli um to Jimmy Ivan,
I lost, I lost, I lost my deep two Bones
Malone Yeah yeah, when they when they were political profits.
When they were they were in my office, like I
was trying to sign these these little boys, and it

(01:06:39):
was this chick who managed them who was cool with Dame,
so Dame was halfway managed them too. So I was
just like shipping the soft family, We're gonna go. And
Bones had heard them like the day before me, so
he was trying to sign him, and he was, yeah,
he was a fourth Broadway, so like he already had

(01:07:00):
something like the day before. So it was almost like
I'm going to have to fight with my man, and
I was just like, no, I can't. I can't fight
with Bones about this. And then the way that they
were structured with the girl, I was like, you know, what,
do what you wanna do? But I was they would
have been wherever I was at and I still got
numberleve form. Yeah, I'm glad you mentioned this. Can you

(01:07:24):
tell me how long it took for Dos Effects to
create their first album after they had the single the
album they Just Know. The album was every beat round
with the album was done practically maybe one song off.

(01:07:46):
When they came to the office, Wow, we're all we
were all like, oh, ship, this is it? What remember
of who did the who did the production on that album?
That's one thing that was never me. Was it PMD
or was it it was how was Christianity? Yeah? Yeah
it was them. It was yeah, Solid Scheme. What's crazy

(01:08:11):
is I didn't even notice until later when when the
when the deal was done, Like they brought the whole
crew to the office and I'm like, I'm looking at
Solid Scheme, like, yo, don't not know y'all. And They're like, yeah,
we live on the next block from you. And I
was like I was looking at them like your motherfucker's
make beats. You did all of this ship. They were
like yeah, we was doing it in the crib up

(01:08:32):
the street from you. And I was just like, talk,
I know, y'all. Why didn't you say I just see
y'all as the kids from up the block. Why didn't
you say something? He said, well, you know, Paris was
like he's gonna bring it to where you was at.
So I figured we find out. I'm like, what, like
I didn't have to do this then? That's to go
that way. It could have went threw y'all. It could
have been a solid scheme production and you know, yeah,

(01:08:55):
but they did. They did all of it, and it
was literally done before it was done. Now, I mean,
I'm in an era where Okay, if something fresh comes out,
everybody's biting at a second later. I've been so common
now that you know, I don't. I just think it's

(01:09:17):
it's it's just the you know, the lay of the land,
like some dope comes and then you gotta do your
version of it. But I've just never seen a domino
effect or see change effect happened so rapidly in hip
hop then when after dost effects came out. So could

(01:09:41):
you just talk at least from the from the behind
the scene standpoint or what it was like like when
you heard that something you knew that you had lightning
in the bottle. Yeah, for sure, Yeah, I knew that.
I knew that it was gonna be crazy because of
how funny enough at that moment, how different it was.

(01:10:02):
But I didn't literally feel it was so different, because
you have to remember, at that time, I was trying
to find jay Z and Jazz and they were doing
it in the eighties, so they were trying twisted and
even way before that. No, no, they were I'm talking
about the eighties. The Originators came out in the eighties. Yeah,

(01:10:23):
and they were doing what you heard the Rigety did
Diggady diggy di stink. All of that ship was in
the Originators records and the tripling was in the Originators records,
So like they were doing it from in the eighties,
and I was trying to find them. But when this happened,
I was like, Okay, yeah, we have to do this.
This is an emergency, right, so we do it. She
goes crazy, but then yes, a ton of motherfucker's just

(01:10:45):
all of a sudden, we're riggety and sticky and jicky jiggy,
And I was just like, wow, but that's happened from
the beginning of time. The second song that was ever
made as a sample of the first song, but did
You I almost feel like the the this is the
one the rare times where I felt like fighting. It

(01:11:07):
was superas effects, right, but I almost felt like it
killed any momentum that they had that by the time
the next album came, you know where you involved at all?
In the the The a and R and the development
of Yes and I produced on that album. They didn't
change a lot, but they went more to the fact

(01:11:28):
that we actually can wrap you know what I'm saying.
And I was like, that's a cool idea. Um, people
are going to be expecting you to do one thing,
so doing what you're doing might not work out properly,
but it didn't mean that we shouldn't let them try it.
And some of their like better wrap record like Wrappability Records,

(01:11:48):
came from that second album. I wanted to ask you, man,
I was always curious about your work with rock Kim
on his album you know, the Eighteenth Letter. What was
it like? Because I was upon his career where he
was really you know, you don't call her comeback, but
that was you know, he was setting up you know,
the next chapter of his career was yeah, you know

(01:12:10):
how what was your approach as the producer saying all right, Roy,
we're gonna take you. Was the go to get him
on the radio, get him in a club, like what
what was your mind as a producer? The goal was
to get him interested in rapping. Two things that I
came up with, like Slick Rick two and I worked
on Slick Ricks album when he came home from jail,
like it was I made tracks for like two weeks

(01:12:32):
and he wouldn't even come in the room. Here's something
a lot of people don't know. When Rock Him was
like eleven wine Dance Day happened and there was a
guy named King Charles from Queen's that had a stupid
sound system and he used to bring the sound system
the Wine Dance Day. He brought me with him one
year and I'm d James and this little dude is
on the mic on the crate and it was rock Him.

(01:12:53):
So later on, later on when I'm when when were
sitting in the studio and I've known rock Chimp since
the beginning of Rock Him, like making records, just cool
rock Him, just like cool. We meet each other and
your crew knows I know all these dudes in your crew,
so we're just gonna know each other like that, right,
And we're sitting in the studio and I say, yo,

(01:13:13):
was the first time he wound that Wine Dance Day?
He said, you know around that Wine Dance Day. I said,
I'll tell you in the second So when's the first
time he said, yo? Man? I think I was like eleven.
I said, I believe you were eleven. He was like,
how do you know that? Because I was DJ. He
was like, wait a minute, clause, so you was my
DJ the first time I got on the mic at
a park jam and I was like, how about that?

(01:13:36):
That's crazy, man, Like it might not even make sense
to people that I'm older than Rock Him, don't, right,
you know what I say? So it's like, definitely he's
older than everybody. The reason why is because at sixteen
he became the most important MC period. Yeah, Rock Him
is literally literally the most important MC ever. So when

(01:13:59):
you were making back, we're making an album, how are
you able to fit him into a I guess back
then will be a modern day conduct? What was your
What was your process? I literally for almost two sessions
just sat around talking to him and are mad at me,
like Clark, you're wasting money. I'm like, no, this is
actually gonna help you because I'm getting him into a

(01:14:20):
place of he wants to really really wrap to some
just some ship that might not necessarily be regularly you.
And that thing that we did for two years got
him to trust me, right. But then after the advent
of him trusting me because like, he didn't trust nobody else,

(01:14:40):
So I would have beats from whomever at the and
and all would give me because it basically became I'm
gonna like basically and right cool. So I'm showing them
beats that I'm like, he's are good, He's are good,
he's good, He's gonna Yo, who did this? And when
I tell him, he's going on, and I'm like, so
what I started doing? When I got a beat that

(01:15:02):
I thought he should run two, I was like, I
did it, Oh bet yo, let me go right to this.
I don't give a damn how I gotta get that's
me being a recognized did a record company. I'm gonna
get this. I'm get done. So I did that for
producers that weren't quite more famous enough for him to

(01:15:24):
The only producer that he actually was like, okay, I
trust him is premier. Yeah. He just didn't necessarily like
say oh yeah immediately I had to be like, yo,
this should fire, you know Pete. Pete gaves fire, and
then he would listen and the soccer begins. That was

(01:15:45):
my joint. But the fact the fact that he runs
to guess who's back was mind blowing to me. But
then it gave me the ability to do something that
I really didn't get to do records, like the whole
end of the record, I'm scratching, which I didn't really
do on records a lot. But I was like, he

(01:16:06):
was like, yo, man, get to the zick z. Because
of the intro of the record. Once again, back is
being incredible. He's like, yo, you you gotta scratch that
at the end of the record. And I'm just like,
oh no, I don't. This record is gonna have a
hard end. He was like nope, and he would challenge
me by going, Okay, I'll do the scratches. As the

(01:16:26):
producer of Maia Players Anthem, what were your thoughts on
j Brews and Promos You're playing yourself. Well, first of all,
I've known Promo since he was in college, and like
we're like we're really are like super old school friends.
Like when I was with Dana Dane, we did a

(01:16:46):
show at p Review University. He was a DJ for
the night and the and the show was in the
gym and he was on the STA that and I
was like, Yo, nice to meet you. DJ called DJ.
There was no game stock, it was DJ forbet. I'm
like you. Oh, good to meet you man then, and
he and I was like, yea, you you're playing ship.
I'm saying you're getting it off. And he was like,

(01:17:06):
thank you, and I get on. We do the show
with Dana Dane and and we instantly became cool. And
I would do parties at the Ryan Stone Wrangler in Houston,
and I damn it was famous in Houston for playing
at the Ryanstone Wrangler with a Pie Kohla and and
uh Steve Fanier. And I was super tight with James

(01:17:27):
James Smith at that time, so like when the advent
of Gang Star came, I was like, I know we
know each other already, you know, so we're super cool.
So when the record got made, I actually literally was like,
did I do something on the print? I was like,
because I was like I love that guy, like I

(01:17:50):
love him and I believe he loves me too, And
I was like, how did you just do that? You know?
It really was about the idea of this. He played
yourself and he was going at Biggie, so it was
like he was going at Biggie on something big he did.
So I I was like, no, I loved for men,
for men loves me and I think nothing of this ship,

(01:18:11):
but I did. At first. I was like, he murdered
that ship. So the thing is, I was like, he
might have made a filler beat. I just made the
better song, so I was cool. I was cool with
both the beat, but that's because I looked at it
like a producer and not like a guy who's just
listening to song. But once I got to the song part,
I was like, yeah, my song kills that, but your

(01:18:34):
your beat, your beat kills mine. You know. Listen, man,
One time I was in the club and all of
a sudden, the DJ in the club plays you are
what I'm all about, and he starts manipulating the sample
in serratto, so it goes doom dumdum zoom zoom m
and I'm just like, fucking quest, I'm gonna kill you.

(01:18:59):
How Look, I was like, it was you who did it?
And I would we would ask Santos and I was like, oh,
Quest is wild. He's wild. So I just I just
like that was that was super duper. And I was
just like, you know what, how gonda ever feel bad
about that? Like, Questions is dope, Premiere is freaking amazing.

(01:19:22):
Premier to me is the best Boom Bad producer ever,
like ever ever ever. Yeah becomes speaking of battles, Speaking
of battles. Um, I know that you were one of
the organizers of the Battle for Words World Supremacy. Um.

(01:19:43):
Now you mentioned Merlin Bob, which I'm gonna ask, did
you do any time at Electa whatsoever? Well, if you
worked at East West, you worked at Atlantic, East West
and Electra. So were you the one that signed Supernat
to deal with the lecture away? But I was the
one who got the ability to sign an artist to

(01:20:06):
the deal. So basically that the deal was a prize.
But the deal was a prize because I walked in
and was like, yo, I do this contest and da
da da dada that I need to be able to
sign the artist who wins. And they were like okay,
And so it was the prize. It wasn't like I'm
saying I want to sign. It was like, no, this
is a prize. Like and it's crazy because people didn't

(01:20:29):
even know that was a surprise. That was the prize.
Like you get there and you think you're just battling
for this world Supremacy belt. I mean at that time
I had switched it from belts to jackets that you
could wear every day because you couldn't wear a belt,
and a ring that you could wear every day because
you couldn't wear a belt, and and you know, special
things like we're gonna get you like a little set

(01:20:49):
up and ship. But once they said it'll be a
deal that we give, I was like, Oh, they're just
gonna get a jacket, the goal ring and then they're
gonna get this deal and that's gonna funk them up.
So when they when it was happening and ship was
over in Supernatural one and I was like, by the way,
you just gotta tell a lot of electoral records, he
was like, I gotta what I was. Yeah, he still

(01:21:11):
wonted even though he wanted. Yeah, he won the battle.
The Craig G thing wasn't a part of the battle.
That was just Craig g one night in between the
two nights. He was just like he got up and
was like, Yo, keep this nig's ass on the mic.
That's the way I heard it. Come back. And then
they battled and Craig Craig wrote, are okay, Craig won

(01:21:32):
the battle, Come and say it like that. And the
reason why I'm gonna say it like that is because
when the battle was about to happen the next day,
I was like, Yo, I'm hearing last night that there
was a battle between Craigan Supernatural and Supernatural. I mean,
I mean and Craig g bust his ass. Those are
the words I use, right. And at the same time,

(01:21:54):
Supernatural had a show on seven once a week. He
would be on any seven right out, he goes on
the show and goes, you know, I like to shout
out to everybody who came out to the battle. You know,
I won dad Dada for Claruk cancer snake. Oh. I
was like Clark cancer snake. How you know. So I'm

(01:22:17):
a little angry and I see him, I'm like, Yo,
what are you talking about? Then I, instead of really
trying to have a conversation with him, I went to
care arrest and I was like, who was managing him?
I was like, Yo, talk to your man. Talk to
your man, because if you don't talk to your man,
I'm gonna choke. Talk to you man. And and it

(01:22:39):
got to a point where I was like, dogs, like,
you're not talking to your man. Your man should go
on the radio and apologize because just because I had
I read I really spoke about some ship that happened
the day before. I'm a snake. You just want my battle.
I gave you a record deal. What is you talking about?
You win right right? You want like, we're just talking
about what happened the night before before you won the battle.

(01:23:00):
So I'm just like, so that makes me a sneak
because I mentioned what happened the night before, even though
you in the same day won the battle. So some
weeks went buying any apology. He invited me up to
the radio and yeah, but because something has happened in
the middle, and then he invited me to the radio
to apologize, and I was just like, cool, you know

(01:23:21):
I left it the way it was, but I just
could not understand why you would take that route after
me just repeating what I heard the night about the
night before and then you won. It was like, who cares? What?
What did you work on his Albut I know the
album never dropped, but you fold it all. You weren't involved. No,

(01:23:41):
I wasn't involved. I was gonna ask you got him
the deal via winning the contest, but you had nothing
to do with the ain't are No. I'm only asking
this because the first day that he records one of
his tracks is also the first day like he's studio
see at Battery Studios, and this is the first day

(01:24:05):
that the Roots and Bob Power are mixing down, uh
what will eventually be? Do you want more? It's like
our first day of mixing, and maybe we were in
like super Supernat and Tarik were really tight, so I
think we spent like just two hours in his break
room and killing whatever. And he's like tracking the song
and he's working on a song called When I Was King.

(01:24:26):
When I was King. When I was King, I ruled
everything like it reaked of a caress one hook. But
I noticed that every time he started a verse, it
was a new verse and he's like, no, no, no,
I don't like that. Let's do it again. So it's
like I don't know where to take to it, and
then he does the hook and then it was nothing,

(01:24:47):
and I realized he was like, I'm gonna make this
entire album freestyle, like I'm not gonna write anything, and
I was like, you know, this is a recipe or
a disaster. So I always wanted I wanted to know
did that album ever get completed? And this also is

(01:25:08):
a nice wonderful segue into another person that attempted to
do that actually did it, made made some made some
some some attraction with it, which is of course I
gotta ask you what was it about jay Z that
you that made you say? Because I believe your quote

(01:25:30):
to me was like I knew he was the greatest
the first time I heard him, Like, normally someone builds
up to that, but how did you know? I knew
because he was saying rhymes that were better than the
guys that I thought were the best, But they were
like so much better that I was like, Wow, these

(01:25:51):
guys aren't aren't even like close. Him and Jazz to me,
were like the most elite m c s I ever heard.
But Jay had something else. He had the rest of
the package, you understand, Like Jazz had the bars like
Jazz's bars, like insanity. He he would say things that

(01:26:15):
I would have to be like wow, and we would
be in the room like wow did he just say that?
But then Jay would go in the station ship and
we'll be like wow. But everything else was attached to it.
It was like this flow, the style of cadence, the
attitude you walked away believing every single word he said,

(01:26:36):
and I was just like, Yeah, that's that's He's this guy.
He's going to be looked at as the greatest. Why
do you think it took so long for quote unquote
heads end quote to actually give him proper before we
do that, I'm gonna go back and I'm gonna say
when you were talking about another guy who didn't who freestyle,

(01:26:59):
Jay never re style. Everything that you hear was what
he put together. So it was written. It just wasn't
written down. It was written in his memory and isn't
definitely right. He remembered what he was saying by the
rhythms that he wrote it in. But this isn't that
former freestyle. That's different. Freestyle is like when you just

(01:27:21):
coming like the top right off the top of your head,
like none of that. Yeah, he's stimulating the wraps. He
has supreme memory too, right, because that too has It's
like his his His recall game when he was making
records was insanity because I would be like, we drove
him from the city to Brooklyn and a Bee would

(01:27:41):
be playing and he'd be like, Yo, I got it,
you got what I got? I got I got this
one we're gonna we're gonna go in to crib and
we're gonna do this one. And we would do it
and I'd be like, when did this happen? He was
like on the right home talking about tracking it is
it stands at a time? Is it? Like was one

(01:28:02):
guy who could put it all together. He could put
each verse together in one shot and then go back
and do the ad lives like he would do a
verse to the ad Lias and then go to the
next verse. But I'm just like dog like, we can
do that later. It's the memory. It's a it's a
memory exerci. I didn't mist like that. I did that

(01:28:25):
from like ol Foard to like when I heard because
I heard that, because I heard the stories like oh
Jay don't write if he does it, and I was like,
let me try it, and so I tried it and
I was like, okay, cool. So, like everything from like
oh four until I built my studio at the crib
at oh nine, like all of that was no paper.
Why do you stopped then? Um, just the studio change.

(01:28:49):
Like so for me, my process at the time like
was just we were recording the studio, so you just
cut to beat on to fifty and just walk around
and I would just kind of write it and put
it together there and then tell my engineer like all right, bro,
let's go and I do it when you're recording at
home and you got right right, yeah, But now when

(01:29:09):
you're recording at the crib, it's like, I'm not gonna
leave a beat on loop forever, you know, when my
kid is trying to sleep. So that was when I
went back to It became a more of a thing.
It became more of a writing and I think just
for me by style as an MC at that time,
it was really changing from I don't want to be
just a great rapper. I want to be a great
writer because I think if you, I think there's a

(01:29:30):
longevity in it. You know, the reason why guys like
a Jade you know what I'm saying can still perform
at a high level now is because he, in my mind,
he thinks of himself as a writer, Like you can
mature as a writer. Can you mature as a rapper? Maybe?
I don't know. But if you think yourself as a writer,
there's always and a storyteller, you always have room to

(01:29:52):
grow and mature. I think, what's I think the right
way to say it is he thinks of himself and
as an m C, not a rapper. And when you
and when you were MC, what you're saying becomes more
important to how you say it because you got something
you want everybody to get. You want like it's trip

(01:30:14):
is like are you getting this? Like there's things on
the first album that people just don't get and I'm
just like and like this is like freaking twenties some
years ago, Like why you why is this mind blowing
to you right now? Like you should have got that
maybe a year later, but like we're twenty five and
you still don't get you know so, But but I

(01:30:35):
will say the first time I started happen and this
is like literally the first session we do. He did
that ship and I was like, you know what the
fund this happened? Like dog, did you have that already?
He was like nah, He's like this is what the
beat said for me to do. And I was like,
how did you remember all that? And he explained, he

(01:30:57):
was like, you know, just like when you your a
b c's I took it. I took this part and
I put it. I put it together based off of
what he said he was like, I remember the rhymes
based off of the rhythm in which I wrote them,
So for if the rhyme goes that, that's the way

(01:31:17):
he remembers there the rhymes is to the attempt dance
atte but that he's coming up with. And I was
just like, in my mind, I was like, what are
you talking about? So I said, what are you talking about?
So he would go most of mine cadences come from
drum rolls, and I was like, what in you would
come on, let's go, let's look at this record and

(01:31:39):
you hit that right there, that drum roll, that's a
cadence right there, And I'm just like, and what the
fund are you talking about? And he would display the
ship and go back, y'all remember that drum roll. Go
listen to that ship. And I'd be like, oh, he's
a wizard. Yeah. I was just thinking, I love when
y'all making sound like science, and because it is so
so later on in my mind, I was like, the

(01:32:01):
first thing you learned to remember, you learn it connected
to music, so connected to a rhythm, A B C
D like you connected to a rhythm, Like it's so
much easier to remember something that's seven at Schoolhouse Rock
was the proof of that ship. Like you you can

(01:32:21):
remember everything from Schoolhouse Rock if you watch it twice
based based off of the rhythm. You know what I'm saying,
it's true. So like he explained, he explained that ship
to me, and I was just like, that's masterful. And
that also gave me something else in my pocket. When
I would walk around and talk to people about him
and like, Yo, my man, don't even write the ship down,

(01:32:42):
he would be looking at me like, clock, you're a liar.
The first first person told me I was alive with skills.
So I was like, skills, come to the skills, come
to the crib. He was like, I'm not who. I
was like, yeah, my man, my man's head and you're
gonna record to that, just kind of my crier. He
sees Jay come in listen to the beat for a while.
He could tell this is the truth. And he went
in and got on the mic and said everything that

(01:33:04):
he was mumbling in the hallway, and he was like, Yo,
what the fund does that? And the same way I was.
He was like, I said, dog, I told you, he
don't write it down. He just thinks of it. I said.
And then he thinks of it and puts it all
together and everything, like when you think of ninety nine
problems and think that there's no pen attached to that,

(01:33:27):
there's no pen attached to meet the parents. I'm sorry,
dog fucking wizard, Yo, you're just reminded me. Now. I
wouldn't have said, um, now, I got a search for
this ship, because I mean, technically he did it just
so that he recorded something, just so that he could

(01:33:49):
remember it specifically for a show that we were doing.
But mid rehearsals for that whole reasonable doubt thing that
we did for the anniversary, he's like, you know what,
he's I'm I'm doing a sequel. I'm real. He's like,
re redo, can I kick it? And just lay the

(01:34:10):
beat down for five minutes? So like me, Adam Blackstone,
I forget, like who else was there? So we we
we were hooking it up like we're going to do
it um during the show, and the whole time I
thought he was I thought he was just like recapping
something that he might have wrote a sequel to it
or whatever. He's like, no, no, no, I'm making up

(01:34:31):
right now. So just give me a half hour. I'll
get it and I really regret this moment. But this
is the exact moment where in the next room in
the in the room next door, Kanye and Consequence were
just working on I don't know if you remember this

(01:34:51):
song on Consequences record, Uh your Girl, Your Girl, Keep
your Girl. It's it's one of the hardest beats ever,
Like if you remember the if you remember that beat,
like my older self is like, yo, you could have
witnessed a real historical moment of watching this motherfucker crafted.
But I'm not thinking like I'm making a bat for

(01:35:11):
jay Z to you know. He's just like, I gotta
remember my rhyme, so just give me a half hour
and I'll have it. So we're running in that room
to watch old boy like put this beat together for
Consequence of Ship, and I came back. He's like, all right,
I'm done, and he laid it and it didn't hit
me until like much later that he actually made that

(01:35:34):
rhyme up at the moment, And mind you, there were
forty four fours in there, so that's the part. I'm
still like. I was like this, he had this one
in this pocket, there's no way and he's like no,
It's like I made it up on the spot. Was
a freestyle that he used to do every every time
we performed at Maria Davis. Well, what we call freestyle.

(01:35:56):
You know when you're run into a beat and you
just go off, just you do that ship to can
I kick it just before there was a beat to it,
and and then it was like, he'll make a bee
to it. Your ski come up with him to it.
But he said twenty He said to twenty two times.
And I was like, wow, because because so trust me.

(01:36:19):
When when the first time he did it, I was like,
what the And then the next time he did it,
I was in the side going and then when I
got to twenty two, I was just like, nah, I
understand this is the second This is the second time
he did it in front of us, you know what
I'm saying. For the first time, we were just like, oh,
that ship is crazy. Yeah. Then I was like, too,

(01:36:43):
in a minute, twenty two two, that's that means something different.
Let me listen. And I was just like he said
to twenty two times. He's visit. He's not regular man.
So when forty four fourth came out, I was like,
I'm not even gonna tell him about he said for you,
he said, or forty four time. I'm not even gonna
tell no about because they're gonna say I'm lying. Right.

(01:37:09):
Did you were you there for the tracking of skuys
A Limit. Yeah? Yeah. That It was kind of crazy
because there wasn't an idea of one twelve. It was.
It was Biggie doing the hook. He's saying, you have
a version of him singing it. The funny part is

(01:37:30):
in the song his voices again, I just I just
let it be real low because I appreciated the fact
that he can look. We're on a tour bus. Biggy says,
bring me some beach with Junior Mafia, and I'm just like,
who's Junior Mafia. He was like sees and the kids.
The kids are GIF. I'm like, they don't wrap. He

(01:37:51):
was like, don't worry about the clock. Just give me something.
I bring him some ship. First thing going to be
the Skuys. On the tape of skuys A Limit, he
was like, Yo, you gotta hold that. And I was like, no,
that that's like an at least joint m hm. He's
looking at me like I was like, yes, I can, Nah, dog,

(01:38:11):
you gotta hold take it back I need that. I'm like, whatever,
let's keeping second joint on the tape is I need it?
I need you tonight. He was like, oh that, I
like that too, and then he his players anthem and
like literally, he's going m I mean. I was like,
we're gonna have something, and I'm thinking it's me and

(01:38:33):
then we're gonna make a record. For two days, We're
gonna go home. We're gonna make this record. I was like,
we go home. He brings a little Season and little
Kim and I'm like, what's going on here? And then
sees goes into booth and does the verse. I was
just like, oh, and then he does his verse and
then Kim talk about it. She just like it's crazy

(01:38:57):
because if I was smarter back then I would have
left the ending of the song the way she ended it,
because at the end of the song, I took out
the words she was saying at the end, and at
the end she said Clark can't mother fucker, and I
was just like, you can't say. You can't say Clark
can't mother I took it out and I was just like,

(01:39:18):
wait a minute. That was a moment. I walked up
Clark can't motherfucker whoa. And I was just like, I
didn't leave that in. I was like, I'm the dumbest
right now. But then but then the record happens and
I'm just like, yeah, that's all right. So but while
we're on the tour buzz though, he goes back to

(01:39:38):
the Sky's a Limit beat and he just starts thing
to this ship and I'm just like, oh, he was
wildly like he just gets it because it's just as
we hear it, Clark, like what he heard for the
first time is as we hear it finished product, Like
the beat like exactly the way it happens is exactly

(01:39:58):
the way I gave it to him. And like he
goes back to it because he's like, Yo, I need this,
and you know, we're not really paying attention, but I'm
hearing him going, you know that dude came on and
I was just like why, just like this dude. But
I was just like, Dog, that's a Canelli's record. Yeah,

(01:40:19):
But he's like so wanted so bad that I go
back and I go to ACNELI. I was like, dog,
you're really gonna use this record? He was like, hell, yeah, clock,
how much is it? And I told him, and he
was just like, yo, clock, he's trying to buy a
car on me. And I was like, what, like dog, like,
you know, I made records there, you know, I make
records like this is He like I'm and and he

(01:40:40):
just like he didn't really want to pay for its.
I was just like, yo, bigie, have it. He was like, yeah,
you gotta hold it though, and I'm thinking hold it
for what and he's like, oh, just me, trust me,
you gotta hold it. I did not know he's thinking
two and a half years down the line, it's gonna
be on your next album. I'm thinking that's somewhere on
Junior Manthea's album. But he was just like, you gotta

(01:41:00):
you gotta hold it. But he had the hook after
like two hours. But he was singing it to himself.
He wasn't necessarily saying this is gonna be the hook.
He was singing it like he could sing it to it.
But I'm listening to it, going wow, if that's the hook,
you know. And it just went that way and the
and when it came time to mix that, the record

(01:41:22):
came back from Bad Boys Studio and it had one
twelve on it and I was like for this ship beautiful.
But I respected what he did so much, and it
was on the tape that I just let it be
in the beat, Like if you listen to Brooklyn's Finals Biggie,
every time the record goes like on certain hooks, Biggie's
doing that ship like Biggie's in the background going. I

(01:41:45):
was just like, yeah, I gotta leave it. I gotta
leave it there. It's it's just hit me. Cart. You
gotta tell me speaking of the early days of Rockefeller
and you please share your many Dame battles, Like I
know that Dame is a proud Harlem night and you
are from the borough Brooklyn. Yeah, but can you please

(01:42:08):
share the story of the bet of the Freshest, which
basically leads into you know, there's there's there's a whole
slew of people that know you strictly not from music
before sneakers in um story, Dame does a whole want
to traveling with with Jay and all of that. You know.

(01:42:32):
Um he comes back and he was like, Cawk, I'm
fresher than you. And I was like, yeah, I right whatever,
And he goes every day. I said, I've been doing
that since you met me. Nah, I bet I bet,
he says, I bet you can't wear a brand new
pass nikas every day for a year. I was like,
what do you want to bet? Because in my mind,

(01:42:52):
I'm like that's an instant loss. Right, So he was like,
I bet you. I can't remember what the bet was for.
It had to be something stupid, but I made the
bet and I wore a brand with this because every day.
The good part was it was at Rockefeller Office, so
every day he got the pain and then like and
we were like it was just it was just a

(01:43:16):
ship talking between me and him. He knew how to
ring your like to twist your stomach, like out of
you now He's like, come on, Danny, come on, Danny.
I was really one of the guys who could ignore Dame.
Then just one time I just went too far. He
was like, you're scared. You're scared. I'm scared. Like I've

(01:43:38):
been doing this since you met me. You worth eighteen
nineteen when I met you, and I've been this guy,
Like what makes you think it's gonna change now? Because
you got some money and brought every seeker you saw
on the way when you was on the road, Like,
I really have everything that you buying now, I have
it already or I had the original, to which like,
so stop, you gotta stop. But he just was talking

(01:44:00):
ship and talking ship, and I just was like I
bet and he lost. And you couldn't repeat a pair
at all in a year's time, brand new pair of
sneakers every day, brand new pair, or just a a fresh,
brand new pair. So even if I wore white on white,
spour months straight every day to white on white, had

(01:44:21):
to be a brand new pair. About this and think
about this to me, right, if you came to my
crib and you saw four thousand pair of sneakers, why
would it seem like it's hard to do it? Right?
It's only three hundred and sixty five days, right, So
if I didn't buy any sneakers, I could have done it.
I could have done it for like ten years. It's

(01:44:44):
when like twelve years, maybe fifteen years like this rule.
Oh yeah, I don't win. I don't win sneakers. Wife,
I'm sorry, way they go? What side? What side are you?
I'll take your leftovers. I'm a thirteen. I give him away.
You're you're, you're out of there's I'm not ask quest.

(01:45:05):
He knows same size. Yes, I take quest left overs.
You know, you know bad I am like a rare
pair of of Mork and Mendy's. I just let Steve
add them. That is fascinating. Here's the thing. You probably
let him have them because it didn't like affect you
a certain way. Well at one point, it's just ridiculous.

(01:45:25):
And you know, I was just like, okay, you you
have a you have a pair of sneakers that you
didn't wear that was given to you during the Air
Force anniversary and I know I will wear those. You
gotta give them to me. Oh you're talking. I'm talking
about the crop joints, right, You're talking about the crop joints,
the white with white and orange crop one there snake

(01:45:47):
with a crop stripe. Yeah, I'm a c You have
to give them to me. Oh like black, How I
got you? How How I got you? Can we talk?
Are we getting to night? Key? Because I just the
beginning of the the relationship, when the romance, when y'all
fell in love with each other, and how y'all fell
in love with each other, Clark was like not knowing

(01:46:08):
and Clark Nike and Clark, when you said that with
the vigor of an angry black mother. If you don't
get because said he didn't did eight five shoes with knife,
and I just don't want to stand you didn't differentiate

(01:46:31):
the you. I'm thinking like, okay, you you exaggerate a lot,
like but okay, I'll go with this. I do. I
do want to know why he picked you as well
to get with Nike. Yet we'll get to that. Yes, yes, yes, yes.
When the anniversary of the Air Force one was about
to happen, they had some ideas and it was this
dinner and like they invited me to dinner and asked

(01:46:53):
if they could borrow some of my shoes for this
big exhibit. But it was gonna show like maybe two
thousand pair of Air Force one at a party. When
did you first know that sneaker collecting was an art?
It wasn't an art, it was it was corny. And
I got looked at like I was corny, Like damon
who who I would end up battling One day the

(01:47:15):
first time he came to my crib, he was like, clok,
what the fund is all these sneakers? So it's just
the way I stay fresh. And he looked at me
like dog, this is weird. And he would be like, girls,
come to your crib with this ship here, and I
was like yeah, and he was just like, Clark, you
got a crib full of fresh, he said, that ship
because I had every mark you can and I had

(01:47:37):
every North Beach level, I had every good pay of teens,
I had every good sweatshirts and teeth like, and I
would overdo everything, so he would just he came to
my crib and was just like this doesn't even make sense,
like how could anyone have this much fresh? And this
is when he's nineteen, so he's just like, this ship
is wild. I said, well, if you look at the
r I come from, that's what we did. We stayed

(01:47:57):
as fresh as possible. And he was just like, no,
I get it, I said, he said, but this is ridiculous,
you know. So it was the thing happened when I
was nine. My uncle gave me a pair of Prokets
and that, and when I walked outside of the Pokes,
the whole block was like, you know, you got Prokes,
Like all the sixteen seventeen year old were like, you
got prokeeds And I was like, yeah, it's my first

(01:48:18):
name brand sneaker. But they were like, no, but you
got them yet you're a young boy, and I felt
like I had a car. It was addictive. So we
would do odd jobs for all of the older people
on the block and they would give Like me and
my cousin, Market would do these jobs and it would
give us ten dollars a piece. Back then, procds with

(01:48:40):
nine dollars at the flea market, and to get to
the flea market was fifty cents, So you got fifty
cents out of this ten dollars. You get to the
flea market by nine outpas sneakers, and then the other
fifty cents is you're risking your life to get back
with the sea m That's when it started. It started
because the block was like, oh, the older guys on
the block that you know, they looked out for us

(01:49:01):
all the time, but now it's like I'm almost parallel
to them, and I wanted to be as cool as them.
So it was like, oh, well, every weekend, I'm going
to either buy records, I'm gonna buy sneakers. And then
it became, oh, I need to have Gabardine's, I need
to have leads with the with the I need to
have colored leaves. I need to have b b DS.
I need to have Nightlines. I need to have a

(01:49:23):
J Lester's. I need to have British Walkers, I need
to have Playbook, I need to have everything. And it
became like an addiction from when I was really young
because the older guys accepted me with the playboys and
I mean with with with with the proteds, and it
just was like, oh, oh, I'm gonna go hard, and
I went super hard. So every dollar I made, fifty

(01:49:44):
cent went to in fifty cent w went to being fresh.
So then what happened with you in night that that
Nike wasn't even the sneakers back then, like the sneakers
Prokeds and Pumas and Adidas, things like and Clyde to
Us was a superhero. To have a pair of sneakers
with his name on the side of gold was like,
that's the ultimate sneaker back then was Clade, you know

(01:50:06):
what I'm saying. So that's what we were doing. And
then when Nikes really really happened. The thing that that
made me go over the top of Nike was when
the Air Force ones happened and I was playing city
wide basketball and Elm Core basketball and we would Our
team was good, so we would get to go to
other cities to play against other cities. And in Baltimore

(01:50:28):
I saw Air Force ones were actually in Queens. We
played at Baisley Park and this Nike rep came and
told us to try these shoes, but we tried to shoot.
That's what they did. They would they would go to
tournaments and watch kids play and be like, hey, try
these shoes. And they gave me these shoes and I
just thought they were beautiful, so I just stuck them

(01:50:48):
in my back. This is the Air Force. Yeah, it's
funny because now looking back at it, we would call
those hair Force zeros because they didn't have no holes
in the in the in the front of the shoes. Yo,
So joints you gave me are the first year Air
Force zeros. He gave me a red and white first
year Air Force one. Okay, yeah, but they didn't have

(01:51:11):
holes at the top. No, right then, Yeah, those were
zeros to us. We call them zeros that they were
from that time. Yeah, you know, I really had like
lots of sneakers and I had everything in so when

(01:51:32):
they were coming up with this Air Force, they were like,
we don't have everything, so let's go to the guy
who has everything and let's, you know, give some give
him some money and let him curate to the amount
of pairs of sneakers that we have that we're going
to put on this wall for this event. So they did.
They borrowed a bunch of stuff. But in the meeting,
they were just like, what do you think should happen

(01:51:53):
with air Force one? And I was like, y'all should
make an Air Force one store. And you can see
the people in the in the meeting going like this
because they already had an idea to do that. I said,
but you need to make I D nikey I D.
You need to make the ship unlimited. And they were
like what do you mean. I said, you make you
need to make something called V I P I D.
And they were like, okay, could you stop? And I

(01:52:14):
was like, okay, cool. And they were like, do you
have a lawyer? And I was like, of course I
have a lawyer, and can you can you get him
on a phone or hasn't come down? And my lawyer
had my lawyer come down, and and and and the
thing is the guy who said it was a black guy.
So it's almost like he was saying, let me protect
protect protected right and and he could see that. The

(01:52:36):
conversation made me like yo, because I was about to
go off, and he was just like, just like, you
have a lawyer, and I'm like yeah. So when he came,
a lawyer came and he was like, we want to
make him a consultant to help us build this Air
Force one store. And I was like, oh, shift. I
didn't know what that was. And then when the deal

(01:52:58):
points came through, I was like, oh, they're dead serious.
Was like and my my lawyer is looking at me
like do you want to do this? And I was
like and the only thing, the only thing in my mind,
I swear to god, this is gonna sound crazy. The
only thing in my mind was I'm gonna get to
make a sneaker and shipped on Barbido because Barbato had

(01:53:22):
this white pair of Force ones with a burgundy Swiss
and his name was on the side. And I was
like how like how he and he was like like
he gave it to him. So I was just like, oh, okay,
commercial yeah, And and and the thing is like I
went into the meeting the first official I'm working their meeting,
and like the first thing I say before the meeting,

(01:53:43):
can I make a sneaker? And they're looking at me
like that's not what this is for. And we get
into the me and we keep going to it twenty
minutes and can I make a sneaker? They're like, we're
trying to build this store, We're trying to come up
with ideas. You You're you're doing well, keep going on
forty minutes. Every minutes, I'm like, can I make a sneaker?
Can I make a sneaker? I just want to make
one sneaker, like literally saying I just want to make

(01:54:06):
one sneaker. By the end of the meeting, after the
chamber says, let me go sit you down with Mark Dolt,
and I said with Mark dot And Mark Dolt says,
what do you have in mind? And I come up
with I tell him what I want the sneaker to be.
But I did it in like a minute and a
half and he was like, you really had this idea.
I was like yes, I said, I only need one
pair and I need it. I just put my name

(01:54:28):
on the side of ship. That's all one pair. So
he's like he's like what. I was like, yeah, only
one pair. He was like, no, this is really good,
and then he calls asked, and then he calls the
product line manager and the and the guy who was
leading the team, and that everybody in the room was like, no,
that's really good. And they then asked says to one

(01:54:48):
of the you know air Force once a part of
the one's pack, and I was like whatever. He's like,
do you like air Max one? I said, second favorite sneaker. Right.
He says, what would you you to an air Max one?
Boom boom boom m Max wanted finished two minutes and
they're looking at me like, oh, he's he's really ready.
And I was like, but you gotta change the color
of the elephant print so it's different than the air

(01:55:09):
Force one. And they were like okay, So they did.
Ship looked amazing. They were like, what about a trainer one?
I was like that. She was like, They're like, oh,
you don't like it. I said, it's not that I
don't like it, it's just that I wouldn't necessarily be
like I want to make that. But they said, but
what would you do? And then I did it and
then asked her says it louder. He goes, that's a

(01:55:30):
Ones pack and I'm like, is the on stack? He said,
you remember those air Force ones that said gray ones.
Now I was like yeah, he said, remember there was
an air Force one and the air Trainer one that
looked just like it. I was like, yeah. He goes,
that's a Ones pack. He said, this is the one pack.
I was like, cool, I only want the air Force
one and they're like he's saying to me, He's like Claude,

(01:55:53):
He's saying it quiet. He was liked now because some
friends were asked the chambers before night. He's like, Clark,
we feel like we could put this out and you
can have to shoot this out. I was like, dog,
I don't need that. I need to shift on Bobby.
He's like He's like, he was like, you're not understanding
that this is Stiller. I was like no, no, But

(01:56:15):
so he's going, so if you did this, what would
you call it? I said, Brooklyn And they were like, Clark,
could you Because now I'm mad, I'm just like Brooklyn.
He was like he was like Clark. And then he
was like, well can you can you express Brooklyn in
a different way? And the first thing I thought was
seven one eight, and then I was like no, because
that means Queen Staton Island and the box gets loved.

(01:56:37):
And I was like, oh, every zip code in Brooklyn
starts is one one too, so so one one too.
And they were like, that's thinking ce Clark. Now you're thinking.
And it was like, but now we got to connect
it to you. I said, it is, it's from Brooklyn.
It connects to me. He was like, no, we gotta
make something that when we see it we can go, oh,
that's how it connects. So they put the one and

(01:56:58):
inside it put a big one and I had the one.
They put a telephone book like that's where Clark changes uh,
and and I was like and they and they put
the one because it's a one's pack. So that's that's
that's where the logo that's inside issue comes from. From.
Enough of them being sick of me and then like,

(01:57:18):
could you please come up with some ship? So what
was Barbado's response? Barbado thought the shoe was fired, especially
because I can give him a whole set. But I
was just like, more like this was really just the
ship on you. But then he could literally go yeah,
but there's a lot of them. There's only one of these,
and I was like, okay. So so after that, I

(01:57:40):
made it my business to become friends with Tinker half
Field and in the in the people in the kitchen,
so that I could do things in the kitchen that
would be one of one. So I went in the kitchen.
I'm I mean I might have about thirty one of
ones out of the kitchen, but the first one. I
went right to Bobby and was like and and and

(01:58:02):
it was so crazy that he just had to be like, oh,
the ads crazy. What's your favorite Jordan our clock? My
favorite at the top of the child of all Jordan's
is a tie between threes and eleven. I'm threes and
fours those ones for me to like threes, Yeah, you guys, sorry,

(01:58:27):
like start thinking about actually they kind of give you
a little room. They actually Yeah, the ones that funk
out of the ones there six nah, But I like, no,
I can't do the ones like the ones in sixes
on the on the on the on the Jordan's scale,
like Jordan one is a third to me. What's crazy
is I really have more Jordan ones than anything because

(01:58:48):
they keep coming out with good ship like the threes
and elevens is a tie, and then it's ones, and
then it's fours, and it's five. I love five. So
let me ask you. This house on fire, you're saving
five of them joints, five sneakers. What are you saving?
I'm only saving two because I'm getting my wife and
my kids out first, Okay, alright, alright, wiping kids out,

(01:59:13):
and then I can house and get five pairs of sneakers.
What is it. It's gonna sound weird to you, dog,
but I'll be trying to get the records out. No
it don't. It don't sound what you're doing. Just give
me the sneakers your top, all right, I'm just throwing
all your sneakers. But five, I'm gonna go get the

(01:59:34):
bist folks. I'm gonna I mean the one of ones
because they were they were they were meant and given
and made for me. They weren't part of this mass
production of shoes. That because because I can get my
favorite shoes are white on my air Force one, I
can buy them ships all the time. And if if
Nike decided, we will make sure that you have a
brand new pair for of air Force ones for the

(01:59:56):
rest of your life a brand new every day. They
could take what I got. I'm gonna admit this to
you requests. You actually are the person that made me say,
let me put a crock on my foot. You know what,
the show is over, Thank you very much. But but
it wasn't a regular crock. It was a slaty crock.

(02:00:17):
Oh shit, okay, so fresh. But I put it on
and was like, oh, I understand. I wear him around
the house. Oh you You're gonna wear him outside of
the house eventually, probably not, probably Mark Clark dog. You
and I were on this journey together, bro, I get it.

(02:00:41):
And then one day I just got tired, like you
just got tired of suffering just to be like, yo,
what do you have? One? I got tired, so I
went to the opposite, which was what does he have?
You know? These freaking fancy Astley crocs? Though, let's talk.
I mean, this ain't no look. I had to look

(02:01:01):
it up. I was gonna act like I knew what
they will talk about. I'm kind of myth right now
because I'm a product of Shan g So I promised
file that up with something good. Go ahead with you. No, no, no,
I'm just saying that it's he is yet to sear
me wrong, and he's always on me about knowing my

(02:01:24):
worth and knowing my you know, my value whatnot, because
to be honest, I mean, the thing is is that
crop been offered me my own line. But Shans like
Shan is like no, dog like, if it's not equity,
I'm not talking to nobody else. Okay, that makes sense. Yeah,
that's what we're doing. I was like, sure, just please
just let me do one He's like no, because if

(02:01:45):
I let you do one crop, then you'll you'll give
He's like, if it weren't, you would do everything for free,
and business people would just take advantage like a member
with DJ for free, number for free. And so it's
painting me right now that like the Crocs that I'm
dreaming of designing, which is kind of on that level,

(02:02:06):
that heat the lame that he's in right now. They
just offer your year mold, you get bragging rights and
then you know you probably can leverage that to another
company whatever. But you know, Crocs is kind of even
around Timberland was or like those companies. Okay, listen, personally,
you can get I believe you can get an equity deal.

(02:02:29):
With crocs. See I wed because things are happening. That's it.
That's all I can say, things are happening. I don't
talk about something unless it's really happening. Okay, Okay, I
believe you can. I I know you can as a
matter of fact, just because you know I work with
the brands the way that I do. I know that

(02:02:51):
let it. Let it be what it's gonna be. But
I think it will happen for you. It will definitely happen.
And the reason why, the reason why is because you're
not the guy from the roots anymore. Yeah, you're you're
You're you're not like you would have got from the
roots until Jimmy Fallon happened and then it was like,

(02:03:12):
oh nah, nah, that's not the guy from the roots.
That's the guy who is the music director. That's the
guy who did the Oscars, that's the guy who did
the Grammys, that's the guy who did MTV. That's the
guy who did he was the guy who was playing
on stage with daily Like he's that guy. You're not
just the guy from the roots, Like you're you're another monster.
And because you do so much and never stopped. The

(02:03:34):
same would be to get you. So if you're giving
it away for free, which I am begging anyone who does,
anyone with a brand, don't give it away for free.
You need to understand who you are in the game.
Because if you understand who you are, then you understand
that if if you walk in the door, it fixes them.

(02:03:57):
All you gotta do is walk in the door because
if they get picture like it fixes them. So the
idea is, let me do what I want to see Solay.
He is a designer of shoes, so a deal like
that is more. It could be cachet for him, you
know what, like the Silly He also was a designer
at a side Chi you know what I'm saying. He
designed for Yez, he designed Forever, the Young Brother. He's

(02:04:22):
like he's not regularly good, Like he's amazing, even though
sometimes you might not get it when you see it.
Like I looked at the crocks and it was like
like immediate was like, oh, that's his fingerprint, and people
are looking at me like what are you talking about.
I was like, go look at it looks like a
finger print. Oh ship. Yeah, Like so his mind is
on some other ship, like your mind is on some

(02:04:43):
other ship. So if you if you want to do it,
and you you know you, I'm sure you totally understand
your your cashet, and because of that, they will they
will do it, but you will get an equity deal
with them. How do you feel about the design game now,
especially in light of what it's going on with certain figures.

(02:05:08):
Oh god, I think UM first, being able to um
dignify the word designed properly is most important. Not just
I went in and I colored up some shoes, or
I went in and I and uh and and I

(02:05:29):
told the story on the shoot. Like that's mocking up,
that's reappropriating, you know what I'm saying. But like, can
you go in and design a shoot from the ground up?
That's the lay, you know what I'm saying. That's different.
He like what he did at besides is different. He
made a shoe at people if they didn't like, like

(02:05:49):
he made people boy the Sachi sneakers. Again, people weren't
even thinking that, but he did something that was cool
to the street and they went on and bought it again.
And then he took that cash and was like, well,
let me go here and show you some other ship.
And let me go over here and you show you
so much. Ship, let me go overhead and show you
some others went to New Balance and put a whistle. Honestly,
mm hmmm, he's some other ship, you know what I'm saying.

(02:06:12):
So the design thing, if you're designing, like purely you
can draw the ship like that's amazing. But if you're
just getting to work on some shoes and reappropriate, I
personally put myself in that category, like I I'm just
really good at reappropriating some shoes. I'm not calling myself
a designer. The word gets thrown around too too much.

(02:06:33):
And you know, you design music. I could say I
design music. I could say I designed sounds gates. But
if I say I design a sneaker, that means I
should be able to draw a new one from the ground.
And I'm the first one will be like, oh, I
can't do that ship, and and and the only way
I'd be able to get to that point is if

(02:06:53):
I gave him the ten thousand hours of trying to
figure it out. Yeah, you know, quest can make ice sculptures.
I've seen that, Steven. So what's going on in the
design game is like, well, are you really a designer
right now? I believe I believe that his quest goes in.
He's gonna be able to look at a crop turning

(02:07:16):
into some other ship and it will be amazing because
his mind thinks like a creator. That Nike he shoe
that he made though first, because I'm like, wait a minute,
let's think when there was some colors and some designs
on that. Remember that shoe, it was reds and greens,
different things going on. That was my first one. There's
red greens, there's the gold version that was. I mean,

(02:07:38):
you know it's I think he was expressing himself and
I think he had a good job. And and the
thing is the perfect thing about that sneaker was it
wasn't mass produced, so it was you really gotta like this,
you know what I'm saying. You really gotta like it.
And if you like it, then you get it, you
know what I'm saying. So or once it's in front
of you, you get it. But like, because it came

(02:08:01):
out in a time when hype was was was really
being some ship. Like, it's people who got the shoe
who didn't understand, you know what I'm saying. They might
love the shoot, but they love the shoot because of
the hype. Instead of loving the shoe for did you
see what he did? Did you see he flipped the
elephant print on two shoes? Like you didn't see that?
You missed it. There's a lot of nuances that sneaker
heads get that regular heads are just like I missed

(02:08:24):
that one. Yeah, well sometimes it was there was a
lot of underground code to it. Sometimes you gotta explain
the underground colde so that the regular heads can't even
know that the art I know, you can't. I feel
like sometimes like only for certainly, I mean when one too,
When I did the one one too, all I ever
said was it represents work, and then I let people

(02:08:44):
go try to figure it out. So now in Nike
one one two was a color way, you can't you
can't use that color way or the way the mix
of materials and color way that I use unless it's
it's in collaboration with me. Have you ever seen an
ill subliminal on a sneaker that only like that sort
of got kind of you know, miss under the radar

(02:09:09):
of When air Force was turning for thirty five or no, yeah,
thirty five, there was a there was a celebration called
air Force one hundred and it was one pairs of
Air Force ones that were all white and I got
to do one, and I'm going to tell a story

(02:09:30):
that is okay to tell now probably wouldn't have been
okay to tell them. I got a call and it
was like, Yo, what you wanna do? I was like,
what you wanta do? What we're doing? These all whites
coming on and do all white sneaking. So we as
in New Orleans. We had a knee where Nike and
I was like, I want to do this, this, this,
and this to the shoeing and we're gonna call it.
Got that white only one, only one person in the

(02:09:53):
room understood, got that white man and he and he
because he's my man, he's going to clock. Are you
sure you to do that? And I'm like absolutely and
he was so so so he was like okay, I'm
I'm I'm a push for this one. And it really
when he showed it to who it had to be
pushed too, really didn't have to be pushed. It was

(02:10:17):
like it was like, oh, that ship is beautiful. Like
even like Mark Parker called me, he was like, this
is one of the most beautiful Air Force ones I've
ever seeing it in my mind, I'm thinking, like, I
hope he doesn't ask what this gout that white mean.
So if you look at the shoe, it has three
colors on it, and it's it's it's white, and then

(02:10:38):
it's like this, it's like actually off, and then it's
this gum bottom. Right, So it's three versions of cocaine, right.
And I put it all on one shoe, and I
called it gout that white because in the street, if
you say got that white, that means you got coked. Right.
And then on the tone label, I put the words

(02:10:58):
stay fresh on it because I was I think my
thing was to stay fresh. And I was like, I
need all one d pairs to be given to me,
and my rollout was gonna be I was gonna pull
up in the hood of like every state and I

(02:11:19):
was gonna be like then sent an Instagram post out
like yeah, I got that white, right, so a hustler
would come looking for me and I would be like him.
So I was gonna be serving white across fifty states.
But they but they took fifty of the pairs and

(02:11:42):
brought them to Complex conme and they had this dinner
and at the dinner, everybody who was part of a
one hundred. A pair of sneakers got put on everybody's plate,
and nobody knew what the sneakers want until they start opening.
Only one person had my sleep, and I was big
because Big got that a white people were like we

(02:12:03):
at the tables and people are like, yo, what the
fuck is that? So everybody's like, I want that one
I want. So they're telling the waitresses, can you go
switch this? And I get better that out. So they're
giving away all of my products. Oh, they really gave
it away. They didn't just let me they I didn't
get to do the rollout properly, so it became but

(02:12:30):
so I didn't really get to like it was the end.
The whole thing was going to be filmed, like the
Feds were watching me, and then I was gonna let
the fucking film come out. And and so the thing
is when the shoes got given away, you know some
people got like Ronnie five got him. He was like
clock this on Instagram. He was like, this is fucking amazing.

(02:12:51):
The only thing I cared about was when I got home.
I gotta make sure Jake gets there. So I get home,
I bring the sneaky to Jake, and I said the
call got that white. He was like, claw, it was
so important that he wore him ships on his birthday. Wow.
And I was like, he gets he gets it. So

(02:13:12):
what I did with the shoes, basically, I called up
us is that I came off up with. I was like, yeah,
I got SI sneaked for you. And they didn't look
at it like it was oh I got a freshman.
I think it was looked. They looked at it like,
oh God, that white clock. You're crazy. But the good
part is Nike didn't get it. Well yeah, because they

(02:13:33):
ain't got no because they ain't got that black in
the office to tell him that might be a Mike drap.
That's our clip for that just six years, thank you,
thank you, all right. So so so to me, that's

(02:13:59):
the one that got missed, the most that got missed.
And and you know, later on, once I explained what
got that white was to a bunch of people that
and they were just like, nah, that's crazy. And I
was like so then later on I can'tmerab what company
it was, Diamond Supply. They got a whole bunch of
of Air Force ones and stamped like like like pressed

(02:14:22):
into the Air Force one the word coke, but it
was the coke logo. It's a coke. I was like, cope, Whites, Okay,
I get it, but I'm like obvious plus obvious, Yours
is more creative. Yeah, it was definitely. It was definitely

(02:14:43):
more creative. And it would end the thing is once
like a hustler out up here. He understood it as
soon as he saw it. He was like three colors.
So those shoes can never come out again, like and no,
Park Clark can. Now he just go, you know what,
that was a good idea that Clark did ten years ago.
Let's reissue that. Literally, I'm wanted to do that. They

(02:15:04):
seem to have some respect for Yeah, they'll they'll resell
some ship and yeah they'll they called before each something
like that, like I got, I got, I got something
coming later this year. I was about to say, you
still have a relationship with them? Correct, Oh yes, it
sounds like Clark, if you decided you didn't want to
do music anymore, you would be good based on what

(02:15:26):
the sneaker. The sneaker, I'd be okay, but I probably
wouldn't because I love music so much. I'll probably be like, no,
I need to do that. Yeah, as we as we
close out, I do want to know, like, where's your
passion line today? As we speak music music, Well, let
me say this in this order. God, family music kicks.

(02:15:51):
Mm hmm. My family needs more than me, than than
than all of that ship. And I have a family
because of God. How old are your kids? Twenty nine
year old daughter in a year old son? I hope.
So I'm trying not to embarrass them. You're doing well, man,

(02:16:14):
you're doing well. I appreciate those words, but you know, yeah,
they understand d J clark Camp, but like I'm their
father first. Yeah, so it's like I gotta I'm trying
not to embarrass them. I'm trying to I'm trying to
do things that they could look at and go my
dad to some cool ship so that they can be
inspired to do cool ship. This has been a long
time coming. Thank you for having the patience for all

(02:16:39):
the false starts. But you know you're you're literally you
your God's favorite DJ than to man, Thank you manh Yeah,
you want to know something that's crazy? Question is it's
certain DJs that I look at and I go, I
wonder if they think I'm good, you know what I'm saying,

(02:17:01):
because they have their own, their own thing attached to
him that that I look at them and like, now
he's sucking. He's sucking ill some of the ship he does.
It's crazy. Like I look at quests like my question
is a really good DJ? Like questions on the shortlist
of DJs that I like, you know what I'm saying.
I look at Jazz and Jeff like, I like Jazzie Jeff,
I like Scratch, I like you know Blue Louis Vega.

(02:17:22):
Damn what I'm saying to me, to me, he's a wizard.
But then I got this quest love dude, who I
think is out of his mind musically, and I'm like,
he thinks I'm a good DJ. Like to me, that's
like Mom Worshamore ship when a when a d I think,
why do you think we're all together in that in
our threat? Man? I mean, I don't even know if
I'm allowed. Let's ask one about that. Yeah, exactly, exactly, No,

(02:17:51):
I mean it's please. I've I've been to a gazillion
of of your functions show. I know you get down man.
Now you're you're You're the greatest queck I've appreciate you
for doing I appreciate it. And again, it's an honor
to be here because when I look at some of
the people you've spoken to, I'm just like, he wants
to talk to me. I hope I could stand up.

(02:18:12):
It's all tribe. It's all the same tribe. You definitely belong.
We're talking about people that affected the culture. Honey. It
seems like another successful conclusion of the adventures of d
J Clark. Kent Happy, uh Smoking, Stephen fin take a
Little Blue. Can I go on record as saying Fante

(02:18:33):
is one of the best them season around. Yeah, okay,
dog is wild. He's wild like wild. It's funny because,
to be honest, like when I first heard a Little Brother,
I was like, Oh, this dude be spitting. And then
I took some time off because I was like, they're
not doing nothing, and I didn't realize that he was
dropping solo ship and then I went back and I
was like, oh, nuts, Like I think I tweeted that

(02:18:57):
one day, like al Fonte galoways sucking a Man, Easy Data.
Dan with Fame was the first tape by own, So
d J Clark can't big me up like that's just
not man. Thank you so much. That means the world.
I appreciate a good It's all good only Maverick sup

(02:19:20):
here man. Anyway, we have a frontigolo Sugar Steve, I'm paid,
Bill and Layah I'm question love. Thank you much again,
d J. Hert Kent. This is Uch Supreme and we'll
see you on the next proground. A much Love Supreme

(02:19:42):
is a production of my Heart Radio. Well more podcasts.
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