QLS Classic: Little Brother

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. Listen and
gentlemen check it out. This is a classic QLs episode
featuring our fam Little Brother. Of course, you know they
have a really powerful documentary called Me the Lord Watch.
I highly recommend you watch it. They're one of my
favorite groups. We'll assume we be one of your favorite groups. Falla, No,

(00:22):
they're already one of your favorite groups. All right, Quest
Love Supreme Classic Little Brother. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to
another episode of Quest Love Supreme. I'm your host Quest
Love with Me. Today is Boss Bill and kind of

(00:43):
weird is Fontigolo on his own former podcast, As suggested,
the product sun is return and the one and only
Big Poof collectively known as Door of North Carolina's Finest
Little Brother. I'm correct, seeing duran correct? Yep, yep, and

(01:07):
you claim Durhman as well.

Speaker 2 (01:09):
Pooh Durham claims me.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
Like who's one of the tug of war of where
the genesis and little brother actually lies?

Speaker 3 (01:23):
It all started at Central, you know what I mean?
We were students in North Carolina Central together, so Durham,
for all intents and purposes, it is the birthplace a
little brother yeah, I just I just have.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
To make it clear that I'm I'm from Virginia originally
just what cities Alexandria, all through northern Virginia, but Alexandria
and Fairfax specifically.

Speaker 1 (01:47):
Okay, all right, So, I, in the attempts to treat
Fonte as a regular guest, did not assume that everyone
knows his story.

Speaker 2 (01:58):
I do.

Speaker 1 (01:58):
However, I'm not that familiar with your story, pooh. So
to give us a recap or whatever, I'll start with you.
What was your entry into music?

Speaker 2 (02:09):
Probably the radio, but like more importantly BMG, when they
did the uh you could get likes for a dollar
or whatever.

Speaker 1 (02:22):
Were you or were you scamming?

Speaker 2 (02:24):
I was scamming big time.

Speaker 1 (02:25):
Yeah, proud Sam here. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:27):
I did it about five different times and got five
different groups of CDs. But that was probably my real intro,
just learning about so many different artists. And I had
friends from New York. I mean everybody probably did at
that time, back in the nineties who would come down
with tapes like That's how I first heard the big
ee nas and just different artists from out of New

(02:50):
York at the time, and between that and radio, because
radio was real regional in the nineties, so you I
mean we were it was heavy Go Go influence, but
you would get when the artists come through, you will
start getting a different artist. So that's how I got
put on to Like when Ray Kwan, when he dropped
the Purple tape, he came through, did an interview. They

(03:13):
actually debuted incarcerated scar faces on the radio. I'll never
forget it in DC. So that was my start.

Speaker 4 (03:20):
Man.

Speaker 2 (03:20):
I was actually just talking about this with my wife yesterday, Like,
we didn't listen to music in the house. My mom
is not a huge music fan, so I just had
to get at other places because it didn't come from
the crib.

Speaker 1 (03:34):
Yeah, I was gonna ask for the same for you, Fante, Like,
was there trickle down creativity in your life like an
older cousin and older like, Yeah, for me, it absolutely was.
It was it was my mom. I think it started
with my mom.

Speaker 3 (03:52):
So the thing was, you know, I have very young parents,
so my mother was my mother when she had me,
she was fifteen and my dad was seventeen, So I
was pretty much with my mom like all the time,
So wherever she went, I was there. So during the summer,
but during the like the weekends, that was when we

(04:12):
had to clean up. We all live with my grandmother,
so that was clean up time. So that was when
she was playing all the you know, all just you know,
the classic R and B stuff, Luther Patty, you know,
you had Johnny Guitar Watson. She used to like Love
Jones by Johnny Guitar Watson and we would sing that.
And then during the week if she went out to

(04:34):
like the park or whatever. That's why I heard all
like the early eighties, you know, Nucleus jam on it,
Shannon let the music play. That was kind of where
I was hearing all that. And so between her and
my uncle, but two uncles. My one uncle, Mike, he
was a DJ, and he would get like all the
promo records from the station and bring them home and

(04:56):
I would go through the promo records.

Speaker 1 (04:58):
And then my other uncle, my uncle Brod, He was super.

Speaker 3 (05:03):
He was kind of the more experimental, I guess in
terms of his taste, Like he was heavy p funk heavy.
He was a big dance music fan, so a lot
of South soul stuff, south sool, orchestra, instant funk, got
my mom made up.

Speaker 1 (05:20):
He like heart.

Speaker 3 (05:21):
I remember he had like the Heart, the Dreamboat, and
the album, you know what I'm saying. So he he
went all over everywhere. So he was probably, you know,
one of my biggest musical influences in terms of no
regard for a genre.

Speaker 1 (05:34):
If it was funky to him, he just fucked with it.
And that's what it was. So with Pooh, for you,
you not having that like what was it just recreational
or just an escape or like life playing?

Speaker 2 (05:52):
It was an escape for me. I can put on music,
had a bite walk man, just ride around town unless
I was just listening to music, had the auto reverse
so flip itself. And so you know, I just for me,
it was just something I just always innately enjoyed and
just enjoy listening. I was always a writer, not necessarily

(06:15):
a music but like I would write poetry, I would
write short stories. So that inspired like that intrigued me
in music. That's why I took to Nas like I did,
because his rhymes are more like stories to me. So
that's why I took the Prince. His stuff was like stories,
and I mean that that was pretty much it. I

(06:36):
later learned that my dad is a big music head
and fan, but you know, I didn't meet him till
I was nineteen, so I would not have known that
in my younger years.

Speaker 1 (06:46):
Now, I mean, is this the typical narrative for a
young black teenager in the early nineties to go this
particular route, because again, I mean, you know, I'll call
truly ignorant Northerners, and what our thoughts are about anybody
below the Mason Dixon line. So I mean just in general,

(07:07):
because Aucass had this problem as well, like people just
landing whatever, you know, not knowing. So was there ever
a I mean, is this the typical route of a
young black teenager in that time period?

Speaker 3 (07:25):
I definitely wouldn't say it was typical, just because you
know where we grew up at where I grew up
in Greensboro, North Carolina. You know, there wasn't There were
people who made music, but there wasn't really the thought
of actually making it as a musician. It was just yo,
we like music, we spend records, you know, we freestyle whatever.

(07:48):
But I don't think there was ever a real thought of, like, yo,
you could make a living doing this. This the South
at that time and still in many ways it's still
very traditional in the sense of, you know, you go
to school, you get a job, you get you some benefits.

Speaker 1 (08:02):
You know, you bring a steady check home. You know
what I'm saying. That was life, That's what it was. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (08:08):
So in terms of just musically though, we were always
the South was always a big kind of melting pot
because and I think a lot of things that people
didn't understand the problem that cast had and also you
know a problem that little brother had, you know, people
didn't understand it. In the South, we grew up listening
to everything. Like the South was the meeting point for

(08:30):
all kinds of music. So you had, of course, you
know where we were, and I talked about this for
him the show where we were in Greensboro, that was
you know, it's the South, it's East Coast. But it
was a lot of traffic that went through Greensboro, be
it college students, be it drug dealers, be it you know,
just all kinds of transplants that was bringing their music,

(08:51):
you know, to our area. And then like Pool was saying,
you had the Cats coming from DC. They brought to
Go Go, you know what I mean. And so we
were getting and then you had Florida that was you know,
Magic Mike two Live Crew you had the base, you know,
from from Florida and Atlanta, and then you know the
West coast, you know, with like Chronic of course, I

(09:11):
mean Chronic was kind of the bombed, it went off everywhere.
But we were students, and that was something that I
think we always had an advantage of as Southerners because
we really had to study all types of music.

Speaker 1 (09:24):
Versus New York. They kind of got caught off guard.

Speaker 3 (09:28):
Like the South was a sucker punch to them, like
when they saw you know, when Master p blew up
and you know, no limit, you know, cash money.

Speaker 1 (09:37):
They got caught off guard. They was like, what the
fuck is this? But in the South, we knew that
shit was coming, you know what I mean, because we
had been studying it. So Okay, when I first started
coming down to North Carolina, there was a club called
is it the Cat's Cradle? Yep, okay, So like one
of our very first gigs was at the Cat's Cradle,

(09:58):
And I mean, you know, we were the roots, so
of course we're going to attract sort of an alternative
sort of audience whatnot. So there was like an element
of culture that I was familiar with down there that
I wasn't too certain about. I don't know if you
guys know Dave Tompkins. He was like a writer. Yeah,
he was a writer at I know of him. I

(10:20):
don't know him personally, but I know who he is. Yeah,
he wrote for like Vibe and all that stuff and whatnot.
So he was like showing me around North Carolina and whatnot.
So I meant, was there a first draft of a crew?
Like how how do you two meet and amalgamate into
what will eventually be known as Little Brother? Like what's

(10:41):
what's the circle?

Speaker 2 (10:43):
I mean we initially met, uh in a dorm room.
Tay came through in this ever ever bubbly personality to
supit a rohund he wrote for English class.

Speaker 1 (10:55):
Uh, and that's hot. That's how we met, as those
first how we met straight up. It was.

Speaker 2 (11:03):
Already on the hallway Joe Joe Wright, I remember his
last name today, Joe Wright. He was. It was his
room and he used to just have mad people come
in the room. And I was fresh on the hallway
because I actually stayed in a hotel for half of
my first semester in college. But I got there. We
were in the room kicking it and Fonte come in

(11:26):
and was like, yeah, I wrote this round for English class.
It's called no Apologies. And he starts spinning and I'm
just like, what you wrote that for English class? That
could be on the radio or some ship. And that's
when he let everybody know he was quitting football as well.
I didn't know he played football, but he was quitting.

Speaker 1 (11:47):
Football. Man, I played football.

Speaker 3 (11:50):
I started playing football in the sixth grade, and h
I played all through middle school, all through high school,
and I played my first two years in college and
a fullback. And you know, by the time I got
to college, I realized that it was a much more
of a It was a commitment that I just didn't have.

(12:11):
Like I didn't love the game. I wasn't on scholarship.
I didn't care, you know, I was like, why am
I out here?

Speaker 1 (12:18):
Fuck?

Speaker 2 (12:18):
This?

Speaker 1 (12:19):
Was it a Friday night lights culture for football down there?
Or yeah, it kind of was.

Speaker 3 (12:27):
I mean it was a big So the school I
played for in high school, Page high school, we used
to whoop ass like we was the truth. And so
my senior, my junior senior year, my senior year, we
got to the semifinals and we almost took state, but
we lost in the semifinals. But we always had a
good program, and so it was something I think for me,

(12:50):
it was just something that was more social. In high school,
it was just you know, I was a big kid.
I had decent size, you know, decent speed, and you
know I like to hit motherfuckers. So I was like,
all right, fuck I played football. But once I got
this was I got to college. That's when I was like, yo,
this ship is a business, Like you really got to
be committed, and I just didn't have.

Speaker 1 (13:10):
The love for it.

Speaker 3 (13:11):
And I'm just like, man, why am I out here?
I love doing music, so let me go do music.
And that was around the time that that was when me.

Speaker 1 (13:18):
And who met.

Speaker 2 (13:18):
That's where we met, and I mean it morphed into
a different variations of what it ultimately became. It was
a big ass group of us at one time called
the organization. Then that whittled down to give me.

Speaker 1 (13:34):
How many how many people in that organization?

Speaker 3 (13:36):
I don't know at nine so it was okay, the organization,
It was me. You I guess ninth was in it
by default. I think I don't even think he was
in the organization. Yes, it was people I can't even
remember their name.

Speaker 1 (13:50):
It was organization.

Speaker 3 (13:51):
It was this organization, So I know definite it was me, you,
Joe God who you remember Rosie Rosie was like one
of it was this. It was a girl we used
to run with named Rosie who was em C.

Speaker 1 (14:04):
She was dope.

Speaker 2 (14:05):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (14:06):
Medina of course she was in that.

Speaker 4 (14:08):
Yes, yes, it was was there.

Speaker 2 (14:14):
Medina was Medina was she was another girl she was
She was an m C. And Medina was Dope. And
Medina and and Sean Dawn they had a whirlwind ro
Manus relationship.

Speaker 1 (14:28):
And it was the original Chris Brown and Rihanna man.

Speaker 2 (14:33):
Man old man. Listen, Okay, we leave that man to
tell his own his own war war stories.

Speaker 1 (14:41):
Those stories and out ours to tell.

Speaker 2 (14:44):
We were collective of just em c's and and then
we had a z these Colins Collins, he was he
was our R and B singer.

Speaker 1 (14:51):
Yeah, he keep them hollering. Collins.

Speaker 2 (14:55):
He had like somebody else that wrapped. I can't remember that.
I can't remember who it was. But it was your
very loose and I used that term loosely. It was
very loose collective of people who went to school together
and we would just.

Speaker 1 (15:12):
Go to each other each other rooms, freestyling and ra
style and that was that was it.

Speaker 2 (15:17):
And then it whittled down to Gimme, which is me
sean Dan give.

Speaker 1 (15:22):
Me a g I M M E y Yeah, yep,
that was name. What that was at an acronym? Was it?
It was? Of course it was an A.

Speaker 2 (15:31):
Of course, God I murdered many ms. That was one
of them.

Speaker 1 (15:39):
Yeah, we had a couple of them.

Speaker 2 (15:41):
That was the main one.

Speaker 1 (15:42):
That was the main one. God I murdered. Man, it
was so many bad We had so many bad meanings
for the acronym.

Speaker 2 (15:49):
But that was it.

Speaker 5 (15:51):
I want a group to come out named acronym in
the accomplished character resilience, right.

Speaker 2 (16:07):
I don't get that ship way to fuck up out
of here, But I mean it transformed into many different
took many different shapes, and I still remember this is
this would always be funny to me. I mean, this
was the moment that changed my rap career. But it's
it's still funny because it's ironic how it ended up.
U Seandan didn't come back to school one semester, so

(16:29):
that was the end of Gimme and uh Fante was
in my dorm room and he was like.

Speaker 1 (16:34):
Yo, man, we got went to New York. He went
back to New York.

Speaker 2 (16:36):
Yeah, Sean went back to New York. So I was like,
what's good man. He's like, yeah, man, I don't see
as being no duo. So, uh, you know, you gotta
do some more work.

Speaker 1 (16:46):
So but if you need me for.

Speaker 2 (16:48):
Something, just I let me. That conversation changed my It
changed my rap career.

Speaker 1 (16:55):
Man.

Speaker 2 (16:55):
It made me work the hardest ship, Like I never
worked so hard my life at something. But I mean
it's ironic because that's what we ended up a duo anyway.

Speaker 1 (17:06):
During that period. I mean, how how much would you
say you were committing to your craft as opposed to
like surviving going your job and I write rhyme, maybe I.

Speaker 2 (17:17):
Was surviving man.

Speaker 1 (17:18):
Uh yeah, it wasn't.

Speaker 2 (17:21):
It wasn't serious for me. I still didn't. I still
didn't believe that it could be more than just something
we were doing in school at the time, because I
never saw this as a career for me. It was
just something I love to do. And that moment let
me know like, hey man, you gotta step your ship

(17:43):
up or you better start really going to class. It
was it was one of those moments. Yeah, I'm saying
I didn't choose class.

Speaker 1 (17:53):
Yeah, that was the thing.

Speaker 3 (17:54):
I mean, I remember at that time because we were
kind of It was a pivotal moment for all of
us because at that time, Sean Donnie went back to
New York and Pool was still me and you. We
were only ones I think still in Durham and you
were about to go home that summer. We were about
to just go home for that summer. And this is
ninety eight, ninety nine, No, this was this was probably

(18:17):
was it two thousand, It had to be the two thousand.

Speaker 2 (18:20):
It was two thousand and one, because that's the summer.

Speaker 1 (18:24):
We don't know what it was two thousand and one
to spring.

Speaker 2 (18:29):
It was spring two thousand and one. I went to
Charlotte for the summer and I was taking the train
back to Durham because that's when the Justice League started. Yeah,
that's when little brother became little brother like that.

Speaker 1 (18:43):
And that end us Spring two thousand and one. That
was like dealing. It was born. My oldest son was born.

Speaker 3 (18:50):
He was born December two thousand, So yeah, around two
thousand and one Spring, old Nigga, My head was in
a whole nother place. I was like, yo, if you
ain't real about this shit, nigga. Yeah, you better find
something else because nigga, I got a kid.

Speaker 1 (19:04):
Yeah, I'm going to say out, when you have a
kid and when you have real life situations, then how
much pressure to pursue your your craft? Like what's the
ratio balance? Man? I was scared of ship.

Speaker 2 (19:18):
I was.

Speaker 1 (19:18):
I was.

Speaker 3 (19:19):
I was scared to tell. But you know, my son
was born the end of December. Uh he you know,
he was Christmas. He was Christmas Eve two thousand and
so I ended up finishing my degree in that that
following semester of like May two thousand and one. His
mother ended up coming back I think that next the

(19:40):
semester after that, and she finished her degree like in December.
So we were young parents and we had no fucking
idea what we were gonna do. You know, I had
no clue you know what what it was gonna be.
And me and Pooh, we were we had started kind
of making records. We had made a couple of records.
It's give me and you know, I felt like we

(20:01):
had something.

Speaker 1 (20:01):
It was dope. But uh, you know, Seanda went back
to New York.

Speaker 3 (20:06):
Me and Pool were just you know, kind of here
he was going back home for the summer, and he
was going back home to Charlotte, and we had that conversation.

Speaker 1 (20:13):
Was like, yo, man, I don't really see us being
the duo.

Speaker 3 (20:16):
But that summer, I remember Pooh went home and that
was it was this event used to call call fat
City that a buddy of ours was having.

Speaker 1 (20:23):
It's cat DJ dr and it was like.

Speaker 3 (20:26):
An open mic kind of freestyle thing and Pooh he
put in work and he came back that next semester
and his rhymes was just different.

Speaker 1 (20:36):
He was rhyming. I was like, nigga, you shit sound good?
You know what I mean?

Speaker 3 (20:40):
And I could just see he had really put that
work in. I mean, and we always kind of been
putting it in, but I really just saw in him.
I was like, yeah, like he really he really about
it now, and you know, we all, you know, we
took him seriously at that point.

Speaker 1 (20:54):
Okay, So where does ninth come into the equation of ninth?
Originally was man ninth? Was I met nine in ninety.

Speaker 2 (21:07):
Eight?

Speaker 1 (21:07):
Ninety eight? It was ninety eight.

Speaker 3 (21:09):
Yeah, So ninety eight we were moving into the dorm.
This was like, uh, you the day when everybody moves
into the dorm. I was playing football, so I had
already been there earlier to report for camp. So we
had been in there all the all the football players.
But this is when the civilians we used to call them,
you know, the civilians had first moved in, so all

(21:29):
the niggas didn't bolve like it's like it's civilians about
to move in, the civilians coming, and so ninth it.

Speaker 1 (21:35):
Was sports and first, and then the civilians come.

Speaker 3 (21:38):
Yeah, that's when the civilians come after that, because we
had to report early, you know, for two days, three
of days really and so so man, so I'm I'm
in the joint. I walk into the dorm and it's
like the lobby kind of commons area, and I see
this dude holding a source magazine.

Speaker 1 (21:52):
And I was like, yo, man, let me let me
see that. Let me let me see that source.

Speaker 3 (21:56):
And at that time, this was again, this is like
ninety eight, so this is master p you know, bad boy.
I mean, this is kind of like the peak of
that era, you know, approaching that era. So to see
somebody with a source magazine, that shit was like, Nigga,
that's like manner from heaven, you know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (22:17):
It's like, oh, my god, you know about this too?
What the fuck you know? And so he was like yeah, man.

Speaker 3 (22:23):
So we me and him started going through the source
together and it was an ad for Most steps Black
on Black Side, and I think either me or him
was like, Yo, man, I'm.

Speaker 1 (22:33):
Waiting on this shit. And I was like, nigga, you
know about that? Like what you were you up on Most?

Speaker 3 (22:38):
And from that point on, me and Knife like we
were like that was it, you know what I mean?
It was like, you know, I found kind of another Jedi.
So that was ninety eight.

Speaker 1 (22:49):
Can I ask Can I ask something? Sure?

Speaker 2 (22:52):
Well?

Speaker 1 (22:52):
When I met culturally, did you often have to code
switch musically to fit in with whatever social sirvece or
you were in? So say, if like someone's not into
most that is in your parameter in college, like who
else are you listening to? At that time?

Speaker 3 (23:12):
No Limit they ran ship because I couldn't make No
Limit ran ship, bro.

Speaker 1 (23:18):
Like that was for me.

Speaker 3 (23:19):
It was different because so I didn't get no Limit
until I got to college because at the time that
was when we was playing football, and so all the
football players.

Speaker 1 (23:31):
Like all in the locker room.

Speaker 3 (23:33):
That was what we was bumping about it about it
the true album No Limit Soldiers, like you know, before
we went to the weight room, like we bumped that ship.
So that was when No Limit clicked for me because
I was like, Okay, this is what the music is
used for. It wasn't necessarily nothing. I was riding around
in my car playing, you know.

Speaker 1 (23:52):
So at no point were you guys like, hey, this
is this thing called the love movement. I was a hold,
you know, I was.

Speaker 2 (24:04):
Still I was still in high school. But I mean
for us, it wasn't. It was just like you like
what you liked, and you learned from other people about
other you know, other ship. So I learned from other
people about No Limit. I learned because I was listening
to New York stuff personally. So I learned from other
people about No Limit. I learned from other people about

(24:26):
the West Coast. I had a homeboy who was from
Oakland originally, so he put me on to Drew Down
and Too Short and all the guys from Oakland and
and so that's how I started just taking everything in.
But it wasn't like a if you come into the
circle and you be like yo, man. I listened to
you know, the Jungle Brothers, and somebody was like, man,

(24:47):
I'm listening to fucking n w A man. Like it
wasn't a seemed like they wasn't down on that. It
was just like, oh well, let me see what that's
talking about. And it was like a sharing experience.

Speaker 1 (24:58):
It was a lot sharing, way more communal experience. We
gotten a no limit, but it was more like with binoculars,
let's see what they're doing a distance, Let's see what
they're doing. I mean when the movie came out, we
had it on the tour bus, but it's more like,
look at those guys. But we I didn't realize that

(25:19):
that ship was a culture.

Speaker 2 (25:21):
It's it was a that ship. Yeah, man, Yeah, it
wasn't a movement, nigga. It was definitely a culture.

Speaker 1 (25:27):
Like you saw that no Limit tank.

Speaker 2 (25:33):
Out the way, and.

Speaker 1 (25:35):
Yet the thing that's curious to me is that you
guys still decided to go to another pasture that not
travel before down there, where it could have been easy
for you guys to just go that route. I just
think that that wasn't who we were, you know, because
I've you know, I've been asked that question a lot

(25:58):
about you know, why we chose was the route that
we did and you know, for me, I think it
was just an extension of who we were, you know
what I mean. I mean the no limit stuff and
like a lot of the South stuff that was popping
at that time. You know, I enjoyed those records, and
you know, they certainly had a place in my life,
but I knew I couldn't live that, you know what

(26:18):
I mean, And so I was like, well, the stuff
that is more connected to me in terms of, you know,
just who I am as a person and kind of
where I want to live my life. It was tribe.

Speaker 3 (26:32):
It was calm and the roots, and you know, it
was all the stuff from that kind of native tongue tree,
and that was what felt right to us in terms
of making records.

Speaker 1 (26:43):
Now, I'll say what attracted me to you guys when
I first heard of you guys was the fact that, well, first,
I mean, our listeners need to know exactly how ahead
of your time you guys were as far as I mean,
what people are doing now, as far as like do
it yourself, making records, making final products in your houses,

(27:06):
in your apartment, that sort of thing, which I mean
is practically unheard of. I mean, for all the folklore
of Rizza. Yeah, making the wood tanking stuff in his apartment.
He still brought those aid debts to a real studio
to polish them and all those things. So the first,
you know, when you guys told me that all this
stuff was made in your in your dorm room and

(27:29):
on fruity loops and on computers and all that stuff
like that was like talking Greek to me. I how
did you guys even know? I mean, how are you
guys even pioneers of just new ways of recording and whatnot?

Speaker 2 (27:46):
That's all we had, we black folk man, you know
what I'm saying, working what you got? Like, we didn't
have no studios, We didn't have no you know NiFe,
didn't have no beat machine, like.

Speaker 1 (27:59):
I mean, point was it like? Because even with us,
it was like, okay, well we got to get to
a real studio one day. So like we pulled it
up our money and just went to a real studio
and no point is there.

Speaker 2 (28:10):
Like we heard what we had and what we were doing.

Speaker 3 (28:13):
It was like fuck that studio like this is and
then were good and then too on top of that,
and on top of that, you remember we heard, so
we heard the stuff that we were making in our studio.
And then we also heard the stuff that was coming
out of the big studios at that time, right, and
that shit was garbage, And so I think that kind

(28:34):
of gave us even more confidence because we was like, Yo,
if we're doing this shit in our fucking in my
homies apartment and y'all niggas is going to ease.

Speaker 2 (28:42):
You know.

Speaker 3 (28:42):
It was mixed on this twenty four track or whatever,
and the music still ain't good. So I think for
me that was a big That was a big factor too.

Speaker 2 (28:50):
That's when I realized it was the man, not the machine.
That's that's that's what that taught me.

Speaker 1 (28:56):
What were the alternative group names? A little? I mean,
was it Little Brother? Just in automatic, like that's what
we are. Did you have other that was the first name? Yeah?

Speaker 3 (29:08):
I think another one, The only one I can remember
was Round Midnight. I remember we had that was one
which things.

Speaker 2 (29:14):
That was one we had one that we just all
knew it couldn't be used for a rap group. Flea
market Mannequins.

Speaker 1 (29:22):
Oh, I remember that.

Speaker 2 (29:24):
I'm still wearing that ship for something. Why.

Speaker 3 (29:29):
I have no idea where that came from. I remember
that name, but I don't know what the thought of
it was. I think maybe I was like I was.
I was listening to like Google dolls and like food Fighters,
like I was into that ship. So I was trying
to think of a name that sounded something like that, but.

Speaker 1 (29:43):
An alternative name that you get you all the booked
at a club, right.

Speaker 2 (29:47):
Wait a minute, a lot of pissed off people.

Speaker 1 (29:58):
So what was the the the genesis of what we
now know as the listening.

Speaker 3 (30:04):
At the beginning of it, man, the listening was Yeah,
by this time, this is around two thousand and one,
it's old one. Yeah, I graduated school in May and ninth.
He was by this time he was fully fledged, like
making beats. So the thing with Knife was that, you know,

(30:24):
we met in ninety eight. I didn't hear a beat
from him until like a year later. I didn't even
know he made beats. He came to my room. We
met in ninety eight. He came to my room one
day and he had He's like, yo, man, I got
something I want to play for you. He's like, yeah,
I got the black Star bootleg.

Speaker 1 (30:44):
I was like, word, you got that?

Speaker 3 (30:45):
She's a hell yeah, And so we played the Black
Star album. We was listening to the Blackstar record, and
I was like, man, this shit crazy as hell, this
shit dope. And so then I didn't see ninth again
for like months at a time because.

Speaker 1 (31:00):
He was in school. But I don't think he was
really in school. Yeah, he was a career student. Like
how do y'all do that? Likes yo?

Speaker 3 (31:11):
If you get if you hang around the dorm, if
you can get uh, you know, if you're good with
somebody in the calf, you can eat. So if you ain't,
even if you ain't got no meal playing, you know,
you can get in the calf on especially on like Chicken.

Speaker 2 (31:24):
Day, nigga, come on anybody on Chicken Day. Every day?

Speaker 1 (31:31):
Essential was like the club. I was gonna say. At
Treia School, they did not allow any rentals, wrap or
foil uh inside their cafeteria for fear that you know,
the students would steal the food and take it back
to their dorm.

Speaker 2 (31:46):
Man.

Speaker 1 (31:46):
Listen, man, niggas took all kind of ship back from
the dorm. We were taking so word everything.

Speaker 2 (31:53):
I mean, we had a takeout line in the calf
so you can come and get your food and eat,
like get it to go and lead.

Speaker 1 (32:01):
Straight up, straight up but h so, yeah.

Speaker 3 (32:03):
So around that time, you know, niney nine Poop ninth
wasn't on campus like that. I've just kind of see
him sporadically. But ninety he bring the Black starlebum to
my room. We listened to it, and then in ninety
nine he shows back up. And by this time we
were in a new dorm. We were in the new residence,
and so we had moved and we had like this
little sweet or whatever, and so he come and he like, yo, man,

(32:24):
I got some joints I want to play for you.
And I was like, and I was thinking he had
like another unreleased album, and he plays. He puts the
tape in, plays it and I'm like, yo, this shit dope.

Speaker 2 (32:34):
Who is this?

Speaker 1 (32:34):
He's like, yo, this is me? I said, word, I said,
He's like, you made these beats. He was like, yeah,
these joints.

Speaker 3 (32:40):
I said, what you make them on? He said, man,
I just make him on fruity loops or well no, no, no,
I'm sorry. It wasn't frud loops at the time. This
is even before fruit loops. He was using a program
called called beat Nah. This was even before acid. It
was called it was a program called be Box and
he was using be box and cool at it to
make to make tracks, and I mean again, it was

(33:03):
unheard of me.

Speaker 1 (33:03):
I was like, nigga, what the fuck?

Speaker 3 (33:04):
Like, I was really on a computer and so but
he had some joints and so one record he had
was one Beat Had.

Speaker 1 (33:12):
I said, man, when you let me wrap over this?

Speaker 3 (33:14):
He was like, all right, cool, he said you really
want to wrap I said, yeah, let me wrap over
this joint. And I did a record called paper Lines
and that was like ninety nine. That was like the
first song me and him ever did together. And I
remember doing it. I played it for pool, played it
for just cats and our crew. They really they really
fucked with it. And that was that was kind of

(33:34):
when it all first started. So around the time, by
the time oh one World Around, that was when the
league had all, we was just recording so much shit
together and it was still just kind of loose. But
by this time we would had started work on a song.
It was called Speed, and originally it was supposed to
be me and Median. Median never shows up to the

(33:57):
studio and so Pooh was there.

Speaker 1 (34:00):
I can't remember if you wrote with me to the
studio that night or yeah, I think.

Speaker 2 (34:03):
I think I came up on the train and I
wrote with you.

Speaker 1 (34:06):
Yeah, we came.

Speaker 3 (34:07):
We came to the studio together and I was like,
I was like, well, ship Pool here like you you
want to rocket? He was like, yeah, I rocket, And
so we did that song together and that was it.

Speaker 2 (34:17):
That was just like the Speed.

Speaker 1 (34:19):
I know, that was their first joint together. That was
the very first song we put together. Oh shit, okay, okay.
So it's also explained to me who is in the
Justice League? Okay, all right, I'm sorry should I say
Justice League?

Speaker 2 (34:37):
That side was to remember the names, it's fifteen of them,
and also.

Speaker 1 (34:44):
How do you how do you wrestle with that Justice League?
And have y'all ever had a meeting a collective meeting?
Like I talked to Rook.

Speaker 3 (34:53):
I haven't taught the rook in sometimes Rook from the
Justice League, but it was it was always love, I love.

Speaker 1 (34:59):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (35:00):
We met.

Speaker 1 (35:01):
At one point me and Brook was talking. This was
years ago.

Speaker 3 (35:04):
He was like, yo, man, we need to do a
Justice League meets Justice League, Like let's let's collab, let's
do some ship and we were talking about doing it,
but I know it just never happened. But it was
never no, no, smoking's first. I think we were first.

Speaker 2 (35:17):
I think we were first. I think yeah, all right,
all right, all right, so so Justice League members, Okay,
so let's let's we're gonna do this the easy way.

Speaker 1 (35:26):
Start with the niggas on the phone.

Speaker 2 (35:28):
Yeah, me, and do you have nine? Did you have
Sean Dawn? You have Seambu Crisis? Uh Na Cason right
that Comanche? Hey, uh flacentriccentric Centric big legacy though leg

(35:56):
lega thirteen.

Speaker 1 (35:59):
Were the crisis Crisis.

Speaker 2 (36:01):
I said crisis.

Speaker 1 (36:02):
You got crisis.

Speaker 2 (36:03):
I said crisis.

Speaker 1 (36:04):
You show your Allen Poe and Eggar Allan Poe or.

Speaker 2 (36:08):
Said flow the flow. I said, PoCA, Yeah, I got
the flow. The reading nig I think that's it. I
think forgetting. So it's fifteen. We forget.

Speaker 3 (36:18):
We got Mike Bird, we got Eccentric, we got some
of your real got some of your got Bird, got
Bird says all.

Speaker 1 (36:25):
We got book saves a crisis, leg crisis. I think
what about the weight, you said, the Waight team. That's
I think we got everybody.

Speaker 2 (36:36):
Median media damn median median.

Speaker 1 (36:41):
Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (36:41):
Another dude that showed up intermittently like he would just vanished.
For like months at a time, and then just popped
back up. That was that's that's been meetings and mo
since I know him. Everybody needs your elk be in
their life.

Speaker 1 (36:57):
Just shows up in here. That was him? Was it
so with speed? Like when is the official like okay,
are we a group? Or was it just like okay,
what is this?

Speaker 2 (37:12):
I mean?

Speaker 1 (37:12):
Is it like a relationship where you're like, you know,
like after the third date, then she's like, okay, so
what are we? We are farmers.

Speaker 2 (37:24):
For that? I think like a day or two later,
like we all just kept listening to the song and
noticed the chemistry and said, hey, this sounds good. Let's
let's make a few more and see how it come out.
And a few more turned into a whole Lass album.

Speaker 1 (37:41):
Okay, Now I really want to now that I've established
the story for those that are not familiar, now I
want to get to my real first question because even
more than the roots, like okay, okay, granted it's like
eleven of us, but really the roots are two people,
and it comes down to me Intarique and fifty to

(38:02):
fifty is a little bit more easier than thirty three
or three and third. So in the beginning, are you
guys ever, like, what is the the democratic process of
how decisions are made?

Speaker 2 (38:23):
Man?

Speaker 3 (38:24):
At that time, I mean, it was we had I
think I thought was a fairly a good system that
got kind of you know, corroded over time. But but originally,
you know, it was the three of us. It was me,
poor Knife, and Doe was our manager. So pretty much
whenever it came down to do something, me, poor Knife

(38:47):
would discuss it internally, and it's three of us, so automatically,
somebody's gonna lose, you know what I mean. Sometimes I lose,
sometimes Pool lose, Nfe lose, whatever. But whatever it was
that we voted on, we would then go to our
manager and be like, look, this is what we agreed on,
this is what we're gonna do.

Speaker 1 (39:03):
And that was it.

Speaker 3 (39:05):
Once Ninth left the group, that was when things changed
and we no longer had that kind of third swing vote,
so to speak. So that was when for me, I
think just the group became very taxing because it was just, yeah,
it was, but yeah, particularly and hard as a twosome

(39:27):
at that point because at that point in time, me
and Pool hadn't really I don't think me and you
had really talked like that.

Speaker 1 (39:34):
About what we wanted and about kind of at all.

Speaker 3 (39:36):
We didn't have none of them conversations, so we were
just making a lot of them decisions on the fly,
and you know, when you don't have a third person
there to kind of help smooth things over, in some ways,
it made it really hard.

Speaker 1 (39:49):
But in the beginning, that's what it was.

Speaker 3 (39:50):
It was the three of us, we make a decision
and then just kind of told our manager what we
wanted to do with it.

Speaker 1 (39:56):
So what were your initial goals for the listening? Was
it like, Okay, we'll have these collection songs, we'll try
to get a major deal too much.

Speaker 2 (40:08):
It was let's do these songs, sell them ourselves, and
see what happens.

Speaker 3 (40:15):
Yeah, originally we was gonna do We was gonna do it,
put it out ourselves because I was on I think
I had like a credit card at that time, I
had my little Discovery card and I was we was
on disc makers and I was just running numbers. I'm like, yo,
so how much if we just press this shit ourselves?
And we moved out the trunk like I was, you know,
doing it just in my mind, and I was talking

(40:36):
to ninth about it. Because I remember we were in
We were in the computer lab at h at at
in C State. So another fun fact about this time,
which I'm just now remembering. Even though the listening was
recorded on a computer, none of us had personal computers
at that time. Oh like none of us had personal computers.
I didn't do get story Yo bro for real, Like

(40:59):
I didn't have a computer. Ninth ain't had one. Ninth
was using he was a courting. We was recording at
Sazar Comanche's crib and he had a compact for Sario.

Speaker 1 (41:07):
So that was the computer.

Speaker 3 (41:09):
So whenever I wanted, whenever I wanted to get on
like okay, player and ship nigga, that was all computer lab.
So uh, my Homie Median he was a student at
n C State but like not really a student, but
he had an I D.

Speaker 1 (41:25):
So he was there. You know us we use Yo Reil,
Yeah Leroy.

Speaker 2 (41:34):
Uh we used LeRoy's roommate, Uh, Louis Cheronis like he
was the he was the cafe Nigga pretty pretty pretty
low when we were this joint.

Speaker 3 (41:44):
And and then like when I was at Central like
that that that my last year. That was when I
was I was on the newspaper.

Speaker 1 (41:52):
I was an editor.

Speaker 3 (41:53):
I was the arts in arts and entertainment editor on
our newspaper, and so I would be in a computer
lab all the time.

Speaker 1 (41:59):
You know.

Speaker 3 (42:00):
That's when I would get all my OK player post off.
But after that, I mean I was going home like nigga,
we have no computers at.

Speaker 1 (42:06):
The crib, no cell phone?

Speaker 2 (42:08):
Shit Ty didn't he have a cell phone at that time?

Speaker 3 (42:11):
Yeah, I don't think I got my first cell phone
probably like oh, what four something like that, some shit
like that.

Speaker 1 (42:15):
Yeah, three four, Yeah, Boss, Bill, correct me if I'm wrong. No,
this is literally the Bill Gates story. Bill Gates' story
had a faulty ID that let him stay in the
computer lab like fifteen hours a time. To be in
the computer lab during Bill Gates day was like attaxing,
like forty dollars an hour thing, but he never got

(42:38):
charged for it. So then he was like, all right,
I'm gonna stay in this motherfucker for fifteen hours a
day figure out how to turn this big ass room
into a laptop. So basically, sneaking in computer labs, barring
other people's idea and whatnot, this is the Bill Gates story.

Speaker 3 (42:59):
That's what I wish we made Bill Gate's money, but really,
but fate didn't have it that way.

Speaker 1 (43:06):
But but no, that was it. We were just doing
those records.

Speaker 3 (43:08):
So at that time, yeah, the thought wasn't you know,
at least for me, the thought it was just Okay,
we made this record, let's just get it out so
people can hear it.

Speaker 1 (43:18):
And you know, it was just.

Speaker 3 (43:22):
Like I don't think no one had a thought of
where it was gonna go. I knew my life was
gonna change. Like I can specifically remember the night when
we finished everything and like we had the final mix
down and sequence of the album and I just sat
outside my apartment in the car just listen to the record,
and I just I knew things were gonna change. I

(43:44):
just felt that we had something special. It wasn't like,
you know, yo, we're gonna be rich or we're gonna
be whatever. But I specifically remember having the feeling of
just like yo, like something is around the corner. I
don't know what it is, but I know something's coming
and at that time, and we just wanted people to
hear it. That was the only that was the only

(44:04):
mo What was.

Speaker 1 (44:05):
The first sign of that, of that assurance was it
like your first out out of state show. Was it
like a mentioned in the source or like, what was
that moment where it was like, oh, ship happened.

Speaker 2 (44:17):
I think for me it was when uh, when Benny
b got in touch with us, just to have somebody
Benny B from ABB Records.

Speaker 1 (44:28):
Okay, so that was not your label, No, No, not
at all at all.

Speaker 3 (44:33):
I thought that ABB was your Now ABB was Benny
b Uh from the Bay Area. They they had put
out like a lot of dilated people's twelve ines. That
was kind of their claim to fame, uh, dillate people's
the far Rye. They had put out like just a
lot of stuff and they were known for just moving vinyl.

Speaker 2 (44:50):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (44:51):
And that was how a buddy of ours, a promoter
out this way bum rush DJ bum rush.

Speaker 4 (44:57):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (44:57):
He had to connected abb Ian Davis, I D and
I D heard our stuff on the narre from all
of us. We had posted on Okay player and all
that shit, and we had the little site that was
when Bossville had the John he had the Yeah, it's
like he posted up to join us up on there.
So it was just kind of spreading and so I

(45:18):
G I D from A dB A B b caught
wind of it and reached out. The bum rusher was like, Yo,
you gotta line on these little brother dudes, and I
d caught my crib you know what I'm saying one day, and.

Speaker 1 (45:29):
That's how we started talking.

Speaker 3 (45:30):
And that was how the ABB relationship, Uh, that was
how we came to sign with them.

Speaker 1 (45:35):
So, Bill, were you the okay player that officially introduced
okay player to introduced a little brother to Okay player?

Speaker 4 (45:44):
I guess, but I mean I got it through von
p from currently a Tania Morgan and like Vaughn hooked
me up with Eccentric and the Centric sent me like
the Beasts for Love joint revisited and like so I was.
I was a Ninth Wonder fan first and then I
didn't even know about these two until later, Like I
think I heard speeding away from me, like maybe not
maybe like a week or two after that, and then
I was like.

Speaker 1 (46:05):
Damn, what is this ship? Slot funked us too. He
was another one.

Speaker 3 (46:09):
He was the one that really cause again we had
no computers, let alone a way to build a website
or none of that ship. So Slot was the one
that had he had built like a little site for us,
and he was like, yo, I can put some joints
up for y'all.

Speaker 1 (46:23):
I was like cool.

Speaker 3 (46:24):
And I was working at Blue Cross Blue Shield at
the time, and he would call me, you know.

Speaker 1 (46:29):
We would we would he would well he would DM
me or PM.

Speaker 3 (46:32):
Me as we would call it back then, and he
was like, yo, man, like y'all joints just crashed my server.

Speaker 1 (46:37):
I gotta like everybody been coming this ship. I was
like word for real.

Speaker 3 (46:41):
And we just had like three folks songes up there.
So slop was a big, a big part of that.
Was it you and Ninth or you and Pool or
were you alone?

Speaker 1 (46:51):
Would you?

Speaker 2 (46:52):
I wouldn't. I went to the Greensboro show.

Speaker 1 (46:55):
I didn't go to that one, Okay. All I remember
was that we were doing a show and it was
about to rain, and and said we should cancel this
show because it's electric and whatever. And I'm like, dude,
you wear Timberland's like no one's you ain't getting let
you cuted, and he like protested that I think he

(47:19):
didn't play this show or like walked off stage earlier
or something shit, And I felt bad and I did
something very uncharacteristic, like I'm never the guy that like
goes in the audience and like, hey, how you doing.
Thanks for you know. But some sit said, all right,
go out there and shake hands for the first time
in your whole career. And I did it, and you
put it in my hand. You reminded me that this

(47:43):
was the little brother I read about. Okay player, oh
wow wow ok And normally, you know, normally anybody hands
me disc is instant, uh, you know, coffee table coaster
for me.

Speaker 3 (47:59):
For instance, about to break up my droll on your CD, nigga,
I just I just thought it trash.

Speaker 5 (48:10):
Right now.

Speaker 1 (48:11):
I can't do that. I just leave it back backstage.
I don't know, like I'm kind of proud of my
track record like something. I was going to leave it
backstage and I looked at it, and I don't know
if it was the fact that you're handwriting like the
the your your your front or whatever. You really Yeah,

(48:31):
some spoke to me. I'm like, yo, he really puts
some effort into this homemade uh this artwork. I was like.
And I went back picked it up and listened to it,
and I was like, holy shit, like I'm poor lone
jealous of this, like like this ship and and like yeah,
like I'll say that I've only you know, Jill Blow,

(48:55):
Slum Village, Cody Chestnut and you guys. I'm sure I'm
missing somebody else. But like something told me to listen
to that shit, and that shit like that changed my life, man,
because I personally didn't think I would at that time.

(49:15):
I was concerned because there was the idea of a
group existing was becoming endanger and in dangerous species. And
I was like, yo, a real group, not not a
bunch of soloists. And you know, from there then I
just saw the word spread and spread and spread. So

(49:37):
when it like, what was the decision to not go
the slow and steady route and like, let's get it real,
let's get a deal through atlantic and poverty. So as
your own record label, all right, so what is it
back then? What was what were the roadblocks and the
potholes in being your own record label?

Speaker 2 (50:01):
You should have yeah, distribution, you didn't have directed consumer
back then. But I think for for I can speak
for me on this my decision. I think if abb
if that experience would have been a better experience for us,
it wouldn't have been a thing of well, man, let's
go get this deal we'd have been it would have

(50:22):
been more like shit, we good where we at, but
the experience wasn't good because so, yeah, that makes the
experience terrible. We still haven't gotten paid, So can I ask?

Speaker 1 (50:34):
Let me ask, Let me ask, all right? So that
it came out on two thousand and two, two thousand
and three, Yeah, two thousand and three. Okay, So had
technology as we knew now in twenty twenty been available
in two thousand and two, two thousand and three, would

(50:54):
this had been a different outcome? Very different, very different.
I wouldn't have fuck personally, I wouldn't have.

Speaker 3 (51:01):
Fucked with no label had we had it, you know,
had we back then, you know, we already had the
means of our own production.

Speaker 1 (51:08):
So we owned our means of production.

Speaker 3 (51:10):
We could make it ourselves, you know, if we had
a straight pipeline that we could get it directly to
our fans and see the money back.

Speaker 1 (51:17):
Man, fuck a label, straight up. But that was but poo.

Speaker 3 (51:23):
But you made a great point, you know, when you
you know, you ask about what made us make that jump.
You know, I really think an agree one hundred percent
that had it, if our indie experience would have been
better and we would have actually been like paid fairly
and you know, according to our contract. If we would
have actually been compensated for our work on an indie label,
I think we would have been much.

Speaker 1 (51:44):
More hesitant about signing to a major.

Speaker 3 (51:47):
But at that time, you know, we we put out
the records and you know, you're hearing all this buzz
and you know, everybody's saying, oh, man, y'all about to
blow up, y'all do this whatever. So then Atlantic comes knocking,
and it was a bunch of labels that wanted to
sign us at that time, but that kind of fed.

Speaker 2 (52:04):
Uh well, Mike Karen reached out first, but we were
we were told, we got the word not to deal
with him. So like we ended up.

Speaker 3 (52:14):
We met with Warner, We met with Jive, and then
we met It's Warner and then it was Warner because
Tom Waller. That's when we met Tom Wally.

Speaker 2 (52:27):
Tom Wally, we met with Rest of Peace, Chris Lighty
and Peter THEO and.

Speaker 1 (52:32):
Jive to throw something. Yeah yeah, Chris Lighty, man, he
came to.

Speaker 2 (52:38):
Me and to the club, took us to the crowd
house and.

Speaker 1 (52:44):
Lighty yeah, like the thing was, Man, I'll never forget
this ship. Man.

Speaker 3 (52:49):
I remember being in there and because this is around
the time of Chris Lighty, like g Unit Holland on records,
Chris Lighty, right, So the thing was, man. So we
went into the meeting. We had a meeting at Jive,
and you know, Chris Lighty comes in and we're all
sitting there at the table. It's Chris Lighty, it's me

(53:09):
Pooh Doe, our manager at the time, and Wayne Williams
DJ Wayne Williams out of Chicago.

Speaker 1 (53:16):
We're all sitting in there. Williams from R Kelly, Yes, yes, yeah.

Speaker 3 (53:22):
R Kelly chosen a few DJs, Wayne Williams, you know
what I'm saying. So he's in there, and so, man,
so we we talking and stuff and and I remember
Chris saying he was like, you know, man, I listened
to y'all album and he's like, Yo, it tells the
whole story. He's like, it's not just singles. He's like,
you know, it tells a whole story. And you know,

(53:42):
I really think I love what you guys are doing.
I think, you know, we can push it. And I
was just sitting there. I was like wow, and he
was like, you know, man, I remember he's like. He
was talking about fifty and he was like, you know,
the whole thing with fifty was get ready to root
for the bad guy. That was our whole marketing scheme.
And I was like, yeah, it's like the movie Payback.
And he was like, yo, I like this guy.

Speaker 1 (54:03):
I like this guy.

Speaker 3 (54:04):
You know, like it was funny. He said, yo, I
like this guy. And I said, yeah, it was like that.
He was like yeah, He's like, you know, that was
my whole thing with fifty. And he said, but I
really like y'all. He said, y'all are like different from
everything else that's out and y'all really cut through the clutter.
And he was talking. He started talking about his time
at Death Jam. I never get this shit. He was like, yo,
he said, man, you know when I was at Death Jam,

(54:25):
he said. You know, I was fresh off the Mister
Smith album, so I was the prince of Death Jam.
He was like, I could do whatever I wanted, he said.
And so the next record I signed was this this
record called Crew now Me. You know, hip hop fucking
rap NERD. I'm like, Nigga CW.

Speaker 1 (54:42):
I'm like, yeah, Dirty thirty. I love that fucking album.
And he again he was like, yeah, I like this guy.
I like this guy. I say this, I like this guy.
I said, nah, man, Dirty thirty that was the shit,
and he said something He's like, I never get it.
He said yeah.

Speaker 3 (54:55):
He said, man, I love that record too, but just
because you love something don't mean it's gonna sell.

Speaker 1 (55:00):
And I was like, damn, that's the fucking truth. But
but yeah, man, he was.

Speaker 3 (55:06):
I you know, that was just my only encounter with Chris,
but I really liked him. Man, I fucked with Chris.
He was a straight shooter, you know.

Speaker 2 (55:13):
He you know, he's where we wanted to go. We
wanted that's where.

Speaker 3 (55:17):
We wanted to go for real, because you remember, Job
was like, they wanted to just re release the listening first,
and that was.

Speaker 2 (55:23):
The problem because they them re releasing the listening means
they now take some ownership, if not all, ownership of
the album. And Benny Beef maybe b wasn't given that
album up. He wasn't given that album up.

Speaker 1 (55:39):
And I'm sorry, Yeah, I guess we had to go.

Speaker 2 (55:44):
We essentially had to go where he was comfortable going.
That's how we ended up at Atlanta, or we would
have never went to Atlanta.

Speaker 3 (55:51):
And the only reason I think, well, I won't to
say the only reason I know, A big reason why
he chose Atlantic was because Atlantic let him keep his
vinyl rights so atant and let him continue to press
the all the LB vinyl, but they retained the rights
for everything else.

Speaker 1 (56:06):
And so that was how we ended up at Atlanta.
That's almost unpressing in it.

Speaker 4 (56:11):
That did he press anything up for the second album
other than loving it twelve minutes.

Speaker 1 (56:14):
There was a minstrel show vinyl. I think there was Mister.

Speaker 2 (56:18):
Show vinyl, and I think it was a it was
another single. I gotta look through my records. I think
it's a single.

Speaker 1 (56:29):
Again again.

Speaker 2 (56:32):
Yeah, and then and then he reissued the listening in
the Mystery Show a couple of years ago.

Speaker 1 (56:37):
It's like a year or two ago.

Speaker 2 (56:39):
Yeah, didn't he had a courtesy to send us in
me of this fabulous reissues. Vinyl ain't paying us play
Boy could gave us some vinyl ship that look good?
It looks it looks snasty.

Speaker 4 (56:52):
You know.

Speaker 1 (56:56):
I have to ask you a question which is like, like,
I know, know as not not trite, but as you know,
as it not meaning something today as it once meant
back in the nineties. But did it mean anything to
you to see those four and a half mics in

(57:16):
the source?

Speaker 2 (57:17):
Head all, yes, yes, it meant everything.

Speaker 3 (57:23):
Yeah, yeah, seeing the four and a half, seeing you
know we got four on the listening because again this
was something that you know, this is pre like you know.

Speaker 1 (57:34):
Social media, you know, for the blocks took over. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (57:37):
Yeah, so I mean we were literally hearing about this,
so it will be like, yo, your words that y'all
got four in the source, Like what, nigga?

Speaker 2 (57:46):
What?

Speaker 1 (57:46):
And then you see it.

Speaker 3 (57:47):
I remember like going to the you know, grocery store
and buying the source and you see it and it's
like holy shit, like this is really it's a real thing.
And and I got like the hip hop quotable, and
that to me was like holy shit, because.

Speaker 1 (58:03):
I grew up. Wait a minute, what did you get
quortable for? I got it twice. I got it one.

Speaker 3 (58:07):
The first time I got it was for the Yo Yo,
and then the second time I got it was of
course my verse on the Off for you Off show.
And that to me was just like man, holy shit.
You know that was a moment. So yeah, that shit
meant a lot back then. That should been a whole lot.

Speaker 1 (58:22):
Yeah, I tried to act like four and a half
MIC's on mean, nothing like the story, but you know
it's still hanging on my wall. No, four and a
half is the real five. I mean, me and you
talked about this a lot, But four and a half
is the real five. It is. It is absolutely.

Speaker 2 (58:42):
So with.

Speaker 1 (58:46):
In hindsight, how was the mentreal show experience? Because there
was so much expectations and so much was happening. I
meant like Hoove was co signing you guys, like everybody
was like all the stars were aligned, Like at the

(59:06):
end of the day, what happened?

Speaker 2 (59:10):
Man? So have you been watching the Last Dance Bulls documentary?

Speaker 1 (59:18):
I just got them watching it, Okay, So I watched
it at eight o'clock this morning.

Speaker 2 (59:23):
Ok So, the thing about it is like at the time,
we only knew what we saw.

Speaker 1 (59:29):
So it was just like you just see the.

Speaker 2 (59:32):
You know, them going for the the you know, the
third championship in the row for the second time, but
you don't see all all of the underlying stuff that's
going on during that time. It's just like, Yo, the
concentration the motherfuckers had was amazing, And I look at
the Mystery Show. It wasn't that dramatic, but it was
dramatic enough for us. You know, I was twenty four

(59:54):
to twenty five years old at the time, hadn't really
experienced a lot, and we're trying to record this album
major label, trying to keep maintain our sound, dealing with
our own ship as a group at the time, because
that was when the group really started to splinter during

(01:00:15):
that time. And so you got all that happening, and
then you have this album that people at the label
say they excited for, but you know, there's some trepidation
because of the title, and nobody, all the white people,
they don't want to deal with this ship.

Speaker 1 (01:00:35):
Now, let me ask, Okay, so is this Craig Kelman
or or Julie Like what era of Atlantic.

Speaker 2 (01:00:48):
Craig and Julie? When when when Death Jam took over? Yes?
Or Kevin It's it's right, it's at the takeover. It's
at the Death Jam takeover Warner. And so the real
problem started before the ink was dry. On our contract
with Atlantic. Robert Reef too low, I Rea.

Speaker 1 (01:01:14):
If you say, if you say his whole name, then
this might not be good. He's gonna say it was
it was Reefed there because he would seem like your
biggest man.

Speaker 2 (01:01:22):
He started there. And then when we went into his
office after the deal was done, we saw the boxes
in there and he was on the way out. But
it was it was, It was nothing more telling. Then
we pulled up for a meeting one time and we
were walking into the building in New York. We walking
into the building and Rob and Reef is coming in

(01:01:44):
at the same time, and he waiting at the desk.
We're about to go upstairs. We're like, yo, what you're doing.
He's like, man, I gotta wait to get to get
let up our an R, right because he was no
longer They let him get an R of the album.
But he wasn't no longer. He was no longer employed.
Man's was not an employee of it employee Like.

Speaker 1 (01:02:08):
And this how this how you're finding out?

Speaker 2 (01:02:10):
Yes, we found out.

Speaker 1 (01:02:12):
We found out Reef was fired when we came.

Speaker 2 (01:02:15):
Just like Bo said, we came to the building and
you know, we realized that he had to get buzzed
in just like we had to get buzzed and we're like,
what the fuck.

Speaker 1 (01:02:22):
So then we get up to his office and we
see all the boxes be like Niggy, like you really
fired out this bitch and you know, and he was.

Speaker 3 (01:02:30):
I mean, I actually funny thing. We actually saw Reef
in New York like last year. We was kind of
doing our press run and I mean it's all love.
I mean, it's you know, it was you know, I mean,
everybody had to do what they had to do at
that time. So it was no like hate or nothing
like that.

Speaker 2 (01:02:44):
It was.

Speaker 1 (01:02:44):
It was it was all love. But but yeah, Reef bound.
That was when he bounced. I think he went to
Shady right who we went.

Speaker 2 (01:02:50):
To, or he wouldn't. I think, I know he ended
up over at uh Shady Shade for five. But it
was just one of them things where we we're in
the building, we're new. They don't know what to do
with us really because we're unlike what they have or
what they what they had and we don't have an

(01:03:10):
A n R h Our marketing guy James Lopez who
now runs the Will Packer Productions. Uh so, James Lopez
was marketing. He ended up being our marketing our A
n R Our cheerleader. All we had him punching bag
Rodney Johnson recipes to Rodney Johnson.

Speaker 1 (01:03:31):
Wait can I ask is was rig Morales there yet
or was this before he came to Rigg? He was?

Speaker 2 (01:03:39):
Jay Brown ended up being there right before we left
because Jay Brown was Lupe's A and R.

Speaker 1 (01:03:48):
This like the Hollywood shuffle music, like literally def Jam
and Shady are just that's all. It was switching characters.

Speaker 2 (01:03:58):
So yeah, Julie too, man, Julie always was in our
corner and she and she was with whatever, like as
long as we came in and show her that we
was passionate about what we wanted to do. She was witty.
So shout out to Julie Greenwalk.

Speaker 1 (01:04:13):
Okay, so I love the title the Minstrel Show, but
humor me, why did you decide to go with the
minstrel show?

Speaker 2 (01:04:20):
Because we could call it nigga music.

Speaker 1 (01:04:27):
That you wanted to call that we wanted to call it.

Speaker 3 (01:04:30):
Was like, man, what we call the ship nigga music.
And that was like the running we were with it.
I think that might have lasted for like three.

Speaker 1 (01:04:36):
Weeks and then we realized, Okay, we can't call it album.

Speaker 2 (01:04:39):
They're not gonna let us do that. We didn't even
think they were gonna let us do show, but.

Speaker 1 (01:04:44):
Nigga music in the pocket. It's like, we did want
to call it nigga music. Wait, was there any red flax? Like,
wait a minute, I don't know, because oftentimes I'll have
to explain to white people what minstrel see is and
they never know what it is. And then like they're
already in the middle of you know, the swamp.

Speaker 2 (01:05:06):
So like.

Speaker 1 (01:05:09):
Man were thinking at the time.

Speaker 3 (01:05:10):
Man, at the time, I think they were. I mean,
the one thing I got to give Atlantic credit for,
you know, they let us do us. And so my
main thought in going into the Mintel Show, particularly once
we you know, signed to Atlantic, my whole thing was,
we gotta show our fans that we can still do
us on a major label, because around that time, you know,

(01:05:32):
signing to a major label, in a lot of ways,
it was kind of the kiss of death.

Speaker 1 (01:05:36):
You know what I mean.

Speaker 3 (01:05:37):
If you heard that your favorite band signed to a
big label, the first thing as a music fan that
your mind is like, ah, man in a scope, about
the fuck they should up Atlantic, About the fuck they
should up you know what I'm saying. So our whole
thing was, well, man, first and foremost, we got to
show our fans and we can still be us. You know,
unapologetically us on a major label, and so Atlanta they

(01:06:00):
stood behind that. You know, it was a gamble and
you know, and they let us the record that y'all hear.
That is the exact record that we took out of
our computer in in Durham and put out to the world.
And you know, from the stories I've heard just from
so many cats on uh you know labels, that is

(01:06:21):
something that rarely happened certainly didn't.

Speaker 1 (01:06:23):
It wasn't happening back then, you know what I'm saying.
And we learned it using real facilities this time around.
This was same thing. It was the same.

Speaker 3 (01:06:32):
We still recorded that one. I think by this time
we weren't recording in Comanche's crib no more. We had
the chop shop by that point.

Speaker 2 (01:06:40):
Yeah. We we actually had an office space that we
dubbed the studio and it was the same ship was
set up, same setup, just a communal space and not
someone's apartment.

Speaker 1 (01:06:54):
Yeah, but it was the exact same setup. We had
a computer, we had, Uh, we had a mic.

Speaker 2 (01:06:59):
We U was the.

Speaker 1 (01:07:02):
Road, We had monitors, wass.

Speaker 2 (01:07:05):
The same The same mic that I have in my
my setup right now is the mic we recorded the
Mystery Show, get back all that on.

Speaker 1 (01:07:13):
But mix wise, uh, guru mix it a real basically.

Speaker 3 (01:07:19):
Mixine mix it that baseline. That was probably like the
only kind of upgrade I guess. You know what I
mean is that, you know, Google, he mixed the baseline.
But everything else, Man, that ship was straight out of
our computers, and you know that was that was what
it was. And I think we learned a valuable lesson too,
you know when you ask about you know, what was

(01:07:40):
the climate like in terms of us calling it the
minstral show or whatever. I don't even know if the
people around, if the if you know, the Julie and
Craig and all them, I don't even think they got
too much into the politics of it. I think they
were just like, Yo, this is something new. These guys
are buzzing. Let's just throw it out and see what happens.
And one of the things that we learned that you know,

(01:08:03):
me and Pooh learned and Pool was even doing now
like in his uh career as a manager. You know,
we we were very self contained. So we came to
a label and in our mind we thinking like, yo,
we got our artwork done, we got our music done.
We know who we want to master, Like we came
in with all that shit already, and in our minds

(01:08:23):
it's like, yo, we're making the job of the label easier.
But what really happens is that you don't have anyone
to root for you because they don't have no one
can lay a claim to your success. Like no one
can say they're not personally invested in it.

Speaker 1 (01:08:39):
They got no investment, they got no skin in the game.

Speaker 3 (01:08:41):
So you know, that's one of the things that for
us it was like hell yeah, but it ended up
being a liability when trying to come into the measure
label system because everybody is trying to look for a
leg up.

Speaker 1 (01:08:54):
Every an R nigga want to be VP. Every mail
room nigga want to be an.

Speaker 2 (01:08:59):
A n R.

Speaker 3 (01:09:00):
So everybody's looking for that thing to hold on to
that's gonna be the star to take them somewhere else.
And if they can't hitch their wagon to your star,
then they don't give a fuck.

Speaker 2 (01:09:11):
Man. I still remember we gave Sycamore so much. We
gave him the petty that Babyface gave Teddy Riley the
other night.

Speaker 1 (01:09:23):
Like Sycamore down with uh Sycamore is the DJ Sycamore.
He was was what do you wrong with?

Speaker 2 (01:09:34):
I remember who he ran, but I just know he was.
He was fresh, he was fresh a and R over there.
And because the crazy thing is Hip Hop wanted to
be our an R. But Craig Callman wouldn't let us
go over with Hop because Hop and G had the
office over there, and Hop was like, YO, give me them,

(01:09:54):
give me Saigon and it was somebody else and Craig
Carman wouldn't do it, so he ended up giving us
the Sycamore. And I remember us going to New York.
We was working on I think, yeah, it became get Back,
and we went up there and we just had we
were just so off putting the Sycamore man, like, man,
we know what the fuck were doing. Man, I don't

(01:10:15):
even know why we're up here with you. No taking
us off an all these producers and ship nigga. We
don't need these niggas, like I know who that attitude
that we had, man, and I was like, just like
like you said, just thinking back on it as as
a manager now with an artist that signed to Dreamville
and in the Scope and another one on indie label
Mellow Music, I just I understand now how off putting

(01:10:39):
we were. And we didn't even allow them to treat
us like stars. Like that was a big thing I
noticed as well, because we were so self contained, we
didn't allow them to pamper us, if you will, And
and that it is very off putting to label folk because.

Speaker 1 (01:10:58):
They because the thing is man and the other thing too.

Speaker 3 (01:11:01):
Like I just kind of saw, is like how much
the the record industry, you know, at that time, and
I mean even certainly now, how much it perpetuates dysfunction
and how much it requires that shit in order to
remain a business model, because you know, like we were
saying earlier, you know what made you sign the.

Speaker 1 (01:11:20):
Deal, Nigga was poverty, Like niggas was broke and shit.

Speaker 3 (01:11:23):
So like when I saw, you know, you know, a
couple of weeks ago, months ago, whatever, when when Meg
was going through that shit with her label and all
that shit came out and they were talking about Meg
the Stallion and her deal, and everybody was just oh.

Speaker 1 (01:11:36):
Well, you know, why don't you just get a lawyer
and why don't you just get this Yeah, and.

Speaker 3 (01:11:42):
It's like, nigga, you don't understand the consequences that the
artists are living in when they signed these fucking contracts,
you know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (01:11:49):
It's hard to.

Speaker 3 (01:11:50):
Think two three years down the line when nigga rent
is about to be due on the first, So you
know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (01:11:57):
So you can't you know the circumstances of what you
signed this shit.

Speaker 3 (01:12:04):
You know, the record industry the is the shit is
pretty much a goddamn glorified payday loan, you know what
I mean. It's more predatory lending than anything else, you
know what I mean. So poverty and dysfunction, that shit
is baked into their business model. So in a lot
of ways, it again, it becomes a liability if you're
an artist that is self contained, know what you want,

(01:12:27):
show up on time, do your job, just do it whatever,
because at that point they have nothing. They can't control
you with nothing. And we were those dudes like we
just didn't give a fuck. We were just like, yo,
we make the music we want to make. If we
don't get this look or that look or that look,
who fucking cares. But so when you're a part of
that bureaucracy, you can't be like that.

Speaker 1 (01:12:49):
So let me ask if if say, the outcome of
the mental show turned out to be more rosier than
what happened. Uh what we would you guys have delved
into your next step, which was like uh, I mean
for Pooh was like the Sleepers project, Fonte, You're you're

(01:13:14):
making Foreign Exchange, uh with Nikola, like you're doing these
side projects, still committed to the well. I mean then
there's nine departure, so his leaving to do more production
and whatnot, like your your next step was splintering up
and taking a break for a while. But had the

(01:13:37):
outcome been different, would you guys have even chartered off
into the territory or the the outcome?

Speaker 2 (01:13:47):
The funny thing is the outcome of the Minstry show
didn't even weigh in because the first Foreign Exchange and
my album, my Sleepers album were done, already.

Speaker 1 (01:13:57):
Done fo y okay, I thought I've been sure it
was two thousand and it was five, two thousand and five,
four two thousand and five, okay, okay, And Sleepers came
out in February of five. I forgot when that first
Connecting Connector came out in oh four.

Speaker 3 (01:14:15):
It was it was like all four, I want to say, yeah,
And we were working on those records, like with each other.
So yeah, it was never a thing of like, you know,
if Pool's like, I'm working on a record, I need
a verse for that, all right, cool, I jump on it.
He jumped on you know, foreign exchange records. So there
was always you know, me just kind of being a
student of the game. I always saw the groups that

(01:14:38):
allowed themselves to kind of do their own thing, they
seemed to work a lot better, you know what I mean,
Like even with like Gang Star was kind of my
example where Pream was doing remixes for everybody, but Guru
had Jasmin tasks like that was his own thing that
he did, and then they came together and do Gang Star,
And so that was always my thought. So when it

(01:14:59):
came to us throughing side projects and solo stuff, even
went ninth with all the stuff he was doing, we
were all very much a part of that, and we
we championed that.

Speaker 1 (01:15:10):
Okay, So without making this, you guys's uh audio obituary,
So then you all right, So I actually want to
cut in Tarantino this skipping in the future, because I
don't know the story of after me begging and begging

(01:15:33):
and publicly began, We've we've talked about this story before
in the salone episode of me trying to wield a
Little Brother reunion into existence. But what was the straw
that at least that unbroke the camel's back for you
to be like, okay, like what you down? You down?

Speaker 2 (01:15:58):
I think it was just us becoming friends, Like we
just had to take time to after we didn't speak
for a while. We just had to take time to
just become friends. And that just really and honestly, like
for almost two years we didn't discuss making no music together.

(01:16:20):
We didn't discuss It was more like, yo, how you
doing in life? Like what's going on in your life?

Speaker 1 (01:16:26):
And then.

Speaker 2 (01:16:28):
Eventually once we did that show the next day, it
was just it was unspoken, like I went to take
house to pick my money up and he was like, yo,
I'm cooking. He said, I'm cooking. I said I'll stay.
You know what I'm saying, I'm not going to turn
down the free meal. And we just was talking before
everybody else pulled up, and it was just one of

(01:16:50):
them things was like, man, how you feel? It was like, shit,
I feel good? How you feel?

Speaker 1 (01:16:55):
Okay? So now I want to go back a little bit.
How hard is it to walk away because for me,
I know, for me and Tarique, like, yes, we were
birds of a feather, best friends in high school, spending
night each other's couches, you know whatever, do everything together,
and then we start a business with each other, and

(01:17:17):
we're just slowly now, we're just slowly now now that
we're inching to fifty, we're slowly now inching back to
where we were when we were fourteen and fifteen. But
there was a period between ages twenty three to forty
seven in which we were very committed business partners and

(01:17:45):
it was like, no, matter what, this group is not dying,
which doesn't make for good chemistry if you're you know,
if you're making creative products. So it's likeing together for
the kids, Yeah, is defeat. Did you feel a sense
of like a dream deferred? Once it was like, Okay,

(01:18:07):
this group is officially a rap and just put it
on the shelf and you'll go that way and I'll
go this way. I'll let you go. Uh.

Speaker 2 (01:18:18):
I think for me that didn't hit till later at
the time when we stopped speaking. I think I was
just I was so pissed, and I think we were
so just frustrated at just a bunch of things and
turn each other. That it was more like, fuck that ship,
I'm gonna show this nigga. And later on I started

(01:18:41):
to really sink in, like, yo, I think we fucked up,
but it's too late to turn back now. Yeah, it
was down this path.

Speaker 1 (01:18:51):
Yeah it was.

Speaker 3 (01:18:52):
I didn't realize that, I think. You know, at the
time when when we you know, just said fuck it,
I was just tired, you know what I mean. And
I just you know, we had spent so many years
just kind of in a pressure cooker together, just album
mixtape tour, mixtape, album tour, and I was just fucking exhausted, man.

(01:19:13):
And so at the time when we said, you know,
it was over, I was like, Okay, well, you know,
we hadn't really been, you know, because a lot of
people asked, well, if the record, if you think if
the record would have sold better, y'all would have stayed together.
The thing about it, at the time when we broke
up in Old Well, ninth Left and O seven and then.

Speaker 1 (01:19:33):
We improved twenty ten.

Speaker 3 (01:19:39):
At that time, that was when we were seeing some
of our best shows. So you know, after Get Back,
that was when we got a really big black audience.
So our shows were still going up, Like, you know,
we were doing really good business on the road, and
you know, we could have kept.

Speaker 1 (01:19:59):
You know, going out there and getting that money.

Speaker 3 (01:20:00):
But I think it was a combination of just exhaustion
and then just it wasn't fun, Like we just weren't
enjoying each other, We weren't enjoying the experience. We were
literally just coming on stage, just rap rap, rap, and
then we would go off in two separate directions. And
for me, you know, I mean, you know, you gotta

(01:20:21):
make money. Money is important. But the minute this shit
started feeling like a job, nigga, I'm gone. I didn't
get in this shit because I wanted to.

Speaker 1 (01:20:28):
Work a job. I could have kept my job, you know.

Speaker 3 (01:20:31):
I got in this to, you know, make a living
and be around people I love and us build something together.

Speaker 1 (01:20:36):
And once this shit became work, it was like, man,
fuck this.

Speaker 2 (01:20:39):
And for me it was, like I said, it was
just I think for me it was just hard just
looking at the scene at the time and it was like, Yo,
this shit is wide open. This is what we fought
all them fucking years for is to get to this point,
and we got here. We're the man in the cave
that all we had to do was hit that take
that pitchfork and hit that dirt one more.

Speaker 1 (01:21:00):
Time and the diamond all the diamond.

Speaker 2 (01:21:02):
Yeah, but we turned around and walked away where that
where that guy, Like, that's that's how I felt, just
how everything turned around, and I was just like, damn,
we missed an opportunity there. But like you said, man,
we just exhausted, man, just with each other, with the situation,

(01:21:22):
with just everything. It was just like, man, I just
need time to go be free over here by myself
or doing some other ship and yeah, get back.

Speaker 3 (01:21:31):
But that was our last album, We Owe ABB And
after that that was like freedom. I felt freedom in
a way that I hadn't felt in a long time.
And that was when I met I was like, nigga,
fuck a label, Like fuck we out this deal. We're
free of Atlantic abb Man, fuck this ship. And that
was when me and Nick form e fie music after that.

Speaker 1 (01:21:53):
Okay, all right, so everyone that listens to the show
knows Fonte's disdain for me holding on tightly to politically
correct non gotcha questions. Go in something we talk about whatever.
We're in the age of the Roman, Nick, the.

Speaker 2 (01:22:17):
Age of the Roman, so.

Speaker 1 (01:22:23):
Should I will publicly into the future a reunion of
the original unit of this group. Well, I can tell
you this, damn you already started. Okay, you can, you can,
you can.

Speaker 2 (01:22:40):
You can say out loud and put into the air
as much as you want, Brother Amir, I can tell
you what ain't gonna Happensten.

Speaker 1 (01:22:50):
Listen, listen, wait, listen, hear me.

Speaker 2 (01:22:55):
I know my ass already, but I listen because I believe.

Speaker 1 (01:23:00):
Okay, for those that never heard the salone episode, I
went on Twitter, I think in I was at least
at fallon at the time. It's like twenty twelve thirteen.
It nah, this was later than that. This was this
is about twenty.

Speaker 2 (01:23:21):
This yeah, oh yeah, that was about twelve thirteen is
I decided.

Speaker 1 (01:23:31):
You know what I'm gonna will. I'm a publicly will
a Little Brother reunion for the greater good, you know,
the rof the hell's paid with great intentions. Facts I
put it. I put a tweet out there. I was like,
I want little I forget the exact wording, but it's like,
I'm willing a Little Brother reunion because damn it, I
need it. And you know, Fante kind of did the

(01:23:57):
you when Chappelle man, I was like, nah, man, chill,
don't do that.

Speaker 2 (01:24:01):
Chill.

Speaker 1 (01:24:02):
I tried, I tried. I tried to defuse the bomb
and you did it like yo man, my wife and
my wife is here like like what are you doing?
Like that sort of thing. He gave an example of
like yo, man, this is like me putting out there
like you and salons and da da da da da.

(01:24:22):
And then Salon saw our name says wait wait me
and a mirror what and then it caused what a time?

Speaker 2 (01:24:29):
I saw all that. That's all the fireworks.

Speaker 1 (01:24:34):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:24:35):
Yeah, we weren't even talking at that time. We were
talking at that time, but that ship went off.

Speaker 1 (01:24:40):
That was crazy. My whole point was that this still happened,
and you said it would never happen. So that's it.
It never happened. Is it possibility? What were you saying?

Speaker 2 (01:24:55):
Oh, back back to my answer. That was a nice story,
like this is the thing, this is this, yeah, this
is this is the thing. We when we came back
this time, we realized the fundamental differences as men, and

(01:25:16):
you can't get past that fact, like he is who
he is, we are who we are, and we see
things differently than the way he does, and the clarity
is there, and that's just it like, because for me,
the thing I always said about little Brother, even when

(01:25:37):
we weren't talking, when we weren't making music, the magic
in the music was that it was our relationship. It
wouldn't the fact that ty Dope, I'm Dope night Beast
for Dope. It's our relationship. It's the way we approach records,
the way we made records. You can hear the joy
in the records. In our later records, you can start

(01:25:57):
to not hear that joy, and little, yeah, a little
by little it was gone. And so when we came
back to do which ended up being made a little watch,
me and Tay had a talk and it basically was like, listen, man,
we here to do this for each other, were here
to have fun doing this shit, and nigga anything more

(01:26:20):
than that, we ain't. It's whatever, like, we ain't here
for it. And we realized very quickly that we saw
things that way he did not, And so it's just like, Yo,
we're good like we're good like we're.

Speaker 1 (01:26:36):
Good when when's the last time you guys have spoken
to ninth twenty eighteen, the twenty. For me, it was
more than you it bro it was twenty eighteen.

Speaker 2 (01:26:49):
You was twenty eighteen. For me, it was twenty nineteen.
It was March twenty nineteen.

Speaker 3 (01:26:53):
Yeah, because it was right time Nip died and yeah, yeah, yeah, Marsh, Yeah,
it was March sween nineteen.

Speaker 1 (01:26:59):
Yeah for me at twenty eighteen.

Speaker 3 (01:27:02):
The last the last time we actually saw each other,
like saw saw each other was yah yeah come back
Articicol Festival. Yeah, so August twenty eighteen, that was the
last time we saw each other.

Speaker 1 (01:27:15):
And that performance was just someone saying, hey, who was missing?
Who was supposed to Royce? Yeah, Royce Man. Who's the
person that was the point person who reached out to him?

Speaker 3 (01:27:28):
It was so's my man, Suleyman Massi. He's a promoter
and he runs now he owns the ARTICLEP Festival with
the music festival that goes on down here in Durham
and Royce Msster's flight and me and Suleiman, you know,
we had a working relationship. He had booked for an
exchange a bunch of times, so we knew each other

(01:27:49):
just you know, over the years, and so he reached
out to me and was like, yo, man, Roycemster's flight
that you want to do a solo set and I'm
literally at home in you know, a T shirt and
my boxer was just like doing nothing and U I said, well,
let me check and see if it's even possible.

Speaker 1 (01:28:08):
So I ended up making the calls.

Speaker 3 (01:28:09):
I called reached out to Flash it was my two
DJ first he didn't get answer for him, so then
I reached out to Knife and me and Knife had
been hanging in Durham that previous night, so I hit him.
I was like, hey, man, Suley Min hit me by
wanting to do this this show, you know, would you
would you DJ for me?

Speaker 1 (01:28:26):
He was like, yeah, I'll DJ for you. And I said, man,
you know it'd be crazy, man, what if we get
Pool involved in this shit? And he was like, oh hell,
I mean he was.

Speaker 3 (01:28:35):
He was super reluctant about it, but you know, I
you know, kind of twisted his arm and he was like,
all right, cool, you know, I'll do it. And I
called Pooh and hit SULEI mine back and we got
everything sorted out and so that all came together within
the matter of three four hours. I mean, it was
super super fast, and that was it. I mean that
was kind of what started it. And that was the

(01:28:58):
last time the end. And at the end, it wasn't
like yeah, I enjoyed that. It was absolutely yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:29:06):
I mean the funny, the funny part about it was
foreshadowing in life. I didn't see him when it was over,
Me and Tate, no, no lie, no bullshit. Like me
and Tate walked back up to the to the to
the r VS, which were our trailers, and he didn't
because he went down there to the stage before we did,

(01:29:28):
and he didn't go back up when we went up,
and I ain't seen him since we walked off that stage.
We took like two pictures together, and then I was like, man,
fuck this, I ain't got to stay down here taking
all these pictures and going going upstairs to get drunk
like and Tab was like, nig I'm going upstairs too,
and we went upstairs and I didn't. I haven't seen
him since. Like, no lie, no cat, as the young

(01:29:50):
people say, no cap.

Speaker 1 (01:29:52):
Not a cat, not a cap at all, No cap,
no fedora, no none of that shit, because a man
he couk twenty twenty two. I'm getting you all life, coach.

Speaker 2 (01:30:00):
We don't need one man.

Speaker 1 (01:30:00):
Were good.

Speaker 2 (01:30:02):
Not for this.

Speaker 3 (01:30:03):
I mean, if you want to coaches talk about childhood
trauma and ship like that, we talking about that.

Speaker 2 (01:30:08):
That's something totally different. We're good on this. You don't
work this out.

Speaker 1 (01:30:12):
We don't go all the way out. Okay, all right,
I feel you, man, you know, no, no, no, no,
I'll take that. Look, this is this is a little
this official Little Brother reunion. I'll take it. The album
is banging. You're happy to have been a part of it.
So what happens?

Speaker 5 (01:30:33):
Uh?

Speaker 1 (01:30:35):
Okay, So obviously we're in the edge of the rona
now where all the breaks have suddenly halted on our
professional lives. And you know what happens now is this
time for a new album?

Speaker 2 (01:30:50):
Is it making it through the rona?

Speaker 1 (01:30:52):
Man?

Speaker 2 (01:30:53):
That's all that's all you can do right now, one
day at a time.

Speaker 1 (01:30:57):
Yeah, one day.

Speaker 2 (01:30:59):
You know people always asks about another album. Man, it's
one for us. It's just one of them things.

Speaker 1 (01:31:03):
Where it's like, let's be like you're lucky you got
the one you got.

Speaker 2 (01:31:07):
Not only that, but like we both have just a
lot of other things that we have going on, and
you know, like I manage full time. So luckily Big Dough,
my partner so he was able to pick up a
lot of that slack and.

Speaker 1 (01:31:26):
And what is that into now? Who being a manager
being a suit Listen.

Speaker 2 (01:31:30):
Man, let me tell you something, bro. This ship is
this ship well you can't see him in the camera,
but I got a lot of grades down here, now, man,
got a lot of grades. Man, it's you know, it's
for me. It's just one of them things. Man. I
just love music, and I love the guys that I have,
and I believe in them full force, and I just
want to see them accomplish some of the things that

(01:31:51):
they want to accomplish, if not everything. So I'm I'm here,
I'm right or die. That's why I don't have a
lot of clients, man, Like I gotta I gotta feel
goosebump when I hear you for the first time. And
all these guys I had that feeling. But it's hard, man,
it's stressful. It's three it's three different people, three different personalities,

(01:32:12):
three different levels in their careers right now.

Speaker 1 (01:32:16):
But you're using you're using the wisdom all of it
that you all right, but that you have. But this
is the thing.

Speaker 2 (01:32:23):
How old are the thirty thirty thirty thirty one and
twenty four.

Speaker 1 (01:32:33):
Young.

Speaker 2 (01:32:33):
Yeah, and this is this is the thing I tell
people I have. I have a lot of wisdom, right,
I have a lot of wisdom, but this is their careers,
so I don't I don't rule with the iron fists.
I'm more of a let's have a conversation about whatever
the situation is. That's way to pros the cars. I'll

(01:32:55):
give you my advice, I'll give you some you know,
some anecdotes if I have any. But at the end
of the day, you have to make a choice for
you because it's your career, and I'm gonna ride whatever
that choice is, whether I agree or not, but it
has to be your choice because you gotta go out
here and sell it.

Speaker 1 (01:33:11):
Shit exactly.

Speaker 3 (01:33:12):
We were always kind of on some when it came
to us dealing with other acts whatever. We always kind
of on some tigos to the runner shit, just in
the sense of, you know, like he said, as like,
I can have my thoughts about it, but if it's
a song you believe in, you the one that's gotta
walk out here on this shit, not me.

Speaker 1 (01:33:28):
It's it's your name that's attached to it. So I
could hate the fucking song.

Speaker 3 (01:33:32):
But if you love it and this is what you
believe in, then I'll stand behind you on it, cause
it's you the one that's gotta sell.

Speaker 1 (01:33:38):
It, and it's gonna follow you.

Speaker 2 (01:33:41):
It's gonna follow you, right. I think the best thing
for me, the best thing for me and my position
is I have a legacy that's cemented. Whether I stopped
today and just go back to being Thomas Jones and
go work at the airport or some shit, like, my
legacy is cemented already, so I don't have that fear

(01:34:03):
of the fuck up. And it's just like, Yo, let's
let's let's go, Let's go fast, let's go hard, and
if we suck up along the way, it's gonna happen.
Mistakes going to hunted and mistakes going ten. There's two
different type of mistakes. Let's go on hunting and that's
just what we do.

Speaker 1 (01:34:20):
Yeah, yeah, I was. I was thinking that.

Speaker 3 (01:34:23):
We had Jimmy jam on you know the other day,
and you know, he was talking about how his wife,
you know, how he got involved in the Grammys and stuff,
and it was his wife that was telling him like, Yo,
this is what you're supposed.

Speaker 1 (01:34:34):
To be doing. Now, you know what I mean?

Speaker 3 (01:34:36):
And that really resonated with me because it kind of
reminded me. I think that was a lot of what
me and Pool would have conversations with about. Made The
Lord Watch one of the earliest conversations we had. After
we finished the record. The first thing we thought about was, Okay,
how can who can we help, Like, now that we've
done this, how can we use this new platform we

(01:34:58):
have to you know, jump somebody the l fall so
help you know, someone else. And so when it comes
to you asked about doing another album for me, you know,
that record just took a lot, Like it took everything
out of me because it was so much we knew
we had to get right. And I mean, you know,
and you always, you know, not to say that it's

(01:35:18):
ever been, you know, records that we have stepped on
or like purposely just did some bullshit or whatever.

Speaker 1 (01:35:24):
I mean, we always put our best foot forward.

Speaker 3 (01:35:26):
But we made a little Watch that was just a
draining process because we did everything ourselves, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:35:33):
What I mean.

Speaker 3 (01:35:33):
We cleared our samples, we were budget label studio, the.

Speaker 1 (01:35:38):
Whole nine, you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 3 (01:35:40):
So it just took so much out of us both
and I think in terms of us doing another record,
For me, it really just came down to I just
wanted us to do something, So where now the errors
out of the room. So now if I just want
to jump on a song for his album, well he
jumped on song on my album. We can just do

(01:36:02):
a fucking song and that be the end of it.
It's no more discussion of oh, well what does this mean?

Speaker 1 (01:36:07):
And nigga just mean we did the song together, you
know what I mean. So we have the freedom to
do that now.

Speaker 3 (01:36:13):
And if another record comes, if we feel like we
got something else to say, you know, we can do that.
But as of right now, speaking for me, I'm just
kind of enjoying the peace of just having you know,
my brother back in my life again and us being
able to use our influence to help other people.

Speaker 1 (01:36:32):
Like that's the most that's the most joy the joyous
part of it for me.

Speaker 2 (01:36:37):
And we still got cities we ain't touch yet because
of the role No man, straight up, we ain't been
to New York, Houston, Detroit, to roder Boston. We ain't
did a show at the crib sits the festival, like man,
y'all ain't getting no album to that happen.

Speaker 1 (01:36:55):
Five Hey, man, burden hand a burden in hand, beast
two in the bush. I mean I wanted a new
Little Brother record. You got it, I got I got
a Christmas gift. I'm not being greedy. Thank you. I
appreciate it. Thank you for this, man.

Speaker 2 (01:37:14):
Yeah, man, And and I always wanted to thank you,
Amir for I don't know if you remember, but we
did a show at the t l A. This is
this is around, this is the listening time, and you
came to the show, and I.

Speaker 1 (01:37:28):
Know what you're talking about.

Speaker 2 (01:37:29):
I remember you said, Yo, I want to buy some
CDs from y'all, and we said, okay, how many you want.
You paid for thirty c ds. You left them CDs there,
I did so we were able to resell them CDs
money in the half, and we needed that money.

Speaker 1 (01:37:47):
So I.

Speaker 2 (01:37:49):
Thank you for that.

Speaker 1 (01:37:52):
That's that's a very mere thing to do. But I
think I also did it on Donald's Got Niggas Back
Down ninety five show it all right? Well, look I'm
wrapping up the show, man, Yo, I want to thank
you all for doing this show under under these circumstances.

(01:38:12):
I never thought i'd get the Little Brother episode, but.

Speaker 3 (01:38:14):
You know what though, man on some Brittain, this is
just my mind working post edible. How poetic is it
that we all met on the internet and now we're
doing our show. My god, can't do do it?

Speaker 1 (01:38:36):
It's only right Well on behalf of Big Pooh, Fanticicolo,
Boss Bill, the rest of the team Supreme. Yeah Sugar, Steve,
unpaid Bill and oh my god, I was about to
see you out getting cigarettes anyway, I'm back now all
are you good? All right? This is a quest Love
and thank you for tuning in and we will see

(01:38:57):
you on the next go round of Quest Love Supreme.
Thank yous. What's Love Supreme is a production of iHeart Radio.

(01:39:18):
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
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Laiya St. Clair

Questlove

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