Jermaine Dupri

Join us for a special Episode 150 of the R&B Money Podcast featuring music mogul Jermaine Dupri. Known for his influential role in the music industry, Jermaine talks about his journey from a young music producer to a record label executive who has worked with some of the biggest names in music.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Speaks to the planet.

Speaker 2 (00:01):
I go by the name of Charlamagne Tha God and
guess what. I can't wait to see y'all at the
third annual Black Effect Podcast Festival. That's right, We're coming
back to Atlanta, Georgia, Saturday, April twenty six at Poeman
Yards and it's hosted by none other than Decisions, Decisions,
Mandy B and Weezy. Okay, we got the R and
B Money podcast. We're taking Jay Valentine. We got the
Woman of All podcasts with Sarah Jake Roberts. We got

(00:22):
Good Mom's Bad Choices. Carrie Champion will be there with
her next sports podcast, and the Trap Nerds podcast, with
more to be announced. And of course it's bigger than podcasts.
We're bringing the Black Effect marketplace with black owned businesses,
plus the food truck court to keep you fed while
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Black Effect dot Com Flash Podcast Festival.

Speaker 1 (00:47):
R and B Money, we.

Speaker 3 (00:52):
Second take vallegib We are the authority and ladies and gentlemen,
my name is Tank Valentine. This is the R and
B Money Podcast. Be authorty.

Speaker 4 (01:13):
You know, you know things if what are and be
anything else that comes with.

Speaker 3 (01:21):
Music, you have to understand.

Speaker 1 (01:25):
Today's the day of reckoning.

Speaker 5 (01:30):
Yeah, we got a great and the motherfucking Bill's Egg Gonny,
big Dogs, super thaking, yeah, super. I don't need a
drink to make these hits for anybody. Beat write it, yeah, melody,

(01:50):
hall of fame with it, rap yeah halfay, Yeah you
didn't say it a hall of fame, man, I don't
need next and all Man one upson right here with us, Yes, sir,
And he had birds.

Speaker 3 (02:07):
He was a Cairn man too, were flock. Oh my god,
ladies and gentlemen, it's him. That's the best way I
can say it. The mister Jermaine, j D, the pre
and this month.

Speaker 1 (02:25):
Come on intro. God damn, yes, sir, got to be right.

Speaker 3 (02:29):
You just got the you aren't.

Speaker 1 (02:30):
The ship, okay, bro.

Speaker 3 (02:33):
I remember the first time I met you when I
was working with Jagget in the studio late nineties. They
was they was already cracking and they had wrote a
little song for me on on on on the Beacocks beat.
He was in the studio and you know, me and
Brian was was kind of cool. Brandon was giving me

(02:56):
the superstar shoulder. You know, Brandon, don't with nobody to
get noticing. I know this nigga.

Speaker 1 (03:06):
I know this right.

Speaker 3 (03:07):
And so we were breaking the ice and and and
and getting to know each other and like, yeah, you know,
you know we can't do some hoop. I'm like, hoop whop?

Speaker 1 (03:15):
Where?

Speaker 3 (03:17):
And Jamaine so it's Jamaine.

Speaker 1 (03:20):
Was y'all.

Speaker 3 (03:21):
Wasn't that Jamais? Yeah, He's like, yeah, we're gonna go
to Jamain. So I said, well, can I come to
Jamin Etiquette though, that's listen, he's Jermaine dupre right. You
just don't pull up you. No, I'm not pull up
that Mass Street. But I don't know this nigga right, No,

(03:43):
I'm not nobody, no one listen.

Speaker 6 (03:46):
If you pull up as that nigga too, you always
are remembered.

Speaker 7 (03:49):
As that that nigga.

Speaker 3 (03:51):
Roll up in here and start these snacks playing basketball. No, no, no,
I said, y'all, y'all think it'll be cool. Now, that's cool,
come with us, JAD super cool. Met j D for
the first time. Big fan man so dope man I
was on. I told him I was. I was on
tour with with uh with Drew Hill when I was
singing backgrounds with Genuine and when that remix came on

(04:13):
that whole arena. So I hope against your guys. That's right.
You know, some of the greatest singers, one of the
greatest groups of all time, and and I and I
kicked the ass.

Speaker 7 (04:32):
Hey, uh twins, y'all gotta come here, Come on.

Speaker 4 (04:36):
I wasn't there, so I say what happened waiting to test?

Speaker 3 (04:41):
I think I might were playing half court. I might
have two dunks in a half court game. God, they
switched on me so many times I didn't know who
was checking me.

Speaker 1 (04:49):
You dunked on my gym? Absolutely, Okay, that's that's pretty impressive. Absolutely,
my rims is high.

Speaker 7 (04:54):
That's why I asked it.

Speaker 3 (04:56):
Regulations. Yeah, that's the point of really good story. Some
of y'all got studios, A couple of rooms, right, maybe
a pre production. You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (05:12):
You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 3 (05:13):
No board, ain't got no boards. Now, you ain't got
no board. Jad's got a fully mixed master, Jim Hoop, Massage, Parler,
Vegan ice Cream Distribution, strip.

Speaker 7 (05:27):
CLU, strip club. I had to put a strip club
in the studio. This was This was Nelly's request.

Speaker 3 (05:34):
We had a room.

Speaker 1 (05:35):
Nellie was like, hey man, let's stop going to the
strip club, so we'll stay in here and make music.

Speaker 7 (05:43):
Make that a strip club.

Speaker 3 (05:45):
And I was like mhm m hmm.

Speaker 1 (05:51):
And then we figured it.

Speaker 3 (05:52):
Out about to say, you feel like an easy answer
for you.

Speaker 1 (05:58):
I like going to Magic I I love going to
Magic Wings.

Speaker 3 (06:05):
Come on, liv that's I really only go for the wings.
The women are an added bonus. Okay, shout out to
Magic City and and and the women who adorn the
facility and miss the magic himself. We love you here
at need.

Speaker 1 (06:21):
Matter of fact, matter of fact, yes, I'm doing a documentary.
The Magic City Documentary is coming out in May. It's
it's on Stars. I think I might be saying it's
too early, but it is what it is. It's exclusive
here and it's a documentary, so we do have to
get magic on here.

Speaker 3 (06:39):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (06:40):
You know the week that.

Speaker 3 (06:42):
Having a party, are you well?

Speaker 1 (06:44):
Last year last year we did I took We did
a Magic City pop up south by Southwest.

Speaker 7 (06:50):
That was crazy, So people been asking we're doing it.
We gonna definitely have a party.

Speaker 1 (06:53):
Know that release.

Speaker 3 (06:54):
Release party, release parties. You know, it's not really. You
need to be there to cover.

Speaker 7 (07:00):
You can't not be there.

Speaker 3 (07:01):
Bro you you you, you go back, So I mean me,
me bringing up the studio story was just I had
never seen nothing like that, and I had been to
you know, I had been to a few studios in
my day and then noontime I thought was just an
incredible facility a while how all those producers and writers
were all in this space. But going to your studio
was the first time I seem like a a compound.

(07:24):
That was my intro to what a compound looks like.
Where whatever you need to get done, whether it be rehearsal,
get in shape, you don't you don't have to leave.
The development is all right here. And I feel like
that is a testament and a secret, not even really
a secret, but just a secret to your success and

(07:46):
that you were you were instrumental in in the in
the developmental process, like you're more of you're you're like
a You're like a genius A and R. Right, with
all of these tools at your disposal, you can write it,
you can do it, you can wrap it, you can
got the melodies for it. You got to know it

(08:07):
should be about this. You got all of that and
so and then it's got to look like this, and
then no, you gotta move like that, like you're doing
all of that and you have the facility to do
it in.

Speaker 7 (08:19):
Yeah, I mean, it wasn't. I always liked that.

Speaker 3 (08:20):
I think I.

Speaker 1 (08:24):
I think I gathered that stuff that you're talking about
from being young and not knowing people. I was too
young to actually even have to know studio engineers in
the first place. So you don't you gotta do it yourself,
you know what I mean. Like I couldn't have nobody
coming to my house. I was too young and I
had no money, right, so I couldn't be like, yo,

(08:45):
come over here, help me record this or whatever it is.
Was just always less like even like writers. It's like
now when we write, I see people calling writers somebody,
and I might call me, like, jad, who you want
to write on this song? But even then I ain't
know no writers, with nobody to write. It was like
you got it, I want this song done. I'm gonna

(09:06):
do it. I gotta do it. It ain't even not I'm
gonna do it. I gotta do it because it ain't
nobody else around here.

Speaker 3 (09:12):
The safety.

Speaker 1 (09:13):
Yeah, but it's like It's almost like a gift and
a curse because it's like I was young. I was
so young, I couldn't I had no access to people.

Speaker 3 (09:22):
How young were you.

Speaker 1 (09:23):
When I first started writing songs.

Speaker 3 (09:27):
Probably fifteen, He was making the beats and everything.

Speaker 1 (09:30):
No, I was actually making the beats on my head
because I ain't had no money to get to the
drum machines, right, so I would make I would completely
like think about how I wanted this music to sound
all the way in my head. And then I'd go
to the studio and I try to tell somebody to
do what I wanted them to do. And they used
to be like, well, you can't do that, we can't
take nobody's music and dad, and I'm like, man like

(09:53):
the age I was, if I would have if they
would have listened to me, I probably would have been
like the first person to ever sample got you a
full record the way I wanted to sample the record
when I was fifteen. They was like, you can't do that.
You can't steal people's music. This was the guys of
these other studios telling me. And I'm like, well I don't.

(10:14):
I mean, I'm not thinking I'm stealing, but I'm just like,
just what I want use it. I want to wrap
this like that. And then they was like, well, now
we're remake, so we'll remake it.

Speaker 7 (10:25):
They start trying to remake it.

Speaker 1 (10:26):
That's when that's when the producer hunger came, because it's like,
I need to learn how to do this so I
can do it. Because they're not listening to what I'm saying.
It's not going the way I wanted. It's cool, but
I hear it some other kind of way.

Speaker 3 (10:41):
And then what was your What was your first purchase
as a producer.

Speaker 1 (10:45):
My first purchase was a I think it was a
six twenty six rollin drummer Shine. It might have been
a seven o seven, but one of them little. It
was like it wasn't no bigger than this, And because
two I think it was two hundred and fifty dollars
and I had to put it on lailway. What yeah,

(11:06):
I had nothing, you know what I mean? But I
put it on lailway. I go cut people's grass around
the neighborhood. It be like ten dollars, twenty dollars this
then and the third and I go back and get
that drum machine. When I got the drum machine. It
ain't have no it had all these whack rock sounds like.
It wasn't like stock sounds. So once again I had

(11:27):
to start imagining that this is gonna be the eight
of eight.

Speaker 7 (11:32):
Just how the snag gonna sound.

Speaker 1 (11:33):
So I make the beat, but I wasn't thinking that
it didn't sound like what you found. I kept thinking
in my mind when we get to the studio. By
the way, I didn't even know if this was possible
because the MP's and none of this.

Speaker 3 (11:46):
Stuff media and triggering, right, that type of thing.

Speaker 1 (11:48):
Yeah, I didn't know it was possible, but I was
just saying, like, okay, it gotta be a thing between
what I got in the studio, right, So I kept
thinking in my mind, when we get to the studio,
I'm tell the guys, take this kick, keep the pattern,
but change that kick out and give me something.

Speaker 7 (12:03):
Give me the money stuff there eight waits.

Speaker 4 (12:07):
Yeah, they don't even have those sounds there, the money,
Give me the stuff that I that I want.

Speaker 1 (12:12):
So that that hunger just from there, it just you know,
it just started unraveling, like me seeing them and me
telling them like okay, and them showing me I could
do it, and I'm like, okay, I got it. I
just got to get to the equipment. I gotta find
I gotta get to it. And once I got started
getting so, I produced the Silk Times Level album and

(12:35):
that didn't do great, but it did well enough for
me to get fifteen thousand dollars. Right when I took
that fifteen thousand dollars, I bought all equipment. You're how
old at this point, sixteen seventeen.

Speaker 3 (12:46):
Fifteen thousand at sixteen?

Speaker 4 (12:48):
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, you're a double
and this was shit. You take sixty thousand as a teenager,
You're like.

Speaker 1 (12:57):
I got some brainds. Oh I'm good, yeah, all the
way good.

Speaker 3 (12:59):
And you went and bought all equipment.

Speaker 1 (13:01):
With that equipment, all equipment.

Speaker 3 (13:03):
And where you set up.

Speaker 1 (13:04):
I had my room looking like this, all equipment, your bedroom,
my bedroom.

Speaker 3 (13:08):
That's what it said. That's the setup right there in
the bedroom. And did you start having people come through?

Speaker 1 (13:13):
Like yeah, yeah, then people start coming through, like JD
got the studio, you know what I mean?

Speaker 7 (13:17):
J JD got a studio.

Speaker 1 (13:19):
That's like like when so what they didn't started coming
through where they were they was coming through. It was
like some local kids that was coming through. I had
a four track, I had some turntables.

Speaker 3 (13:29):
So DJing already too.

Speaker 1 (13:30):
Yeah, I been DJing. I was DJing since like thirteen fourteen.
Like once I went on the Fresh Fest, I learned
how to DJ from like jam Master J, Grandmaster D,
all of these guys that was out there there was DJing.
They had just showed me stuff and I just was
like intrigued by the DJ in too.

Speaker 3 (13:48):
So when did you drop out because you obviously ain't
going No, damn.

Speaker 1 (13:52):
Yeah, I dropped that.

Speaker 7 (13:53):
I dropped out of school that like fourteen fifteen.

Speaker 3 (13:58):
So you never really went to high school. He was like, no,
this is this is school for me.

Speaker 1 (14:02):
Well, nah, I didn't, but I knew that. Well what
I'm gonna saying it was like I was going to
school then I went to.

Speaker 7 (14:07):
The Fresh Fest. When I went on the fresh Fest,
I was twelve, thirteen fourteen.

Speaker 1 (14:12):
Yeah, so when I went on.

Speaker 7 (14:14):
The Fresh fans at twelve.

Speaker 1 (14:16):
This is pre Atlanta music, Like, ain't no music scene
in Atlanta when I'm going on tour, right, So the
rules for a kid entertainer, Nobody in Atlanta don't know
what that is. Like, this ain't La right, This is like,
this is Atlanta, you know. So my mother and them

(14:37):
they don't know what you know, they don't know what
they're doing either. My dad, you know, they hear about
you can get tutors and this, that and the third.
So we go to the school board and tell them
that I'm going on tour and I need a tutor.
And when I get the tutor, the tutor's gonna take
my credits and y'all gonna, you know, we're gonna make

(14:57):
it work. And they say yes. But then when I
came off tour, they was like, we can't accept those
those credits, or we can't accept the grades and stuff
that you was doing. And I'm like, whorld, wait a minute,
So you was.

Speaker 3 (15:09):
Actually doing the work.

Speaker 1 (15:10):
Yeah, I'm like, I've been doing all this work on
tour and now y'all telling me you can't accept it.

Speaker 7 (15:15):
And that's the day I said, oh no, I'm good.

Speaker 1 (15:17):
My parents was basically just they was just joining in
the whole decision. My mother wasn't with me doing nothing,
like she was trying to make sure I was going
to school, me going on tour.

Speaker 7 (15:27):
She didn't know, like, who is all new about all new?

Speaker 3 (15:31):
Who was your guardian when you're going on tour.

Speaker 1 (15:35):
Well, my dad was it was like the production manager
for the tour, so he was out with you. Yeah,
my dad was out there. So that was that's that,
That's how my mother.

Speaker 6 (15:44):
Went on and went along with it.

Speaker 1 (15:47):
But my dad was actually also working. He's also he
was out there working as a you know, as.

Speaker 7 (15:53):
A production man. So so I was out there by myself.

Speaker 4 (15:57):
God, yeah yeah, so would you would you say then
that in a sense, Pops was the first identifier inn
of like he got something different for my dad.

Speaker 3 (16:10):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (16:10):
Yeah, my dad was my manager. My dad was my
manager for basically my whole teenage, you know, for a
long time.

Speaker 7 (16:17):
My dad was my manager. And but once again that's
that's also.

Speaker 1 (16:21):
Like me not knowing nobody. I know my dad, I
don't know nobody else, right, I know my dad. Just
what you want to do, I think this is what
you want to do. I don't even know if this
is what you want to do, but I'm gonna put
you in it. I'm gonna put you in it, you know.

Speaker 7 (16:34):
What I mean.

Speaker 1 (16:35):
So I saw my dad always as a as a
manager type of figure, and when I created Crisscross, I
called him and told him like, I got this group,
You're gonna be their manager?

Speaker 3 (16:49):
And that became my rollout. Man, I can't wait for
Douce to call me and say found criss Cross.

Speaker 4 (16:55):
I can't wait for my son to be like, Dad,
I got it when I created.

Speaker 3 (17:01):
At what seventeen?

Speaker 7 (17:02):
What are you now seventeen?

Speaker 3 (17:04):
Because somehow it's seventeen. Yeah, I know what the people need,
I know what they want. I know what's gonna shake
this shit up at seventeen. That's crazy, that's crazy. It
speaks more to what I'm talking about.

Speaker 4 (17:20):
So do you do you go the regular route of
let me just go try to get them a record deal?
Do you say let me try to go get me
some kind of production label deal, or do you just
I don't know nothing, You don't know nothing.

Speaker 1 (17:34):
I don't know you just like I just want to
want to make I've seen these kids at Tomorrow and
I saw people reacting to them, and I'm like, who
the fuck are y'all? Who are y'all? Why? Why the
girls at the cookie company give y'all free cookies and
they and giving me shit right Like, what's going on
right now?

Speaker 7 (17:53):
I thought I had walked into like Nicolodeon.

Speaker 3 (17:56):
You're not that much older than that.

Speaker 1 (17:57):
Yeah, No, I'm not that much older than thee know
they was eleven and twelve. Yeah, I'm seventeen. So i
met we all at Green Brie and I'm like, what
the fuck is happening?

Speaker 3 (18:08):
That's the head mall too of people that don't know,
that's the hood mall too.

Speaker 4 (18:13):
So to get that reaction, yeah, to get that reaction
at the hood mall that's in the bait, that's eats
my mam.

Speaker 3 (18:18):
It don't exist no more. They shout up too many times.
So if you get it cracking.

Speaker 1 (18:23):
There, know what I'm saying. So, so I'm watching little well,
they ain't even little girls. These girls they got jobs,
so they're working. They're seventeen at least eighteen years old.
They react, they looking, They're looking at these guys like
they are superstars already. Wow, and they treating them like that.
And they they playing with it too. They running over there,

(18:44):
talking to the girl, run back, They doing all this,
And I'm standing there in the middle of Themorrow watching
this like.

Speaker 7 (18:51):
And I'm like, don't nobody else see this? What's going on?

Speaker 1 (18:55):
So then I'm like, who the fuck are y'all. He
was like, what you mean, who are And I'm like, okay, cool,
y'all ain't no stars or nothing. It's like nah, I said,
y'all rap And Darkskin christis like rap like he said.
And it's crazy because this is a time period when
young niggas didn't want to rap. Rap rap was like

(19:16):
for young people, that wasn't a thing. Not they age
like eleven and twelve. They want to thinking about rappings.
So when I say you rap, they looked at me
like rap, but nig niggas don't do that, like that's
how they That was their reaction. And I'm sitting there
having this conversation with them in the middle of the mall,
and my mind just start going sh JD. If you

(19:36):
could write these little boys and songs, they out of here.
If you can figure it out, they out of here.

Speaker 7 (19:43):
You get it together.

Speaker 1 (19:44):
They out of here.

Speaker 7 (19:45):
They already got it, you get it together.

Speaker 1 (19:47):
My mind doing all that in the mall, I'm trying
to figure it out right there in the middle of
the mor.

Speaker 6 (19:54):
By this time, you already got your studio, you got everything.

Speaker 7 (19:56):
No no, no, no, no, like that's what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (19:58):
I had to soup. Tom's loved it sometimes leather. They
gave me the ability to get the equipment.

Speaker 3 (20:04):
That's what I'm saying. You got you got that set
up though there.

Speaker 7 (20:06):
Yeah, but it's still in my room.

Speaker 1 (20:08):
It's in my bedroom. And I just like I said,
I got their number, I still ain't never I mean,
it never made no record though, right.

Speaker 7 (20:20):
I think the thing that.

Speaker 1 (20:22):
Got me that conversation was that in Jet magazine, I
think they did an article on female rappers and they
listed sil times leather and they showed a picture of
them and dark skin. Chris Mom noticed the girl from
the Jet magazine. So she made them realize, oh he
really this legit. It's legit because they was on some

(20:43):
trying to talk to us, right, So she made it
where like y'all should probably may want to listen to him.
I seen him in the book. So thank god to
her because they weren't trying to hit me, right. And
for the longest, for like two weeks, I couldn't get
I'm like, I gotta come over my house, and they
was like, go over your house, you know what I mean.

(21:04):
They thought I was like a predator or something like
that because they had never been approached like that, like,
and that's what I'm saying, and it's crazy.

Speaker 7 (21:10):
I'm telling them come to my house. That's where the
music was at.

Speaker 1 (21:13):
So you gotta imagine eleven twelve year old kid and somebody, oh,
telling you you gotta.

Speaker 7 (21:19):
Come to your house. They like Nah.

Speaker 1 (21:20):
These little ghetto kids too, they like fuck that, you
know what I mean, We ain't doing that. So I
had to break the ice with them. But and going
I start, so I start doing stuff like I'm gonna
pick y'all up from school on Friday whatever, and we're
gonna go hang out blah blah blah. So I start
doing stuff with them, and start hanging out with them,
and I start playing music in the car like ice

(21:41):
Cube or whatever was out, and they singing the lyrics
like they wrote it right. They know every word. They
ain't never seen no lyrics or nothing. And that's when
I start saying, Man, if I could learn how to
write songs good enough that they like it, dis could work.

Speaker 4 (22:08):
So really, what you were doing was turning the consumer
into the artists, because they were really like you said,
they were consumers.

Speaker 3 (22:14):
Yeah, so now and you know that they're your target audience.

Speaker 6 (22:19):
So if they like it. One of the kids around
the world are like it if.

Speaker 1 (22:22):
They like it. And and it's crazy because what I
always hear people when jay Z told people that he
didn't write his raps right, and people's like, people find
that so crazy, even me. I did at first, but
I never realized I was already doing it with Chris
Kross before.

Speaker 7 (22:40):
Because that's what I wanted them to do.

Speaker 1 (22:42):
I wanted them to like memorize these words and stuff
without seeing the paper and like you just feeling the song.
It's gonna be y'all song you like it? Hell yeah,
like you know what I mean. Like I needed that.

Speaker 7 (22:57):
Energy, so it's it's it.

Speaker 1 (23:00):
It's a crazy process that that I learned about these kids,
but it definitely that I had to get. I had
to get sharper, I had to get better because I
was writing songs. Yeah, I was writing songs at first,
and they was just like, you know, they was gonna
do them, but it didn't. I didn't get that energy yet, right.
And I had a song the first song because I

(23:20):
had left. I was living in my closet right at
my house. So so okay, so listen, let's get I
gotta go back. I gotta go back, all right, so listen,
so Ian.

Speaker 3 (23:35):
Bert shout out.

Speaker 1 (23:37):
Shout out to Ian Bert. Ian Burt was around this
whole period, right. Ian Burke's the only guy actually know
that I felt like was moving around Atlanta. I could
trust him. He come talk to me, blah blah blah
me and I got cool. In this time period, he
started finding artists and he found this girl from Philly,
a female rapper, and he's like, jad, I got this

(23:58):
female rapp I'm gonna bring it to you. Now he
was coming. These people started coming to my house like
it was the studio. It's my mother's house. So he caught. Yeah,
he brought Left Eye to my house. I heard her rap.
I said, okay, cool. But she had no place to stay,
you know what I mean. She was fresh up from Philly,
and my room was just twenty four seven. It was

(24:20):
just twenty four seven. It wasn't no sleeping. I'm like,
you just kick your here. So for like a week,
she basically was staying in my closet the house because
my mother. I didn't want my mother to know what
was going on in there. It wasn't nothing but music
going on, but still my mother would have been like,
why that girl's staying over here?

Speaker 8 (24:37):
You know what I mean?

Speaker 1 (24:38):
So, but she stayed, and in the midst of her staying,
I thought I had found it. I was like, oh shit,
I'm a sample, the girl is mine Michael Jackson, Paul McCartney,
and I'm gonna write some raps about Chris and Chris
fighting over left eye.

Speaker 4 (24:55):
Okay, Yeah, I thought I wasn't left out yet.

Speaker 1 (25:00):
She wasn't even in TLC. So she just was a
girl that could rap. This was the vibe I was on.
I'm like, this gonna go and that song just wasn't
It didn't come out. It didn't come out.

Speaker 7 (25:13):
I had to keep going, keep going.

Speaker 3 (25:15):
That ain't it?

Speaker 7 (25:16):
But ain't it.

Speaker 1 (25:16):
I had idea, but that wasn't it. I ain't know
how to make that ship. That's I guess whatever, But
it didn't work.

Speaker 3 (25:22):
Are you self auditing at this point or so? Are
you are you got some some some trusted ears where
you're playing stuff for him, like what you think? And yeah,
your self auditing?

Speaker 1 (25:32):
Yeah, I go off of the light in your eyes.
If you if I play you something and you don't,
you don't you don't do that. I automatically do like this,
oh ship, Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I don't need
I don't need a bunch of people tell me. I
could tell when it's when it's dead, when it's not,

(25:55):
you give me. Everybody give you that without even knowing it.
They give it to you. You know what I'm saying.
I could play something right now. Somebody come from back
there and come in here. I'm like, oh we got ya.
Oh shit, yeah, oh ship. We need to pay attention
to that. And I won't even say nothing. I won't
even tell people that I saw that. I'll just go
off of that vibe. That's where I'm going. That's the

(26:16):
energy I started following.

Speaker 4 (26:17):
So how long does it take you to get to
the hit? How long does it take the records? That
makes sense?

Speaker 7 (26:26):
It don't even it's crazy because you don't.

Speaker 1 (26:28):
I don't.

Speaker 7 (26:28):
I don't have a time.

Speaker 3 (26:29):
Now I'm talking about oh for Chris Chris because.

Speaker 1 (26:32):
Now, okay, yeah, so so two years oh ship. Yeah,
I was seventeen when I found Chris Crush. They didn't
come out till I was nineteen. Artist development, yeah, producer development,
artist development, producers, development, writers, development.

Speaker 7 (26:48):
We all had to learn. We was learning, We was
learning and yeah. Once we got we started getting close.

Speaker 1 (26:57):
Chris came to the house and he had on this
Jibo jumper and it was so big, and I was
just like, man, you should flip that shit around. And
he was like for what. I'm like, I don't know,
just flip it around. Let's just see what it looked like.
He flipped the Gibbo jump around. I'm like, that shit cold, huh?

(27:18):
And they was looking at me like no. I'm like,
I said, listen, let's go to Lindy Square with that
with you jump on backwards.

Speaker 7 (27:25):
He's like why, so let's go to Linux. We went
to Linux. He walking through the mall. He the only
person put it on.

Speaker 1 (27:31):
He's walking through the mall with a Jibo Jumper backwards,
and the mall stopped and I was like, what the
fuck just happened? Like people was like, what the where
you get that from? Why are your clothes?

Speaker 3 (27:46):
Like? What is this?

Speaker 7 (27:47):
They don't even know this kid.

Speaker 1 (27:49):
It's people just coming up to him like where did
you get this outfit from? And I'm like what, it
can't be this easy.

Speaker 7 (27:59):
It can't mean it's your regular jumper.

Speaker 1 (28:02):
I always wanted to tell people like, you can't be
that it's just you guys jump on backwards.

Speaker 7 (28:06):
But I'm just like, I'm watching it and I'm like,
this can't be.

Speaker 1 (28:10):
This is crazy, and I'm like, we're gonna have to do.
This is gonna be y'all thing, y'all gonna wear y'all
clothes backwards, and that's what.

Speaker 7 (28:19):
That's what. From there, I wrote jump in twenty five minutes, right.

Speaker 3 (28:25):
Did you produce it? Yeah?

Speaker 6 (28:29):
So you don't have SoCal death at this point.

Speaker 7 (28:31):
Yeah, Oh no, I don't have so so death.

Speaker 3 (28:33):
At this point.

Speaker 7 (28:33):
This point, you don't have I don't have SoCal death.

Speaker 3 (28:35):
Yea. You take the record the rough House Chriscruss.

Speaker 7 (28:38):
Is on rough House. The next Chriscross blows up the
record number one.

Speaker 1 (28:42):
Then my birthday came around and I had a little
birthday party at my house. Ian came to my house
and he brought these girls another some more girls. The
girls he brought to my house was escaped, right. He
had them sing happy birthday to me. After they say,
I'm like, y'all, I'm gonna sign y out of my label.
I don't have no label.

Speaker 3 (29:04):
I just said it.

Speaker 1 (29:05):
I said I'm signing on my label for that for real,
I'm like, yeah, i'mnna sign you'll my label. I don't
got no late White had no conversation. I was like,
I'm gonna be able to do Yeah. I said I'm
gonna do it. And then like after I said that,
I think two weeks later, Sony was like, you know,
we want to give you a production deal if you
can bring out some more artists. Can you bring more artists?

(29:29):
And I'm like, yeah, I got this group already. I'm
about to sign them. Because I called him immediately. Yah,
I'm definitely gonna sign y'all.

Speaker 3 (29:38):
And then I got to ask, though, where's left eye?

Speaker 1 (29:42):
Oh so so if you if y'all watch the TLC movie,
they had a meeting with Pebbles and left I called
somebody in in in v H one, but they cut
me out. When she makes that phone call, she called me.
When she called caught me. She said, they want to

(30:02):
sign us. What you want to do? And I was like.

Speaker 7 (30:07):
Damn.

Speaker 1 (30:09):
And I was soaked into Crisscross that I was like,
you know what, if they signed, y'all, just let me
produce some songs on the album. Y'all go ahead, and
I just let them go. So they were actually signed
to you. Oh no, TC was my group before they
went to the face because once I mean Ian so
we jumping all over the place.

Speaker 7 (30:29):
But ian Ian.

Speaker 1 (30:30):
Found T Boys and then he put T Bo's and
left out together. Then they started coming to my house
and we started making I started making demos for them.
And it was the first R and B music that
I ever tried to write was for TLC. I never
wrote R and B song ever. I tried it with
T Bo's.

Speaker 3 (30:50):
Yeah, so I heard this other thing.

Speaker 4 (30:53):
It's a rumor that you did the choreography for ABC
before Criss Cross.

Speaker 7 (31:00):
Might have.

Speaker 1 (31:01):
I might have.

Speaker 3 (31:02):
I'm even crazy, I might have.

Speaker 1 (31:04):
I might have. I can't take full credit, but I
was around. I definitely was around.

Speaker 3 (31:09):
Yeah the word I got.

Speaker 7 (31:12):
I was around.

Speaker 1 (31:12):
I don't remember it to be that, but I was
definitely around because.

Speaker 4 (31:17):
The dude so because ultimately, you know, yeah, yeah, that
was part of the song.

Speaker 6 (31:23):
You know what I'm saying. With ABC and BBD, you
know what I'm saying, I mean, not BD, I'm sorry.
With ABC and Chrisscross, they had they it was.

Speaker 3 (31:31):
Like a little.

Speaker 6 (31:34):
And the fact that you would have worked with ABC
as well.

Speaker 7 (31:38):
No, they are they from College Park. We all them
my little homies.

Speaker 1 (31:43):
The only reason I this Chris Crust, I mean, the
only reason not this ABC on that song was that
I was trying to establish Chrisscruss as rappers. And I
was like, I don't I want y'all to let people
know that y'all rappers. What they doing they singing? We rappers,

(32:03):
We rappers. We might be young, but we rappers. And
I just kept thinking, like, like I said, I don't
listen to his ice Cube n w A. Yeah, matter
of fact, no Vaseline just came out, and you know,
so ice Cube going crazy, and I'm thinking, like, in rap,

(32:24):
just the only way you get a people's attention, This
is the only way you really get people's attention. And
Jump actually became such a big song people don't even
pay attention to the fact that it's a disrecord.

Speaker 6 (32:33):
This record.

Speaker 4 (32:34):
All right, So let's get back to XK, Let's get
back to Escape, let's back to so now you got
a deal?

Speaker 1 (32:39):
Yeah, now I got a deal and an R and
B group, and which I.

Speaker 7 (32:43):
Never did before.

Speaker 3 (32:44):
It was just purely because you just like with him.

Speaker 1 (32:47):
No, it was purely because I had thought about this once.
Chris Krust Blew up that I didn't want to be
pigeon held in rat and.

Speaker 7 (32:56):
I didn't think I was the greatest rap producer.

Speaker 1 (33:00):
I ain't know what type of producer I thought I was,
but I'm saying I didn't think that I could come
right back with a successful rap Is that is? That's
the key?

Speaker 4 (33:16):
Yeah, because most people don't know what they're good or
bad at and won't be honest with themselves to say,
you know what, I'm probably not as good doing that.

Speaker 3 (33:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (33:28):
I mean, I'm thinking I'm on the clock at this
point too, So you gotta start thinking when you're on
the clock. Okay, you got Crisscross date number one, you
know the records, you know it's gonna pass, and then
once it passed, the hype of who you are, what's
going on? That's gonna pass, right, So I'm just like no,
And then I'm like, let me. I don't want my
label to be a rap label. I want my label

(33:49):
to be all things right. So I'm just like ship,
I'm gonna do an R and B group. Columbia didn't
expect me to say I'm coming on. They like what
arm B group? I'm like yeah, And they like what
R and B have you done. No, So we just
gave this nigga deal. Kid, go do some ship he

(34:11):
never did before he can.

Speaker 3 (34:16):
That mean was like, so you gave a kid, how
much money are he doing what with? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (34:22):
So yeah, I mean you know, I went the studio escape.
I mean, by the way, every just starting. Things are
starting to happen. So I don't want to make people
think that. So an important piece of that puzzle was
that this writer named Manuel Seal was looking for a home,

(34:45):
right And I got a call that.

Speaker 7 (34:51):
He was looking for a home.

Speaker 1 (34:52):
And you know, once I had my label, people knew, okay,
JD got a label deal. So once you say you
got a label, you started tracting things.

Speaker 8 (34:59):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (35:00):
And I didn't know what.

Speaker 7 (35:02):
The Manuel steal was.

Speaker 1 (35:03):
I didn't know. I didn't know what was gonna happen.
But I needed somebody to play for me. I knew
that I needed that because we can I'm signing an
R and B group. I can't sample my life away
like this. Right, so Manuel comes into my life and
matter of fact, I go meet him at the hotel
and when I walk in the hotel, he's playing the

(35:23):
piano that's in the hotel, killing that shit. Sounded like
a concert, and I'm like, what the who is this
And he's like, yeah, I'm the guy that's supposed to
meet with you. I'm like, oh shit, let's go. I
take him back to my house in College Park, me
and him talk, I tell him what I want to do,
and I started working on escape album.

Speaker 3 (35:45):
Is he from Atlanta too?

Speaker 7 (35:46):
Or he from Illinois?

Speaker 4 (35:49):
Manuel still is special? That brother is special. And y'all
marriage y'all man the records that y'all have done together,
it's top tier.

Speaker 1 (36:02):
And Mayol Mayel is Manuel is. When I met Mayoel,
he he could do anything.

Speaker 7 (36:10):
That's what That's what fucked me up.

Speaker 1 (36:11):
Is that anything I told him to play, he could
play it, or he'll play something that I didn't expect
him to play. Whatever it was, he just was like,
he's probably one of the most musical guys I'd have
met ever. So we start working on Escape album. I
did a whole album in two weeks, the.

Speaker 3 (36:28):
Homma Coming at You album? Yeah, two weeks, two weeks.
At this point, ah, are you establishing because j D
has a sound. I know JD drums anywhere. I know
when I hear him. At that point, making the Escape album.

(36:52):
Is that when you establish those drum sounds.

Speaker 1 (36:57):
I don't know.

Speaker 7 (37:00):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (37:01):
I don't know if that album sounds like what you
think JD sound like just kicking it. Yes, it sounds
like it sounded like that. I don't know. I don't.

Speaker 7 (37:11):
I really don't know. I know that I got my drummer.

Speaker 1 (37:13):
Shoot, now.

Speaker 7 (37:15):
I'm trying to make beats.

Speaker 1 (37:17):
I don't know.

Speaker 7 (37:18):
By the way I'm going into this, I don't know
what's gonna happen.

Speaker 3 (37:22):
So you're not it's not a conscious thing. You just
making the music.

Speaker 7 (37:25):
Yeah, But I'm writing the songs, I don't.

Speaker 1 (37:27):
I mean, you know what I mean, Like, I'm I'm
I'm really really trying to get this group out right,
and I'm really like, I don't have that label.

Speaker 7 (37:36):
Ain't told me nothing.

Speaker 1 (37:38):
I'm just on this clock of myself and I'm like, man,
let's go, I gotta go, and and and nothing about
me thinking about writing the songs even popped in my
head that I couldn't.

Speaker 7 (37:49):
I just started writing and.

Speaker 1 (37:55):
Mayo plays something and I'm like, nah, I wanted to
go like this, and I was trying to make it
so close to rap. That's why it's just kicking it
sound like it's Sarah, And that's why it's called just
kicking It because I'm writing it like it's rap, right,
and I'm just and I'm starting to think about like
and I'm starting to fuck with girls too, right, So
I'm fucking with girls. So I got a little little

(38:16):
education of how niggas fuck with girls. So my first
mindset was their man want a woman, they could cook
him up.

Speaker 7 (38:23):
A good meal, you know what i mean. I'm thinking, like,
what what a nigga want from a girl?

Speaker 1 (38:27):
Not what a girl want from So I wrote it
from that perspective, and people was like, she talking from
the man perspective. I'm like, yeah, that's that's how I
wrote it.

Speaker 3 (38:36):
Connected it.

Speaker 1 (38:38):
But I thought, you know, I didn't think that was
gonna work at all. Come writing on them songs not
not big because I'm writing the songs and I know
they don't have no I don't have no chops in
the R and B, right.

Speaker 3 (38:52):
You know what i mean.

Speaker 7 (38:53):
I'm just praying it sparkle.

Speaker 3 (38:55):
In people's eyes.

Speaker 7 (38:56):
No, no, not at all.

Speaker 1 (39:00):
Was tough and it was a hard group because you know,
people didn't think they was cute. Biggie had made dreams
of sucking the R and B bitch and I fucked
Paul before I fuck them ugly Escape bitches. That that was.
That was hard, Like I'm out here dealing with this, right,
So I took the stand that was like, Okay, y'all
niggas think they ugly cool, find me somebody can sing

(39:22):
better than them, right, I started acting like just going
off of their talent, pure talent.

Speaker 7 (39:28):
But yeah, it was hard. It wasn't you know?

Speaker 1 (39:30):
In Vogue was out at the time, right, So Escape
coming out when in Vogue is out, these little girls
they look like hood bitches and this to the dirty
don't that that? That ain't flying? And Escape is young, right,
It's another thing. Escape is a young group. I'm making
R and B music, and R and B Radio told

(39:52):
Columbia that the music sounded too young. So I'm i'm
I'm I'm almost in a space where it's like where
I want the record to be.

Speaker 7 (40:02):
They're not even playing.

Speaker 4 (40:03):
It because I'm thinking of what those records sound like
in relation to the other R and B at that time.

Speaker 6 (40:10):
Yeah, it was real, wasn't. Yeah, niggas wasn't singing, just
kicking it.

Speaker 1 (40:15):
So adult radio what they call adult radio now is
where I wanted escape to live. They I couldn't get
them to live there for nothing. They kept telling they
told the pds, the record, the radio guys, these songs
sound too young. They don't sound like our stationed So
that's why I say, like, all that young shit, I'm

(40:38):
the person who brought this to the music, to modern
day music.

Speaker 3 (40:42):
And what broke that conversation for that?

Speaker 7 (40:45):
For Kye, it never I had.

Speaker 1 (40:48):
I had to keep I had to start dressing them,
and I had to start trying to Like I think
the second album.

Speaker 7 (40:57):
I wasn't trying anything. I went to Dyn Warren and got.

Speaker 1 (40:59):
A song and let her write the song because I
was just trying to figure I'm like, this group has
to be.

Speaker 3 (41:07):
But you have success on the first album though.

Speaker 1 (41:09):
No, no, we had success. But I'm just saying as
an R and B group, I knew where they had
to be. It's a home for them, their home. You
can't be an R and B group chasing hip hop.
And I was just like determined to try to get
these girls. And I'm like, man, these girls can sing
their ass up. They sing acapella. It's the best thing
in the world. They sing the national anthem. It's the

(41:30):
best thing in the world. Why y'all treating them like
and I'm not knowing that I'm basically doing something from
a younger perspective that ain't been done.

Speaker 3 (41:39):
That's crazy.

Speaker 4 (41:40):
I would have never thought that because from outside and
the outside looking in at that looks like where is
that ninety three, ninety four?

Speaker 7 (41:48):
Somewhere around ninety four.

Speaker 4 (41:49):
Yeah, so I'm like fresh, look like it's all work
going from middle school to high school.

Speaker 6 (41:54):
This feels like every young girl that I know.

Speaker 1 (41:57):
Yeah, yeah, you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 6 (41:59):
That's why you're creating the music.

Speaker 3 (42:03):
For my life.

Speaker 6 (42:04):
At this point, flat out, I'm in the.

Speaker 4 (42:07):
Bay Chriss Cross now Escape all this and it's and
they're all around my same.

Speaker 6 (42:13):
Age, might be a little younger, you know what I mean.

Speaker 4 (42:16):
But I'm like, this is I see me, this is
this is my reality right here.

Speaker 6 (42:21):
Escape looks like my neighbors. Those look like my girls
in the bandger Homes and film Mode.

Speaker 4 (42:27):
She looks just like her. So for me, I don't
I don't see the difference. And what the obviously with
the labels and what the radio is saying that the
kids would want trying to.

Speaker 1 (42:40):
Man, they don't they're not even they even they're not
even focusing on kids. Yeah, they focusing on twenty five
and up I think right, maybe thirty radio. Yeah, that's
what they're they're they're paying attention to that, and thirty
five and up radio stations were fucking with the state.
That makes sense, that makes perfect sense.

Speaker 3 (43:08):
It's okay, so now you got to you got to,
and then you get the brat.

Speaker 7 (43:14):
The brat comes.

Speaker 1 (43:16):
Chris Cross got a show in Chicago, Ed Lover and
Doctor Drake from MTV raps. They was on the tour
as like the MC's this MC and Chris Cross concert.
And in between Chris and Chris coming on stage, they
bring all these artists. They let people come on stage
and do something. And they brought Brad on stage and
she rapped in Chicago, light skinned.

Speaker 7 (43:38):
Chris called being right after that. He was like, yo, man,
this girl out here. She cold.

Speaker 1 (43:42):
And I'm like, female rappers they suck. Like you said, yeah,
female rappers suck. Ain't nobody listening to that shit? I
got off the phone. He's like, nah, man, you gotta
listen to it.

Speaker 7 (43:53):
She cold.

Speaker 1 (43:54):
I'm like, we don't even live I'm telling him, we
don't listen to those female rappers, like who getting ready
listen to female rap? I thought it was the worst
idea in the world. I never was like Court and
Bratt trying to get her to come to Atlanta. She
started pushing her own buttons right, so she came to Atlanta.

(44:14):
She called my phone and she was like, I'm here.
I didn't know she was coming, so she came. She
was like, I'm here. So I'm like, you know, and
I'm trying. I'm trying not to be completely on the
fuck that shit. I'm just gonna listen with the ear right.
So I go pick up or I go to the
hotel pickup and I got to stop and get gas
because I live on the South Side. So I stop

(44:35):
and get gas. I go in there to play the gas.
She put the CD in the car and I get
back in the car, turn the car, and the shit
come on. I'm like, who the fuck is this? Who
touched my radio? And I'm like, who's that rapping? She's
like that's me, And I'm like, oh wait a minute, wait.

Speaker 3 (44:55):
You had he came to Atlanta.

Speaker 4 (44:56):
You don't even you hadn't heard nothing yet, never he's
just going off for crib telling you that she was good.

Speaker 1 (45:03):
I never heard of rap, and she was so nigasistent,
you gonna check me out.

Speaker 7 (45:12):
I'm like, okay, cool.

Speaker 1 (45:13):
I was taking her to go back to my house
to do like a little audition. I guess basically she
put the c d N. As soon as I hit it,
that shit came on. I'm like, who is this rapping?
She's like that's me, and I'm like, oh maybe this,
maybe this might work. Yeah, I'm like, maybe this might work.

(45:36):
And Bratt to this day was the hardest project I
ever did in my life though, really yeah, because I
never had it. I couldn't. I made it. I made
two three songs a day and I never could They
never was right for me.

Speaker 3 (45:50):
So you signed her, but you can't figure it out?

Speaker 7 (45:52):
Yeah, I can't figure it out?

Speaker 3 (45:54):
So how do you land on Falcktifi? I don't know.

Speaker 1 (45:57):
Two years? I mean it took two years for me
to get funktified out, Like literally were making song after
song every day, song every day every day. As a
matter of fact, I think during the escape video, I
pulled up in my truck trying to play a demo
of a song that I did with Brat and I

(46:18):
ain't tell nobody. I just try to pull up to
the video playing some loud music scene, and ain't nobody
giving me nothing. Ain't nobody come from behind the back room.
Ain't nobody giving me shit? And I'm like, oh man,
this ain't gonna work. I knew I shouldn't fucking no
fucking female rappers. That's how I'm feeling. And then one day,

(46:42):
me and Mayuel in the studio, we're playing around with
the between the sheets and I start rapping, right. I
started rapping, and then she jumped in and rapping behind me.
We freestyling. I'm like, I ain't thinking, well, I'm not bouter.

(47:03):
I'm not making no record, That's what I'm saying. I'm like,
I'm not being a rapper. I'm not doing this. And
she's like, yo, we should make a song like that.
You should rap, and I'm like, no, I'm not fucking rapping.
I don't want to y'all put y'all out. She's like, nah,
let's do it like this. So then I'm like, okay.
I start thinking about it, and then I start writing
the verse, like open up the doors, open up the doors,

(47:26):
Let the front floor in you know what I mean.
I start writing my part, writing her part, and then
I'm like, this high is gonna go. Then we're gonna
do it like this, we do that song. I'm thinking
this just for the car at this point, like, yo,
we ain't putting this out, I put we do that song,
We get that going.

Speaker 7 (47:40):
Niggas start coming in the room. What the fuck is that?
What is that? I played this song a little louder.

Speaker 1 (47:49):
Everybody like, hey man, yeah, Jad, You're gonna rap, and
I'm like, fuck, I don't want to be no rapper
right now, not yet. Yeah, all right, but it just
forged me to do that, and that's that's how the
song came. And then I want to say, somewhere in
there they asked me to do Usher.

Speaker 6 (48:10):
In the middle of you doing Brad Well, I mean.

Speaker 1 (48:13):
I think in between, you know, in between these projects
Crisscross Escape Brad somewhere somewhere in there.

Speaker 7 (48:21):
It might have been at the end of the Funk,
the Fire, whatever it was.

Speaker 1 (48:24):
I'm not really knowing the dates, but in between there,
that's when they asked me, you know.

Speaker 7 (48:29):
Would you work on this Usher project?

Speaker 3 (48:31):
And did you know him already?

Speaker 1 (48:32):
Yeah? He came to Chriscross concert and he wanted me
to sign him and I said no.

Speaker 4 (48:36):
Mmmm, But that answers the question because I was going
to ask you, I'm serious, I had this in my head.
I was going to ask you, were there any artists
that you had passed up on that became huge?

Speaker 3 (48:47):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (48:48):
Ushers?

Speaker 3 (48:49):
Yeah? And why did you say no?

Speaker 1 (48:51):
Because I was having conflict with Christian Chris's parents and
I just was like, I'm not dealing with no more kids,
Like I'm not fucking them with kids because y'all parents,
don't they not. They wasn't at the room with us.
They didn't watch me talk to y'all, they didn't watch
us talk with Now they.

Speaker 7 (49:09):
End up trying to get in here.

Speaker 3 (49:10):
I got to deal with him.

Speaker 1 (49:11):
So I was just like and it was like when
I met him, it was right at the height of that,
right uh. And we had a meeting where the parents
had gotten too, the Chris parents, they had gotten in
an argument at the lawyer's office, and it was just like,
this ain't what I signed up for, right So, and
when Usher came, he was a teenager once again, and

(49:31):
I was just like, nah, because AJ brought him, but
I'm like, it's a mom somewhere.

Speaker 3 (49:37):
Oh, it's a mom.

Speaker 1 (49:38):
It's a mom somewhere. It's a mom somewhere. And I
just was like, you know, I had a capacity.

Speaker 4 (49:44):
Yeah yeah, But even understanding that though, I think because
that's in this business, we see talent and sometimes we
just jump at it even when we don't have the bandwidth.

Speaker 3 (49:55):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (49:56):
Like I said, even even with TOC that's why I
let TOC go. I didn't have a bandwidth.

Speaker 7 (50:00):
I didn't have a label, right.

Speaker 6 (50:02):
Right, But that's what I'm saying. At that point, you
don't got no, I don't.

Speaker 1 (50:04):
Have no label. When I'm talking to TC, I'm trying
to get Crisscross sign and you know, today I could do.

Speaker 7 (50:11):
Both, but back then I ain't had a bandwidth.

Speaker 1 (50:13):
I just was like I was giving Criscross all of
this energy, and I was kind of like giving Tiana
Left Eye, like some little little energy, but they weren't
getting the full play right. So I just was like,
you know, I started thinking, as a producer, like y'all
make the album. Let me just do some songs on
the album. I'll get some producer credits.

Speaker 3 (50:31):
What do you think prompts the call to do usher?
What what what nuance that you've created or what what
piece of uh music that you've done? Well?

Speaker 1 (50:46):
They came, they came, they came, and they asked me
to do a remix of think of You.

Speaker 7 (50:52):
So all you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (50:58):
La was like, his voice has changed, Jim, we need
but we need to make the song. I want to
put a bridge in the song so people can start
hearing his voice. And I didn't know what the bridge was.
I mean, I think I thought I knew the bridge
was whatever. But I'm like, okay, cool I hit records.

Speaker 3 (51:17):
He like he gonna figure it out, though.

Speaker 1 (51:22):
I did, so I told him come over. I did
a remix, and then I put the bridge in think
of You and they got that back and Usher was like,
man because I also I made Usher come to my
studio and re sing his part. Right. That was the
thing about remixes that I was like, if you're gonna
do a remix, come sing it. Oh, let's really make

(51:44):
it remix. So he came and he sung that bridge part,
and I wrote the bridge and I sung the bridge
to him and he translated my terrible notes into what
he what it was supposed to be. Uh and uh
he translated it into what it was supposed to be,

(52:06):
and then it was just like uh, Brian Reid shout
out to Brian re LA's brother.

Speaker 7 (52:11):
He was the a R at the time.

Speaker 1 (52:13):
He's like, man, we love this, we love this because
you you think you can go in the studio with him.
And I'm like, I guess you know. But they was like,
you know what, we don't want to rush you. We
want you to do what you did with Chris Kross.
You want you to take him, take him in, dress him.

Speaker 7 (52:30):
Make him your artist.

Speaker 3 (52:32):
Mm hmm.

Speaker 7 (52:33):
That's what they you know, And that's what I did.

Speaker 1 (52:35):
I took I took usher in, I started talking to him,
I start training him, I start doing everything that I
thought he needed to become who he is today.

Speaker 3 (52:46):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (52:48):
Wow.

Speaker 4 (52:49):
So so when you're making these but what is what
is Columbia saying though, Because that's not that's who your
partner is.

Speaker 3 (52:56):
So, Sony, Columbia is your partner? Are they like?

Speaker 4 (52:59):
Are they like that point? They're like, wait, that's not
your that's not an artist, that scientist. So so, but
they don't see it happening. They don't see it till
it happen.

Speaker 3 (53:07):
I'm sure they would not have been happy.

Speaker 1 (53:10):
Wouldn't happen. Yeah, but I mean I was, I'm bringing
you still do, I'm bringing groops. I mean, I'm delivering
Escape album. I'm delivering Brat second album. I'm giving them.
I'm giving the product that that you know, it's not
like I'm not doing the work. So yeah that that, Yes,
I get into the Usher record. I don't know anything

(53:31):
about male R and B as far as writing songs
and making it. I don't know nothing. I just know
what I've heard, but I don't know nothing. But I'm
just like, all right, we're gonna try this. I don't
know how this is gonna work out, but we're gonna
try it, you know. And it's crazy because I wrote

(53:55):
Nice and Slow the night before I was doing this
test photo shoot for USh. So we're gonna do a
test photo shoot where I went to like one of
them good hardware good stores that like sporting good stores,
like Dicks maybe right Pauls. And I went in there

(54:16):
and I got all these shoulder pads and ship and
I'm buying Ship like dress Usher, like just all kind
of I'm just trying anything. So we do a photo
shoot the day that we do the photo shoot. The
day before that, I wrote Nice and Slow and I'm like,
this the single.

Speaker 3 (54:33):
I'm telling you, did you have the track that stuff?

Speaker 1 (54:36):
Yeah? Yeah, we know we did it. We did the song.
We did the song because I got I got usher
at my house, so we recording. We're trying to make
we making my way and like I said, I did
Nice and Slow. We're going to the photo shoot. I
tell La at the photo shoot like this the single.
I was like, Nah, that ain't the single. Like this

(54:57):
is single, man, this is it? Like this ship jam
and like, what are you talking about? He's like, Eh,
it's all right. I drop my head, go ahead, my god, damn,
it's all right. And by the way, they only paid
me to do. They paid me to do four four songs,

(55:19):
I think four to five songs. So I don't have
you make me want to yet. I feel like I
finished the project without you make me want. I go
up to LA's office. I played Nice and Slow. I
think I played my way. One day you'll be mine
and just like me these songs, and I'm like, this

(55:41):
is it. Let's go.

Speaker 7 (55:43):
You put the rest, put do whatever you want to
do with I'm good.

Speaker 1 (55:47):
And he sat there and he listened to them four
songs and he ain't give me nothing like nothing, just
like you think that's it. And I'm like, fuck, all right,
I'm go go back.

Speaker 3 (56:04):
To my house.

Speaker 7 (56:05):
I left his office.

Speaker 3 (56:09):
I went home.

Speaker 1 (56:11):
I said, may we gotta do something better than this ship.
We gotta make something the idea. I started making beat.
He started playing little guitar riff. I'm like, oh yeah,
think think think thinking he's playing the actual guitar. Think
think he's playing that to the beat. I'm like, oh yeah,
this sounds like it right here, This this gonna be it.

(56:35):
When I started writing this song.

Speaker 3 (56:37):
You Make Me Want, you wrote you make Me Want.

Speaker 7 (56:40):
Yeah, one hundred percent nice, some slow one hundred percent.

Speaker 3 (56:45):
To this point, the situations out of.

Speaker 1 (56:49):
I'm not.

Speaker 3 (56:51):
This man right here is out of control. H yeah.

Speaker 1 (56:59):
By I mean make me want? It was like a
rap song to me. That's but because that's what I
started thinking. I started thinking that. I was like, JD,
you're a rapper. You're trying to just because you did
Escape nigga. You ain't no R and B nigga. You
better get back to that rap shit and do some
rap ship. So then I start writing it like a
rap You made me want to leave the one with
the new relationship with you. This is what we do,

(57:21):
think about the ring and all the things that come
along with it. You make me, you make me.

Speaker 7 (57:24):
I'm writing it like a rap song. The same thing
with Nice Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (57:30):
Hurricane, I understand Hurricane.

Speaker 4 (57:33):
That's that's what it is, all right, all right, you know,
you know, you know, you know all the code for that,
right man.

Speaker 1 (57:46):
Same thing with nice and Slow, right, I stopped. That's
why I thought Nice and Slow was a gold because
I put so much rap into it. Yeah, seven o'clock
on the dock, I'm going to drop top cruise in
the streets. That's a rap song, right, And I'm thinking, like,
I got this little niggas talking he doing some ship,
and the Pope Pimp ship had came out around that

(58:07):
same time. So I'm like, we're gonna take the little
Pope Pimp ship and we're gonna spell your name.

Speaker 7 (58:11):
You asked h G R M D.

Speaker 1 (58:15):
I'm trying to do what them niggas was doing pop Pimp,
just to add a little bit of that. I thought
that was the one. It was the one, Yeah, it
was the one.

Speaker 3 (58:22):
I mean, it was as your first number one one too.

Speaker 1 (58:27):
It was it was his first number one hot one.
It wasn't number one, not Hot one hundred.

Speaker 3 (58:33):
Did that get?

Speaker 1 (58:33):
It went number one R and B? But I don't
know what it did on the Hot one hundred. But
as far as his first one hundred record was nice
as little.

Speaker 4 (58:41):
And this is your first time writing for a male
R and B artist, Yeah, nigga, you the cheat cod cheato.

Speaker 7 (58:49):
I don't know if I'm the cheat on this.

Speaker 3 (58:52):
Niggas on full out here master arditor.

Speaker 4 (58:57):
This is the nigga that's that's crazy because these are
all first for you.

Speaker 6 (59:02):
Yeah, it wasn't like you like.

Speaker 4 (59:03):
Were bumping your head on other projects that maybe did
this or that. No, no, no, no, no, first R
and B singer they send to you, You give them
a number one hot Hot one hundred, number one.

Speaker 3 (59:16):
Yeah, come on, bro, Yeah, that's that's not normal. Well
that's not normal. It's not normal.

Speaker 7 (59:23):
I don't know, man, I don't know. I don't, I don't.

Speaker 1 (59:26):
I'm not even paying attention to if it's normal or not.
Like I said, I'm just trying to. I'm just trying.
I don't even know what I'm doing, honestly, didn't know
what I was doing with my Way album.

Speaker 7 (59:34):
I just was trying.

Speaker 6 (59:35):
Whatever, and that album ends up selling how much.

Speaker 7 (59:38):
I think five million?

Speaker 3 (59:41):
He was him, He was him.

Speaker 6 (59:43):
Yeah, that's when you start buying the Bentleys and ship.

Speaker 3 (59:45):
That's when.

Speaker 1 (59:47):
It started getting close, start getting close. And then have
you brought outside yet? No?

Speaker 7 (59:53):
He about the studio, Yeah, it's all nineties.

Speaker 1 (01:00:00):
I I'm writing so much though, I'm writing so many songs,
and I'm where I'm writing songs where I do like
I'm gonna write a song for somebody, escape or whoever
I'm working with. And then after I finished writing that song,
I'm making dumb demos for me to just ride around
to and listen to. Right, So, I'm not even in

(01:00:22):
these dumb demos. These are not songs that I'm thinking
gonna come out. I'm just doing it because I feel
like I'm a song right. So I'm in my you know,
I'm in there. I'm taking other people. I'm even making
full beats. I might take a beat. So I took
to my deep record shook ones, and I was like, oh,
I like them, jazzy hulls making niggas in all my classes.
I start doing the Jazzy Holes as a ride around

(01:00:45):
mixtape for me, Like, I'm just gonna do this. I'm
gonna listen to this shit in the car. I love that,
and I'm just making this shit. I'm making mixtape songs
just for me to listen to.

Speaker 7 (01:00:54):
I'm not even thinking about it.

Speaker 1 (01:00:54):
So then my homeboy Steve Prudo from here, they heard
my little mixtape one day in the car. They was like,
what the fuck is this JD. I'm like, shit, this
is I just be making just to be doing whatever.
And them niggas starts singing the jazzy Holes. They're like, man,
you need to make an album. I'm like, nah, don't.
I'm not fucking with that ship. I'm cool. I'm gonna

(01:01:15):
keep finding I'm trying to stay away from it. And
then they're like, nah, you need to make an album.
So then people start pushing me make an album. So
then I think it was the one of them movie soundtracks.
I don't know what movie soundtrack it was. Me and
Bratt talks go ahead, Yeah, me and Brat put the

(01:01:38):
party continues out right, and that the party continues was
basically like it was me and Snoop record first. That's
what it was so it Me and Snoop. Me and
Snoop had a song on the soundtrack. I took Snoop
off and did a remix with the Brat of that song,
and that song became my song, and it was basically
like my first record that I put out on my

(01:01:58):
album Brat and I put Usher on the hook, right,
and I started saying, I've got some I guess I'm
gonna make an album, right, I guess I'm gonna make
an album. And I'm getting a little courage because everybody's
saying it. So I'm, like I said, I pay attention
to the energy. So people saying that, everybody tell me
I should do it.

Speaker 7 (01:02:16):
So then I just start going full for us on
trying to make.

Speaker 1 (01:02:18):
My own album.

Speaker 3 (01:02:19):
Then that's what life in nineteen seventy two, ye.

Speaker 1 (01:02:22):
Like in fourteen seventy yeah, yeah, but I got a backtrack.
I got a backtrack, so I made it. I made
just kicking it and just kicking it got the ears
of Mariah. Just kicking it then, yeah, just kicking it
got the ears of Mariah. She wanted a record that
felt like that on her album. So you know, I

(01:02:44):
got the call to go in to the studio Mariah.
I didn't know that that's what she wanted, but that's
what that's what she was, that's what she was looking for,
and we went to the studio. It was a different
type of vibe for me. I had never been in
the studio early in the daytime, leaving at like seven
on the clock in the day at night, so I'm
nervous as fuck.

Speaker 7 (01:03:04):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:03:05):
I'm like, I don't know why I'm doing this project
because I'm like, she's like a superstar, superstar, and I'm
little nigga. I don't know, you know, I don't even
know why I'm posing. I don't know why I'm here.
I'm thinking they're using different chords than what I'm on.

Speaker 3 (01:03:25):
Got that up, Yeah, I think I'm thinking what I
can't afford.

Speaker 7 (01:03:29):
I'm thinking, you know, bring it out.

Speaker 1 (01:03:31):
I'm thinking they use it all different chords, they got
different keyboards.

Speaker 6 (01:03:36):
That's when the music sounded like music like that, that's honest.

Speaker 1 (01:03:40):
So so I'm thinking, like, I take man with me
to New York. Me and Man, you go to work
with Mariah. I'm like, man, I don't know what this
is gonna be. Man, you know, just Mariah Carey.

Speaker 3 (01:03:53):
Though, How was the flus to.

Speaker 6 (01:03:57):
To the women when you say, yeah, you know I'm
gonna be in New York.

Speaker 7 (01:04:00):
Man, I'm not.

Speaker 1 (01:04:01):
I'm not. I don't even think about no women. I'm
I'm one locked in, like I can't fuck this up.
But I'm feeling like I'm a fuck up. I'm believing
I'm a fuck up because this is also the first
project that I ever did outside of my studio, So
I'm nervous.

Speaker 3 (01:04:19):
That is one thing you just you kept saying. I
had them come to the house.

Speaker 1 (01:04:22):
It's the first time they had. They had me coming
to New York. And I'm like, oh, this.

Speaker 7 (01:04:27):
Ain't gonna work out.

Speaker 1 (01:04:29):
I ain't got my records, I don't just anything I
might need. I can't take all that shit to New
York with me. So I'm already feeling like this ain't.

Speaker 3 (01:04:37):
Gonna be it.

Speaker 7 (01:04:38):
This ain't gonna be it. And she started coming to
the studio.

Speaker 1 (01:04:43):
She came in the studio and she was like, I
want to make a record like this, and I'm like,
what you want me to do with this? She start
I want to sing over this and it was cream
Wu Tang Clan, and I'm like, right, came in here.
I'm like what. I'm like, you want to sing over this?

(01:05:04):
She's like, yeah, did she played another record? I'm gonna
sing over this one. I'm like, I'm looking around, like,
what the fuck is going like this one? Rian Carey?
You want to you want me to make this for you.
I'm not doing that because you I'm not gonna be
the person. I'm not doing that. You're not good. They're
not gonna do that with me. She's like, listen, this

(01:05:24):
is what I want to do, and I was like, oh, okay.
So I started following her lead, and she was like,
you know, I need something like just kicking it. But
I wanted to be pretty, but I wanted to have
that ghetto ship on it that y'all got and just
kicking it.

Speaker 7 (01:05:43):
So many'll start playing.

Speaker 1 (01:05:50):
He started playing that on it, and she's like, yes,
change the key, change the key to what she wanted it.
Then I put the eight O eights on there and
always be my baby comes to life.

Speaker 3 (01:06:04):
Wow, Wow, just keep winning.

Speaker 7 (01:06:11):
And that's the beginning of me and Mariah's relationship.

Speaker 3 (01:06:14):
And that was absolutely enough. Yeah. I'm saying yeah, and
this is the first session.

Speaker 1 (01:06:22):
I mean, in your two records. It's the first one
of the first one of two songs. We had a
week in the studio where and that's that's what we
came out of. I mean, we made the cream, but
it didn't come out right.

Speaker 7 (01:06:36):
It didn't come out right.

Speaker 1 (01:06:37):
I wasn't I was also not completely dialed into Mariah
yet as far as like putting her over type of cream.
It didn't make it didn't make sense.

Speaker 7 (01:06:48):
It was like, I'm like, you're not.

Speaker 1 (01:06:50):
I'm not. I'm not doing that. I'm not gonna be
the guy to do that. Not realizing that she basically
was creating hip pop music. She's actually the creative that
like are you on the Grunde singing over something? Kater
Caerry singing over something? She's the person who created that sound.

(01:07:17):
In her mind, she did this and she's still that
person to this day. She wants to sing over street Ship,
the Hood is Ship going whatever it is Hood New
York Ship. That's when she comes to the studio like
she's the rapper. Yeah, I want hear this is what
I want to sing over.

Speaker 3 (01:07:35):
It's been successful, it's worked.

Speaker 7 (01:07:38):
Yeah, so we do we do that.

Speaker 1 (01:07:42):
We do always be my baby, I think, I you know,
by the way, it's a third single. So I'm thinking, whatever,
my little Mariah Carey shit didn't work school. I'm on
the album she you know whatever, Always Be my Baby
comes out as a single. That record goes number one
on R and B, Trusts and Hot one hundred. I'm like, oh, okay,

(01:08:12):
Dad is there? You know what I mean? So I'm like,
shit'ma I'm gonna get you to do a song on
my album. She caused me and tells me what she
wants the song to be. Well, if you're gonna do
a song, it need to be this. She sent me Sweetheart,
and I'm like, She's like, let's remake this. I'm like,
all right, cool.

Speaker 3 (01:08:34):
You know, she's the artist that actually made me realize
how lazy artists actually are.

Speaker 1 (01:08:46):
You know what I mean, Because she comes to the studio,
she know what the fuck she want to do, she
knows what it's supposed to sound like.

Speaker 7 (01:08:52):
She's she's she's she's very direct to what she's doing.

Speaker 1 (01:08:56):
And other artists come to the studio they don't do
they don't They just be sitting around, like you know
what I mean.

Speaker 3 (01:09:03):
Just waiting for whatever it is.

Speaker 7 (01:09:06):
They just don't have that.

Speaker 1 (01:09:07):
She she made me realize, like, oh, it's another level
to the artisty shit, Like yeah, it's definitely another level
to it.

Speaker 7 (01:09:15):
So I did that. We did Sweetheart.

Speaker 1 (01:09:20):
I think I had Sweetheart first before one anything right,
And Columbia's thinking that they gonna release my album.

Speaker 7 (01:09:29):
I got a Mariah Carey single. This seems like the thing.

Speaker 1 (01:09:33):
But like I told you before, I don't like to
barter the energy from other people with my records. I
don't don't. I don't really like that. And in the
midst of me making life in fourteen seventy two, I
listened to a DJ Clue tape and jay Z had
took the Drew Hill beat and rapped over it as
a freestyle, and he said something he did my cadence

(01:09:56):
y'all wanted this.

Speaker 7 (01:09:57):
I'm gonna make you that he did. He did all
of this right.

Speaker 1 (01:10:00):
So I'm a little kid. Well I'm not a little kid,
but I'm a kid from College Park, Georgia. And jay
Z's like this underground rapper that he supposed to be
the one, right, And I'm infatuated rap music.

Speaker 7 (01:10:13):
So I'm like that nigga listened to me. That nigga
fuck with me.

Speaker 3 (01:10:18):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 7 (01:10:20):
That means he know who I am. I'm doing record
this nigga. And I seen him.

Speaker 1 (01:10:25):
We did a great day in Harlem photo shoot and
I seen him out there and I'm like, yo, I
want to do a song with you. And he's like,
all right, what's up. I'm like, you come to Atlanta,
Let's make a song. He's like cool. I get his information,
get him a ticket to Atlanta. I go pick him
up from the airport. On my way to pick him up, though,

(01:10:50):
I'm listening to his album, I'm listening to Can't Knock
the Hustle because I'm trying to get in jay Z mode.
I'm trying to get rapper mode all the way. By
the way, I'm in a Bentley too. I got my Bentley.

Speaker 4 (01:11:01):
I'm going to get over the Yeah, I was going.

Speaker 7 (01:11:07):
That was a continental t that.

Speaker 1 (01:11:11):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, big boy, big dog.

Speaker 3 (01:11:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:11:15):
So I'm going to get hold from the airport. I'm
racing down Old National and I'm playing Can't Knock the
Hustle and I'm switching lanes and all this ship. Right,
I'm trying to get there fast. I'm running a little late. Uh.

Speaker 7 (01:11:30):
And then I'm hearing the song.

Speaker 1 (01:11:33):
You know what I'm saying, say out of state, kicking
up top game, deep in the South, switching full lanes,
screaming through the sun, roof money and anything.

Speaker 7 (01:11:39):
And I'm like, I'm doing this.

Speaker 6 (01:11:45):
Yeah, yeah, yes, you are.

Speaker 1 (01:11:48):
Just what I'm doing. I'm moving, I'm switching lanes, I'm
doing this. I'm in the car like this.

Speaker 7 (01:11:54):
I'm right.

Speaker 1 (01:11:57):
Hit rewind.

Speaker 7 (01:12:00):
Heard him say it again. I'm saying, why would this
nigga say deep in the South.

Speaker 1 (01:12:03):
He's not from Atlanta, And that one word the South
made me pay attention to that whole phrase. And I'm like,
I'm gonna sample this. I'm gonna sample this part that's
gonna be our song because I don't have no song.

Speaker 7 (01:12:17):
He don't come into Atlanta. I don't have no song.

Speaker 3 (01:12:19):
I'm just I'm just never having a song.

Speaker 7 (01:12:21):
I don't have no song.

Speaker 1 (01:12:22):
I'm just trying to wing it get a song. That
shit dangerous man, So my nerves be going crazy. I'm
trying to be because I know it's like the artists
gonna be here, like a minute, what you got. I'm
trying to I'm trying to find something. I can figure
it out. So I'm doing this. I'm going to pick

(01:12:43):
him up. He get in the car. He's like, what
you got. I'm like, shit, I don't really got nothing,
but I was listening to this and I think we
should make this the hook. He's like what. I'm like,
this part right here, screaming through the sun roof money
and anything. That's how I feel right now. He's like,
all right, okay, and I'm not even paying attention to him.

(01:13:03):
He wrote his REP without even hearing the beat. He's
writing his REP as we riding to my house in
his mind.

Speaker 6 (01:13:12):
His mind doing that.

Speaker 7 (01:13:17):
I'm like, what is this, nigga?

Speaker 1 (01:13:19):
But I'm not really paying attention.

Speaker 7 (01:13:20):
I'm thinking he listened to the music.

Speaker 1 (01:13:22):
I'm playing whatever. We get to my house, I take
the Weekend the Knees beat, I looped that shit started
to do. I'm like, we're gonna do it on this beat.
He's like, all right, what an engineer. I'm like, what, Look,
we just got here. He's like, I'm ready. I tell
the engineer. I'm say you ready that nigga wanted to

(01:13:42):
booth two minutes after we got to my house verse Lad,
I'm like, when the fuck did you write this verse? Because,
by the way, I'm not even realizing that what he
did I do all the time already. But I'm still using.
I'm still I'm writing on paper. I'm still leaving that
it's got to be on paper. And that's the first

(01:14:04):
time I seen him do this, this no writing ship.
So I'm like, this nigga, this nigga must have had
a verse already said old as song, give me an
old last verse.

Speaker 7 (01:14:18):
But I ain't say nothing.

Speaker 1 (01:14:19):
The verse was hot, right, So then I had to
write my verse, and I'm like, shit, I got this
nigga rapping, like he's really rapping. JAD you're gonna do this,
you gotta goddamn rap. So then I had to start
writing me a rap. I'm trying to write me a
rap that sound like I'm in I'm withness at least

(01:14:39):
at least I'm writing around in there. So I'm trying
to get that. I get my verse and then he
give me a third verse. I ain't got no more
lyrics in me that day, so his third verse, he
leave without hearing my third part on the song. But yeah,
that's how the money anything came. So once we finished
the song, all I wanted for my career was to

(01:15:02):
be placed in the same space as real rappers. I
didn't care if the records were number one. I didn't
care if they was. I thought that was all for
my artists. What I wanted. I wanted people to respect
me for where I came from. I'm a hip hop person, right.
So I'm listening to DJ Clue tape and I'm like, shit,

(01:15:24):
if I put a rap record out, I want to
be number one song on Clue tape. I want him
to play my record. This is gonna be the first
song on the mixtape. That's all I cared about. So
we finished money anything. I called Clue. I'm like, yo,
I got one. I need this to be the first
song on the mixtape. I sent it to him. He's like,
you got it, you got one. I'm like, yes, I

(01:15:45):
go to Columbia. I go to Columbia. I'm like, this
is my first single.

Speaker 3 (01:15:52):
Hey looking.

Speaker 7 (01:15:55):
They said why? I said, shit, why not? It's jay Z?

Speaker 3 (01:16:01):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:16:02):
They like, who the fuck is jay Z?

Speaker 3 (01:16:03):
No?

Speaker 6 (01:16:04):
Way, he not on the radar yet, know what I'm saying.
Not on that radar.

Speaker 7 (01:16:08):
Yeah, he's not on the radar yet. I'm like, who
the fuck is jay Z?

Speaker 1 (01:16:12):
I'm like he the hoighest Lott the hottest underground nigga.

Speaker 7 (01:16:15):
From New York.

Speaker 1 (01:16:16):
What's going on, Jamaine? You have a song Riot? You
have songs with this person? Yeah, why are you trying
to make a song with jay Z?

Speaker 7 (01:16:24):
We don't even know who he is.

Speaker 3 (01:16:25):
But you gotta remember, I'm in the d m V.
Jay Z is a thing for us.

Speaker 1 (01:16:32):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:16:32):
So when that song dropped.

Speaker 6 (01:16:34):
For sure, for the streets.

Speaker 4 (01:16:36):
For sure, we're talking about Riot.

Speaker 6 (01:16:39):
Carry also keeps the lights on it in your bain.

Speaker 1 (01:16:43):
You have a record with her?

Speaker 3 (01:16:45):
I get it, Yeah, I get it.

Speaker 7 (01:16:46):
Y'all supposed to be come with that fourth July.

Speaker 1 (01:16:49):
Yeah, I give him money a thing. They don't have
no real enthusiastic actions for me, But I'm like, cool,
I don't give a fuck. I'm on a clue tape.
It's gonna be the first song on clue take We're good.
That's all I cared about. And then you know, money
ain't thing came out and I feel like that's my
that's my biggest non number one record. I feel like the.

Speaker 6 (01:17:12):
Record number one.

Speaker 7 (01:17:13):
No, that's what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (01:17:17):
But by the way, it's a it's like a classic
rap store and I feel I feel like thank you.
I feel like, for to have that, you gotta have
some kind of you know, I'm not considered as like
the poppy rap and they do might look at me
like I'm a poppy rap guy. They look at these
rap songs like they real raps, right, And that's that's

(01:17:39):
all I wanted. That's all I cared about. So I
was I'm completely pleased with that.

Speaker 3 (01:17:44):
Now that record worked. You come to d n B.

Speaker 7 (01:17:46):
That record work in the d nv Oh yeah, oh yeah,
exactly work.

Speaker 6 (01:17:50):
Let's let's get to the brothers. Let's get to the brothers.

Speaker 3 (01:17:53):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (01:17:53):
So in the midst of this, yeah, Candy comes and says,
I got a group I want you to see.

Speaker 7 (01:18:02):
I'm like, okay, cool. They good.

Speaker 1 (01:18:06):
She's like, yeah, they good. They twins. I'm like, okay, cool.
She bring the twins to my house. They get up
in front of me and they sing, and I'm like,
I don't really know what to do with y'all.

Speaker 3 (01:18:25):
It's just them too.

Speaker 1 (01:18:26):
No, it's a whole group, hope, Okay, Yeah, but I'm
you know, I never did a male group before, so
I don't know what to do with them niggas. Only
thing I could think about was that, I said Okay, good,
I'm gonna sign y'all. I signed them and we got
in the studio. Now me, I don't know what to

(01:18:47):
do with them, so I start doing what I did
with Kate. Right. A Skate could come to my house
and sing a cappella and I'll put a beat, scratched
some from the turntables and put a beat under there.
Jagged came to my house and the first session, I
never forget this. The first session we got the biggest
argument ever. And them niggas turned me into an R

(01:19:10):
and B junkie based on that. That's when I became
R and B guy. Like they singing and I try
to put a beat under there, and Brandon bro was like, man,
we ain't escaped, We ain't fucking escape. We want some chords,
we want some up, we want some shit. And I
was just like, damn, I don't know how to do

(01:19:31):
that shit. Just what I know how to do? You
know what I mean? And it was just like nah, man,
And it was like we got an argument cause I'm like, Nigga,
that's the shit that worked. I want to hear y'all
niggas sing over this beat. Nah, that ain't R and
B nigga, that ain't what we're trying to do. We
were R and B group and I was like, okay,

(01:19:53):
R and B group. So then I start doing my
little studying and I started working with Jagged. We did
the Way You Make Me Feel, the Way the Way
You Feel, or something like I think that's the first song.
I don't remember this, yeah, And I put me in
Brad on the song that's the first time they came out,
and that song didn't work right. It got a little buzz,
but it didn't work because I also was trying to

(01:20:14):
figure out how do I market this record right? So
I was thinking like, oh, I got to be able
to put it somewhere where I'm gonna be able to
put my hands on it and do it the same
way things. So I put me in Brad on the
song thinking that it was gonna go to that channel.

Speaker 3 (01:20:26):
It was lukewarm.

Speaker 7 (01:20:28):
It didn't do nothing.

Speaker 1 (01:20:30):
And then we.

Speaker 7 (01:20:31):
Shot a video for I Gotta Be.

Speaker 1 (01:20:37):
Right. We shot a video for Gotta Be and it
wasn't crazy yet. The video was just like a regular video.
But the song went to R and B radio and
they came back and they was like they liked this song.
This song could work, but the video ain't good, right,
So then we shot another video for the song. They
put Destny Child in there. They got Deyonce and the

(01:21:00):
you know, we got got them because they they on Columbia,
so they want to barter their energy and gotta be
took off and gotta be became jagged.

Speaker 7 (01:21:09):
First number one record that I.

Speaker 1 (01:21:13):
But through this whole process, I'm learning chords. I'm learning,
We're going I'm going deep down in R and B.
I mean I was already you know, Teddy Rise my idol,
Quincy's my idol. I was there, but I'm still like
so hip hop. I'm was like not, I don't like
a lot of that ship. I don't like all them
pretty ass chords and this that and the that. That's
that was my mentality. But them niggas, maybe I had

(01:21:35):
to get into it. So I started making records. Were
making records every day, you know what I mean. We
did the the The Gap Band remake because them niggas
sounded like you know what I mean, Charlie to me,
and we just started. I just start getting into R
and B, just doing manual. Come on, let's get some

(01:21:57):
deeper card chords. Let's go, Let's Go and Jacket they
really the ones that got me, like on my R
and D really really did you right to be? No, No,
they wrote all the songs. Jagged wrote all these.

Speaker 4 (01:22:11):
Songs, and that that album that was really a wake
up call to the industry about Jagged Edge though as
everybody was paying attention.

Speaker 3 (01:22:22):
Yeah, once that second album came out, it was like legit, yeah,
these these these guys.

Speaker 1 (01:22:27):
Yeah yeah, I mean we're still it still was tough though, that,
like Keys to the Rains didn't really do what.

Speaker 7 (01:22:35):
We wanted it to do.

Speaker 1 (01:22:37):
So I just so this is also me, I'm nervous
because you know, me and Manuel did got to be
So their first number one record was me and Manuel,
Me and be Cox never did a record with them
like that, right, So we end up working. I'm just
nervous something like. But they had success with a ballot.
People fucking with them on the ballots. We gotta make
another ballot. The day before that, I had just gotten
to argument with my girlfriend about me working in the

(01:22:59):
studio all late at night, and she's sending me messages
like I hope the studio keep you warm at night. Niggas.
You you know you you act like you're gonna be
young forever. You ain't getting no younger, niggas, Let's get married.
I'm like, fuck out of here. Right response is hilario.

Speaker 7 (01:23:21):
I'm terrell. I'm like, nah, God.

Speaker 3 (01:23:25):
You don't know who you're talking.

Speaker 6 (01:23:26):
I think I've seen that same text before.

Speaker 7 (01:23:29):
I'm like, I'm like, I get it.

Speaker 1 (01:23:30):
So I'm like, I'm like, oh, girls want to be married,
like I felt she she may be really believe that
women wanted to be married. Yes, they want. Their destination
is to get that ring. Right.

Speaker 3 (01:23:44):
I'm mad.

Speaker 1 (01:23:44):
I'm having this conversation. Brian started playing these chords now
called jack we gotta do this song called Let's get married.
They like what I'm like, Yeah, they come, I got
the hook and they fucking with it and they start writing,
let's get married.

Speaker 3 (01:24:03):
Let's talk about this might as well line. That's the
line away wei and no young we might as well
like depending what city you is, minus well, minus well on.

Speaker 1 (01:24:18):
Line.

Speaker 6 (01:24:19):
It is classic, but it strikes this chord in women.
Have you ever had a conversation with a woman about
let's get married?

Speaker 4 (01:24:28):
I haven't because it's like that might as well, because
you don't understand that women don't get that.

Speaker 3 (01:24:39):
A lot of times the man at that point is
just folding, right, He's just folding under the pressure. He's
got the text. He didn't answer like he wanted to
keep his woman, so it's not might as well ship
come on, I.

Speaker 7 (01:24:58):
Mean that's what that's what it's said to me.

Speaker 1 (01:25:00):
She said it, and from there that let's get married,
and me writing what I got out of that conversation
with her led me into like my writing style of today,
and it just led me into like, Okay, I'm gonna
start putting.

Speaker 7 (01:25:15):
Into life into the songs.

Speaker 6 (01:25:17):
Yeah what you have, but you absolutely my brother, Oh
my god.

Speaker 3 (01:25:22):
Okay, so let's get married. It's going crazy. Yeah, what
makes you say? This is how we remix this song? Man?

Speaker 1 (01:25:30):
Okay, so let's get this is wedding so direct reception song.
By the way, it's not a pretty picture for me
because in the midst of this, Hiram Hicks caused me
and said, I got this new group and I'm like, cool,
I'm not thinking about the group being competition to Jack
it is, but whatever, I'm just trying to do projects.

(01:25:51):
He's like, I need you to do a remix. I'm like,
what He's like this group drew here. They got the
song called Sleeping in My Bed, the song number one,
but we need we need to up tempo remix. And
I'm like, well we need something, we need something to
keep you know, give it some more legs mix sure
type of ship. And I'm like, okay, all right. I

(01:26:14):
started going back to do what I do. I started
messing with the turntables. I find a beat. I'm like, yeah,
you need to fly them to Atlanta and we're gonna
I'm gonna have them re sing it.

Speaker 7 (01:26:25):
And they flew.

Speaker 1 (01:26:26):
They all flew to Atlanta, but the only person came
to the studio was Cisco Hu Interesting. So Cisco come
to the studio and I'm like, where the rest of
the group at. He's like, I don't need to do
play the beat?

Speaker 3 (01:26:40):
That was the comment give you a play?

Speaker 1 (01:26:45):
Was I was? You know, I'm like, okay, it wasn't
like a disc. It wasn't like it wasn't like a disc.
But it was just like I got it. I got it.
I got it right. So I said, all right, we're
gonna do it to this beat. And I started playing
the boom boom and he's like and I said, you
got a chance. You gotta make lyrics go to this beat.

(01:27:07):
So so I'm like, ship me and bractually.

Speaker 3 (01:27:10):
Get on this motherfuckerm.

Speaker 1 (01:27:13):
Alright, so everybody going. So we're going and we make
a remix. Right, this remix comes out? Usher call me,
why the fuck you give them that song? I'm like,
I didn't give them a song, Now you gave them
that beat. Get out of here.

Speaker 3 (01:27:32):
Man.

Speaker 7 (01:27:32):
USh is mad to this day about this song.

Speaker 1 (01:27:35):
This he gonna be. You ain't have to give them
that beat. Jagged comes to the studio while you give
them niggas that beat. I'm like, what you're talking about
that day? That's our competition and you gonna help them.
So I'm like, oh fuck, I'm like, y'all got a
number one record right now? Nah fuck that you gave

(01:27:56):
them niggas that beat. So then I'm I'm I'm feeling that.
I'm feeling bad. I feel like I done let my
guys down.

Speaker 3 (01:28:04):
You did? You did? Let me?

Speaker 6 (01:28:07):
Looking at it from the outside, yeah, I'm giving I'm
playing devil.

Speaker 1 (01:28:10):
You did.

Speaker 6 (01:28:11):
Okay, you got.

Speaker 4 (01:28:15):
Group who's a composition with another four guy group.

Speaker 1 (01:28:22):
I didn't know that is mass though. I didn't know something.
I'm just this point, I'm just going to do a remix.

Speaker 3 (01:28:28):
It doesn't know, it doesn't.

Speaker 1 (01:28:32):
I don't know that.

Speaker 7 (01:28:32):
You don't know that's gonna happen. It's a remix.

Speaker 3 (01:28:35):
Niggas called your man for a reason.

Speaker 1 (01:28:37):
Brother, But but it's a remix, alright, So I'm not
actually thinking that it's going to translate into what it translated.
Is it starts turning crazy, going crazy every club, every
radio stage, average club. Then the song, the remix replaced
the original in number one, So now it's really a hit,
like what it is, right, jack it. It's fucked up, man.

(01:29:02):
Every time I see them, and that's what the conversation is,
that's fucked up. You gave them that song, gave them
that song. So then I'm like, I gotta find it.
I gotta remix one of these niggas records. I gotta
do something. I gotta figure it out. I gotta make it.

Speaker 7 (01:29:16):
I gotta make them niggas a killer remix. We gotta
do it.

Speaker 1 (01:29:20):
So we started getting in the studio, me and Marcus Jefferson,
Mark he put the run DMC.

Speaker 7 (01:29:28):
We ain't got to change the lyrics, make it. Oh wait,
do it work?

Speaker 3 (01:29:35):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:29:36):
Okay, I'm saying because like, AH got it. That's why
I said. I'm saying it because I'm like, oh, I
got it. These niggas gotta ah see. First of all,
I know these soups. So that's how the remix came about.
I had to do it because they was on my

(01:29:57):
head and I.

Speaker 3 (01:29:59):
Had the greatest remix of all times, worked really well
under pressure.

Speaker 4 (01:30:05):
Brother, Yeah, yes, yes, I don't know that those two remixes.
Nobody has R and B remixes like that. It's only other,
only other R and B remix that's even mentioned is
the Jodasy remix.

Speaker 7 (01:30:23):
I mean with s WV Michael Jackson ship.

Speaker 4 (01:30:27):
Amazing, amazing, not for the streets. It's not for the streets.
That's not a street record, you know what I'm saying,
Like this is literally.

Speaker 3 (01:30:37):
These are R and.

Speaker 6 (01:30:38):
B hip hop remix record real, you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 4 (01:30:41):
And Jodasy was the only one before that that had
that that still gets played that I can think of now.
You know, listen the comments section gon Go Crazy one.

Speaker 3 (01:30:51):
That was good, not in the same vein no, not
the way that you did it, but that was that
was kind of groundbreaking. Are Kelly down.

Speaker 4 (01:31:00):
Low Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yes, yes, all his remix yeah,
R Kelly.

Speaker 3 (01:31:05):
But in going back to our original conversation to this day,
there's nowhere you can't go where somebody has just got
married and that song does not play. It's the reception
record impossible. It's a reception, not a real reception. Black

(01:31:26):
white Latino age. I don't care what you want to
play that playing.

Speaker 1 (01:31:30):
That, So this song comes out jagged ed is aren't
you know it's a they ballot group. They having successful
on ballots. Then stations like Power one six here in
l a pick up, Let's Get Married remixed, Got Run Reverend,
Run on It, Jagged Edge, start doing interviews at Power
one O six, they doing km YL, they start hitting

(01:31:51):
these other stations. They don't want to make no more
slow records.

Speaker 3 (01:31:55):
I respect that's what they said.

Speaker 1 (01:31:57):
Yeah, like we are now no no in the world.
Yeah yeah, we don't want make no more slow records.
I'm like, that's what y'all make. No fuck that.

Speaker 6 (01:32:09):
So they go back to the hip hop ship that
you wanted to do it.

Speaker 3 (01:32:13):
Yeah, okay, okay, you're going with it. J D your
top five R and B singers.

Speaker 1 (01:32:19):
Singers, singers, singers.

Speaker 8 (01:32:24):
Michael mm hmmm, Luther hm, Stevie, Yes.

Speaker 1 (01:32:32):
Yes, sir, R Kelly and USh.

Speaker 3 (01:32:38):
I gotta cover everything that we felt about. Cover yeah, yeah,
cover the spectrum of Okay, okay, I can't do go
to singers.

Speaker 7 (01:32:49):
I mean, I don't.

Speaker 1 (01:32:50):
I want people to know. That's just really serious about singing,
like you know, he really takes that singing ship serious,
like he really be practicing, really doing like he really
takes it just like you're just like, I'm watching you
do this for y'all. To see him do that and
make a song like that off top, that means he

(01:33:10):
could write. He writes about anything. He never you never
had writer's black because you have no fear of.

Speaker 7 (01:33:15):
Just saying.

Speaker 1 (01:33:17):
Whatever's right on you at that time, right, And that's
that's that's the that's a genius and writing.

Speaker 3 (01:33:23):
Yeah, your top five R and B songs.

Speaker 1 (01:33:27):
I'm gonna go with this one first because I've been
thinking about it, been talking about it. This lady in
my life, the Rolling Stone.

Speaker 3 (01:33:33):
Said, speak on it, speak on it.

Speaker 1 (01:33:37):
I don't know what you niggas talking about, first of all,
but just the ad libs on that record, it's so
R and B. The nigga might say, stay right here
with me, Stay right here with me, don't you go nowhere?

Speaker 7 (01:33:58):
That's people. Yeah, yeah, yeah, stay right here with me forever,
all over and over.

Speaker 1 (01:34:05):
That song is like, it's the most R and B
ship ever. I don't even understand how you can say that,
but that's That's one of my favorite songs.

Speaker 3 (01:34:15):
Was clicka That's all I can think of. They don't click.
Somebody there believe that dumb ship. They should be reprimanded
and whoever proof of re addit, they should premanded them
to whoever printed. We can find out the name. Oh yeah,
now they have the name in my comments. They definitely
told me. Then another Michael song is human Nature. These

(01:34:41):
crazy songs, Mike, I got two of them in the
top my style of R and B, so I gotta
go with like make it last forever. Yeah, it makes
perfect sense, makes perfect.

Speaker 7 (01:35:01):
This is the type of R and B records I like,
top five it's hard but.

Speaker 1 (01:35:09):
Less wait a while, Yeah, yeah, crazy song, crazy song,
crazy song, like crazy.

Speaker 7 (01:35:18):
So Jim Lewis's musicians they somewhere else for that technician.

Speaker 3 (01:35:23):
Hm hm. The remix.

Speaker 1 (01:35:29):
Usually I don't do this.

Speaker 7 (01:35:34):
It don't get no better than that. That's a motherfucking
song right there. Bright Well, no, it's crazy hands.

Speaker 1 (01:35:47):
So I've never written I got this one thing I
was gonna talk to you about that. I wanted to
come here to talk. How do we get R and
B on one accord? And why do you think it's separated?
There's a certain group of guys, a certain group because's
another guys that don't actually coincide with each other, and

(01:36:09):
don't I don't for the life of me. Rap is
not like that, right If the rapper's over here, this
rapper's trying to get on this same space as this person.
But R and B. We got these five artists on
this side, on this side that don't really swing in
this space of the artists that's on this side, and

(01:36:31):
I feel like that's what dampers R and B from
being successful. Absolutely, And I'm saying it more like with
your challenge.

Speaker 7 (01:36:38):
The challenge.

Speaker 1 (01:36:39):
The challenge is where I believe I'm really seeing it
because I'm like, Okay, so I see the people that's
doing it, But which one of these guys that's on
this left side gonna take this challenge?

Speaker 3 (01:36:55):
You're thinking, you were thinking the same thing I was thinking.
I was like, I haven't added. Some people like, yeah,
so that's what I'm saying. Why people, what do you
what do you think is do? What's the reason that
it won't it don't happen. I think that I think
that R and B guys, most R and B guys

(01:37:18):
aren't from a competitive space. RAP guys are from a
competitive space. Rap is let's get this cipher and let's
go at it on the street. Most of these guys,
most of R and B guys, especially from where we're from,
would just be the one plucked out of this place,

(01:37:41):
one plucked out of this church, you know what I'm saying,
or maybe this this do group or whatever. But in
in our arena, there is no specific space where we
actually build a camaraderie competing against each other, and so
that's what makes it hard for us to come to
get other and collaborate. Right. And then the other nuance

(01:38:03):
that I think is very very looked over is that
a lot of R and B guys didn't play sports
like me and him got close because we were ultimate
competitors on the basketball court. And I was like, oh,
I rap this nigga anywhere on a song, Nigga through

(01:38:26):
the hood, whatever, I know his level of competition, like
what he what he bled? I bled? I always do
whatever with him and guys that don't have that. He's all.
He's my ultimate point guard. I don't need the ball
if I know he got the ball, kill him, j

(01:38:47):
kill these niggas. I'll run the floor. I'll play lockdown defense.
I could never get the ball. I'll never scream it
Jay like nigga go crazy, you see me, get it
to me. But that's the team, you know, the gamesmanship
that we're missing. We would never talk.

Speaker 4 (01:39:07):
That R and B was a team sport and it
got it and it's gotten even more water down that
we don't even have groups right, so you don't even
see that camaraderie. You don't even see the guys in
the group together. But I also blame it on you know,
because yes, I come from the creative side, and I've
done all these things on the creative side, but I
also consider myself an executive. It's also the executives false

(01:39:31):
because they've kept artists away.

Speaker 3 (01:39:32):
From each other.

Speaker 1 (01:39:34):
I don't get on that song.

Speaker 4 (01:39:35):
It's always a manager, it's always an executive. Maybe they're
not always black. That's saying hey, no, no, no, no, no, no,
this is your space. Yep, this this You don't share
that light instead of saying it's all of our life.
We're stronger together, homies, even making phone calls calling Tank,

(01:40:01):
calling Usher, calling Chris, calling Trey, calling Rob when he
was out, like literally making those phone calls and saying, hey, man,
you know nigga I was I was with such said
did that make a cool lit motherfucker? Bro y'all niggas
need to We haven't really had that in the R
and B space. I've lived in a rap space. I've
done records, you know what I mean. I've had artist

(01:40:23):
sign you of course you have. You know, it's a
different world. Two R and B niggas aren't picking each
other up from the from the airport shit you said earlier.
A nigga is not taking the underground R and B
singer who he thinks is on his way up reach
and saying I'm gonna pick that nigga from the airport.

Speaker 3 (01:40:42):
We're gonna do a record together.

Speaker 1 (01:40:43):
I'm gonna fight my label.

Speaker 3 (01:40:45):
He gonna get the first single over the biggest artists
in the world right now.

Speaker 1 (01:40:49):
But why why you think that is?

Speaker 7 (01:40:50):
Why you think that? Why why you think that why you.

Speaker 4 (01:40:53):
Think it's learned behavior. I think it's learned behavior because
that's just what it's been. It's just it's just what
it's been for so long that now now these conversations
though of you saying why now opens up the floodgate
for niggas to make those phone calls. You know what
I'm saying, us having this platform where we talk about
you know where James fin Leroy says he wants to

(01:41:14):
work on the new Mario project and then they do
a project together. You get what I'm saying, Where now
these these connected worlds and these conversations because what we
say here goes out.

Speaker 3 (01:41:27):
But then that leadership also reflects that too, because whoever's
back then, whoever was holding the mantle, kind of dictated
how we operate. Yeah you know what I mean, Like
for take when Rob had the mantle, what no other

(01:41:51):
R and B nigga get none of that? Good luck?
I am king, and niggas who've stood on that I
am king when I get the crown, when I get
the crown, have always stood alone. The the first person
that I've seen to operate like a full rapper and

(01:42:14):
say let's get it in send it, I'll send it
back to you. Tomorrow's Chris Brown. He's the first person
I don't Nigga rap, afro beat, R and B Nigga
country song said it. If I'm fucking with it, I'm
fucking with it.

Speaker 1 (01:42:31):
I don't.

Speaker 3 (01:42:31):
I don't. I don't care if you even signed it's
rock and.

Speaker 1 (01:42:36):
I mean that's and that's that's how it should be.
That's what I don't n That's what I'm saying. I
don't understand it. Like even like I said, with your
challenge right now, I'm waiting to see one of these
artists do it. But what I'm saying, I don't understand
what the that.

Speaker 3 (01:42:48):
A lot of that too comes from fear.

Speaker 1 (01:42:51):
What fear? Fear?

Speaker 3 (01:42:52):
What singing is different from rapping. It is wonderful.

Speaker 7 (01:42:56):
You gotta you gotta know how to some.

Speaker 3 (01:42:57):
Light sound on here. Rapping has gotten to a point.

Speaker 7 (01:42:59):
Where anybody can do it. Yeah, everybody can't.

Speaker 3 (01:43:06):
Because it's some really good singers that don't sound good
on that challenge. Listen. And then when Mario just did it,
got busy, he put he puts some additional fears, messed
with that great he did with that challenge. That's that challenge,

(01:43:26):
But I'm looking for like you said, cats at though,
what Cat's at or it's like I don't want to
do that's Chris Brown. I ain't trying to you know
what I'm saying, And let him have that. No, it's us.
It all contributes to the pot the bigger. This is
the bigger we all are, which is what this challenge
is showing you.

Speaker 1 (01:43:47):
Yeah, no, we need it.

Speaker 4 (01:43:48):
We need conversations changed because these conversations make people look
at these things differently. Maybe it's not this specific challenge,
but maybe it's the next one, or maybe guys are like, Okay,
you know what I mean on that?

Speaker 3 (01:44:00):
Yeah, fucking with that.

Speaker 2 (01:44:01):
You know what I do?

Speaker 4 (01:44:03):
Got a record that I need. We wop on and
we should do some shit together, and we should tour together,
and we should like the thing that you and your
father created, the Scream Tour. The fact that it's still
going this long, right, it's amazing. But it shouldn't only
it shouldn't take artists twenty years to jump on these

(01:44:26):
tours together.

Speaker 1 (01:44:28):
We got to have that now, bro Blo.

Speaker 3 (01:44:31):
Why is Superfests? Drew Hill, Genuine, Aliyah, Mary j Bone,
Thugs and Harmony all platinum artists, all with number one records, Yeah,
all of them.

Speaker 7 (01:44:45):
I mean that's al whose soup fest though, that's what
you know.

Speaker 3 (01:44:47):
But I'm just saying, we got we need all summer.

Speaker 1 (01:44:51):
We need it.

Speaker 3 (01:44:52):
Where is the tour right now? Where it's not I'm
the big artists, and I got four little guys under
me where it's really collaborative, where any night it's anybody's night.

Speaker 6 (01:45:04):
Right and you who that they don't care about who's closing.

Speaker 3 (01:45:07):
Don't matter who closing. We can rotate this motherfucker if
you want to. M hm.

Speaker 7 (01:45:12):
We got that threat, we got a triple threat to it.

Speaker 1 (01:45:14):
We gotta get to that stage DVD.

Speaker 7 (01:45:17):
I'll be sure Bobby Brown that she was a tour
right there.

Speaker 3 (01:45:22):
Come on, that was that was who gonna get it? Well, listen,
I watched Bobby Brown go crazy right before a new edition,
go nuts on their Heartbreak tour. Wouldn't lead a stage
pants with the with the with the fucking thing down
the here hair shoot hair shoot pants.

Speaker 1 (01:45:42):
Yeah, yeah, we gotta get back to that.

Speaker 6 (01:45:44):
We gotta we gotta continue these conversations.

Speaker 1 (01:45:46):
Yeah, I'm gonna try to do my best, you know
what I mean. I'm gonna try to do my part.
Keep doing my part, try to make it. I gotta
get it back into the you know, make sure that
R and B R and B gotta get back to
the forefront for sure.

Speaker 3 (01:46:00):
Two more things from you. Let's make a vote try man.
Let's make your super R and B artists. Man, making
your super R and B artists Where you're gonna get
the vocal from performance style, styling, the drip of the artist,
who's gonna produce and right for this motherfucker, you're super
R and B artist. One vocal that you would make

(01:46:23):
that you would take to make your super artists.

Speaker 7 (01:46:26):
Your voice would be R Kelly mm hmmm.

Speaker 3 (01:46:30):
Performance style.

Speaker 7 (01:46:32):
Yeah, the performance style would be.

Speaker 3 (01:46:35):
We see.

Speaker 1 (01:46:38):
Performance style. I'm gonna go with Michael hmmm, Rob Michael.
A lot of people ain't gonna A lot of people
don't go with that because they ain't really actually see him.

Speaker 3 (01:46:48):
No, what do you mean a lot of people do
go with that.

Speaker 1 (01:46:50):
Yeah, but I'm saying majority of people don't. They never
really seen Michael.

Speaker 3 (01:46:54):
Actually, like video of Michael is still it's deal better.

Speaker 1 (01:47:02):
Live what I'm saying to be there.

Speaker 7 (01:47:09):
It's a whole different ball game.

Speaker 3 (01:47:10):
The styling of the artists. Then she liked to put
groups in Dickie suits. Yeah, whose style you're taking for that?

Speaker 7 (01:47:20):
Kanye mm hmm, risk taker mm hmm.

Speaker 1 (01:47:25):
Here be a star, Here be a star. Niggas starts
won't be a star. You got you know, Kanye is
one on one man. He's one on one niggas feel
about him one on one.

Speaker 3 (01:47:36):
He is who he is.

Speaker 7 (01:47:37):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:47:38):
Uh, the passion of the artists, heart of the artists, who.

Speaker 7 (01:47:43):
Means I'm gonna go with Prince mm hmm.

Speaker 3 (01:47:47):
Yeah, that's a real passion right there.

Speaker 1 (01:47:50):
Matter of fact, I'm gonna go back to the beginning.
The R in R and B is Stevie Wonder, So
that voice has to be Stevee. He is the voice
of R and B. He's made every type of R
and B record that we everyone think and he's created it.

Speaker 7 (01:48:10):
It's just it's his.

Speaker 1 (01:48:13):
Everything that everybody does pulled from Stevie Wonder. So I
gotta give Stevie that he's the voice. Prince with the
the you know passion, a passion.

Speaker 3 (01:48:26):
You gotta be really passionate to sit on a horse
but naked, Yeah, because that had to hurt.

Speaker 1 (01:48:35):
Well, you gotta be passionate just to I mean, Purple
Ring was a passionate movie man. The idea of what
he was doing, the love for performing, the love for
putting it all into the music and doing the way
he did it.

Speaker 3 (01:48:51):
We ain't ain't.

Speaker 7 (01:48:51):
We ain't seen nobody black do that.

Speaker 3 (01:48:53):
Yeah, you know. And who's writing and producing for this.

Speaker 7 (01:48:56):
Artist, Quincy and Rod Templeton.

Speaker 3 (01:49:03):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's pretty nasty.

Speaker 7 (01:49:14):
Yah them boys bad Rod temping them Quincy finish.

Speaker 4 (01:49:19):
So we come to the very very important part of
this show. All right, when you tell us a story
funny er fucked up? Are funny and fucked up? The
only rude to the game. You can't say no name.

Speaker 1 (01:49:30):
Yeah, So this story, you know, if the cameras was around,
life would be so much different if y'all would have
saw this. Just you know, it's a group of individuals
that came to the studio to play basketball. It's a
group of individuals that I'm in the studio working with

(01:49:54):
the basketball individuals. They out there playing basketball. They're not
paying no attention to what's going on in the studio.
But they are some kind of way, but they not
really you know, and I don't know, like me for
the first time I let all these motherfuckers in at
the same time.

Speaker 7 (01:50:11):
I don't know why for the life of me, but.

Speaker 4 (01:50:15):
I did.

Speaker 1 (01:50:16):
I let them niggas go play basketball while I'm in
the studio doing what I'm supposed to be doing, knowing
that's not safe, that's not what you're supposed to be doing.
And one of them found in the studio that the
other one was out there, and then they had a
meeting in the middle studio that was like the most

(01:50:44):
I don't even know how to say. It's just it's
just crazy shit. Ever, the things that was said, the disrespect,
the unbelievableness about this, I was in complete shock in

(01:51:05):
my own studio.

Speaker 3 (01:51:07):
Like, so, you didn't know that they didn't rock with
each other.

Speaker 1 (01:51:14):
I did, but I didn't because it's always competitiveness. It's
a competitiveness. We know it's a competitiveness. But to hear
what was being said in front of the person and
they right there in front of each other, it was
mind blowing.

Speaker 7 (01:51:33):
And I will never have enough. I will never allow
that to happen in my studio.

Speaker 1 (01:51:37):
Gain somebody is at my studio, you in my studio,
and somebody say they want to come by artists.

Speaker 7 (01:51:43):
Now it's closed.

Speaker 1 (01:51:44):
I tried to let everybody in and this was this
could have been really bad, This could have really got bad,
and I'm just gonna leave it at that. Let people
try to figure this out.

Speaker 3 (01:51:53):
But this shit was wold, but nothing happened.

Speaker 7 (01:51:56):
Now nothing happened.

Speaker 1 (01:51:58):
Nothing happened, just disrespect with the disc The level of disrespect.

Speaker 7 (01:52:04):
It was on a hundred, like unbelievable.

Speaker 1 (01:52:07):
By the way, there's no way possible that you could
say the things that was being said, right, because it's
no way that it's true one artist is higher than
the other artists. Just for y'all can know, this is
one artist that's that's a you know what I mean.
So it's no way possible that you can say, Oh,
I ain't, I ain't never fuck with you.

Speaker 7 (01:52:29):
How how is this possible?

Speaker 3 (01:52:36):
There you go, I gotta know what is going on. Yeah,
it was rough for you to make up new rules.

Speaker 1 (01:52:53):
Because I mean, like I said, I never really I
I never thought that this could get to this space, right,
you know what I mean.

Speaker 3 (01:53:02):
I just thought that.

Speaker 1 (01:53:03):
You know, of course, everybody's competitive, everybody's making music, everybody
trying to be star. Nobody's more competitive than bow wow, right,
bow wow. Once he's he beef with me. He's so competitive,
like you don't It's like, right, so you have people
I'm I'm I'm used to that level because that's what

(01:53:26):
it is. Everybody around me is they all competing for time,
my time record.

Speaker 7 (01:53:32):
So I'm used to it.

Speaker 3 (01:53:35):
But this was this was some other ship.

Speaker 1 (01:53:37):
I just didn't I didn't expect it, and I walked
in into it and I was just like, wow, okay, well,
how we keep this from being somebody head getting splattered
or something.

Speaker 7 (01:53:50):
In my studio because I ain't trying to do that.

Speaker 3 (01:53:53):
It was like that.

Speaker 7 (01:53:54):
It was just definitely crazy like that. I don't know
if that's the story I.

Speaker 1 (01:53:58):
Want to I can't.

Speaker 7 (01:54:00):
I can't.

Speaker 3 (01:54:03):
You know, well, him, man manage your studio spaces properly, okay,
don't invite rival gangs, uh, rival artists, rival group, controy
your space.

Speaker 7 (01:54:19):
Man, make sure you let everybody per j D. Everybody
do what they got to do.

Speaker 3 (01:54:26):
Insurance is to cover the type of ship that can
go down.

Speaker 1 (01:54:29):
Oh God, disgusting, brother.

Speaker 3 (01:54:34):
J D. We are appreciative of your time as we
are as we are fans. First, we are those who
you've inspired you are you have been our steady guide
and material. You've you've you've you've been the voice and

(01:54:58):
the soundtrack to our lit vibes. You continue to be
cut that ship out and you're you are one of
the greatest of all times. Thank you, appreciate it absolutely.

Speaker 7 (01:55:13):
And you know, my brother, my god, what is one
of this one fifty?

Speaker 1 (01:55:18):
Right?

Speaker 7 (01:55:18):
It's what told me.

Speaker 3 (01:55:19):
It's one fifty. It's one fifty.

Speaker 7 (01:55:21):
It's one fifty.

Speaker 1 (01:55:22):
Congratulations.

Speaker 3 (01:55:23):
We needed you, listen, we needed you.

Speaker 7 (01:55:26):
Gradulations, congratulations. I gotta be I'll be back.

Speaker 1 (01:55:32):
I'll be back because this year I'm putting I'm I'm
planning to put out more records this year then I
put out.

Speaker 7 (01:55:41):
And probably the last twenty years.

Speaker 3 (01:55:44):
Really ship just this year, you're gonna put out more records.

Speaker 7 (01:55:47):
Yeah, cool, I plan Come on.

Speaker 3 (01:55:49):
I feel good about that. Yeah, I feel good about it.
Come on back in there. You know what I'm saying.
I feel good about Get your week. I'm getting it.

Speaker 7 (01:55:56):
You gotta get it a week week. I'm signing Division.

Speaker 3 (01:56:00):
Yeah. Yeah, we rock with Division.

Speaker 6 (01:56:02):
Yeah yeah, yeah, we need division on the podcast.

Speaker 7 (01:56:06):
Yeah, I'm I'm churning them out.

Speaker 3 (01:56:10):
About that collapse. I think I hit him about something too.
I was like, man, you know, if you got something
on them, y'all working, let me get on that. He
ain't hit me back, he hit you back.

Speaker 1 (01:56:17):
Yeah, there you go. See Now I'm coming to you
division exactly.

Speaker 7 (01:56:22):
Yeah, you gotta come on, we gotta make Yeah. Now
I'm going.

Speaker 1 (01:56:25):
I'm going.

Speaker 7 (01:56:26):
I'm trying to go crazy, you know what I mean.
Like I said, I have a I have a goal.
If I go something's happened to me, I wouldn't my
music plays.

Speaker 3 (01:56:37):
I love that.

Speaker 7 (01:56:38):
I love it like for I just think that you
know you can't that's a That's the thing that I
want to do.

Speaker 1 (01:56:44):
Try to leave a real soundtrack, like my soundtrack that
people need to just play this all this music.

Speaker 3 (01:56:52):
That's the thing. I got an idea. I'm gonna say
it on here.

Speaker 1 (01:56:56):
Okay, Oh yeah, I'm doing the Quincy Jones Tribute to Essence. Yeah,
My Quincy Jones Tribute to Essence will be the one
I believe that everybody's been looking forward to saying. I
thought Queen Latifa was amazing last night doing He's on
down the Road. But what I'm gonna do at Essence,

(01:57:19):
it's different than anything that y'all seen as far as
tribute to Quincy. And it's gonna really tie in the
young people and the older people to understand who Quincy
Jones is and what he was to me as a musician.
And uh, I'm excited about that because it's gonna be
you know, I'm bringing out the you got.

Speaker 7 (01:57:45):
Come on, come on?

Speaker 3 (01:57:47):
Yeah, okay, what it is? Go go go without go on,
it's gonna be.

Speaker 1 (01:57:54):
It's gonna be.

Speaker 3 (01:57:56):
Secretgard Come hold, come on, man, that.

Speaker 1 (01:58:03):
James better believe it. Man, all right, yeah, we gotta
go this. I gotta go.

Speaker 3 (01:58:09):
I'm just sending my tapes under my rear.

Speaker 1 (01:58:12):
Ya I'm get right.

Speaker 7 (01:58:14):
Yeah, you y'all had the ball got out of the bar.

Speaker 1 (01:58:19):
Come on, man, you look like a bar. What Yeah?
You know we always shout out bunny, come on, you
looking like a bar.

Speaker 3 (01:58:29):
We thank you, brother, Yeah, man, we appreciate you.

Speaker 1 (01:58:34):
And you know, pro Like I said, I'm pro keep
r and B alive. I'm glad that y'all got this.
I'm glad that y'all got you know that y'all getting
everybody on the show. Uh.

Speaker 7 (01:58:45):
And I'm glad that people coming here.

Speaker 1 (01:58:46):
I saw l A. He didn't even know that y'all
had the whispers on here, like, you know what I mean.
I like the fact that y'all have y'all hitting all. Yeah,
you know what I mean, hitting it. Y'all hear from
all the angles. That's dope.

Speaker 4 (01:59:00):
And we depend on people like you to make phone
calls that we don't we can't make sometimes and say,
you know what, you need to go down to the
R and B Money.

Speaker 3 (01:59:08):
Yeah, go sit down with the brothers like that.

Speaker 1 (01:59:11):
Yeah. I'll be back.

Speaker 7 (01:59:12):
When I come back, we're gonna talk about it the
whole ten new Wrenchers.

Speaker 1 (01:59:17):
That's my goal, ladies.

Speaker 3 (01:59:20):
You My name is Tank Valentine and this is the
R and B Money Podcast, the authority on all things
R and B. Yeah for the last thirty years. Huh
and still yeah yeah, and the new and the both
of them our brother.

Speaker 1 (01:59:42):
Yeah, thank you.

Speaker 5 (01:59:45):
Yeah,