L.A. Reid

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
R and B Money. We take valti. We are the authorities.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
R and B ladies and gentlemen. My name is Tank,
I am jave allent.

Speaker 3 (00:22):
This, this right cheer is the R and B Money Podcast,
the authority.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
Come on, come on, come on, all things.

Speaker 4 (00:36):
R and B today. We're gonna get a drummer son today.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
Yeah like that.

Speaker 3 (00:42):
Yes, we're gonna give the motherfucking drunk listen, come on,
come on, come on.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
There are people and then there are pillars.

Speaker 3 (00:58):
There are foundings in foundational building blocks that this thing
is set upon. There is a gate with platinum and
gold bars.

Speaker 2 (01:12):
Get in there.

Speaker 3 (01:13):
There's a man that stands at this gate as a keeper.

Speaker 2 (01:20):
Quality control. Before Q see shout after my God, shout
out this man. This legacy.

Speaker 3 (01:31):
Is the reason why we are here one hund. I
won't label before you long I could intro could take years.
We want to get into the information and the method
of the madness of the man.

Speaker 2 (01:50):
Mister l a read Wow, yeah, wow, you're a good
waiting this way. I'm all the buzz and the pillars
and the one thing I can say that.

Speaker 3 (02:14):
Was so good I was shaving. And then the man
is the man of a man You're important. Thank you, sir,
Thank you. This is important being here with y'all, this
is important. This means everything to me. Thank you for
I have to say, like, you know, I can't overstate

(02:35):
your importance, your contribution to all of us, like we
we we were all babies. I don't even know if
I had a dream of of being that, Like it
was so far away what you were doing with you guys,

(02:56):
it was.

Speaker 2 (02:57):
It was just like.

Speaker 3 (03:00):
You just watching Amazement and say, I don't even know
what that is. I don't even know if I'll even
get to that, s I don't even know if I'll
ever attain. But it gave us. It gave us levels,
you understand, I'm saying. It gave us inspiration, That gave
us things to aspire too. It gave us the senses

(03:21):
I spoke before, a sense of quality, like we're being
seen for what we are.

Speaker 2 (03:28):
True artistry, yes, sir. Like knowing that that was there
and what it accomplished.

Speaker 3 (03:36):
Keeps us pushing to know that we can still accomplish
that no matter what the algorithm says, no matter how
far they try to go away from.

Speaker 2 (03:47):
It, it is possible. Because you did it, then you
keep doing it and we can keep doing it. I
love what you just said. I love that regardless of
what the albem rhythm says. I absolutely love that. The
algorithm is people. It's people pressing a button a certain

(04:09):
amount of times, right, and now we have the power
to get to those people. We have the power to
give them a choice, an alternative. I don't knock anything.
Everybody does anything that anybody else does, I never knock it.

Speaker 3 (04:25):
I salute it. If you can get off that bench
and get in the game and get some points up.
God bless you, God bless you who, God bless you.
It ain't easy easy to talk about it. Oh my
God out there and be about it.

Speaker 2 (04:38):
Yes, that's right.

Speaker 3 (04:39):
But I absolutely have an affinity for those who are
well versed, well studied, prepared, rehearsed, God gifted, like for
those who are different, for those who feel like they
are not seen and very seldom celebrated, have an affinity
for them the ship that you do.

Speaker 2 (05:01):
Thank you, thank you. So that was my long thank
you well received and I appreciate it and thank you.

Speaker 3 (05:13):
I have to start at the beginning because there's so
many pieces that I want to we want to get
to because We just want to understand your mind on
on decisions, on on music, on business.

Speaker 2 (05:26):
But where does where? Where did this? Where does this
even start? Where? Where do you start building into? Wow? Man?
My career starts with my love for music and more importantly,
my love for seeing a set of drums for the

(05:48):
first time in my life and feeling like I saw
God like right, and everything about me just just sparkled
with excitement. What was the brand? And it was Ludwig
and it was my uncle's right and he had them
in these cases and he opened the case and I
saw those things, man, and it's just and I must

(06:08):
have been like eight nine years old, but I saw God, man,
It's like what there it is? I had never played,
had never paid attention to anything like that, but I
saw that, and in that moment I was I was gone,
and I've never been back.

Speaker 3 (06:24):
My cousin had a red Tama Thomas, Yeah, and he
went to Berkeley College of Music and he would come
home during the summers and he was set up in
his mom's attic, Auntie Betty's attic, who taught us all
how to say, and he would just be up there
ship sneak.

Speaker 2 (06:45):
Up into the attic and just watch them.

Speaker 3 (06:48):
You know, like you said you saw God in the drums.
I like I saw Jesus playing the drums that God
gave me.

Speaker 2 (06:54):
I was like, this bit me and it's crazy, right, Yeah,
that that killed me. Man, It was like, my god,
this is not I said it wrong. Didn't kill me.
It brought me to life. It birthed me, you know.
And by the way, I'm not that good. I was
never that good, right, that's not really the point. I

(07:16):
was never I was like.

Speaker 4 (07:18):
Well, you get to your drums and its production.

Speaker 2 (07:20):
So that's a that's a tough thing to say.

Speaker 4 (07:24):
Because record, yeah, no record all right, an actual drummer.

Speaker 2 (07:34):
Yeah, there was things I just could never do. But
still it was my love and that's what brought me
into the game. And and that just led me. That
took me places, you know what I mean. That took
first around the neighborhood in Cincinnati everybody else who did music. Like,
just being a drummer led me to everybody that made music.

(07:56):
And one person leads you to another person leads you
to another person, and you you know how this goes, right, Yeah,
but that was that's where it started.

Speaker 4 (08:04):
So were you clearly focused on becoming an artist in
the beginning, or did you just want to play in
the band.

Speaker 2 (08:12):
I wanted to do anything around the band. Like my
first gig was like carrying the drums and carrying amps
for somebody for another I don't even know who they were.
And at the time, James Brown was like on fire, right,
James Brown was like the godfather soul, and he used
to drop down on one knee and they put the
cape over right. So my first gig was putting the

(08:34):
cape over this guy who's James Brown, you know what
I mean. So it was just about being a part
of it band. It wasn't It didn't matter to me.
I didn't know the difference between you know, being a
utility person or being a performer making music or setting up.
I didn't know to just want to be around it.
Just had to be in it.

Speaker 4 (08:51):
Yeah, I love that love of service. We always it
always goes back to that. Yes, the people who have
who've gotten to these higher levels, at some point you
had to be of service, that's right, and you still
got to be of service, but in the beginning, you
got to start somewhere. I think people are you know,
we try to fast forward instead of actually going through

(09:14):
the experiences of Like you said, I don't even remember
who I was putting the cape on, but it was like,
that's what'all needed.

Speaker 2 (09:21):
To do exactly. I'm a leisure let's go my pleasure.

Speaker 4 (09:26):
Yeah, right, Like you know, you've had these conversations we
have as well where you meet, you know, the new
people that just want to be in a business, but
they don't want to do all the things that they
need to do that's available to them at that point,
because everything is not available to you when you first
get in, you know what I mean, you can't sign
the checks when you first get in. That's just not

(09:46):
where you are.

Speaker 2 (09:47):
Well to me, those people who are not the thing
that I got naturally, and I'm assuming that you guys
feel the same way about it and being of service.
The people who are willing to give, if anything, are
are setting themselves up in a really positive way to
receive many many things. People that want to jump over

(10:08):
the cheating themselves, right, That's how I feel like you
can't jump over it, Like you gotta do the service
part first. It can't be about you first. It can't.
If that's the gig then I mean I get it.
But you know, that's not what I teach my kids,
you know, like like, let's just do it for everybody else.
You know, to this day, I'm still of service. I

(10:29):
love that. I think I love that more than anything.
I love for an artist to call me and say
I need X, I need this, I need help with
this and help with that. Nothing makes my day more
than to be able to say I don't know if
I can accomplish it, but I'm damn sure going to
pick up the phone and try. M hmm right. That's
that's everything to me, you know. So yeah, man, So
my existence is all about being.

Speaker 3 (10:50):
Of service to the artists, you know, to give me
to the where's the break, where's the like? Okay, my
service has been rendered in so many areas and with
so many people to where now it's being recognized and
seen on a higher level on the industry, a professional level.

Speaker 2 (11:14):
When does that happen for you?

Speaker 5 (11:17):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (11:17):
Man? I had the great fortune of being in a
band that you're familiar with, the Deal and Babyface Kenny Edmunds.
I met in Indianapolis, and we ended up being in
the band together, right, and we ended up writing and

(11:39):
producing stuff together. But the real breakthrough for me was
meeting him, was meeting Babyface right when he was Kenny
Edmunds and being the guy that he called every morning
to listen to the song get written. That was life
changing for me. Right, I feel like that was the
greatest honor ever. I heard damn near every song that

(12:03):
man wrote before the world did. Right, So you know
that felt wow?

Speaker 4 (12:07):
And did you even realize.

Speaker 2 (12:09):
That, Oh no, no, no, no, I didn't.

Speaker 4 (12:15):
I just just my guy playing me some song.

Speaker 2 (12:16):
Yo, this guy's playing me this song, and he wanted
to know what I thought, and he wanted to know
is it complete? Is it right? And and somehow I
knew the answer to those questions. And I didn't know
how I knew the answer to those questions, right, but
I was like, no, right, here needs to go to
a bridge, and it used to do this, or it

(12:38):
needs to do that, or you know, I knew how
to coach it. And I didn't even know where that
came from, but it was all. You know what it is,
it's memory. It's like the music you listen to, the
music you grow up on. What you're really doing is
you're really trying to do what you've heard create. And
so if a song does a certain thing, you want
your song to do that thing that you're favorite song did.

(13:01):
And so I was like I was in touch with that,
and so I could tell him, you know, I could
give him advice about it, just based on being a
connoisseur of music. Music, Like I really listened to a
lot of music. I still do. I listened to tons
of music. So I keep that muscle, you know, intact,
you know what I mean. But anyways, that's what it was, man,

(13:23):
that was the breakthrough.

Speaker 4 (13:24):
He told us that, uh you said he had to
get he had to be more breed though, Oh.

Speaker 2 (13:28):
Yeah, yeah, that was That was it to get in
the band?

Speaker 4 (13:31):
Yeah yeah, that was that was like the thing.

Speaker 2 (13:33):
It was like he wasn't breed enough, Like we were
a Breed band. You know what breed was bread? You know. Okay,
great man, I'm I'm in the room with y'all. You know, man,
you know what it is. You have to whip that up. Man.

Speaker 3 (13:47):
You know what the craziest thing about Breed is so
so so so.

Speaker 2 (13:50):
The crown Prince of Breed is prince yes, yes, and
he knew that we were all his disciples without meeting us,
right and just like that, even treat us like that.
The first time I met Prince, he was looking at
it like, yeah, I know exactly who you are. Yeah,
I knew you before you had those classes and your

(14:11):
little suit and right, and he was just son us
because he knew he was the crown Prince of Breed. Right.
So anyway, yeah, so that's how we start. Anybody ever
cussed him out.

Speaker 4 (14:27):
You started?

Speaker 2 (14:32):
No, No, I argued. I did argue with him though.
So was that a like Breed?

Speaker 3 (14:41):
Was that a just a regional thing that was just
like if we're from this place, this is what we
must tap into.

Speaker 2 (14:50):
You know what it was?

Speaker 6 (14:51):
It was?

Speaker 2 (14:54):
It was an era that in black music. It was
it was the closest thing to rock and roll. Like
that was edge at that time, I got to say,
because it grew beyond, yes, just where it was. It
turned into phenomena, It turned into a thing. But it
was it was the edge, like there was a there

(15:16):
was a certain there was a certain normalness and normalcy
about R and B and R and B artist at
that time. And everybody could sing and everybody can play.
We just saw talented people, right, and so the thing
that would separate you was where did your edge come from? Right?

(15:37):
And so breed was really androgyny? Mhm, it was this.
It was the black it was it was the black
take on what David boy was doing or artists like that, right,
Billy Idol at the time and Prince sort of introduced
it and we all just basically copied prints. But it

(15:58):
was a way to have edge, you know, uh, and
the way to to have just to have a little
just a little a little danger. And in your presentation,
you know what I mean.

Speaker 4 (16:09):
Did you feel more dangerous?

Speaker 2 (16:11):
He I ain't have no heels listen, Jay, I didn't
have no heels on.

Speaker 3 (16:21):
Hey, I'm feel tough in his T shirt.

Speaker 2 (16:25):
But in this plus you don't get kniced up in
here when I throw this on. This interview is over.

Speaker 3 (16:33):
This is crazy, no, but but you you know what.

Speaker 2 (16:41):
It was like. It was the girls. Man, They always
do girls always always. They knew the difference. They knew
oh my god, yeah, they knew the difference, the difference, right,
And that that was that's you know, that's always the
unfortunate leader of decisions that we make. How you because.

Speaker 3 (17:10):
If a woman jump ten men is going to replicate
that process. They replicate that process there you go.

Speaker 2 (17:19):
So I met face he wasn't breed, and we talked
and he wanted to join the band. And he was
so gifted though, And that was the only reservation because
at that point we were we were me and the
guys in my band were focused on we'd already done
the club circuit, the chitlin circuit. We've been playing for years, man, right,

(17:40):
and now we need to break.

Speaker 4 (17:42):
So we've been playing for years.

Speaker 2 (17:43):
Yeah, yeah, we've been doing it for years. Yeah, we played.
We used to play clubs. Uh, six nights a week,
four shows a night and hour hold hold on, yeah, yeah,
that's how we grew up. What Yeah, we played clubs.

Speaker 4 (17:57):
No no, no, no, no, I get to that. Six days, yes,
six days ago, four hours a night, our show fours.

Speaker 2 (18:05):
To night and on Saturdays we had a matinee. So
it was like two sets in the daytime and for
the night time. Right, And that's how we grew up
and polished. Yeah, we learned how to play. Yeah you know,
but you can also as much as that sounds like
a great, uh stage for polishing, we actually became complacent

(18:26):
doing it. Go we stopped growing. We started doing that
and just got stuck in that cycle for like three
or four years. We lived in Indianapolis, Indiana. Indianapolis had clubs.
It had the Zodiac Lounge. You had to mark for
Ricky's Lounge, the night flight. It was just clubs, man
and every club higher bands and the bands will stay

(18:48):
for weeks on weeks, like having a residency, except chitting
a circuit residency no money and no money and you know,
you could do some original material, but you had to
do cover. So you're doing covers four shows at night,
six n four shows a night. Yeah, it is it, okay?

(19:10):
Is it where people come to the club, you just
take a fifteen minute break and you just get back
up running the cycle. Yeah. Yeah. We just had four
different sets, you know, and we had the opening set.
We had the set that hat like the hits in it,
you know what I mean. And we just pasted so
for all intensive purposes. You guys were the DJ. Oh

(19:33):
there was no DJ at the time. This is three DJ.
The DJ was the change exactly. Actually, you know when
the DJs came, that's when disco kicked in. Gotcha right,
I'm really aging myself, I know, but that's when disco
kicked in in the eighties like really right, like seventy eight,
seventy nine, eighty disco kicked in right, really really heavy,
and that was the difference. But before that it was

(19:56):
the band. It's the band stand a lot of live musicians,
you know, able to make a living, and the DJ
kind of changed that.

Speaker 3 (20:04):
You're taking me back to watching ray right and them
in the club like full sets.

Speaker 4 (20:15):
Yeah, so how long does it? Okay? So once Kenny
gets into group, is now the focus make these records?

Speaker 2 (20:24):
Get a record deal? Yeah? We we we switched our
focus right before meeting Kenny. We had come tired of
playing clubs and we started saving up some of our
little club money and buying machines, buying take recorders like
two track or four track reel to real. U took
our mixing console from the live show, brought it into

(20:45):
a room and we started recording, and we started making
demos and really getting serious about it. And that's kind
of how we ended up. Like making the transition, the
focus was let's make the best songs we can make
and figure out how can we get them to Solar Records,
Like we only wanted to be on one record label.
We didn't want a record deal. We wanted a record

(21:07):
deal with Solar, that's it. We wanted that because because
my music teacher from Cincinnati was signed to Solar. My
music teacher's name is Terry Brown, and he had a
brother named Gerald Brown, and they moved from Cincinnati to
LA and they had a group called the Soul Train Gang,
which morphed into Shalamar. Okay, So, so the only thing

(21:33):
I three and Jeffrey. It was Jeffrey, Jody and Gerald
at first, and then it became Jeffrey, Jody and Howard.
So my eyes were set.

Speaker 4 (21:42):
But they were all they were so trained dancers.

Speaker 2 (21:44):
They were so all so trained dancers. But my music
teacher came out here, left left high high school and
came out to UH to join Don Corneis and Dick Griffy,
and so I'm sitting in Cincinnati like, yeah, I want
to be there too, And so my mind was just stuck, stuck,
focused on solo records, and I sent my first demo

(22:07):
to them. I got a rejection letter, and I thought
that was the greatest thing ever.

Speaker 3 (22:10):
The letter was the letter, just getting a rejection. They're
talking to me, had the logo on it, had records. Yeah, Okay,
I'm getting get a better song.

Speaker 2 (22:22):
But now that I know you listening, Now I know
that you're listening, and you know what, it's crazy job.
And we ended up getting signed to show our records.
What was the song they did it? Body Talk? You know,

(22:44):
the song no Body Talk by the deal is the
first song we made, not the first song we made it,
but it was the first single that we had as
a group. And I wrote it. I co wrote it
with a couple of other guys and and it worked. Man,
got us the record deal. Next thing I know, we
were on tour with Luther Vandros opening for Luther and

(23:05):
the de Barge. Life changed. That's what I love about
what we do. Man. One song can change your life.
Lottery the lottery.

Speaker 4 (23:15):
One song that was your lottery ticket.

Speaker 2 (23:18):
We went from being in the chicken circuit man eating
hm Popeyes, you know, on tour with Luther. Popeye is
on credit, by the way, huh yeah, because I went
to the Popeyes guy that ran Popeyes. Okay, I gotta
feed my band. I can pay you at the end
of the month.

Speaker 4 (23:36):
You was getting Popeyes on credit.

Speaker 2 (23:38):
My man was like, all right, I trust you. I
failed my band Popeyes. The end of the month came.
I paid him. Next month. I was like, I gotta
do it again. I'm about to go to chick.

Speaker 4 (23:50):
For le.

Speaker 3 (23:53):
Man, like, I see if I can pay at the
end of the month.

Speaker 2 (23:58):
At the end of the month, I promise some good.
He trusted the tag and pomp that survived. I've never
heard of that before. I never heard of it. I'm
a band leader. I got to take care of my guys.
That's that's it. That's what mattered, right. I got to
get their rent paid, I had to get them fed.
I got to get them ready for the show. Whatever

(24:19):
you need, you need to geitar strings, whatever you need.
My job is to make sure.

Speaker 4 (24:24):
That was always your function from the beginning. You always
this thing, we're putting this together and whatever y'all need,
and I would make it happen.

Speaker 2 (24:33):
Facilitator. And then and it became casting. It became okay,
I got to get the right members. I get to
get the right members with the right look and the
right everything. That's that's where the babyface piece comes in.
At the whole conversation about not being breed was Okay,
you have the musicality, but you're not the right casting
And he fixed it next time I saw it. Next

(24:55):
time I saw him, he was he was ready. Man.
He had the right everything, the right right trench, cody
at the hair right, everything was right. And I was like, okay,
now now you fit the movie joint and anyway, That's
how I see it, man. So my career is all
about being a band leader. So what I've done as

(25:16):
an executive, as a producer and all that stuff, it's
just all the same thing that I did when I
was twenty two years old, when I was picking members
of the band and picking material. Yeah, it's the same shit.

Speaker 3 (25:28):
That was the that was the development of this, that
was the skill set.

Speaker 2 (25:32):
The same shit. Because I was never the talent, right.
I had some talent, but I was never the talent, right,
So I was I was a different time. I was.
I was the eyes and the ears and the ingenuity, right,
and you were able to identify that.

Speaker 4 (25:45):
Yeah, because that's the one thing I feel like as well,
especially in this day and age. Hey man, all y'all
not talented, very rays not, you know what I mean,
Or maybe you're talented, but you meet someone you're like,
you know what, you got something different? Have something and
you know what I can help you with this, right,

(26:06):
I can help guy that we can figure this whole
thing out together instead of it being like na, na,
I'm gonna just be the artist and keep all these
songs from me.

Speaker 2 (26:16):
Oh my god, I met so many people you guys
have too that I'm like, damn, if you just get
out of the way, what the career you would have
if you would just get out of the way. Right,
But it's gotta be about you. Huh, Okay, all right,
tell me something. Dick griff Yes, how was how was
he as an executive? Dick Griffy was? Uh, he had

(26:39):
great taste. He was a he was he was tough.
He was tough, but but he was but he but
he had a soft spot for talent. Right. But the
way he would talk to me, he talked to me like,
you know, like a tough guy. Yeah, you know.

Speaker 1 (26:57):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (26:58):
He would give me the information whatever I might be
asking about, whatever I need to know, but he would
always say it like, let me tell you something, young motherfucker. Right.
Everything was like young motherfucker. You know what I mean.
Everything was like that. You met people like that, you know,
but you're still getting getting the lessons. But yeah, he
was he was great man. He had he had great
taste in music. He knew a hit when he heard

(27:20):
a hit. You know, yeah, I loved I loved Solar.
I still love Solar.

Speaker 4 (27:26):
I don't think I don't think he gets enough credit
when the great executives are mentioned, right, they don't. They
don't talk about sound of Los Angeles records, and they
don't like the artists, the writers. The music that came
from Solar is so special.

Speaker 2 (27:43):
Yes, one of my favorite producers ever is from Solar.
Man Leon Silva one of my favorite producers. Man, Like,
if you listen to Chalamar and the whispers and the
beat goes on and all those make that move or
you know, you just name it like it's joints for
the lover in me. That's all Leon Silver's as a producer.

Speaker 4 (28:04):
Man.

Speaker 2 (28:04):
So, but I think it's hard to everybody can't get
the praise. Man, It's just like everybody can't get it.
Barry Gordy is that guy. It's Arry Gordy, right, Berry
Gordy is the greatest record executive of all time. And
no one else gets to have that. No one else
gets to have that. I don't care how good any

(28:25):
of us might be at him. It's kind of like
in basketball, I don't care what it's Michael Jordan's Kobe right,
Kobe Man right.

Speaker 3 (28:34):
But but it feels like it's just gonna be Jordan's forever.
It starts and ends right because it's the it's the blueprint.
It's everything that we're aspiring to be and how we
should do it and how it starts there.

Speaker 2 (28:53):
It starts there, transcended basketballau and even even when you
look at a Berry Gordy right, motown was they had
a different type of shine to it.

Speaker 4 (29:05):
It had a different type of thing to it that
no one had ever seen at that point. That's the
other thing I think that happens with Michael Jordan. No
one had ever seen the tongue out, the ball head,
all of that, the band shoes, the Nike money pushing it,
you know. I mean, it was a lot of things
that made that what it became, right, And I feel
like for us, Barry Gordy sits in that spot where

(29:27):
he was. He broke down so many barriers.

Speaker 2 (29:31):
I think people who are thought of as the first
greats at anything, it's just very tough for anyone else
to really hold that title. Yeah, Yeah, We still think
of Sigmund Freud as the greatest psychologists, and and we
still think of Albert Einstein as as a genius in

(29:51):
a certain way. We still those things don't change right there.
Probably they're probably somebody who is is a better psycho
therapist than Sigmund Freud. But it doesn't matter, right, you
know what I mean?

Speaker 4 (30:05):
But I think that's ultimately a big reason also why
we started this show is so that we could highlight
everyone everyone. That's really something that that is very important
to us. That someone like Dick Griffy gets the you know,
gets the celebration man other labels may have gotten, because

(30:28):
what he did is so special and it's still lasting
to this day. You come from Solar, they face comes
from Solar, you know what I mean. Like this is
something that is and still the test of time, but
the average person would not know of.

Speaker 2 (30:43):
Right, even some of the early you remember like COOLi Old, Sampled, Lakesides, fantastic,
even it transcended R and B and pop at that
time and even made its way into hip hop. You know. Yeah,
Dick Griffy is incredible, man, he really is incredible. I

(31:03):
learned a lot from him, really learned a lot. He
let me study under him, He let me hang around
and just watch and ask questions. I would ask anything,
good questions, bad questions. He'd still give me an answer,
you know. And that was a training ground.

Speaker 4 (31:18):
Do you think that you were preparing yourself for what
you would become then, even though you were an artist
at that point, because you're signed to his label, but
you're asking questions like a young executive.

Speaker 2 (31:29):
I didn't know I was doing that. I really didn't know.
I was just trying to survive. Man. Again. I was
just trying to get the bills paid, man, and get
my band fed. Everything I was asking was just about
how do I take care of my people? You know
what I mean? It was a survival. It was all
about that, you know. And I didn't know. But when
once I once I saw Dick Griffy, it became clearer

(31:55):
what I thought I could do with my career. He
was the example, because yes, Barry Gordy was the great,
but I never met him. He was way you know,
you know, but Dick was right there. They dealing with
him every day every day. Yeah, good batter and different. Right.

Speaker 3 (32:12):
As a performer like you, you you go from doing
the clubs.

Speaker 2 (32:17):
Now you got a record that's working, and it's it's
the Barge and and and Luther and Luther and when
you when you when n I just was as a
performer on your first few dates. Are you going through
a thing where you're watching him and you're like, oh,
we gotta get our ship together, or you're in a

(32:40):
space where oh, cool, we're about to kill that's a
great one. So the first show Marcus Square Arena, Indianapolis,
Indiana Arena. From a little bar to arena. Man, we
were so horrible. We were so bad, but we didn't
know we were good, right, But we got on that

(33:04):
stage and you've been on that big stage, big all
of a sudden, you can't hear I can't hear the
bass player, the guitar players out of tune, but he
can't hear it because all there is guitar and and
it's a mess. It's a mess. So that was the
first show. You guys are open, were opening, no soundtrack,

(33:27):
you know, no sound check. I'm sorry and very much.
And it was bad. So we didn't have that that
bravado and the ego, uh that we thought we were
all that, No, we knew it was getting ass kicked,
right and plus plus the barge was light skinned man, right, so.

Speaker 4 (33:47):
I can only imagine how bad was.

Speaker 2 (33:53):
I would have definitely been on side of stage. I
see Buddy, by the way, we're on the side of the stage.
But I never met no, no, you could get they
wouln't letting none of us. And get it, guys, those
boys come out and and and the screams. They would

(34:13):
lose it, they would and they were good, like El
Debarche was not incredible, like really an incredible talent, Like
I love his songs, I love his voice, and the
band was good, but it was for me. It was
El Debarche that was great. But when Luther hit that stage,
it was a problem. It was a whole different thing.

(34:33):
It was like all of a sudden the Siege party,
Like it was a different thing. Because Luther is a
real pro right right right to this day. I haven't
heard people we love singers. Luther never had a mic problem.
It was never like something's wrong with the sound system.

(34:54):
Like Luther.

Speaker 4 (34:56):
It's so crazy that most people that if you don't
don't do music and you've never been on the stage,
that in itself right there for you to say that right,
he never had a mic. Every single artist has that
at some point.

Speaker 2 (35:11):
Not Luther. That's crazy. That mean he was on He
was on it, man, he was. I'm telling you, like,
the sound was incredible, and you know how I used
to do that thing where he yeah, I know you
could do this.

Speaker 3 (35:25):
Ship right but right, but it was always like perfection
and it was always like sonically round and complete and
full and in your face or an echo of it
needed to be right.

Speaker 2 (35:39):
So like Luther would just shut everybody down. And I
did that for like, I don't know. We must have
been out there for at least like sixty shows. That's
what I'm talking about, right, real touring. So I saw
that every night.

Speaker 4 (35:52):
Yeah, by show sixty though, y'all doing y'all thing.

Speaker 2 (35:54):
We were better. By the end, we were better. We
would never we never got to let it got there
right n sixty nights. But here's the beauty of it.
You ever heard a song about Babyface and the Deal

(36:14):
called Sweet November? Yes, yes, yes, So that was that
was our takeaway from watching Luther every night. When he
and I went in the studio to make that record,
we were in our minds. We were doing what we
learned from Luther right, all of our ballots where will
you Go? All the ballads that we did, like the production,

(36:34):
the way we approached it. Everything was what would Luther do?
Like we started our career with what would Prince do?
And as we grew it became what would Luther do?

Speaker 4 (36:44):
It's so crazy when you say that and I'm dialing
up now, it feels like what would Luther do?

Speaker 6 (36:49):
Is you?

Speaker 2 (36:50):
Yeah? Oh no? All the way? Man, all the way?
That was that way? Then?

Speaker 4 (36:54):
So did you guys have two occasions by this time
that you're on the road or no?

Speaker 2 (37:00):
Oh no? That came on our third album. Yeah, we had.
We had. Our first album was Body Talk, which was
it was a hit. It was it was a hit,
like number three on Black chart, maybe number twenty on
the pop chart. It was a hit. And on the road, yeah, sure,
the second and Reggie Callaway produced that album like two

(37:26):
days ago, that's right, that's right, but Reggie produced it.
Second album. Dick Griffy said he came to Cincinnati to visit.
We played in some demos and he said who produced
the demos? I said, I did. He said, well, you

(37:46):
should produce the album, So I produced me and Face
produced the band's second album, and it was a disaster.
The songs were good, but we just didn't get the
singles right okay, And then Dick moved us to la
He called me one day he said, let me ask
you something, young man, Why are you still living in Cincinnati?

(38:08):
That's this home. He let me tell you something. I
think you knew everything. This is Dick. He just talks
like this. He said, you could make more money by
accident in Los Angeles then you can make on purpose
in Cincinnati. All I needed to hear.

Speaker 4 (38:25):
Is still in that there. I'm still That's what it is.
What it is.

Speaker 2 (38:30):
I say it all the time.

Speaker 3 (38:32):
You you in the right place at the right time
and had the right conversation, your life can change.

Speaker 2 (38:40):
It changed. So we moved out here and started working
on the albums. Start working on the record, meeting other people,
meet Charlaman, meet the Whispers, meeting people, and then we
started producing writing together. And then we had two occasions right,
which was originally it was an up tempo song. It

(39:02):
was like it was a funk record at first, and
yeah it was a funk record, yeah, And then Face
took it. It was one of the other members of
our band D actually wrote the song and Face took
the chorus that D wrote and turned it into a
beautiful ballot and I was like, oh, there it is.

(39:22):
We got we got one.

Speaker 3 (39:24):
So what's Let me ask you a question, like, was
that production a result of now you're in l A.
You in these different rooms, different studios, different level of
producers and writers, and you're like this okay, and and
that triggering the competitive nature yeah, and sharpening the tool

(39:48):
at the same time to get you to a new
place where it's like now this is now, we're here.

Speaker 2 (39:55):
Yeah. So you know how music works when you when
you first time you made I ain't gonna say your
first hit because your first hit was like, oh I
got hit. But by the time you were like into it,
you actually knew when you nailed it absolutely. You know
that point where your knowledge just kicks in and you

(40:16):
just you know you in the bag. You know you're
in your bag, you know you in the zone, and
everything you do at that point sounds really good. It
does no matter what's a hit and out of hit,
everything is quality at that polot, right, because you're now
in your bag. Right, That's what happened with two Okay.
We were in our bag. We didn't have to ask
questions like how does this sound? We were in our bag, right,

(40:38):
and everything that we did in that moment, everything wasn't
a hit, but everything was of that quality because we
were in our bag, you know.

Speaker 4 (40:48):
But is that yourll Is that your first like smash
hit though.

Speaker 2 (40:52):
That wasn't our first. That was our first really big
hit for the band, but it wasn't our first really
big hit. I really our first really big hid was
a song called rock Steady by the Whispers, a.

Speaker 5 (41:05):
Song called yeah like yeah yeah listen, friend, yes, don't
talk to our people talk.

Speaker 3 (41:17):
About the money community. Come on, we've had the Whispers
on here. Whisper absolutely, whisper. Don't wait with use here man, yeah,
come on, brother Walter, Yes, what's like?

Speaker 2 (41:36):
All right? This all right? All right, all right, that's money.
So that's the respect.

Speaker 4 (41:41):
That's the first. That's our first.

Speaker 2 (41:42):
Man.

Speaker 4 (41:44):
So are you getting some money when you when you
get rock Steady out? Did you did you take some
money yet? Is this anything substantial?

Speaker 2 (41:50):
Man? Let me tell you something. We don't have no
money yet. Okay, I were paying the rent, but we
have no money yet. We had this manager money, we
had this manager. Uh he heard the song. He was
and we needed some money. It was like holiday time.
He said, let's go bring your boombox. Let's go go

(42:12):
to the bank. Okay, we went to the bank with
a boombox. We went in to see the bank. I
don't know a dude at the bank in the office.
The president paid rock Steady.

Speaker 4 (42:28):
But it's not out yet.

Speaker 2 (42:29):
No, it's not out yet. Had a nice Christmas.

Speaker 4 (42:33):
He gave y'all check.

Speaker 2 (42:34):
Yeah, gave us a check at the bank alone, yeah, alone,
like I want to. You have to ask Kenny, Kenny,
how much was it? There was some money though the
song like a publishing company. Know that. We went to
the bank. You're telling me right now, going today, let's

(42:56):
go get out. It's a different a man. We went
to the bank. We played City National. I don't know
how much we got, but I'm telling you we got
some money. It might have been some grand let me
get something, but we got some money. I forgot much.

Speaker 4 (43:07):
I got some songs in the computer. I'm going to
give me somebody out of the City National day.

Speaker 2 (43:11):
I can't make this up. Thank you are listen, you
are listen.

Speaker 3 (43:16):
You are disoling me at the moment. First of all,
Popeye is old. Credit alone with this record, can ready
to flit this boom. But for a banker, not a
music person.

Speaker 2 (43:30):
No, right, the black bank. We were in California, Los Angeles,
a black bank. Yes, sir, this is great. Yeah that happened.

Speaker 4 (43:42):
So your first real check came off of that.

Speaker 2 (43:45):
Yeah, and then we started getting Then we started getting
making money. Okay, right, we got hot. Yeah. I was
about to say because rock steady and steady and then
girlfriends ah on two occasions, like all ridolds hit at
the same time.

Speaker 4 (44:11):
You know what he bought?

Speaker 2 (44:12):
What did you buy? Speakers? First thing? Yeah, first thing
I bought was a set of speakers. He's so smart.
I promise, I'm not right. I promise you, I'm not right.
You better than me, man, No, but uh yeah, but
I'm a sound fanatic, right, so I bought. When I

(44:35):
look around, I'm like, damn, I got so many pairs
of speakers, Like I'm a sound fanatic. So yeah, I
bought a pair of I don't even know what they were, man,
but they sounded great.

Speaker 4 (44:45):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (44:45):
They would just just just play back or so you
could know. This is so that I could listen outside
the studio. When I got home, I wanted to Yeah,
you wanted to know what it? Yeah, I already know.
It was just that thing. Yeah yeah, and probably the
next thing was like a jeep, cheap Cherokee and put

(45:06):
a sound system in it. Right, it was just all
about the music. Sound guy. Yeah. First person I ever
saw like that serious about speakers was Craig Calman. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
he's serious.

Speaker 3 (45:19):
He was the first person I like, he's definitely a
sound guy. I had seen, like, Okay, in the studio,
you got the speakers. You know you got you got
your Ausburgers or your genial xt or you know, you
all the all the brands, right, But never had I
been in someone's house or office where there's an eighty
thousand dollars speakers up right, I'm like you tripping right,

(45:46):
you know what I mean? Pairs of rims. I could
have gotten this money. They were low and heart ld
one and they shine when I pulled up, And that
was the first time I had ever saw it. He
was like, no, I got a I have to know, yeah, man,
everywhere I go, I have to know what this ship

(46:06):
sounds like.

Speaker 2 (46:07):
That's how I am everywhere I go. I have everywhere
to this day, like everywhere, sound is everything with you,
that's my pet everything. Do you purchase cars around? The
speaker said, that's in or do you No? I don't
really buy cars though, like I never. I hate driving.
I'm horrible, man. I have a couple of cars, and

(46:30):
man I can't I'm so bad at driving, like you
can't drive. No, I'm horrible. What cars you got right now?
I got an old Range for over to speed up.
I got an old Porsche to speed up. And my
kids have cars, but I just don't care about I'm
just trying to see if there's anything you want. It's
not I'm trying to take it's not. No, no, no,

(46:51):
you might have some ventus sitting there. You know. I
do have one ventage car, like I have an old
sixty five Ford Mustang coming to get beautiful and to
pick that up. Yeah that's a beautiful. Yeah, yeah, that's
it's that's a talking piece, that one. But take a
walk with me outside. Yeah. But I'm so horrible a driver, man.

(47:13):
I should never have a nice car like trash cars
like you know, but they sound good. I bet I
bet take us, take us from production company to record label.

Speaker 3 (47:29):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (47:29):
So so we had we started having a lot of
success as writers and producers. We we did. I think
the big one for us was Bobby Brown. I was
going to the one man when we did Bobby. By
the time we did Bobby, we probably had like five,
six seven other artists that we worked on. And the

(47:54):
record labels just put out everything that we did. They
trusted you, right, They you know, would put out all
of the Bobby songs, or Warners will put out the
Karen White songs. Everything we did just came out at
the same time. So it was like we didn't make
it all at the same time, but they released them
all at the same time, and it made it feel

(48:15):
like we on fire. It made it feel like we
were on fire. You know. That's called the run, The Run,
the run. And what were you thinking? What was you
thinking about when you was making that Bobby Brown like like,
oh man, that was being in the bag man? Like

(48:35):
what the songs like, I'm gonna tell you the one
I love all of them, but the one I love
is my heart belongs to a Ronie the truth about
She's the sweetest. And he wrote that when we were
on tour with the Barge and Luther Kenny wrote that
in Miami, Florida, on a night we had off. We

(48:56):
didn't know why we were off, because Luther and the
bar still had they were still on. Yeah, but for
whatever reason, we were off that night. And I remember
this girl walking into the hotel and he saw her
and he loved her, and and but she went with
one of the other band members, right, And I just
saw Kenny just like in his bag, in his own

(49:16):
looking at her. And he went to his room and
he came back and he played me the truth about
a Ronie. And we held it until nineteen eighty and
that probably was like that. Probably there had to be
like eighty three or eighty four. And he held that song.
He held that song until we did Bobby Brown. Then

(49:37):
he pulled it out and we did it on Bobby Brown.

Speaker 1 (49:40):
It is.

Speaker 4 (49:42):
I wonder if I got a rone in a tux.

Speaker 2 (49:46):
Listen to the songs, the most timeless, Oh, and I
love it.

Speaker 4 (49:52):
I love that song. I loved all of it, but
that one was like special to me. Now that you
told that story, I got to go listen to it again.
You just see how he painted it.

Speaker 2 (50:00):
I'm talking, but I didn't touch the demo, right, so
you know, he did the demo, but when we did
it on Bobby, I put my thing on it, right,
And that's what I want you to listen to. Okay, Okay,
I want you to listen to that. Yeah, forget everything else.
I there listening to those drums, seriously, so the drums.

(50:23):
Listen to that. Listen to that. That ship is smacking, right,
that one. That's my one. That's my one brag about
my career and my music. My drums on Ronnie. After that,

(50:45):
I'm going back to service. Listen my one talk to you. Yeah,
top tier. So we made up, we made a bunch
of records, and then we didn't have anything to do

(51:06):
with the records once we turned them in, like we
make these records and the record company thank you for
your service, and they and we had nothing to do
with it. And that started to eat at me because
I was like, that's not the right single. Damn. I'm
like what they're wearing, Oh, this video is trash. I
started having all of that, yeah, big opinions, and so

(51:30):
I just wanted my own at that point. I wanted
my own label at that point. So we started. Clarence
Avant made his beautiful soul rest in peace. What an
important man. Clarence said, well, if you want to have
a record label, I'm gonna introduce you to everybody. But
you know, you can't take these people money and bullshit

(51:52):
that like, you gotta be serious about it right, And
Clarence schooled us. Clarence became our godfather very early on,
and he took arounding introduced us to every record company
head in the city, right from David Geffen to Moe
Austin to you name it. We met everybody and we
ended up we thought we were going to make our

(52:14):
deal with David Geffen, but we ended up doing it
with Clive Davis and we started the Face Records with
Clive and then we moved to Atlanta and started the
labeling that started the next chapter of our lives.

Speaker 3 (52:29):
What was what went into the Clive decision was just
on an overall better deal, beating of the better minds.

Speaker 2 (52:38):
I think that if you ask Kenny, it was because
Whitney Houston was an artist at Arista and Kenny being
you know, the most incredible songwriter I know, he wanted
to work with Whitney, so that was his attraction. For me,
it was when I was eighteen. Clive had a book
and I read his book when I was eighteen, so

(53:00):
I was enamored with him. M right, But nobody really
knew it. But I was just enamored with Clive and
Kenny Love Whitney. So it's just worth just go. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (53:11):
So when you guys do your deal, were you thinking
outside of outside of the things that you said earlier
as far as just wanting to for your opinion to matter.
That's really that's what kicked it off. That's right, your
opinion mattering. Were you thinking from the business side of
it yet though, or were you just like, this is

(53:32):
just an entry into it.

Speaker 2 (53:34):
No, I never did to be honest with you, like,
I understand business, but I was never like a consummate businessman.
I understand value, I understand culture, I understand trends, I
understand the world artistically. Yeah right, it was never We
were never great business people.

Speaker 4 (53:54):
So for you, it was never about you know, this
is real estate.

Speaker 2 (53:58):
For me, no, I never thought about it like that.
I thought about it simply as she's a star. She's
a fucking star. This this girl, she sounds like a guy.
Tea bos sounds like a guy. That ship's unusual. Yes,
her m that's how I thought about this ship. It

(54:18):
wasn't about but it was like her with that voice
and that look, and these two girls that are with her, oh,
Dallas Austin, you want to work with them?

Speaker 4 (54:29):
Okay?

Speaker 2 (54:29):
Yeah, that's that was it man. It was just like,
how do we architects some great different ship out here?

Speaker 4 (54:35):
Because that was really cool to see with you guys
as well as far as being producers and writers that
you didn't try to produce and write everything that was
on your label, you really found and discovered.

Speaker 2 (54:48):
Yeah, that was your fun, man. That was That was
the real That was the real fun, because I wasn't
you know, Babyface was the great songwriter. I was a
good producer and a decent drummer, but baby Face was
a genius so and and still is to this day,
right and and and I owe my entire career to him.

(55:10):
You know, if I hadn't met Kenny, I don't know
what would have would have happened. But working with him.

Speaker 4 (55:17):
Was it was that was.

Speaker 2 (55:21):
I think that was like Phil Jackson working with Michael Jordans.
So now where does Phil go from Michael? You gotta
find Kobe. So I started looking for people that I
thought were as talented as Kenny or especial like that.
That led me to like Dallas Austin that let me
Organized Noise, Jermaine Dupree. You know, it just led me

(55:43):
to some really great producers who wanted to work with us.
And that's how the Face Records was built. You know,
off of Yes, Face Me and Face produced. Face was writing,
Daryls Simmons was writing, you know, all of us were
contributing KO. You know, my high school best friend was
in it. But the real growth was Organized Noise doing

(56:08):
Outcast and Goodie Mob, and Dallas Austin doing TLC and
Usher being with Jermaine dupri That was the growth.

Speaker 3 (56:15):
It's really awesome to see that because it was like
you were, just like you said, you were creating extensions
of yourselves to pull all these things together. It's like,
how can these how how can how can we us
you know, exist in four different rooms at the same

(56:36):
time exactly and get it all done?

Speaker 4 (56:39):
That was that was it.

Speaker 2 (56:41):
That was it. I don't even know what made you
think of that, but that's exactly what it was, like,
how can we how can we make four sets of
us like with similar vibe and music, but still different
because Dallas and those guys they were younger than Facing.
Yeah yeah, yeah they were. They had one foot in
hip hop, but they right man, and we were pure

(57:02):
r and b maybe one foot in pop, you know
what I mean. So that and then Jermaine was a DJ,
Organized Noise were purely hip hop, right, So those extensions
of us was really like, that was the magic. That's
the most fun I ever had. That's those are colors, man, Like,
that's yeah, that's the that's the full box of crayons, right,

(57:23):
like all of that.

Speaker 4 (57:24):
How long did it take to garner success? As in
the label?

Speaker 2 (57:30):
First couple of years were really rough because we didn't
really know. We thought we knew. We had so many
hits at that time, right we I mean we thought
we knew, and I'll tell you exactly when the turning
point happened. Right, So it took it took close to
three years to really like have a legitimate hit. And

(57:51):
we signed this group called Damien Dame right first that
face and I produced the entire album and singles. We
put out a single, Arista, our joint venture partners put
out a single. It was doing okay, So I went
to Clive Davidson to said, Clive, like, I need you

(58:13):
to push the button on this thing. Man. You know.
He said, what's the button? I said, you know, like
you did for Whitney Houston, Like I need you to
push the button. And we were at a conference when
I said this to him. He said, the button. Huh?
He said, sit right here. I sat down beside and write.
We had a conference and I forgot what we were.

(58:35):
I thought we were in Florida. I can't remember, maybe
Miami or something. Anyway, Whitney Houston comes on stage and
Whitney Houston sings and he looks at me. He said,
that's the button. He said no, he said, do they
sound like that shit? I was like, oh, so what

(58:58):
you're telling me it's my shit is not hot?

Speaker 1 (59:00):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (59:02):
Because I thought I really did think, like you know,
record labels, they take talent, good batter and different and
they push the button and ship goes right. That's what
I thought.

Speaker 4 (59:12):
So Cli pushed the button, this button that we've all
heard about.

Speaker 2 (59:19):
Right here, young man something, and then I saw it.
I was like, oh, I get it now, And I
thought I knew. But when you're a producer and when
everybody's hiring you to make records. You start thinking that,
you're like God, you think start thinking that the ship,

(59:39):
you know issue, thank you sweet, And I was like,
wait a minute, So signing talent is, oh, that's different
than producing talent. Oh, so it ain't about us anymore.
It's about getting the right got it, got it? So
then you know, we got Lucky and signed TLC signed
the Button and Tony Brixton another button. Both of them

(01:00:04):
are like like two weeks apart. Y'all signed him two
weeks apart. Yeah, wow, that was the button. That was
the button. Then we had we had a great fortune

(01:00:27):
again because we signed Outcast and Usher. Yeah in the
same month. Now you got a cardigan. Those are fours
right in the same month. Like so okay, now it's
work very expensive. It's expensive expensive. Yeah. So then that
was it. So it took about three years to get
it right though.

Speaker 4 (01:00:46):
So do you remember the first face hit record.

Speaker 2 (01:00:50):
Yeah, it was the Boomerang soundtrack Jesus Rise. Oh yeah, yeah, Boomerang, Yeah,
Jesus Rise.

Speaker 4 (01:00:58):
And that's ultimately how y'all launched Tony.

Speaker 2 (01:01:01):
Yes, we launched Tony from that and and we got
ourselves kind of back right, you know what I mean,
we had a little cold period when we in the face.

Speaker 4 (01:01:11):
We weren't hot because you tried to become businessmen. At
this point, we try to.

Speaker 2 (01:01:15):
We're trying to and and I think that was always
like one of mine and faces tug awards with each
other was he is an incredible songwriter. And he's like, man,
I gotta write songs for great artists. And I was like, no,
you gotta, You should write songs for our artists. And
he's like, no, I got to write for great.

Speaker 4 (01:01:32):
Art So he's telling you, y'all didn't have no hot,
He's telling me, but Kitty put the hours.

Speaker 2 (01:01:39):
Yeah, but it ain't hot. They're not breathed, ain't it.

Speaker 4 (01:01:44):
Listen in our next beating, I'm gonna go thank Is
that artist a button?

Speaker 2 (01:01:49):
Right? That's right? But is that ship breed? Is it
the button? Because you know, is it it?

Speaker 4 (01:01:58):
Is it it?

Speaker 2 (01:01:59):
You gotta stay on that right. Yeah. So so that's
what took a long time. But then Boomerang kicked in,
and Tony kicked in, and end of the Road kicked in.
Ah ah right, yeah yeah, end of the Road was yeah,
although we've come, Yeah, that was you know when we

(01:02:22):
did it, I think I'm sure Kenny knew it was great.
I knew it was great, But that was one of
those ones that when I played it for Clive, I
saw it in his eyes. I was like, oh, oh,
I saw a difference.

Speaker 4 (01:02:34):
That was that wasn't for.

Speaker 2 (01:02:38):
For the label, for the label either.

Speaker 4 (01:02:40):
Obviously it wasn't it was it wasn't on the face,
but it wasn't even for Clive.

Speaker 2 (01:02:43):
It was on the face. Yeah, yeah, that was on
the Boomerang soundtrack, but Busby Busby said, I need to
put it on Coolly High Harmony as a what do
you call it when you stripped something on stripe it
on or whatever you used to call it, a bonus.
End of the Road was a bonus on COOLi High Harmony.

(01:03:04):
But it was on Boomerang. I did not realize that.
Yeah that was ours, that was our, That was ours. Yeah.
Boom run, yeah, home run. Yeah. So that was that's
that's when we were official. Yeah, that about doing that's

(01:03:24):
not like renegotiations. Yes, you know y'all.

Speaker 4 (01:03:28):
You know y'all been in the rear for three years.
I don't give over.

Speaker 2 (01:03:32):
The road the road. You ain't lying, boy, that's like,
that's like scoring eighty absolutely, right?

Speaker 4 (01:03:42):
Is that the biggest LA and Babyface record?

Speaker 2 (01:03:45):
Yeah? Ever, Yeah, I'm pretty sure it is. Yes, Yes, yeah,
we go to the concert and sing it to this day. Yeah,
that's a big one. That's a big one we had. Yeah,
because the one that would compete with that, I didn't
produce with him. He did it like we broke up,
and he went in the studio and he cut the

(01:04:07):
song and he came to my office. Can you a
funny guy? He comes to my office and he plays
me can We Talk? And I'm like, why would you
come in here and play me that great fucking record?
The record sounds so good. My heart was so broken.

Speaker 3 (01:04:28):
But but the music, but the music. I loved it
so much. I wanted I wanted to I wanted to
hate it.

Speaker 2 (01:04:37):
Man, it was so good. But that was the first
hit he did outside of without Me and without the face,
without nothing to do with me, right, And I was like, damn,
that's big. That's where I wanted to be mad. I
wanted to hate it. It was just so good. And
when I hear it today, I think that I think

(01:04:59):
can We Talk? It is Babyface's most famous record. Like,
I think in the Road might score bigger on the chart,
but I think that when I'm out and about or
if I'm scrolling, it's always like can we talk challenge?
Or or when it comes on I don't know, man,

(01:05:21):
what do you think you said? Can we talk challenges? Lee?
I did that?

Speaker 4 (01:05:29):
He started? You need to endit? The road challenge, the challenge.

Speaker 2 (01:05:41):
It's one of those songs that is just like it's
the simplest song, it's the easiest song, but it's so
every piece about it is just memorable and every piece
you know what it is, everything, everything weeks, but every

(01:06:01):
part of the song has a peak, like like going
into the chorus, the song has a peak, the bridge
has a peak. Everything about it, like every every every
every section of it continue used to rise. It rises.

Speaker 4 (01:06:21):
You're talking real executive songwrite and talk because everybody, everybody
has an opinion. Everybody doesn't have solutions. Everybody can tell
you what they don't like, they can't tell you how
to fix it.

Speaker 2 (01:06:37):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:06:38):
That is a separation between people who are great like yourself,
thank you, who can say you know what, hey, actually,
can you just change this right here? And it's a
whole nother record.

Speaker 2 (01:06:52):
That's the tweet, that's that little tweet we need solution based. Yeah,
always looking for that. And there was a point when
I knew how to do that really well. There was
a point when I was like, I don't actually know
what to say to you. It's just not it right.
But there was a moment though, when I just knew, like,
just right there, just go here and watch the difference

(01:07:14):
it makes. But anyway, he mastered that on that song, man,
he mastered that thing, and I was like, oh my god,
this is greatness. This is really really that's my favorite
that both Tevin Campbell songs and my my favorite babyface composition.
There was another one he did call I'm Ready right,

(01:07:36):
and I just love it and it was old. I
remember did that like early eighties and he gave it
to Tevin like really late in the nineties or something.

Speaker 4 (01:07:46):
Man, you know what I You know, when I see
when I see Kenny in the car line when I
dropping the kids off at school, I hey, man, you
got anything you want to go?

Speaker 2 (01:07:56):
You need to you need to ask Kenny. Let you
hear some of his four tracks, like yeah, he's got magic,
I'm sure, Yeah, I need that.

Speaker 4 (01:08:05):
How long did you guys have face.

Speaker 2 (01:08:09):
We had Leface from nineteen eighty nine. We started it
and we sold it to Arista BMG in two thousand, right,
but we kept the name. But I took over Arista
at that point, so I kept it alive, although we
weren't technically the owners at that point, right, but I
was still in charge of it, right. Yeah, So what

(01:08:31):
is that progression like where you're.

Speaker 3 (01:08:35):
You, you make the sale and then become the executive
of the company by how does that?

Speaker 2 (01:08:43):
How does that work? Not? Well, oh yeah, Fucky records,
Well we have musical success. That part was good, you know.
The good news about it was I got I got

(01:09:04):
to see what it was like to actually be the boss, right,
And I also got to see what it was like
with being the boss and how people dance around the boss,
and how much bullshit there is, right And how many

(01:09:25):
smiling faces there are and how many fucking knives there are.
I ain't know none of that, ship man, I'm I'm
a musician. I just told you. I come from the
clubs and the label was yours. But Arista was that
was that you come from a boutique from where everybody
loves each other and everybody has a common goal and

(01:09:48):
we're all like bootstrapping it. Everybody wants to make it.
Everybody's happy for the success, and all of a sudden,
you know, it's a political you know environment. So was tough.
That was tough for me because I was like a
country boy. I didn't know anything about this ship, you know,
but I knew. I knew well, I knew what I

(01:10:10):
felt about music, and that was my saving grace, right,
So we signed while I was there. We signed seattra
mm hmm. We signed Avria Levigne, We signed uh Pink.
We put up Pink's first album.

Speaker 4 (01:10:27):
Pink wasn't Through the Face.

Speaker 2 (01:10:29):
Pink was signed to Okay, but but her first album
came after taking the job at Arista. Her first single
came while it was the Face, and then the transition happened.

Speaker 4 (01:10:40):
Because I know there's a group called black Pink now,
but she was the first black Pink.

Speaker 2 (01:10:43):
That was the first black.

Speaker 6 (01:10:46):
There's that talk that I met her at the studio,
that I met at the studio back in the day,
and I was like, oh you okay, you think okay, yeah, yeah,
black white girl.

Speaker 2 (01:10:57):
I see. It was just what I was just talking
to her, like a few days ago, and uh, you
know she had to. She had the second largest tour
global tour in twenty twenty four. Taylor's was first Pinks
of Second Wow. I don't even like the transition she
made crazy and the elevation in her performance.

Speaker 4 (01:11:22):
I knew it was different when she did like the circus.
So that's what That's what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (01:11:25):
That's the change.

Speaker 4 (01:11:26):
Wasn't that was the change?

Speaker 3 (01:11:27):
I said, incredible, But she can also sing, She's she
she had real gift and said, now how do I
how do I add to this and and and make
it not just the gift? Because because the gift that

(01:11:47):
I have people have seen before, people have seen singing,
people have seen they we got that, But how can
I be special.

Speaker 2 (01:11:58):
And completely out side of the box. That's exactly right.
She told me something that I didn't even think about it.
I sorry, she said. She said, you're focused on hits.
She said, I don't have that many hits, so I
don't focus on hits. She said, I focus on my show.

(01:12:19):
That's my hit. And she said, you never focused on that.
You didn't have to, but that's why you probably didn't
recognize what was the turning point? In my life because
you probably thought the turning point in my life was
going to be a song. It wasn't a song, and
it wasn't a song. You can still learn, you know.

Speaker 4 (01:12:41):
I love that. You just said that. Love that, right,
you can still learn. You can still learn? Yeah, right,
Like it's it's a man, people, We all get there.
We all get to points in our life of whatever
success or whatever things that you you give a little
closed minded.

Speaker 2 (01:12:59):
Yeah you start, yeah, just thinking, you know, man, and
I don't know. The more I know, the more I realize,
I don't know, you know what I'm saying, and and
and I try to add a certain logic to every situation.
Oh I know why that is. That's because this, that's
because of that. But then some shit just doesn't make

(01:13:20):
any sense, you know. Like we were talking earlier, We're
watching the Grammys. I was watching the Grammys. It's a
great show, man, it was great. There was no black
man on stage. What the fuck happened to R and
B and black people?

Speaker 4 (01:13:36):
Like?

Speaker 2 (01:13:36):
There was none man on a great show. They did
a great job.

Speaker 4 (01:13:41):
No, it was a great show.

Speaker 2 (01:13:41):
I watched Bobby Mason did an incredible job man of
turning the whole narrows around and getting the voters and
really addressing like diversity and minority. H he is a
ten out of ten, right, But I watched the show
and I was like, damn, but damn, where where's the representation?

(01:14:03):
And I mean and I couldn't. I couldn't.

Speaker 4 (01:14:07):
The only black man got up there that I could
think of that I mean, obviously perform and he didn't perform.

Speaker 2 (01:14:13):
Though, Yeah, it's the we can't perform the Weekend did
perform them, we can't perform fair enough, massive, massive, massive
star Stevie performed. Yes, Stevie's a tribute legend. I mean,
there's a tribute. But I'm saying like in the in
those in those feature moments when we watched uh Shabouzie

(01:14:36):
or Chaperone or Properenter Benson Boom or Teddy Swims or
you know, when I was watching, like.

Speaker 4 (01:14:44):
There was no core R and B manation, you know
what I was waiting for.

Speaker 3 (01:14:49):
And and because I didn't know what was going on
with the Grammys, I had talked, hadn't talked to anybody.
I was like sitting at my house just watching it.
I was waiting for that old school mic to from
the sky with the glitter Chris Brown to sing residuals.
In my mind, I had decided that's going to happen,

(01:15:13):
and it didn't have a lot. Okay, well he won out,
he won r bum.

Speaker 2 (01:15:19):
Ooh I wish yeah, yeah, man, that that would have
That would definitely I know exactly that would have answered
the call. And the reason I say it is not
because it's not because I'm jaded. That might be jaded.
It's not that it's that I liked that country music
found its way because the first country recording of note

(01:15:42):
was a black man. We all know that that's historic,
that's that's documented, and for it to make its way
back to being represented by black people, like I love that,
right and and so much of music traces back to
UH to black performers like and rock and roll is
a little Richard and Chuck bergerbut right, and so I

(01:16:05):
know how important we are to music as black people,
and no disrespect, but as black men, I know how
important we are as well, right And and I'm like, okay,
so what's happening now? The best soul singer on the
show might have been like Benson Boom. He could sing
his face off, right and Teddy Swims. They could sing, man,

(01:16:28):
but they sing in soul music. And they don't look
like Tank, and they don't look like Usher, and they
don't look like Chris Brown. And so I'm just like,
what's happening? And so I see it as an opportunity.
I see there's an opportunity to try to make a
contribution and to try to focus on the youth, you know,

(01:16:49):
black youth that sing. And that's why, and that's why
I thank you guys for allowing my artists to come
on your show and sing, you know, jay Don Paradise,
because I'm trying to find the next generation of of that. Man,
I don't want to see it. I don't want to
see another show and say it's great, but see us
missing right all right?

Speaker 3 (01:17:10):
As you say that, I'm just thinking about our upbringing,
where we had Bobby, we had new Additions, we had
Guy m Hm, we had Babyface, we had our Kelly,
we had Maxwell, we had like we had it like.

Speaker 2 (01:17:34):
Man, and we got to see I'll be sure, be sure,
thank you, we got the truth true, I mean, so
many of them, but we got to see them.

Speaker 4 (01:17:50):
Yeah right, No, But I mean and that that in
itself you're doing the work. You're doing the work by
by having Paradise, by having Jayden, Like that's that's extremely important,
like to continue it and to give it opportunities. Right
because I'm sitting there and I'm you know, my daughter's
nine years old and we're watching it. She she knows

(01:18:12):
she's introducing me to stuff and introduce me to music.
And her excitement as a nine year old young black
girl watching the Grammys kind of it kind of caught
me off guard. Like my daughter literally was looking at
the clock, so dadd it comes on at you know,

(01:18:34):
because now that everything is on demand, everything is on demand.
My daughter is counting down until the Grammy starts. She's saying,
we got to have dinner at this time, but we
gotta grab some snacks and we're gonna have to.

Speaker 2 (01:18:48):
We're gonna be on this couch right watching the Grammy.

Speaker 4 (01:18:52):
So when I see that, I'm like, Okay, who's going
to give her the music in the soundtrack for her
life that looks like her or that she can be
excited about. You know, Listen, I got a daughter. I
know at some point she canna run off with a boy,
you know what I mean, she gonna want, she gonna

(01:19:14):
want to put a boy up, a picture of a
boy in her locker. I get it. Me being in
a position that.

Speaker 2 (01:19:20):
I'm in probably gonna be paradise.

Speaker 4 (01:19:24):
Maybe in a position that I'm in and music, I'm like, oh,
I have to help create that for her, man. I
have to you know what I mean. I have to
help usher in these artists, these young these young artists
that are speaking to her. Yeah, like we need a
down my heart.

Speaker 2 (01:19:41):
Come on, don't do that, We need a telephone. Man.
So here's the difference, like, and here's here's here's how
I just thought of this while I'm sitting here, and
why I think that it's that way. You know, there
was a time and and and in the past, not
that distant past. But we were talking earlier about Dick Griffy,

(01:20:05):
We talked about Barry Gordy. Yes, we talked about Gerald Busby.
We talked about black leaders who were the curators of
the music that we loved. Right, and that's that is
all but missing. We still have great ones. We still

(01:20:27):
have Sylvia Rohn, we have you know, zeque Lewis, we
have Tanji. We have some great executives in really great positions.
But very very few. Yeah, and only I think you
and I talked about it. How many how many important
boutique labels do we have that are black, because that's
where the community is built from, right, right, So you

(01:20:49):
started at blackground, right right, a boutique, right and an
artist I had started at La Face. And there was
Uptown artists, and there was Death Row artists, there was
Motown artists. There stacked artists, and they were like and andy,
and that was where that's where black music was uh, nurtured,
curated and and and and it wasn't no disrespect to anybody,

(01:21:14):
but it wasn't so much us asking for permission, hmm,
because people that looked like us were making those decisions.
And look how different the industry looked in so the end,
so the moment we just talked about when we said, guy,
and I'll be sure and keep Sweat and Babyface and

(01:21:39):
and all and heavy D and the boys, and and
I could keep going on and on and boys the men, right, guys,
those are black people making decisions about the music. We
heard on a national, international level that is all but dead.
So if you look at the Grammy stage, what you
see missing is people that look like us, what's next.

(01:22:10):
So what's next for me is I've been very fortunate
that a couple of young artists found me. One of
them his name is Jaydn. One of them his name
is Paradise. Another one his name is Sweater, And they
found me, and I'm putting moms around it and I'm

(01:22:31):
going to rock this thing all the way to the top.

Speaker 3 (01:22:34):
First of all, we want to introduce that right here
on the Army Money Podcast. First time ever, incredible, give them,
give them a platform to perform their music.

Speaker 2 (01:22:50):
I love that. I think it's beautiful. I appreciate you
for inviting them on having them here, and we'll look
back on this one day. We're gonna all be really
really proud of it, you know, really really, we're gonna
be really proud of really audacity and the bravery to
do this, to actually bring some new artists on the

(01:23:10):
R and B Money Podcast, which is one of the
most famous podcasts in the world that could have star
after star after star, but you actually had the bravery
and the audacity to bring on some complete unknowns, some
brand new artists and giving them your platform to shine.
So I really appreciate it, and we got as we
as we following great footsteps you're making. You're making great decisions.

(01:23:35):
I know that you make a great decisions.

Speaker 4 (01:23:40):
We try come you.

Speaker 2 (01:23:45):
L trying to run off on this, man, I talked
too much.

Speaker 1 (01:23:48):
NOA l A no, this is this is needed.

Speaker 4 (01:23:52):
We're gonna have a part too.

Speaker 2 (01:23:53):
We're gonna bring you back. Come on, man, we got
a lot now, I ain't gonna lie. We got a lot.
You got over the chapel, brother la Bishop reed. We

(01:24:14):
have come to the portion of the show where your
musical knowledge and information is needed.

Speaker 3 (01:24:21):
We you've been breaking for a long time, and we
want to take you back to a place to where
music has inspired you.

Speaker 2 (01:24:33):
We call this particular section. You're f your top five,
top fire, your.

Speaker 3 (01:24:55):
Top fur beasing?

Speaker 2 (01:25:00):
What else are let be sooo? We got to know
before you go belong this shoe. Come on out the
Norse your.

Speaker 4 (01:25:13):
Top Yes, right to you, top four.

Speaker 2 (01:25:45):
Oh my god, man, you are gifted. Oh my goodness, brother,
they read you get that from it just made it up. Wow.
Your top five are in the singers. Singers sing, We're
doing We're doing gender or whatever you want, no gender,

(01:26:11):
we want. It's up to you. Five whatever you want?
Five R and B singers all time, all time, Aretha Franklin,
start there, mister Marvin Gaye, Oh my god, R and
B singers, mister Luther Vandros. Yes, sir, yes, sir. I

(01:26:37):
gotta go obscure because I love what I love. I
love what I love. What I love is what I love. Right,
there's a young man named Howard Hewitt. I love this man.
He loves this voice him sad man. And then Chaka

(01:26:58):
Khan huh check a con check.

Speaker 3 (01:27:04):
When the first time I saw Sha Ka Khan live,
I couldn't believe that that voice was coming out of
her because of the height.

Speaker 2 (01:27:16):
No, man, she wasn't. It was effortless powerful. I never
felt like she's reaching for it.

Speaker 1 (01:27:22):
Just it was the rough.

Speaker 4 (01:27:26):
Did you know she you knew?

Speaker 3 (01:27:28):
I'm sure you probably know rum Yeah, I don't know that. Yeah,
I never spent time around her. She's like, I just
saw a clip, but I saw that too. I think
I'm like drums. I saw Chakak hitting every song note
for note like she had just recorded it like it
was nothing.

Speaker 2 (01:27:47):
It was nothing.

Speaker 4 (01:27:48):
I believe the message on her page about coming to
the podcast. I mean, I listen.

Speaker 3 (01:27:52):
I'm a hit her too, that we ran into it
as all that stuff. Every now and then I get
a little interaction on my page.

Speaker 2 (01:27:59):
Boy, tell you mean, I mean it was for me,
it was it was her and like I really loved
it was Others that I love that are not in
that top five, like I love Mayvid Staples from the
Staple Sings, like I really loved I felt some ROBERTA.
Flack is like one of my all time favorite artists ever,
you know, and Stevie Wonder and Donnie Hathaway. I don't

(01:28:22):
mean to lead him out of the top five, but
it's like five slots. I don't know how to do
it right because they I don't even know which one
of those is where that's you know, But there's so many.
There's so much great music. But originals like originals, people
who did like original stuff. Original turns original. That's what

(01:28:42):
Chaka Khan is like, Yeah, I never heard anybody I've
never heard of do her phrasings?

Speaker 3 (01:28:49):
Right, we've had we've had oh, she's like or she's like, right,
we haven't had a Chaka Khan.

Speaker 2 (01:28:56):
No, it's only one Shaka Khan. There was one, lady,
don't get mad at me. There's one Lady who Who.
She did a song. She's gonna hate me for saying this,
But Vesta Williams and she had a song called Once
Bitten Twice Shy and it had Choka con phrasings right
and it was and I was like, okay, so chalk
is impacting people.

Speaker 4 (01:29:16):
Congratulations.

Speaker 2 (01:29:18):
Yeah, now I'm hearing Yeah, okay, no one is this
original was her Top five R and B songs. God, man,
yeap what you can name yours? I want to you
can name yours. It's fine five top five, it comes
to your mind. Yeah, just come to your mind. Okay, man,

(01:29:41):
try a little tenderness oldis Redding. Let's see which one
is it. It's a song on Marvin Gaye's What Let's
get it on album? And I want to say. It's
called If I Should Die? Do you know that? If
I Should Die? That's one of my favorites. Reverendly by ROBERTA. Flack.

(01:30:08):
Let's see it aren't being sold the same thing? True,
they are, so I can't have two lists. Let's say,
Oh man, let's see, I'm gonna I'm gonta lost. I

(01:30:29):
got too many songs in my head, just like like
there was an era in music that I called the
post do op era, when it was all the stand
up groups, it was the Temptations, it was the four Times,
it was the dramatics, it was the stylistics and the intruder.
That era right there, right, that era in music was
like so impactful and like so under celebrated, right, but

(01:30:53):
so much greatness the shylights, right, it was so much
great music out of that and uh and there was
songs from that place, gambling huff.

Speaker 4 (01:31:03):
Was that era super?

Speaker 2 (01:31:05):
I know, me and Missus Jones. Yeah, there it is.
I found it. It's me and Missus Jones.

Speaker 4 (01:31:13):
That record is so special.

Speaker 2 (01:31:15):
Yeah, that's the thing, that's my that's my that's my
song going on. Let's see. So how many do I
give you? That's for time will reveal by the DeBarge,
they were singing that every night, every night watching Eldbar.

(01:31:35):
Time will reveal. That's five for today. If you ask
me tomorrow, be a different five. I don't even know
what I just said. By the way, I don't even
know what you I just said. I really don't because
I I have so much music in my head. I
listened to so much music. I love music so much.
There's no five of anything five is so unfair.

Speaker 3 (01:31:55):
But I tried two more sections for you, and we're
gonna let you go. Let's make a ul trying for you,
a super R and B artist, a super one where
you're going to get the vocal from the performance style,
the styling of the artists, the passion of the artist.
Who's going to produce for this artist vocal You're gonna

(01:32:20):
dial up to make your super R and B artist one.

Speaker 2 (01:32:23):
Vocal, one vocal. We're just creating, right, Give me Tevin
Campbell's voice, Give me Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis as
the producers. Are you skipping? Hold on? Don't you help me?
Guy the track? Yeah, he's going heavy to Jimmy Jam.

(01:32:45):
Okayform style, give me Usher's performance style, me Tevin styling.
Who're gonna put that ship on the drip? Oh, I'm
gonna keep it breathing.

Speaker 4 (01:32:57):
Prince about to say if you didn't say Prince, I'm.

Speaker 2 (01:33:00):
Man, it's Prince.

Speaker 4 (01:33:02):
I'm seeing your original album.

Speaker 2 (01:33:06):
Super breathing.

Speaker 3 (01:33:07):
Keep We need edge right and drodging, edge blousey edge.

Speaker 2 (01:33:16):
Drop, Uh, the passion of the artist who mean it,
the heart of the artist. Marvin Gay. Yeah, right, I
believed everything. Marvin me too everything, Yeah, me too.

Speaker 4 (01:33:29):
I don't know nobody else that had to give an
album and divorce proceeding.

Speaker 2 (01:33:36):
Meaning. And it was here and it was enough. Here
here is that crazy? It was enough. He tried to
make a bad album. He was incapable of making a
bad album. Take Teer.

Speaker 4 (01:33:49):
That's the thing though.

Speaker 2 (01:33:50):
I'm sure he didn't want to give it a good album,
Take this one. He couldn't help it. You know, it's
too great, too good, talented. And then you said it,
who's going to produce themself? Yeah, and it's Jimmy Jamary Lewis.
Are they writing it to or you're writing it? No,
it's just them all the way. All is Jimmy Dammitary. Melodies, piano, drums,

(01:34:14):
They're wrong with them? What's wrong with them? They're perfect? Like,
they're fucking perfect. They're the greatest ever. They're the fucking
greatest ever.

Speaker 4 (01:34:26):
Are you as you guys are having your run? Are
you looking like the whole time?

Speaker 6 (01:34:34):
Like?

Speaker 2 (01:34:35):
Not like that? Not looking at it? Never competitively because
I never thought we could compete. Never, Like, if there's
no Jimmy Jammentary, there is no la and face at
that time, right, period, point blank. They introduced us to
Clarence A. Van, They gave us the blueprint everything about them, Like, no,
it was never I never thought we could compete with them.
I still don't. And as much as I love music

(01:34:57):
that we made, you know, ask Jimmy's I love I
love I love their songs, man, I love their like
you Everard never knew love like this by Alexander That's
my ship, you know, I mean all of those songs,
everything from from Charrell's uh, I didn't mean to turn
you on to s O s bands, you know, I

(01:35:20):
mean their songs, man Like, I just think these songs,
the sound of them to me metaphorically, it looks like
the tallest building in the world. The production sounded like
the tallest come on like it was just.

Speaker 4 (01:35:33):
Like wow, absolutely, I've never heard that atology, you know
what I mean, Like the bottom was way down there
and the top of it was way to fuck up there.

Speaker 2 (01:35:42):
Right, and no one, they're the best in the world.
They're the best. I love Quincy Jones also, right, and
Quincy has the years the genre, mixing the diversity of
talent from everything from Michael Jackson and Frank Sinatra. You know,
I'm not taking anything away from Quincy Jones, who is

(01:36:02):
probably the most celebrated, but my personal favorite it's Jimmy Janme,
Terry Lewis and they know it.

Speaker 3 (01:36:10):
It was it's it's the musicality that we love, but
the drama in effect and and sound making right right,
because we have the musical element which is absolutely insane,

(01:36:30):
but the sound making the things that took you from
the B section to the hook or from the verse
to the beat, like how sounds was like, what is
what is adorning this musical masterpiece?

Speaker 2 (01:36:50):
Like like the piano on Tender Love by for m
D or Oh my God man, that just blow me away.
They really they are just masters because on top of the.

Speaker 4 (01:37:05):
Masters relatable top line, the lyric and melody is so
relatable to everyone. Like you said, tender love, right, We're
gonna call this tender tender love, tend to love love,
you know what I mean? Like just the songs that
when you just go down the list of records that
they've done, the finest by so O S Band, just

(01:37:26):
be Good to Me by s O S Band, all
those new addition songs.

Speaker 2 (01:37:29):
Man, never what is that? If it isn't love, why
does it feel this way. Why does it feel so
bad if it.

Speaker 4 (01:37:37):
Isn't love.

Speaker 2 (01:37:40):
Rights? Right? Sometimes I just look at them and like this,
they didn't do that. That's great. He y'all didn't do that.
They don't do that.

Speaker 4 (01:37:53):
All of it, all of it, man, all of it. Yeah, Okay,
they producing it.

Speaker 2 (01:37:59):
They they're they're it.

Speaker 4 (01:38:01):
But la signing it.

Speaker 2 (01:38:04):
Yes, I'm signing it. You signed right? How about this
secure discovery? I sign.

Speaker 1 (01:38:20):
O?

Speaker 2 (01:38:20):
Brother, you can't still discovered that signed Jimmy produc sir right, waited,
y'all good at this? Thank you, thank you, thank you
for real my brother. First of all, let's say this
you you, you are him, Thank you, sir, thank you.
We don't we don't take your time, your expertise, your wisdom,

(01:38:44):
we don't take none of that, likely brother, your success.
We appreciate it all, and we appreciate you sitting in
that chair right now like we do not take this thankly,
and we thank you from the bottom of my hearts.
And thank you for thank you for the challenge, yes, sir,
thank you for the challenge. Yes, to be more, to

(01:39:07):
be better. Thank you.

Speaker 3 (01:39:08):
We can as you as you talk about those those
boutiques and all we we stand here as a boutique,
and and and we are answered answering, answering the bill, Yes, sir,
getting to these trenches and get it done.

Speaker 2 (01:39:23):
Yeah, I wanted to. I wanted to do this because
I had so much. You know, when I met you,
I was like, damn, just met this man, But damn
he's my brother, geez. Like that's how I felt like, Wow, right,
and I've known you tan't and just knowing you to
be so talented and what you guys are doing together,

(01:39:44):
I just wanted to be a part of it, man,
because I think that it's so damn important what you
stand for. And I also love just that, like you
have a platform of honesty, but it's coming from a
really loving place, like it's really coming from it. And
as I told you earlier today, baby fait, it always
reminds me if I'm in a situation that doesn't have
love in it. And he says, I can't prosper, you

(01:40:05):
know what I mean. And that's a brother looking out
for a brother, you know. And he and I have
the greatest relationship because we're not friends, but we are brothers.
It's the craziest thing in the world, right, So Anyway,
I just really appreciate being here with y'all. Thank you
for listening to me, thank you for letting me rant
and get on my soapbox, you know. And I like

(01:40:27):
to come back, you know, and part two I'll have
stories funny and fucked up. We'll take it's binding because
I'm but but I want to You got to fight
me off because I want to back, you know, like
you always invited. Brother. The last time I thought that,
I thought y'all canceled on me. And I was like,

(01:40:48):
why would they cancel on men? My sister said, no,
you're out of town. I was like, oh it was me.
It was I was trying to get in my feelings,
you know. You know, you know listen, he's trying to
find the reason reason that's crazy. You know. I'm glad
you brought that up because I'm a nigga, because yeah,
she was a nigga and Assen too. I was like,
where he was, well, I was colored that day. It

(01:41:18):
was like I was bro I was chasing. I was
there with Mariah Carey shut up to not yeah, and
she's welcome to the Larry make his own announcement. But
you know, we there's something Brewing. We love that.

Speaker 4 (01:41:35):
Come on to the p.

Speaker 2 (01:41:38):
Yeah, oh you do want.

Speaker 3 (01:41:40):
Mariah absolutely, and you know what you know who to
come you definitely, oh you definitely.

Speaker 2 (01:41:49):
Yeah, Ladies and gentlemen about him to take.

Speaker 3 (01:41:53):
And this is the R and B Money podcast, the
authority on all things R.

Speaker 2 (01:41:58):
And B and and the authority is in the month
Thank you for having fun fun R and B Money.

Speaker 4 (01:42:13):
R and B Money is a production of the Black
Effect Podcast Network. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the
iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows. Don't forget to subscribe to and rate our show,
and you can connect with us on social media at
Jay Valentine and at the Real Tank. For the extended episode,

(01:42:35):
subscribe to YouTube dot com, forward slash R and B
Money

All Episodes

Episode Transcript

Hosts And Creators

Tank

J. Valentine

Popular Podcasts

40s and Free Agents: NFL Draft Season

Dateline NBC

The Bobby Bones Show

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}L.A. Reid