Speaker 1: Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: What's Up?
Speaker 3: This is unpaid bill from Quest Love Supreme. On Today's
Speaker 3: Classic QLs. We travel back to January of twenty twenty
Speaker 3: two for our conversation with the legend Dougie Fresh. This
Speaker 3: is part one.
Speaker 2: Shall we started?
Speaker 4: We can't do call Dog such a roll call episode?
Speaker 2: Are you.
Speaker 5: Yell it out?
Speaker 2: I will think of a solution so we can get
Speaker 2: back to le call audio. Can you work on I
Speaker 2: actually thought.
Speaker 6: Of one today, Like we can just we can just
Speaker 6: do our own, our own verse by ourselves. We can
Speaker 6: say that yeah, and the supreme is ourselves.
Speaker 7: But the whole thing is the reaction to you what
Speaker 7: the other person.
Speaker 8: Says exactly and then and then our guest wants to hear.
Speaker 4: They can kind of get an idea.
Speaker 2: Sometimes well okay, I'll think I got a good idea.
Speaker 6: We go back into a studio in person with people
Speaker 6: and we do our role calls there. Now I'm good
Speaker 6: on that, all right, Fante? You can always be even
Speaker 6: if we're live all together in a studio with a.
Speaker 2: Guest being yeah, we just passed you.
Speaker 5: I'm I'm with it.
Speaker 3: Can we make Fonte like Max headrom though, like he's
Speaker 3: just like on a TV.
Speaker 2: You can just see his head. Can I start this please? Oh?
Speaker 7: No, small talk, ladies and gentlemen. Yeah, that was the
Speaker 7: small talk. Ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to another episode of
Speaker 7: Quest Love Supreme. I'm your host Quest Love and the
Speaker 7: Supreme team is with me strong all five of you
Speaker 7: or four of you? I still don't know the proper
Speaker 7: number anyway. Uh unpaid bill, Congratulations, Thanks friend. I think
Speaker 7: you're yeah, you're you're you're doing big things in your
Speaker 7: life right now. What you got going on?
Speaker 3: Thanksgiving?
Speaker 2: Uh? Grammys? Uh, movies. Uh, that's it. That's all you
Speaker 2: can ask for life jobs. I'm good.
Speaker 7: I was like, life is good, brother, good still dropping.
Speaker 7: I kind of kind of at the point where you were, well,
Speaker 7: I kind of hit a plateau in Yeah. So I'm
Speaker 7: down probably like thirty right now. I'm down probably like
Speaker 7: thirty seven, you know what I mean. And so I've
Speaker 7: been just switch it up a little bit, and I'm
Speaker 7: gonna start going meatless.
Speaker 5: Maybe like one or two days a week, just to try,
Speaker 5: you know.
Speaker 2: I see.
Speaker 5: So, uh, we're we're switching it up a little bit.
Speaker 7: Well, I'm about to let you know this what my heck?
Speaker 7: I got dandy lion, garlic, spinach, and cucumber. So hopefully
Speaker 7: this will do the trick and get me off that plateau.
Speaker 7: I was just gonna eat some sweet potatoes. But yeah,
Speaker 7: I'm gonna think less. See that'll do it. That'll do it. Yeah,
Speaker 7: that called will put it on you.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm good. Still got the three jobs. Moving down
Speaker 4: to where the black folks live in l A. Really excited.
Speaker 5: You got a new apartment, talk about it.
Speaker 2: Apartment right now?
Speaker 8: Yeah, no, this is my mama house. But in LA,
Speaker 8: I got me in a nice spot. So now my
Speaker 8: parents got another bed sleeping. I ain't got to sleep
Speaker 8: on the couch.
Speaker 4: And I'm down with a black folks.
Speaker 2: Where do black people live in l A?
Speaker 8: Just if they're lucky there? They live in South La Inglewood,
Speaker 8: you know I live. I got I'm letting the murder
Speaker 8: by the drum circle and whatnot, which is kind of like,
Speaker 8: really dope, it's being highly gentrified right now because that's
Speaker 8: where the stadium is and then putting in the train,
Speaker 8: so LA is it really expansion gentrification on level three.
Speaker 2: The football stadium?
Speaker 7: Yeah, yeah, I went there to see uh the last
Speaker 7: Rolling Stones La Show. Yeah, I heard it, and I
Speaker 7: didn't realize they dropped that joint like right in the
Speaker 7: middle of the hood.
Speaker 4: Yeah, right in Inglewood.
Speaker 7: The second you step off the pavement, you're definitely in Inglewood.
Speaker 8: Yes, it's not as long as that people can afford
Speaker 8: to stay.
Speaker 7: Yeah, it's yeah, right right right in the middle of it.
Speaker 2: Steve, how are you? Yes, I'm good. How are you okay?
Speaker 2: Where am I? How are you? Yeah? I know where
Speaker 2: you are. Okay.
Speaker 7: Let your many followers know that you're good. Yeah, boss man,
Speaker 7: and congrats on the witch Call. We forgot to congratulation
Speaker 7: well the Oscars and all that, But then the short
Speaker 7: film you did shout Okay, you didn't realize I directed
Speaker 7: a second film. Sometimes when when when there's a little
Speaker 7: buzz on you and then people start and you know,
Speaker 7: I got a call from a team hove to uh settle.
Speaker 2: Well.
Speaker 7: The thing was is that I knew without something on
Speaker 7: that level, he would not come to the Rock and
Speaker 7: Roll Hall of Fame. So I told the staff, let
Speaker 7: me direct something and that will lure him to it.
Speaker 2: Without that, he wouldn't have come. He would have just
Speaker 2: you know, phoned in.
Speaker 4: All right, this.
Speaker 2: Is probably the longest.
Speaker 7: Wow, we never going to four minutes without even acknowledging
Speaker 7: our guests right now, we haven't.
Speaker 4: Talked in a while. We sorry, guests, we.
Speaker 5: Haven't talked to It's been a minute, Okay.
Speaker 7: So what I will quickly say about our guest today is,
Speaker 7: if if I were compiling a list of the most
Speaker 7: charismatic figures in hip hop or maybe in music, I
Speaker 7: wouldn't hesitate to put this gentleman. This gentleman will probably
Speaker 7: and I'm trying to keep the quest level hyperbole down
Speaker 7: to a minimum, he's probably, if not in my top three,
Speaker 7: maybe he is my number one most charismatic figure that
Speaker 7: I know in hip hop. And the evidence of that
Speaker 7: for me is, and I'm going beyond hip hop and
Speaker 7: going to music, the evidence is in the in the
Speaker 7: thirty five years that I've been fortunate enough to see
Speaker 7: him perform. Throughout those decades, I've never not seen him
Speaker 7: elevate any event.
Speaker 2: To the highest level.
Speaker 7: Like I've never seen him walk in any situation with
Speaker 7: fear or trepidation. It's and to me, like, you know,
Speaker 7: I'm a guy who wire overthinking like oh, I can't
Speaker 7: go out there. You know, they don't know who I
Speaker 7: am whatever, like, forget generational, forget genre. I've seen him
Speaker 7: rock with you know, Prince Tom, Cruise, Heavy D, Chuck Brown,
Speaker 7: like every from every genre I've just he's the the
Speaker 7: most charismatic and you know, stupid charismatic. Will Smith's charismatic.
Speaker 7: I can name a gazillion Jay Z's charismatic. But you
Speaker 7: know this, our gentleman, This, our guest today is.
Speaker 5: The world's greatest entertainer.
Speaker 7: Yes, literally, lady ladies and gentlemen, our guest today is
Speaker 7: officially known for the and not for the Please give
Speaker 7: it up for Doug E.
Speaker 2: Fresh on Quest Left Supreme.
Speaker 9: Flowers. Let me tell you it is an honor.
Speaker 10: It is an honor, and I appreciate y'all giving me
Speaker 10: or rather having such a long delay on the introduction
Speaker 10: because I felt because I felt like I got caught
Speaker 10: up with all of y'all too, and I felt like
Speaker 10: it was family conversation and I was able to hear
Speaker 10: it close up in person, you know. So yeah, thank
Speaker 10: you and thank you for having me on your show, Quest,
Speaker 10: I appreciate it.
Speaker 9: With the Supreme Team and that name Supreme Team.
Speaker 10: Hip Hip Hop for y'all to use that name is
Speaker 10: a very powerful thing because back on w HBI it
Speaker 10: was the world famous supreme.
Speaker 9: Team show Keys, Holla and Justice.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, I know you did.
Speaker 10: That's what look, you are the ultimate collector. So I
Speaker 10: know that when I mentioned something like that, you would
Speaker 10: you either know it or you would appreciate it, you know.
Speaker 10: So I and I appreciate you, and I appreciate you
Speaker 10: having me on your show.
Speaker 9: Thank you know what I.
Speaker 7: Think, Even though I'm going to start before that, I
Speaker 7: do believe that you are indeed, and I think about
Speaker 7: till today, you are indeed the first beat boxer the
Speaker 7: world has seen, because I believe that your cameo and
Speaker 7: Beat Street did predate the Fat Boys. So even though
Speaker 7: you know, a lot of the world credits Buffy, rest
Speaker 7: in peace to Buffy as the first beat boxer they
Speaker 7: ever seen. If we really look at the timeline for
Speaker 7: all this hip hop heads that saw Beat Street in
Speaker 7: nineteen eighty three, the disco three Fat Boys didn't come
Speaker 7: out until nineteen eighty four, so technically, and it's weird,
Speaker 7: I don't think at the time, and I remember the
Speaker 7: Christmas rap from Beat Street. I think at the time
Speaker 7: you might have been so effortless in doing what you
Speaker 7: were doing. I don't think it even registered to us
Speaker 7: that you were doing drums with your mouth.
Speaker 2: Right, you know what I mean.
Speaker 9: And it was a funny.
Speaker 10: It was us trying to make people kind of laugh
Speaker 10: and feel good. But it's deep that you picked that
Speaker 10: up because I actually did the movie at the time,
Speaker 10: because there was a scout who went up to Savoy
Speaker 10: Matter and I was performing on that show with the
Speaker 10: Crash Crew, Master Don and the Deaf Committee, and I
Speaker 10: believe at that time. I don't think the foss MC's
Speaker 10: was on that show at the time, but I performed
Speaker 10: there and then she gave me a card. And when
Speaker 10: she gave me a card that said Beach Street on it,
Speaker 10: she said, do you want to be in a movie?
Speaker 10: Because what you're doing would be unbelievable to seeing a movie.
Speaker 10: And I'm gonna tell you some information. So I went
Speaker 10: there and he started to see what I do, and
Speaker 10: he was like, I don't care what I gotta do,
Speaker 10: I gotta get you in this movie now. Originally run
Speaker 10: DMC was supposed to be in Beach Street. What And
Speaker 10: That's what I'm telling you. I think you know, I'm
Speaker 10: give you the.
Speaker 9: Yeah, I know. Well y'all, well, y'all done, ran to
Speaker 9: the right y'all.
Speaker 10: And ran in the right store tonight because this and
Speaker 10: everything and by the way and everything is free, just
Speaker 10: by the way, just so you know, it's.
Speaker 9: Just free. So they're right.
Speaker 10: So but this is how it went. I was supposed
Speaker 10: to do beat when I was doing Beach Street. Harry
Speaker 10: Belafonte wanted me to do something where this thing with
Speaker 10: the beat box could be showcased. So what happened is Run,
Speaker 10: DMC and Russell came up there and they were going
Speaker 10: to be in Beach Street, but I don't think Russell
Speaker 10: felt good about them just doing a little segment in it.
Speaker 10: He wanted them to do more. And then we and
Speaker 10: then it was me run in the elevator and d
Speaker 10: M s see and in the room. So they started
Speaker 10: doing one of their records, the rhyms to the second
Speaker 10: album that came out, the beat that sound a little
Speaker 10: bit like suck MC's.
Speaker 9: I don't know the exact song, but they was saying.
Speaker 2: The King of Rocket album.
Speaker 9: The next album, right, yeah, it's.
Speaker 2: Right, the last song inside too.
Speaker 9: It got done. Yeah, I got like a little it
Speaker 9: got a little kind of thing to it.
Speaker 10: So I'm in the elevator and we started doing it
Speaker 10: and he said, and he looked at Russell and he said, Yo.
Speaker 9: This will be crazy.
Speaker 10: We should get Dug to do the beatbox on this,
Speaker 10: and we could do this whole thing in the movie
Speaker 10: with And then we started coming up with the idea
Speaker 10: to do it, and then and then Harry was excited
Speaker 10: about it. But then Russell pulled out. And after he
Speaker 10: pulled out, then he brought in Treacherous three. And when
Speaker 10: he brought in Treacher's Three, Treacher's Three knew me as
Speaker 10: a kid because they knew me from going into Bobby
Speaker 10: Robinson's record shop or all the time. So when they
Speaker 10: seen me, they said, hey, you know, Harry said, mister
Speaker 10: Bellafonte said, you know, is it any way that you
Speaker 10: can have Dougie do this with you? Because I think
Speaker 10: this routine is unbelievable. So if you listen to the rhyme,
Speaker 10: they mentioned me multiple times and the rhyme, he said,
Speaker 10: you know, you know that kid Dougie fresh from down
Speaker 10: the block, because I.
Speaker 9: Really lived down the block, you know, so when.
Speaker 2: You were their labelmates too, because the right.
Speaker 10: Right, I was yeah, yeah, yeah, no, no, just Having
Speaker 10: Fun came out on on Enjoy. But what happened is
Speaker 10: that that was after, you know, Treacher's three was already established.
Speaker 9: But I let out Just Having Fun and.
Speaker 10: I did the movie because at the time, I felt
Speaker 10: like I needed to let people who understand the beat
Speaker 10: Box and I needed to do something, and I started
Speaker 10: to see a lot of.
Speaker 9: People trying to, you know, kind of kind of go
Speaker 9: there with it.
Speaker 10: In the time we grew up in hip hop, it
Speaker 10: was about being as original as possible, so if you
Speaker 10: did something, it would be considered biting. But see, biting
Speaker 10: was only considered bad because the only way to make
Speaker 10: hip hop survive and to be pure creatively, it was
Speaker 10: necessary for you to feel that kind of pressure.
Speaker 9: So somebody say you're a bito. That was kind of
Speaker 9: like the worst thing that you can ever be called
Speaker 9: in your life, you know what I mean?
Speaker 2: It was crazy?
Speaker 10: Well, okay, and the be Box was made up in
Speaker 10: eighty I introduced it in eighty two, but I made
Speaker 10: it up in eighty one. See, because I started in
Speaker 10: eighty one at Harlem World.
Speaker 9: That's where I started.
Speaker 10: And when I made it, I made it because I
Speaker 10: used to play the trumpet and when I played the trumpet.
Speaker 9: I used to.
Speaker 10: There was a teacher in my class named brother Lee.
Speaker 10: Brother Lee was I went to as two A one
Speaker 10: and Brother Lee really quick. Brother Lee was in there
Speaker 10: and he said, what do you want to play? And
Speaker 10: I pointed to the percussions and the drums. He said, well,
Speaker 10: you can't play that jet. You got to play the trumpet.
Speaker 9: I said, well, why you asked me, Brother Lee, I
Speaker 9: mean baby, and he said he said, I understand, He said,
Speaker 9: but I want you to play the trumpet. So I
Speaker 9: took the trumpet home every day.
Speaker 10: And when I took the trumpet home, I would practice it,
Speaker 10: take the mouthpiece, boil it, do the whole thing, do
Speaker 10: all of the exercises. And then one day when I
Speaker 10: came back to school, Brother Lee was gone because they
Speaker 10: cut all the music programs in school. So I gave
Speaker 10: them the trumpet back. And I was still walking home.
Speaker 10: And when I was walking home, I would pass by
Speaker 10: the mom and pop record shops. So at that time
Speaker 10: Grandma asked a flash hat out. It was a Friday night.
Speaker 10: Everybody was freaking the highs right and I would always
Speaker 10: say it, right there you go, and I would always
Speaker 10: hear the baseline and when I would hear the baseline,
Speaker 10: then all of a sudden, I hear all of these
Speaker 10: other things.
Speaker 9: So I would walk back and forth and I would
Speaker 9: just kind of try to keep adding more and more
Speaker 9: and more.
Speaker 10: Ideas to the beat, to the point that I had
Speaker 10: maybe seven eight nine things going on at the same time.
Speaker 9: I'm not thinking.
Speaker 10: And I'm going crazy now, but I'm not thinking about it, right,
Speaker 10: let me tell you this true story. I'm not thinking
Speaker 10: about it. So then I go to Barry's house where
Speaker 10: we used to practice, because me and Will Barry b
Speaker 10: that's right, we go over there and practice because that
Speaker 10: was the practice house.
Speaker 9: Long story short.
Speaker 10: I'm in there doing the beatbox and I'm doing I
Speaker 10: think I was doing in Peace to President because it's like.
Speaker 9: Right, and I'm going to piece the president. And then
Speaker 9: all of a.
Speaker 10: Sudden his mother comes in the room and say, that
Speaker 10: was a nice beat. I liked that beat that was playing.
Speaker 10: And he said, Ma, that wasn't the record.
Speaker 9: That was him. And now he said that was him,
Speaker 9: and then she said, well, whatever it was, it was
Speaker 9: a nice beat.
Speaker 10: And then he turned around and looked at me and said, yo,
Speaker 10: you know what you should do that in the big
Speaker 10: Park tomorrow because Mike and Dave was throwing jams out in.
Speaker 9: The Big Park. He said, Yo, you should call it
Speaker 9: the human beat Box. I said, I'm not going to
Speaker 9: do that. That's crazy.
Speaker 10: I'm not doing that. You're trying to make me look crazy.
Speaker 10: He said, I'm telling you, yo, what you just did
Speaker 10: was crazy. So then I went out to the Big
Speaker 10: Park and when I did it, everybody lost their mind.
Speaker 9: And that was the beginning of the Beatbox.
Speaker 7: And that was nineteen eighty one. That was okay, eighty two.
Speaker 7: What Burrow did you premiere that in?
Speaker 9: I premiered it in Harlem. I prepared it in Harlem.
Speaker 10: And then after which was a fascinating piece that I
Speaker 10: think you'll appreciate too, is that Curtis Blow came out
Speaker 10: with one hundred and twenty fifth Street, the people laying
Speaker 10: the concrete, and it was on you know, you know,
Speaker 10: you know, you're like, you know, So what happened? Craziest story?
Speaker 10: I was doing the Beatbox. I was on Flyers with
Speaker 10: the Cold Crush, Busy Bee with the Funky four with
Speaker 10: Fantastic with treacherous street feelers like I'm on I'm rolling now.
Speaker 9: So now what happened Is.
Speaker 10: Curtis Blow was outside and this was the first time
Speaker 10: Harllow Week had somebody up. Curtis Blow was the first
Speaker 10: hip hop artist to perform at Harllow Week. Before that,
Speaker 10: it was never no hip hop. So when Curtis Blow
Speaker 10: was there, they forgot to give him turntables because it
Speaker 10: wasn't normal. So I'm walking down the street. But I'm
Speaker 10: walking down the street.
Speaker 9: They see me. No, that's Dougie Fresh right there.
Speaker 10: No Dougie come over here, and Curtis said to me,
Speaker 10: He said, Dougie, is it possible for you to get
Speaker 10: on and do the beatbox for me? Because I have
Speaker 10: no turntables, the band, there's no band. The band only
Speaker 10: know how to play for whoever's getting on next. There's
Speaker 10: no CD, there was no cassette, there was nothing. I
Speaker 10: was standing there.
Speaker 9: I was like this crazy Curtis Blow is asking me
Speaker 9: to get on with him. Are you crazy? I was like, oh,
Speaker 9: mister Blow, Uh, no problem, sir, I reckon. You do
Speaker 9: that right, sir.
Speaker 10: That I got on and when I got on, Frankie
Speaker 10: Krocker was on BLS. And this is when Harlem Week
Speaker 10: was big, so it was probably like fifteen thousand people outside,
Speaker 10: I got on and I did the beat box and
Speaker 10: that was the first time Curtis Blow heard the beat box.
Speaker 9: And that was way before the fire Boys.
Speaker 2: Okay, se y'all.
Speaker 9: Did see ya. That's why I'm giving you that feet.
Speaker 2: I get it.
Speaker 9: And then I asked them later. I asked some later.
Speaker 9: I said, curt when you did this and you know
Speaker 9: that I create, you know you know that I did this,
Speaker 9: I said, it didn't feel a little funny with you
Speaker 9: in there doing doing. He said, Dougie, you know, he
Speaker 9: just asked me to come in and produce. And he said,
Speaker 9: I said, I'm just trying to understand.
Speaker 10: I said, did you He said, Dougie, it was just
Speaker 10: so crazy. I was under so much. I said, I
Speaker 10: don't worry about it, man, I said, I just wanted
Speaker 10: to know, you know what I mean, because if I
Speaker 10: did it for you, you called me to do it,
Speaker 10: then it was kind of strange for me to hear
Speaker 10: that you produced the fact voice and then the tradition
Speaker 10: and hip hop was not about you when you do something,
Speaker 10: see you, you're trying to create your own sigmaents you
Speaker 10: were looking to do and I didn't need to.
Speaker 9: Do to beat box. I just it found me.
Speaker 8: And there had to be a life lesson in that though, Doug,
Speaker 8: don't you feel like at the end of the days
Speaker 8: that you were so young and that happened to you,
Speaker 8: You feel like in retrospect, was there some type of
Speaker 8: life lesson and that Yeah, you.
Speaker 9: Know what's interesting with the life lesson? I always feel
Speaker 9: this way, and this is the truth. I say to myself.
Speaker 10: If the music program was never cut at I is
Speaker 10: two o one and Brother Lee was no.
Speaker 9: Longer there, would I have created the beat box? I
Speaker 9: don't know.
Speaker 10: And then on top of that, what's really fascinating is
Speaker 10: Brother Lee.
Speaker 9: Later on I found out it's Malcolm Lee's father. Why
Speaker 9: brother Lee is also a jazz musician whose brother is
Speaker 9: Spike Lee.
Speaker 2: Billy was your teacher.
Speaker 9: Malcolm Lee's father was your music teacher.
Speaker 10: And then guess what When when I made my records
Speaker 10: and I came out, I found out.
Speaker 9: I said, I got to talk to Brother Lee and
Speaker 9: I'm going.
Speaker 4: To ask you what was you gonna say?
Speaker 5: Well, I'm I'm the.
Speaker 9: Trumpet about.
Speaker 10: I said, I said, Brother Lee, I'm getting ready to
Speaker 10: perform at Madison Square Garden. I said, I want you
Speaker 10: to know that I made up this thing called the beatbox,
Speaker 10: and I made it up because of you having me
Speaker 10: play the trumpet. And I said, you know, I want
Speaker 10: you to perform with me at the garden. He said, Dougie,
Speaker 10: I'm so proud of you. He said, but man, I
Speaker 10: don't know if I can handle performing at the garden.
Speaker 10: He was a jazz physician. He said, I might be
Speaker 10: too much for me. I said, well, I just want
Speaker 10: you to know that what you did and what and
Speaker 10: what happened from from the way all of these things
Speaker 10: landed turn this thing into something that in hip hop
Speaker 10: we call the fifth element. And I just want you
Speaker 10: to know that you are the reason or one of
Speaker 10: the reasons how this thing became what it is and
Speaker 10: it was the deepest thing in the world. And then
Speaker 10: I wound up working with his son Malcolm on Girl
Speaker 10: Trip and and and it's fascinating circle ties together.
Speaker 7: I have a theory, especially in hip hop, those who pioneer,
Speaker 7: those who go first, really never get the glory.
Speaker 2: Those who go second always get the shine.
Speaker 7: So yes, I think in this case, because we technically
Speaker 7: think of you as the second, you also improved or
Speaker 7: be boxing even though you were the first, and even
Speaker 7: though you came out with a single, the original human
Speaker 7: Betpop whatever. Right, I still say that, you know, it's
Speaker 7: a good thing you came second, because I don't know why,
Speaker 7: but it's just like, you know, Marley Marrole started the
Speaker 7: noise thing, but then the Bomb Squad came in and
Speaker 7: really started the noise thing.
Speaker 9: You know, they weren't there right right.
Speaker 7: East, these first white rappers, and yeah they had success,
Speaker 7: but Eminem really like, whoever does it second in hip
Speaker 7: hop always capitalizes it better. We gotta stuff from the beginning.
Speaker 7: First of all, where were you born? Where were you born?
Speaker 10: I was born here in the US, but as a kid,
Speaker 10: I was taken back and forth to Barbados. So it's
Speaker 10: kind of like you would consider it kind of like
Speaker 10: a dual dig it citizenship in a kind of a way,
Speaker 10: you know, because as a kid, that's how my parents
Speaker 10: kind of moved. And then my grandfather's from Trinidad and
Speaker 10: my grandma's from Barbados, so they was kind of they
Speaker 10: didn't know whether I should stay in Barbados or should
Speaker 10: I be.
Speaker 7: So then I'll ask you then when people are asking
Speaker 7: you about the origins of hip hop and being as
Speaker 7: though a lot of the first generation of that culture
Speaker 7: came from the Islands. Do you do you what is
Speaker 7: your true belief on where hip hop was born? Is
Speaker 7: it the Bronx or do we have to say that
Speaker 7: technically you know the composites of all the residents of
Speaker 7: the islands, that's where it was born. And what are
Speaker 7: you seeing on these islands that lead you because something's
Speaker 7: happening there that's bringing it to America.
Speaker 9: So right right, it's a very interesting question.
Speaker 10: Well, my sister introduced me to hip hop here in
Speaker 10: the US, but my family was so diverse in their
Speaker 10: music selection that it made it easy for me to
Speaker 10: take Soca reggae and Go Go and R and B
Speaker 10: and all of these other musics, and it just it.
Speaker 9: Was just one of these things where you're influenced by
Speaker 9: all of these things, but in the form of hip
Speaker 9: hop in the way that I learned it, because I
Speaker 9: am the first child of the first generation in hip hop,
Speaker 9: meaning that I am the beginning of like all of
Speaker 9: these people that came before me. I learned from DJ Hollywood.
Speaker 9: So my sister came home and said, there is this
Speaker 9: guy named DJ Hollywood who's rapping. I said, let me
Speaker 9: hear what he say. She said, he go ring a.
Speaker 10: Dinger ding the dong, the dong dong, the dang the
Speaker 10: dang dang, d ding the dong dong to the hip hop.
Speaker 9: She wopped the box before anything I've ever heard.
Speaker 10: And when she told me, say it again, say it again,
Speaker 10: and I'm trying to catch it.
Speaker 9: Then my brother brought in a tape with Grandma's top
Speaker 9: flies in the series five, and when he brought these
Speaker 9: pieces in, and then my family lived in the Bronx
Speaker 9: and also in Harlem.
Speaker 10: So the point I'm making is that in the form
Speaker 10: that I learned hip hop here, meaning like I think
Speaker 10: the influence goes back way further than we really understand stand.
Speaker 10: But the pieces that I learned from watching Hollywood, watching
Speaker 10: Our love Bugstarsky, being able to sit on the side
Speaker 10: of the stage at Harlem World when Busy the Battle
Speaker 10: Kumo d being there in the contest. I was in
Speaker 10: that contest in eighty one. So we were taking all
Speaker 10: of these elements as far as like weird it it originate,
Speaker 10: It originated in Harlem, it originated in the Bronx, it
Speaker 10: originated in Brooklyn.
Speaker 9: There was movements going on all over.
Speaker 4: Do you guys attribute as we we have some historians here.
Speaker 4: I'm curious.
Speaker 8: I'm like, do you attribute any of this to like
Speaker 8: scatting and at all? Or do you just go straight
Speaker 8: to the well.
Speaker 10: That's why I'm saying on the levels, because see, if
Speaker 10: you're looking at it on the levels that I'm talking about,
Speaker 10: you could say Calypso and Soca, our original storytellers. You
Speaker 10: could say Yellow Man and Nico Demus, and you can
Speaker 10: go back even further than that, but just use them
Speaker 10: as a blue print. I'm getting married and the morning,
Speaker 10: you know, like like all of these different pieces is
Speaker 10: what made up what we do.
Speaker 9: And then even and this is.
Speaker 10: My experience, you know that that I seen all of
Speaker 10: these elements come together, and they were influencing me. Whenever
Speaker 10: I would go to a certain borough in the Bronx,
Speaker 10: I would get a particular kind of hip hop. When
Speaker 10: I'm in Harlem, I watch Hollywood burn the Apollo down. See,
Speaker 10: Hollywood is the architect of crowd participation, and I learned
Speaker 10: I learned the skill directly from him. So I know
Speaker 10: I know things about it that nobody You will never
Speaker 10: know this because it doesn't exist.
Speaker 9: Any like he had it.
Speaker 10: He gave it to me and I understand the dynamics
Speaker 10: of it that like be another kid might not like
Speaker 10: Batman's school grew up watching me, so he understands some
Speaker 10: of the dynamics of it. So what I'm saying is
Speaker 10: is that it just kept evolving because everybody was doing
Speaker 10: it in their own experience. So I can only respond
Speaker 10: to the experience that I had.
Speaker 9: But I was in all of the burrows, most of
Speaker 9: the burrows, studying it, you know.
Speaker 7: Okay, So that leads me to what I said at
Speaker 7: the at the top of the show, which is the
Speaker 7: thing that I admire and the thing that I want
Speaker 7: to learn from you the most. Tarik actually learned this
Speaker 7: from you. You have a way of commanding the crowd
Speaker 7: that's not forced because usually in hip hop people have
Speaker 7: to at least the modus operandi. Yeah, the modus operandi
Speaker 7: rus Come. It's a full twelve yelling and like the
Speaker 7: idea of what you imagine, like Freddie Fox to be
Speaker 7: like shoe off the microphone.
Speaker 2: But you, but you are.
Speaker 7: So the thing that made me pay attention to your
Speaker 7: your crowd control. And the thing is is like the
Speaker 7: one level that I lack in my life journey is
Speaker 7: the ability to really communicate in a way that I'm
Speaker 7: not in my head like you know, because this is
Speaker 7: the thing, like right before I address a crowd or whatever,
Speaker 7: suddenly I'm in my head, like, man, I want to
Speaker 7: look like a nut out here.
Speaker 2: So what I want to.
Speaker 7: Know is I'm certain now that this is like your
Speaker 7: fourth decade in the industry, that now you just do
Speaker 7: it out off of muscle in marine, like you know
Speaker 7: how to capture the crowd. But in those first ten years,
Speaker 7: like even without the show in Lottie Dottie, Like, in
Speaker 7: those first ten years, how are you psyching yourself up?
Speaker 7: Because you, you, to me, are like hip hop's true version.
Speaker 7: I've seen most stuff do this. Also, you're the true
Speaker 7: version of like when I watch a comedian do crowd work.
Speaker 7: You know, even without a single, without a song, you
Speaker 7: walk on the stage, you know how to engage the crowd,
Speaker 7: how to talk to them, things to do, and it
Speaker 7: always works.
Speaker 2: Like I know you've seen you learn it from Hollywood.
Speaker 7: But for the first ten years, like the first five years,
Speaker 7: say okay, right before the show eighty four, you're doing CrowdWork,
Speaker 7: Like what are you saying to yourself before, Like are
Speaker 7: you ever nervous in any situation, like damn, who I
Speaker 7: got tonight?
Speaker 2: A bunch of white people at a corporate party? Like
Speaker 2: how do I do this? Like?
Speaker 9: Wow, right, I remember we did that. We did a
Speaker 9: corporate party together one time. I remember that time.
Speaker 2: There's no crowd, you can't frock.
Speaker 7: So what is your what is your motivational I need
Speaker 7: the motivational talk on how you deal with crowd work
Speaker 7: and why do you do so well?
Speaker 10: I used to see Apollo want to sing a come
Speaker 10: out and he sing and I watched him practice before
Speaker 10: he got on.
Speaker 9: He'll be like this. I believe he's.
Speaker 10: Singing the notes and everything is tight. It's he's pictures perfect.
Speaker 10: When the showtime starts and he walks out there, I
Speaker 10: believe it.
Speaker 9: And the audience boom right before he even finishes.
Speaker 10: It's because they feel the frequency of fear. And when
Speaker 10: they smell it and they feel it, they automatically get
Speaker 10: out of here.
Speaker 9: Man, Yo, were you don't believe it?
Speaker 5: You don't believe it, We believe.
Speaker 9: Get out, yo. Who's next? Now?
Speaker 10: If it's a little kid, If it's a little kid,
Speaker 10: it's fascinating. Little kid get up there and he'll be
Speaker 10: like I believe they'd be like, all right, come on, shorty,
Speaker 10: you're gonna do it.
Speaker 9: Let's go. Yeah. Yeah, it's encouragement because he's a younger kid,
Speaker 9: you see what I'm saying, And they don't want to
Speaker 9: boo him because they want to build him up to
Speaker 9: be come as great as they see him having the
Speaker 9: confidence to at least get up on that stage. But
Speaker 9: if it's an if it's a.
Speaker 10: Person who is giving, like coming up there and you
Speaker 10: start singing and they feel fear, the frequency automatically makes
Speaker 10: them boom. So through these little lessons, I advance the
Speaker 10: technology that I learned from Hollywood, and I learned from
Speaker 10: love Buck and Busy B and I, and I was.
Speaker 9: Able to change.
Speaker 10: I guess like you said, I played with it so
Speaker 10: much that I don't even think about the frequency.
Speaker 9: I feel the frequency and.
Speaker 10: I just respawd to the frequency, or I make the
Speaker 10: frequency what I wanted to.
Speaker 7: Be right, and I'm and I bring you to that frequency.
Speaker 9: You see what I'm saying. It's interesting.
Speaker 8: Can you tell us what you feel like in your body?
Speaker 8: Is this is going on like in your body?
Speaker 9: Don't you tell us?
Speaker 7: How do you how do you talk yourself out of fear. Okay,
Speaker 7: all right to read no, no, no for real.
Speaker 9: That's a good question.
Speaker 2: As it is taping.
Speaker 7: Tarika has left the Tonight Show for four months, so
Speaker 7: thus forcing me in a position where I have to
Speaker 7: address the audience something I hate doing.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 7: I don't know if it's that I feel Hollywood or
Speaker 7: feel you know, like, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the ROUTO.
Speaker 2: Did well?
Speaker 10: See that's the part right there. That's the part right
Speaker 10: there where it goes wrong. See, the fear is because
Speaker 10: you're doing something and being something that's not as authentic
Speaker 10: as you.
Speaker 9: So the key is to be you and to.
Speaker 10: Be you as best like be you and enjoy being you,
Speaker 10: and don't make it like you're trying to fit into
Speaker 10: something and replace it. Don't replace anything, Just be you.
Speaker 10: And the energy is so honest that people will feel
Speaker 10: that frequency and they will accept it and make it
Speaker 10: what it is, like the same way like your conversation
Speaker 10: now is so real that it's making me respond to
Speaker 10: you like I'm responding because I can feel what you're saying,
Speaker 10: and because I feel it, it makes me talk to
Speaker 10: you like this, And that is the same thing. You
Speaker 10: have to do, and fear comes from your thinking. Don't think,
Speaker 10: feel it and be you when you think. That's where
Speaker 10: fear lives. Fear live in thought. Fear can't exist when
Speaker 10: it's just pure energy and truth.
Speaker 9: See, fear and truth can't.
Speaker 10: Fear and truth can never be in the same room
Speaker 10: together because truth exposes care.
Speaker 9: You see what I'm saying.
Speaker 10: So as much as you be yourself, fear can't be around.
Speaker 10: Like right now, I'm telling y'all the truth, and it
Speaker 10: doesn't matter to me how you feel.
Speaker 9: About my truth because it's truth. Now.
Speaker 10: If I was fearful, it's because I want you to
Speaker 10: feel a particular way about me. But I'm not concerned
Speaker 10: with your feelings right now. I'm only concerned with making
Speaker 10: sure you feel the truth.
Speaker 9: And when you feel the truth, you can determine how
Speaker 9: you feel about me. You may like me, you may not,
Speaker 9: but guess what, you know what you gonna get when
Speaker 9: you deal with me. You understand truth right.
Speaker 10: Right, And I'm saying and I'm saying it in this
Speaker 10: way to make you understand that your.
Speaker 9: Truth is good. Your truth is good.
Speaker 10: And you don't like he that's that's his space, But
Speaker 10: your space is you know, you're coming from a completely
Speaker 10: different space, and that space you're coming from it's a
Speaker 10: good space. You just don't know it because you haven't
Speaker 10: been using it.
Speaker 9: You understand what I'm.
Speaker 7: Saying, being for use it right now, so you know,
Speaker 7: we will see how it goes till.
Speaker 8: I feel like at some point, even for Dougie Fresh,
Speaker 8: there's an energy in your body that you may have
Speaker 8: to either suppress for the moment or figure you know
Speaker 8: what I mean, Like it's something different going on in
Speaker 8: here sometimes than out there to get to what they need.
Speaker 9: But given what they need right you're always you know
Speaker 9: the reason why the energy is not bothering me because
Speaker 9: my level of focus is on what I want, and
Speaker 9: what I want is I want to save a life.
Speaker 10: I want to fix this problem. See what happens is
Speaker 10: this when people are dealing. And it's a fascinating how
Speaker 10: this all ties in together because see, when a person panics,
Speaker 10: the panic stops them from making a disc that they
Speaker 10: would have made if they didn't panic. So if a
Speaker 10: person can focus on what they're doing, panic can't get in.
Speaker 10: Because you're focused on what you're doing, now you'll feel things.
Speaker 10: Panic could be at the door knocking but you're focused,
Speaker 10: and it's it's it's part of a I guess a technique.
Speaker 10: Like even like when I work out right, say I run,
Speaker 10: I run, and I don't use no music.
Speaker 9: And sometimes what I do is when I'm running, I'm.
Speaker 10: Taking my mind and I'm focusing on something and I'm
Speaker 10: training it to.
Speaker 9: Focus on that. And you know how the mind work.
Speaker 10: There's always a new thought that come in. Even when
Speaker 10: somebody's talking to you, there's a new thought. But I
Speaker 10: train my mind to block all.
Speaker 9: The things, and I am focused on that.
Speaker 10: And when I'm ready, I will let you tell me
Speaker 10: what I will let And I hope I ain't bugging
Speaker 10: y'all out, but okay, okay, I will, I will. I
Speaker 10: will decide when I want that thought to come in,
Speaker 10: and I decide if I want that thought or use
Speaker 10: that thought. Because the focus is what is what I'm
Speaker 10: looking at, And in order for me to be effective
Speaker 10: at that thing that I'm doing, I have to stay focused.
Speaker 10: If I'm performing and something is going on and I'm
Speaker 10: not focused on the audience, let's say I'm I'm too.
Speaker 9: Divided, you know what I mean.
Speaker 10: I'm trying to, you know, get this happening I'm trying
Speaker 10: to get my man in the club. I'm trying to
Speaker 10: make sure my girl is situated. I'm trying to make
Speaker 10: sure yo yo yo yo sound man like.
Speaker 9: It's too much.
Speaker 10: So if you're able to take and focus on something,
Speaker 10: the impact of it is powerful. And then when you're
Speaker 10: focused on it and you trage your mind to think
Speaker 10: like that, then what happens is that there's no fear
Speaker 10: in it because you're focused, and there's no panic because
Speaker 10: that thing you're focused on is the only thing that matter.
Speaker 2: Think about are meditation.
Speaker 4: I was about to say, a marriage sound like what
Speaker 4: we talk about.
Speaker 10: I don't have no problems with it, but I guess
Speaker 10: in a form I do what kind of I guess
Speaker 10: it's like a form of meditation, because when I'm running,
Speaker 10: I may be running for seventy minutes, sixty minutes, ninety minutes,
Speaker 10: and every time my mind is trying to take me
Speaker 10: someplace else, I'd be like, no, no, no, no, we're
Speaker 10: staying here.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you're doing it.
Speaker 9: I keep grabbing it meditation, and I put it right back.
Speaker 10: I go like this, no, right here, And then I
Speaker 10: practice it so much to the point that people don't
Speaker 10: know how hard it is to think about the same
Speaker 10: thing for ten minutes with any interruptions, just ten minutes.
Speaker 4: If they try to meditate, they know it.
Speaker 9: That's what. Yeah.
Speaker 10: Yeah, So I kind of incorporate that in a lot
Speaker 10: of things because I feel like fear is not real,
Speaker 10: but it's real to you when you're going through it.
Speaker 10: So if I'm able to you know, control the outcome
Speaker 10: by my focus, then fear can't get in there. So
Speaker 10: if I'm dealing with a situation like city college, if
Speaker 10: I'm dealing with a situation where I see somebody who
Speaker 10: got shot at a club or a family member instead
Speaker 10: of me kind of king, I'm focused and I deal
Speaker 10: with that, and it's I'm so focused that I'm not
Speaker 10: allowing nothing to stop me. And anybody that's giving me
Speaker 10: anything I can hear when it's something I need, but
Speaker 10: if it's ah, oh my god, I don't need that,
Speaker 10: you know, meaning like if you said so, Doug, I
Speaker 10: got to ride for so and so I can hear
Speaker 10: you and I would grab the person and put them
Speaker 10: in the ride. So it's a focus for being able
Speaker 10: to understand what's necessary.
Speaker 9: I don't know if I went too far with this,
Speaker 9: but I.
Speaker 2: Mean it's an earful Yeah.
Speaker 7: A question for you, Doug, because you've, you know, in
Speaker 7: terms of your faith, because we know that you've been
Speaker 7: involved with like scientology for a while. Is that having
Speaker 7: that kind of focus, Is that something that you know
Speaker 7: you learned in that faith? How does that help you
Speaker 7: as an entertainer?
Speaker 10: It's funny, that's a that's a real good question, bro.
Speaker 10: You know what, I didn't get that from scientology. I
Speaker 10: discovered it from just running, you know. And I'm running,
Speaker 10: like my running is the thing I love to do,
Speaker 10: you know. So when I'm running, I started to discover
Speaker 10: how my mind is all over the place trying to
Speaker 10: keep itself busy because I'm trying you know, you're running it.
Speaker 10: He's trying to breathe and so so all of a sudden,
Speaker 10: I said.
Speaker 9: Yo, the mine is panic ging, Yo, doggie, why are
Speaker 9: you pushing me like this? Yo? You know this is
Speaker 9: too heavy? So why you got me? And then I
Speaker 9: would like this, shut up, bro, shut up, shut up,
Speaker 9: shut up.
Speaker 10: Like all right, and I'll be like we're doing this
Speaker 10: right here, and now I want you to relax, don't panic,
Speaker 10: and breathe and and and not to the degree to
Speaker 10: say if I needed to slow down. You slow down,
Speaker 10: but don't panic. See that's the part that piece right there.
Speaker 10: Don't panic you See what I'm.
Speaker 7: Saying A good buddy of mine is it's actually your too, DJ,
Speaker 7: my man, DJ skills.
Speaker 5: That's that's my guy.
Speaker 9: Oh that's a bad man. That's a bad man.
Speaker 7: Yeah, it's a bad bad Yeah. And he was telling me, uh,
Speaker 7: going out with you. He was like, yeah, Dougie, he
Speaker 7: will work out before the show. He always tells me, like, Yo, Doug,
Speaker 7: workout or you'll run or whatever for the show.
Speaker 5: Shower kind of have your time and then you do it.
Speaker 5: So I always highly of you.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 7: Well, I think when you mentioned when we mentioned meditation earlier,
Speaker 7: what I what I do know is the sort of
Speaker 7: common factor, the reason why people jog, the reason why
Speaker 7: we work out, the reason you know. I've said in
Speaker 7: past episodes about like advanced breathing techniques and sexual activity,
Speaker 7: like anything that causes you, yes, anything that causes you
Speaker 7: to breathe, like it's your last breath. Somehow your mind
Speaker 7: your mind goes into another which is another is weird
Speaker 7: to say.
Speaker 2: I kind of want to know.
Speaker 7: I don't want to know, but I do want to
Speaker 7: know what what the mind state is to a person
Speaker 7: that's about to drown, because I also believe I almost drowned.
Speaker 10: That's how I came That's another that's how I came
Speaker 10: up with this. I said, kid almost dropped, almost dropped
Speaker 10: the Central Park Lake. Me and two of my friends
Speaker 10: took a little boat. We took one of them little boats.
Speaker 10: He was cutting school. They talked me into it, and
Speaker 10: I jumped on the boat with him, and we didn't
Speaker 10: even have use was pushing out with a little log,
Speaker 10: and then all of a sudden one he had heard
Speaker 10: the siren, so he.
Speaker 9: Knew he wasn't supposed to be doing nothing. So he
Speaker 9: had fear. He jumped into that water. He started swimming,
Speaker 9: and so when he jumped, the boat pushed back, and.
Speaker 10: All of a sudden, the other one was there. I said, man,
Speaker 10: I ain't jumping in that water.
Speaker 9: Come on me, and he let's just roll back, and
Speaker 9: all a sudden he's like, yo, come on, man, come on.
Speaker 9: So his fear he.
Speaker 10: Transferred it to his cousin. His cousin jumped out the
Speaker 10: boat started swimming. Then he said, oh, come on, man,
Speaker 10: the cops is gonna get us. I'm telling you the
Speaker 10: cops gonna get you.
Speaker 9: You know, here we are young. I said, man, I
Speaker 9: don't care what he saying. I'm rolling this damp boat,
Speaker 9: you know.
Speaker 10: So I get closer to the ship. I think that
Speaker 10: I'm getting I'm close enough. He's panicking. I allowed his
Speaker 10: fear to get in me. I jumped in the water.
Speaker 10: I'm doggy podder. I'm saying, this is close enough. I
Speaker 10: think I'm good. And I put my feet down under me,
Speaker 10: thinking that the ground was there.
Speaker 9: There wasn't no ground. There wasn't no ground. It wasn't
Speaker 9: no ground. And I started.
Speaker 10: Right, wow, I mean when i'm and then my man
Speaker 10: came in and he grabbed me and pulled me in right.
Speaker 9: And when he pulled me in, I'm spinning. I'm spinning
Speaker 9: the water up.
Speaker 10: So now when I go to the pool, and this
Speaker 10: is a real story, I'm over here.
Speaker 9: Everybody's in the five.
Speaker 10: Feet sixteen you know, summertime pool is with everybody else. Girl,
Speaker 10: I'm over in the little four feet or the three feet,
Speaker 10: sitting in here with my feet water. I'm just shook.
Speaker 10: I'm shook, like to my point it was crazy. Then
Speaker 10: I said, I can't live my life like this. This
Speaker 10: is crazy. I said, this is not even. This makes
Speaker 10: me feel crazy. Every time I'm getting in water, I'm shuk.
Speaker 10: So that one day I went to Hawaii to to
Speaker 10: go do a show because this was on for a while.
Speaker 10: I got in a WHI the dude was sitting out
Speaker 10: on the raft and my man, my sound man, said, Yo,
Speaker 10: come swim out. Man, Yo, come come out here. So
Speaker 10: I said, I said, all right, I got to break this.
Speaker 10: I jump in the water and I swim out. I
Speaker 10: get to the raft. He said, there, talk to me,
Speaker 10: asked me like two different things. He said, well, I
Speaker 10: gotta go. I'm jumping off the raft. He jump off
Speaker 10: the raft and he swims back to the to the beach.
Speaker 10: I'm sitting there going, damn, this is crazy. I gotta
Speaker 10: go all the way back now.
Speaker 9: So I jump. So I jump in the water and
Speaker 9: I started swimming. And when I started swimming, I said,
Speaker 9: I stopped. And then I lay in the water and
Speaker 9: I'm floating and I said, wow, now I get it.
Speaker 9: I said. The reason why I almost drowned, it's not
Speaker 9: because I can't swim. It's because I panicked. And when
Speaker 9: I panicked, it took everything out of me. It made
Speaker 9: me not think. It just made me just how swired here. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 9: it took everything out of me. And I said, if
Speaker 9: I relax, if I breathe, and if I trust myself,
Speaker 9: and if I allow this to make sure that that
Speaker 9: fear is not there, then it's not as hard. And
Speaker 9: that lesson is the lesson that I have applied in
Speaker 9: every aspect of my life, from that time that I
Speaker 9: drown to the time that I discovered that. And then
Speaker 9: I learned that when you run, even when you breathe
Speaker 9: it most people stop running because they panic when they're breathing.
Speaker 9: It's getting cut short, right, So the key is to
Speaker 9: think and focus on the breathing and then you relax,
Speaker 9: the same way if a person is you know, you
Speaker 9: know you're going into a stressful situation.
Speaker 10: You have to relax and then the energy will flow.
Speaker 10: And I mean, I hate to say it like this suit, but.
Speaker 9: We're keeping it real on this little com y'all. Y'all
Speaker 9: took me. I didn't even think. But even if you're
Speaker 9: losing the fireproom, bro, if you don't die, you don't.
Speaker 2: And there's a dougie fresh.
Speaker 9: Like you're sitting there like this, I don't want nobody
Speaker 9: to have me.
Speaker 4: I don't want nobody to see me, and then I.
Speaker 9: Ain't gotta go. You see what I'm saying.
Speaker 10: But until i'm I'm keeping it so real. And I
Speaker 10: know y'all know it's true that if you don't relax, y'all,
Speaker 10: if you don't relax, it's crazy. So that's a that's
Speaker 10: a big part of controlling fear. You can't control fear
Speaker 10: unless you relax.
Speaker 2: We got to get to the show eventually, But I
Speaker 2: do have one question. You mentioned.
Speaker 7: A legendary Harlem figure that I don't know anything about
Speaker 7: besides his record labels, But could you please like we've
Speaker 7: heard everything about Jersey and Sugar Sugar Hill with Sylvia
Speaker 7: and Bobby in Jersey, but a lot of people don't
Speaker 7: know that the Bobby Robinson that runs Enjoy Records is
Speaker 7: another Bobby Robinson I know nothing about. And you know,
Speaker 7: I'm a fan of the Godfather of Harlem and Bobby
Speaker 7: Robinson's character this season, Yeah he's been Yeah, Bobby Robinson's
Speaker 7: sort of been a figure in the first In the
Speaker 7: second season, he owns a local record store.
Speaker 2: Obviously, Okay, I saw the first season.
Speaker 7: So obviously you know, like I can see like you
Speaker 7: own a record store and then you start your label.
Speaker 2: Oh YadA YadA, YadA woo.
Speaker 7: But can you talk about Bobby Robinson and what he
Speaker 7: meant to the community of Harlem like and your dealings
Speaker 7: with him, Like what was he like?
Speaker 9: Bobby? Bobby Robinson was a very mild mannered, low key,
Speaker 9: community friendly guy who was not a very big guy.
Speaker 9: But he was a guy that.
Speaker 10: All of us respected because he had his own record shop.
Speaker 10: He would go to his record shop, he had the
Speaker 10: Mamo Pop Record shop and you would you would hear
Speaker 10: everything that came out from the Treacher's Free, from the Feelers,
Speaker 10: from Coolkow, from anybody from Funky four. And he was
Speaker 10: the first guy out there doing it. But the problem
Speaker 10: is is that in the community, Bobby Robinson was also
Speaker 10: known as a guy who did not pay and he
Speaker 10: did not pay no rappers. So so I when I
Speaker 10: did the deal with him, I got some money up
Speaker 10: front from him because I knew based on the history
Speaker 10: of what he did with the trust. I used to
Speaker 10: sit in Bobby Robinson's record shop and watch Treacher's Three
Speaker 10: come in there, and LA would be like.
Speaker 9: Joe, we're Bobby Man, I'm looking for my money.
Speaker 8: Man.
Speaker 9: I would watch mo D coming it goes Bobby in here, Yo,
Speaker 9: where's he at?
Speaker 10: And I would watch how people respected Bobby because he
Speaker 10: was the guy who looked like he knew more than
Speaker 10: us we were kids, but it looked like he didn't
Speaker 10: either explain what was going on, or he was doing
Speaker 10: things and didn't really come clean on what he was doing.
Speaker 9: You under saying.
Speaker 7: Okay, so okay, So nineteen eighty one and I get
Speaker 7: a deal with Enjoy Records, What how's the deal broker? Like,
Speaker 7: what is housing k or fair deal for Enjoy Records?
Speaker 7: Are you giving me and you're Bobby Robinson? Are you
Speaker 7: giving me and my crew like five hundred bucks to
Speaker 7: do one side? Or like, what's what kind of deal
Speaker 7: my striking with you? If you're Bobby Robinson? I want
Speaker 7: to make a rap record.
Speaker 9: Bobby Robinson is not giving you a deal where you
Speaker 9: really know what you're gonna get.
Speaker 10: You might get ten center record, you might get twelve
Speaker 10: cents a record or fifteen cents a record, But he
Speaker 10: is not sitting down with a lawyer and going through
Speaker 10: a deal with you. He know you're a hungry young
Speaker 10: kid who could rap and he's just trying to put
Speaker 10: the record out and he's saying, no, here, sign this,
Speaker 10: and we're gonna work it out. And there's no way
Speaker 10: for you to take account to how many records he
Speaker 10: sold because he's selling them out the trunk or he's
Speaker 10: passing them around as to mom and pop distribution. Bobby
Speaker 10: Robinson was a guy that for me, I watch every
Speaker 10: hit pop artists that he had signed, from Grandmaster Flash
Speaker 10: to Funkie four to Treacherous three.
Speaker 9: And feel his four. I watched all of them.
Speaker 10: He had them all and he never dealt with them
Speaker 10: in a way that they felt confident that they were
Speaker 10: going to get compensated.
Speaker 9: For their music.
Speaker 10: And with me, I just did one single with him
Speaker 10: with two sided because I did get Fresh Doug on
Speaker 10: the other side, because I needed to have something out
Speaker 10: because I seen what was going on in regards to
Speaker 10: people believing that I might have got it from Fat Boys,
Speaker 10: which originally was Disco three. So when I got with him,
Speaker 10: it was only for strategic purposes.
Speaker 9: It wasn't he.
Speaker 10: I knew that Bobby Robinson was not a guy that
Speaker 10: would pay you, and he would not He was not
Speaker 10: a guy that you could see yourself making money with.
Speaker 7: So you went with Enjoyed, just so that you could
Speaker 7: stop the bleeding of the fat boys being the soul
Speaker 7: creators of the beat box.
Speaker 2: Like I gotta get in the okay, I get it
Speaker 2: marketing right right.
Speaker 10: So I strategically, I said, if I hit him with
Speaker 10: the movie, if I hit him with just having fun
Speaker 10: and Get Fresh tough, because remember I said, for all
Speaker 10: the sounds you beat boxes are doing, all you bit
Speaker 10: from me, I should be sewing some say yay what
Speaker 10: they should be going From the time you hit this robing,
Speaker 10: your career is ruined. That's the way I opened it up,
Speaker 10: you know what I mean. And then and so once
Speaker 10: I did that, it was to make people know. And
Speaker 10: then out in Long Island in eighty two, I met Biz.
Speaker 9: And then I would have.
Speaker 10: Biz with me everywhere because Biz was coming to my
Speaker 10: house and he was going to the store for my mother.
Speaker 10: He was going to the store for my grandmother, and
Speaker 10: he was up under me because he was trying to
Speaker 10: learn the beat box.
Speaker 9: So I had him there you talking, yes, business, Biz
Speaker 9: was This is one of the members, the first members
Speaker 9: of the Get Fresh Crow.
Speaker 2: Did not know.
Speaker 9: You that that's my brother. I love him. He's on
Speaker 9: this new album that I just let out. I mean,
Speaker 9: that's one of our list times together. And then and
Speaker 9: and he's his family, you know what I mean.
Speaker 10: So and then eventually and then it got a little
Speaker 10: weird because he's trying to do the beat box. I'm
Speaker 10: doing it and I'm like, yo, Biz, you know you're
Speaker 10: biting straight up.
Speaker 9: I can't let you do that.
Speaker 10: And he's like, all right, all right. And then that's
Speaker 10: when he went to Magic. But I was with Magic first.
Speaker 10: But Magic was trying to get me to battle everybody.
Speaker 10: So I didn't like that. I didn't like how Magic
Speaker 10: were trying to get me to go in there and
Speaker 10: battle every single person that he had. That that he
Speaker 10: didn't like because he was getting high at the time
Speaker 10: and he.
Speaker 9: Wasn't the same as the Magic from w HBI, you
Speaker 9: know what I mean.
Speaker 7: Doug one more enjoyed eraror question that I gotta know about,
Speaker 7: you know, because I come from a lineage of musicianship.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 7: And all respect to Keith le Blancin and Doug win
Speaker 7: Bush of sugar Hill.
Speaker 9: To talking about Pumpkin Baby.
Speaker 2: Pumpkins.
Speaker 7: So for our listeners that don't know Pumpkin Pumpkin was
Speaker 7: the you know, for Keith le Blancin and and Doug
Speaker 7: win Bush to be the house band of sugar Hill
Speaker 7: Records over at Enjoy Records up in Harlem. The leader
Speaker 7: was Pumpkin the drummer. And you know if you if
Speaker 7: you're if you're a beat, heead you know if you
Speaker 7: collect records. Then his interpolation of tower power squid cakes,
Speaker 7: it was done.
Speaker 2: I think even better.
Speaker 7: You know, I prefer LOVET by Spoony g that break
Speaker 7: more than the original breakdown it should have came from.
Speaker 2: Can you tell me anything about I knew nothing about Pumpkin.
Speaker 9: What was he?
Speaker 2: Let me tell you about original.
Speaker 9: Pumpkin, right right, right right Pumpkin. Pumpkin was unbelievable.
Speaker 10: One day and this is what happened with Bobby Robinson,
Speaker 10: And this is what made me do it like I
Speaker 10: did it. Pumpkin was in there and I told him
Speaker 10: a beat I wanted him to play.
Speaker 9: He played a beat. He'll go to the keyboards. I said,
Speaker 9: give me this sound. He'll go in there. He'll pick
Speaker 9: up the sound. If you need him to play the
Speaker 9: bass and grab the bas and put that in there.
Speaker 9: Pumpkin was like a one man man and what happened.
Speaker 10: And if you listen to love rap when it's going
Speaker 10: that beat, and then if you hear in the back,
Speaker 10: you here the percussions.
Speaker 9: That's Spoony G's.
Speaker 10: Brother and his name is Pooci all of them little
Speaker 10: brother Poochie is Spoony Jeans brother.
Speaker 9: Never knew that b this this thing runs so deep.
Speaker 10: But but Pumpkin, and before Pumpkin passed, Pumpkin came to
Speaker 10: the studio and he kept saying, Dougie, let me.
Speaker 9: Let me play a beat for you tonight. Come on, Dougie, mean,
Speaker 9: let's go back to back. Let's do beat. And in
Speaker 9: the middle of everything going on before me and were
Speaker 9: before me and it were able to get together.
Speaker 10: He passed away. But Pumpkin was a guy that that's
Speaker 10: why we did this. That's why he did this song.
Speaker 9: Pumpkin and the All Stars. We remember that one because
Speaker 9: Pumpkin and if you have.
Speaker 10: Oh, that was his cod kidnamed Fly Fly Tiedel Jackson.
Speaker 10: We crazy, look, look, look Pumpkin was. Pumpkin was honestly
Speaker 10: as a drummer, as a musician, he was a guy
Speaker 10: that you could tell your ideas too, and he would
Speaker 10: be able to give you the idea just like you
Speaker 10: wanted it and add some things that was really really good.
Speaker 10: So my first record I was gonna do was a
Speaker 10: song with Pumpkin, but we never got to finish it.
Speaker 7: I was going to say, because if it wasn't for
Speaker 7: Pumpkin passing away, would you have worked with Teddy Riley
Speaker 7: for the show in nineteen eighty five if Punkin were
Speaker 7: still alive, would you go on to Pumpkin instead of
Speaker 7: Teddy Riley?
Speaker 9: I would have probably went to Pumpkin.
Speaker 10: But also I was I was teaching Teddy about hip
Speaker 10: hop because Teddy was from.
Speaker 2: The church, church kid.
Speaker 10: Right, so we used to cut school and that's when
Speaker 10: I introduced him to swing. And that was the beginning
Speaker 10: of it because because the drums, you know, let me
Speaker 10: talk to you as a producer now like on the
Speaker 10: d X or the DMX, the button in the back
Speaker 10: would determine how much swing that you put into a beat.
Speaker 9: If I'm going that's swinging, run DMC's beat is to
Speaker 9: be like now, it's more like right action.
Speaker 10: So what I brought was so that's swing, that's swing,
Speaker 10: that swing. And I did it because Greg Greg g
Speaker 10: from the disco for owed me some money because I
Speaker 10: did a show for him, because he was a promoter
Speaker 10: on the side, and because he owed me money, he
Speaker 10: lent all of his equipment to Teddy. And when he
Speaker 10: lent it to Teddy, he said, yo, man, I ain't
Speaker 10: got the money right now for Joe. If you want
Speaker 10: to work on your music and you want to get
Speaker 10: your joint done, yo, I got the equipment over there
Speaker 10: at Teddy's house.
Speaker 9: I said, really, he said, yeah. So I went over there.
Speaker 10: Teddy had all of his equipment over there, and right
Speaker 10: over there is when I started to make up the
Speaker 10: pattern of this show. The drums, and then that's when
Speaker 10: I hit that shaker and I as when, huh.
Speaker 2: How many tracks were you?
Speaker 9: Like?
Speaker 2: What equipment made the show?
Speaker 9: I use?
Speaker 10: I used the DX drum machine, and I use a
Speaker 10: series of keyboards because my manager was the one in.
Speaker 9: The studio that played everything. Because it's just a complicated story, man.
Speaker 10: But but you know, but the truth of the matter
Speaker 10: is that I know that the show would have never
Speaker 10: became what it is if I didn't have Teddy there
Speaker 10: to be able to to to express my ideas the
Speaker 10: way that I express you know.
Speaker 9: What I mean.
Speaker 7: I was gonna say, the show is one of the
Speaker 7: most unusual formatic songs I've ever heard, because if you really,
Speaker 7: if you really break down the show, the show is
Speaker 7: almost like it's almost like I wouldn't say interludes, but
Speaker 7: I would almost say seven vignettes because nothing, nothing repeats
Speaker 7: twice like then here we go, here we go, Come on.
Speaker 7: It's almost like it's like every hooks could be a
Speaker 7: hook every four bars, and I know you guys aren't
Speaker 7: dealing with like pro tools and cut these four bars,
Speaker 7: so it's almost like I feel like you had to
Speaker 7: map out that entirely sequence.
Speaker 9: I did, I did, I did. I went over there.
Speaker 10: I sat down, and this is when I first learned
Speaker 10: how to count the bars and arrange it.
Speaker 9: So I sat down and I arranged the whole thing.
Speaker 10: And when I arranged it, I went over there his
Speaker 10: house after I'm made up the track. Because this is
Speaker 10: how y'all understand this, because y'all are musicians and y'all
Speaker 10: know the game.
Speaker 9: You go there, you feel the music, and you make
Speaker 9: it up.
Speaker 10: After you make it up, I would take the tape
Speaker 10: home and then I would, you know, play around with it.
Speaker 10: I'll go to Will's house Battery's house, and I'll come
Speaker 10: back and say I like this. I like this, and
Speaker 10: so I wanted I didn't. I just structured it where
Speaker 10: I want the horn to hit here, I want this
Speaker 10: to be. And I learned how to structure it based
Speaker 10: on how many bars everything was on the song. And
Speaker 10: then after it was all done, then I had to
Speaker 10: go back and program the drums so.
Speaker 9: So I can separate all of these pieces.
Speaker 10: So you don't want even pacing, No, I just I
Speaker 10: just programmed it like that Teddy. I told Teddy what
Speaker 10: I wanted to do, and he knew how to work
Speaker 10: the equipment, and so he sat down and whatever I
Speaker 10: was asking him to do, he would do it.
Speaker 9: I'll say, like Teddy was the one who came up
Speaker 9: with the.
Speaker 10: Drum roll, so so because I was doing a drum
Speaker 10: roll and mom was cool. But then and he heard
Speaker 10: mine and it was in his like a combination of
Speaker 10: what I was doing and what he added to it,
Speaker 10: which made it better. So the other part that any
Speaker 10: contribution that anybody was trying to make to the song,
Speaker 10: if it felt good and if it worked, it didn't matter.
Speaker 9: Who came up with it.
Speaker 10: It was about making this thing as hot as it
Speaker 10: could be. Like when I hit the shaker. I hit
Speaker 10: the shaker by accident because it was I was looking
Speaker 10: for something else. And then when I hit the shaker,
Speaker 10: I just started to you know, because I'm doing the
Speaker 10: bee box and all of that.
Speaker 9: I said, I started, I started really moving it.
Speaker 10: And then when I was working with the drum machine Teddy,
Speaker 10: I said I want swing in it, and he was
Speaker 10: like okay, and he put a little I said, no,
Speaker 10: I got to swing harder than that, and then he
Speaker 10: started saying no, I got to swing. I said, that's
Speaker 10: it right there, that's swing and nobody was using it.
Speaker 9: Man, not like that.
Speaker 7: I'm gonna tell you to be alive and of age
Speaker 7: in nineteen eighty five. I'm probably the last human that
Speaker 7: got on the train of the show right before it
Speaker 7: took off, because I spent the entire summer of nineteen
Speaker 7: eighty five in California where it was all about Toddy
Speaker 7: T's batter Ram the batter I remember, right, I like, yeah,
Speaker 7: my cousins, My cousins were bangers whatever like and literally
Speaker 7: that's all you only heard batter Ram. So to spend June,
Speaker 7: July and August in California in the Altadena Pasadena with
Speaker 7: my teenage cousins.
Speaker 2: Only hearing batter Ram.
Speaker 7: I come back home to Philly and this is this
Speaker 7: is I know that nineteen eighty five is probably the
Speaker 7: last regional year for hip hop, where like only regions,
Speaker 7: you only dealt with their regions and it wasn't like
Speaker 7: fully national yet. And I got home and saw, you know,
Speaker 7: the landed. My plane landed like three or four in
Speaker 7: the afternoon. Got home and I remember like talking to
Speaker 7: the kids on the block and I just knew I
Speaker 7: was up on something that they weren't up on. And
Speaker 7: I was like, Yo, y'all know about batter Ram Now
Speaker 7: I'm from Philly, right. They looked at me like I
Speaker 7: was an alien. They're like, what the hell is a
Speaker 7: batter Ram. I'm like, right, you can't stop. I'm singing
Speaker 7: the first verse and everything. They just looked at me
Speaker 7: like it was like the block was laughing at me.
Speaker 7: They're like, nah, we only know about the show and
Speaker 7: Lotty Dottie. And I was like, like, the did not
Speaker 7: know about this. Literally, this is like two days before
Speaker 7: school started. And they told me, nah, this is this
Speaker 7: has been number one on Power ninety nine for three months.
Speaker 7: In a row like, that's the that's the last time
Speaker 7: I felt so late on something that the whole world
Speaker 7: was up on.
Speaker 4: You still had you still had till nineteen ninety one
Speaker 4: to get back on it again. Because I was gonna say,
Speaker 4: did did the New Jack City?
Speaker 8: I wanted to know the story between on the New
Speaker 8: Jack City situation and how it became kind of that
Speaker 8: scene and in that movie, and how you even allowed them.
Speaker 9: To use it.
Speaker 8: Yeah, because I felt like it came back and the
Speaker 8: Ninjack City it just gave it new life.
Speaker 2: I mean the show never I think, no gave it
Speaker 2: was timeless.
Speaker 4: Yeah, no doubt, no doubt.
Speaker 2: For starters.
Speaker 7: I guess we should ask you, how did you hook
Speaker 7: up with Slick Rick to start this group?
Speaker 10: Well that's an interesting question because slick Rick was well,
Speaker 10: he wasn't slick Rick.
Speaker 9: He was Ricky ri right, he was Ricky d And
Speaker 9: he was with his crew that man, y'all, y'all asked
Speaker 9: some questions. Man, Well, yeah, it was the Cango Cup.
Speaker 10: But where I seen him, see the Kango crew was
Speaker 10: in his school. Where he was doing his thing was
Speaker 10: up at the Cadet Club in the Bronx. Now Rick
Speaker 10: was moving around with different guys trying to get his
Speaker 10: get his hip hop thing going on.
Speaker 9: And there was a guy named Donald d. And there
Speaker 9: was another dude named June loves.
Speaker 2: Syndicate.
Speaker 10: All no, this is another guy and he calls himself
Speaker 10: now Dandy down. He's still alive, right, But it was
Speaker 10: these three guys. Me and Tito was hanging out. One night,
Speaker 10: Tito came by my house from the Fearless Four and
Speaker 10: we hung out and we went uptown and they had
Speaker 10: an EMC contest. Now, I was known to take a
Speaker 10: lot of EMC contests because my style was was basically
Speaker 10: the new thing with.
Speaker 9: The beat box.
Speaker 10: I'm rhyming, it's crowd participation, I'm dancing, it's Harlem, it's
Speaker 10: a whole nother thing.
Speaker 9: There's melody. So there was a new dimension and hip
Speaker 9: hop coming in.
Speaker 10: Long story short, me and Tito got on and the
Speaker 10: girls loved Tito, so it was like a It was
Speaker 10: like a it was like, let's go get this money Tito.
Speaker 10: But then they said we couldn't be in it because
Speaker 10: they looked at him as a professional and they looked
Speaker 10: at me as a professional.
Speaker 9: Even though I didn't have a record out at the time.
Speaker 10: Nothing major, but this is what So Rick, June Love,
Speaker 10: and Donald D was in the contests. So when they
Speaker 10: was in the contest, the Cold Crush Brothers was in
Speaker 10: the contest too. So this is how the story goes.
Speaker 10: I was there whe watching June and watching them.
Speaker 9: I say, Yo, these dudes is nice.
Speaker 10: I said, yo, yo, t don't look at the nice
Speaker 10: and he was like yeah, yeah, and Tila Rock was
Speaker 10: up there and he's like, yeah, you know it's yours.
Speaker 10: It's yours, yo. That's another right, that's ah another story.
Speaker 10: So we up there and all of a sudden, say, yo,
Speaker 10: I heard Rick, and so the rhyme that you hearing
Speaker 10: him say on the show was the rhyme that I
Speaker 10: heard him say in the contest. And so when he
Speaker 10: said that rhyme in the concert, I said, Yo, the
Speaker 10: kid is nice, said the kid. Donald D was rhyming
Speaker 10: about a beef patty. And when he brought the beef patty,
Speaker 10: so they burned it and they flipped it on the
Speaker 10: other side and gave it to him, and they tried
Speaker 10: to hide it, you know what I'm saying, And he
Speaker 10: wrote a rhyme about the beef. I was like, yo,
Speaker 10: these dudes are ill because I haven't heard nobody rhyme
Speaker 10: like this. You know, long story short, June Love stopped.
Speaker 10: June Love was gonna team up with Greg Nice. June
Speaker 10: Love got murdered. So the style that you hear Greg
Speaker 10: Nice's rhyme in is June style.
Speaker 7: Ok So, the great Nice style of fear the fan
Speaker 7: that is based on June Love.
Speaker 9: Right, And June Love was a part of Cago Crew.
Speaker 5: Okay, you're following me, got it.
Speaker 9: I'm trying to another.
Speaker 2: Beat boxer, Greg Nice, right, But.
Speaker 10: Greg NICs was also under my guidance because the feel
Speaker 10: Is four. He wanted to do the beatbox for the
Speaker 10: Feelings four because they wanted something to balance out what
Speaker 10: they wasn't doing, and because I.
Speaker 9: Rhymed the beat buzz.
Speaker 10: So Greg Nice was another piece that he was going
Speaker 10: with Feelers for. So that's my man all that, But
Speaker 10: I'm just telling you he started to transition into the
Speaker 10: Junie Love style because he was going to do the beatbox.
Speaker 9: For June Love. And when June Love.
Speaker 10: Lost his life, Greg basically took the style and then
Speaker 10: he went forward with it. So like all I was
Speaker 10: going on, Rick seeing me get on, and then I'm
Speaker 10: doing parties throughout the whole city. So everywhere I go,
Speaker 10: Rick is like, yo, jugie freshman. Yo, you think you
Speaker 10: could put me on with you? I said, Yo, I
Speaker 10: gotta hear you, man, I gotta hear all night. You know,
Speaker 10: see if you're good whatever you know? I say, Yo,
Speaker 10: you seem like a cool dude. Say yeah, man, my
Speaker 10: name is Ricky de Man. I say, yeah, I see
Speaker 10: you downtown, man, at Ron said, was kind of slick.
Speaker 10: He said, yeah, man, I'm nice. So I would go
Speaker 10: all of these different places and I would see him.
Speaker 10: He would be pressing me, like everywhere I go.
Speaker 9: I'm in the door. He's like, yo, Doug, put me on.
Speaker 10: I get off stage, and then he'll be standing there.
Speaker 10: He was like, y'all see you get on, man, Yo,
Speaker 10: do you think we could go back on? You could
Speaker 10: put me on with you?
Speaker 9: And I'll be like, I can't do that, man. I
Speaker 9: just got off. And one day I'm going down the
Speaker 9: hill and Comment Avenue and Harlem and he's I see
Speaker 9: him on the phone. I don't know how he was
Speaker 9: on the corner on the phone while.
Speaker 10: I'm walking down there. The odds is like a billion
Speaker 10: to one. I take him over to Will's house. I
Speaker 10: got this little drum machine, the RX seven that I
Speaker 10: got from OC from Feelings spoiled one of his dj
Speaker 10: because it was crazy Eddy and oc Oc was trying
Speaker 10: to sell me the drum machine. So you know, you
Speaker 10: when you were broke, you're trying to borrow somebody drum
Speaker 10: machine and trying to get.
Speaker 9: As most out of it as you can. And then
Speaker 9: you know you gotta, you know, to stress you then
Speaker 9: you give it back, you know how that was? So yeah,
Speaker 9: So Rick came over and I say, yo're come over
Speaker 9: into the house, man. And then right then and there
Speaker 9: is when I say, yo, let me see what you got.
Speaker 9: I got on.
Speaker 10: A couple of other dudes got on. And that was
Speaker 10: the day that he started lotty ditting. And when he
Speaker 10: said it, he couldn't he couldn't even finish the rhyme
Speaker 10: because we was laughing for at least an hour. I mean,
Speaker 10: it was like, yo, let me tell you something. Bro
Speaker 10: Rick was so goddamn funny. I'm talking about like he
Speaker 10: was h hilarious. I mean to the point that we
Speaker 10: all in there holding our stomach. He can't finish the rhyme.
Speaker 10: Then all of a sudden, out there and then the rhyme.
Speaker 10: He said, I told you I was nice. I told
Speaker 10: you I was nice.
Speaker 7: Wait are there any other takes of Lotty Doddy that
Speaker 7: we've not heard because.
Speaker 9: It's just you JUSTO. Yeah, there's a couple, I.
Speaker 2: Mean alternative takes of it.
Speaker 9: Nah.
Speaker 10: Now what we did and what we did on Wax
Speaker 10: was when we made that. That was because my manager
Speaker 10: at the time say, Yo, why don't y'all do that
Speaker 10: thing called Lotti Doddy that all the kids are talking
Speaker 10: about in the street because Lotty Dotty was created in
Speaker 10: eighty four. And what I did is when I seen them,
Speaker 10: when I heard the rhyme, I say, Yo, this rhyme
Speaker 10: would be crazy if I did the beatbox and I
Speaker 10: just come in with different words and I changed the
Speaker 10: beat so that it doesn't get boring, and I say, yeah, this.
Speaker 9: Will be good. And then all of a sudden, I
Speaker 9: said that we get and then he was excited. I said,
Speaker 9: and we could take all the rap contests. He was like, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 9: that's what I want.
Speaker 10: Because he felt that he got jerked when he was
Speaker 10: at the Cadet Court because they didn't they didn't win,
Speaker 10: so he had this big thing on his shoulder saying
Speaker 10: I'm taking every contest. So then we started going around
Speaker 10: in the city just taking every contest.
Speaker 9: And then when we.
Speaker 10: Did it on record, we took out the second part
Speaker 10: to Lottie Dottie because we mentioned Vanessa.
Speaker 7: Ways williams, Oh yeah, you told me. Wait a minute,
Speaker 7: Wait a minute, God, this is like the rabbit hole
Speaker 7: of life. I just gotta do you have any of
Speaker 7: those tapes? From course, okay, I'm coming to your ri
Speaker 7: of course. Literally more more than the twelve inch there was.
Speaker 7: There was again Philadelphian. There was a dude, my go
Speaker 7: to cheese steak guy every Sunday, my go to steak guy,
Speaker 7: like he would have He would have like he had
Speaker 7: cousins from New York that always put him on to
Speaker 7: like those t Connection tapes and those Parlem World tapes.
Speaker 7: So when I'm, you know, Sunday after church my routine,
Speaker 7: I get a cheese steak after church, and he's always
Speaker 7: playing some live whatever. And one of these Sundays he
Speaker 7: had like much of my mom's dis may this is
Speaker 7: the first time I'm here and treator like a prostitute
Speaker 7: a live version, and I snuffed back. I was like, Mom,
Speaker 7: I'm gonna get some potato chips, and I stuck up
Speaker 7: to him. I said, and I had one of those
Speaker 7: like my mom's you know you always record over your
Speaker 7: mom's tapes or whatever. And I had like one of
Speaker 7: her old gout, like one of the gospel tapes that
Speaker 7: she just walked from church and was like, yo, can
Speaker 7: you can you meet me? Gods it don't be back
Speaker 7: tomorrow for lunch. And I lived with it's a live
Speaker 7: version of YouTube, just doing your whole routine. And I
Speaker 7: studied that ship to the tape. Pop it popped and
Speaker 7: I never got I gotta get that back again.
Speaker 9: But yo, yo, yo, yo, that's crazy you're saying that.
Speaker 9: I mean, you know, see when we when we.
Speaker 10: Treat him like a prostitute, we were already doing that
Speaker 10: and that was going to be the next thing we
Speaker 10: was gonna let out and some other things that we
Speaker 10: had right. But what was crazy is when I hurt
Speaker 10: Jay and them do it with.
Speaker 9: The beat, it changed the whole vibe of it. It
Speaker 9: wasn't like the same or it wasn't the same.
Speaker 7: Yeah, Like I'm probably the only person that like when
Speaker 7: I heard it, I was like, man, I don't want
Speaker 7: it with music.
Speaker 2: I want it with Dougie, right right right.
Speaker 9: But you know it's crazy, it's real like that.
Speaker 10: And that's interesting because, like I said about frequency, going
Speaker 10: back to that, it was a match of a frequency.
Speaker 10: You see, see when you doing the beat box people
Speaker 10: think is easy or simple. It's like the way you
Speaker 10: if you're playing the drums, you're playing to align your
Speaker 10: spirit with the person that you're playing for. You're not
Speaker 10: playing like a drum machine. You're playing like a spirit.
Speaker 10: So when they're doing this and not, you gotta flow.
Speaker 10: So what Lottie Dottie is it's to match, to match
Speaker 10: him and to move with him and to make him
Speaker 10: be the best he can be. It wasn't about me.
Speaker 10: It was about how can how can we make this
Speaker 10: be the best? And I had to match the way
Speaker 10: the energy move. If I don't match the way the
Speaker 10: energy move, you're just liking me.
Speaker 9: But I don't just want you to like me. I
Speaker 9: want you to like what's going on. I want you
Speaker 9: to feel it.
Speaker 10: So it has to move, you know what I mean.
Speaker 10: And that's how that's the reason why I treat him
Speaker 10: like a prostitute lives better than the drum machine.
Speaker 2: Yes, it is how okay, so by September.
Speaker 7: First of all, let me just declare that I probably
Speaker 7: think that the show Lotti Dottie is one of the
Speaker 7: greatest twelve inches of all time.
Speaker 2: For any.
Speaker 7: I'm afraid to ask, I pray the answers. Yes, I
Speaker 7: hope you still own your publishing for Lottie Dotty because
Speaker 7: it's probably the most sampled song of in hip hop history.
Speaker 9: Yes I do, Yes, I do, Yes, I do. But
Speaker 9: not only do I own all of the publishing. I
Speaker 9: made sure Rick owns his publisher and the story and
Speaker 9: the other side of this.
Speaker 10: Story, which only requests love and the Supreme Team could get,
Speaker 10: is when I made the show a quest. When I
Speaker 10: did just having fun, I called it just having fun
Speaker 10: because I was learning about the studio and I knew
Speaker 10: Bobby Robinson wasn't gonna pay nobody, so I wasn't gonna
Speaker 10: try to do everything that I could do with him.
Speaker 9: That was Number one.
Speaker 10: Original human beatbox was with Entertainment Records and Vincent Davis.
Speaker 10: I had an argument with him because I made the
Speaker 10: beat up and he put that bing bing link sound
Speaker 10: in there and it sounded.
Speaker 9: Like I hated it.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 10: You know, I'm gonna tell you, I love the guitars,
Speaker 10: but I hated that sound because I had a different
Speaker 10: idea that I felt was better, and me and him
Speaker 10: got into a conflict, So that vocal was just a practice,
Speaker 10: a rough vocal on what I was getting ready to
Speaker 10: come back and do better. So then I left the
Speaker 10: studio and I started doing shows.
Speaker 9: I stacked up.
Speaker 10: All my money and when I went in there, I
Speaker 10: made the show and Dotty, and when I told Rick
Speaker 10: about the show, he said that idea is whack.
Speaker 9: That ain't gonna work.
Speaker 10: So then I said, Rick, I said, trust me, I
Speaker 10: know what I'm talking about, the same way I told
Speaker 10: you that this beatbox thing is going to work with
Speaker 10: this routine.
Speaker 9: So then what happened.
Speaker 10: He trusted me and we went into the studio and
Speaker 10: I made this show and I made Lottie Dotty. I
Speaker 10: took it the Profile Records. Profile Records heard it. He said,
Speaker 10: this is the worst music I've ever heard. He said,
Speaker 10: who's that guy sounding like that? And what's this little
Speaker 10: clicking sound that I keep hearing in the song?
Speaker 9: So he said it to me and I said, Steve,
Speaker 9: it was it was the owner Coo. So listen to this.
Speaker 9: So afterwards, I said, no problem.
Speaker 10: Now I paid all the money I spent ten I
Speaker 10: had saved the ten grand I went to Daily Planet
Speaker 10: Studio in New York. So then after that I went
Speaker 10: and I said, man, I got to get this record out.
Speaker 10: So I took it to WHBI. Jerry blood Rock played
Speaker 10: it and a couple of other guys started getting the
Speaker 10: crazy buzz. So I went to this label called Dain
Speaker 10: your Records, right, I said, distributed by Fantasy. So when
Speaker 10: I went to him, I said, he said, yo, I
Speaker 10: want to distribute the record for you.
Speaker 9: I said, that's cool, I said, but I'm going to
Speaker 9: own it. He said, well, I want to buy into
Speaker 9: the ownership.
Speaker 10: I said, if you want to buy into the ownership,
Speaker 10: you got to give me the money back that I
Speaker 10: spent and then we can go from there.
Speaker 9: So then what he did is he gave me the
Speaker 9: money back, and then.
Speaker 10: Basically I owned the master, and I brought him in
Speaker 10: and I gave him a piece of the master. So
Speaker 10: in eighty five, I was the first artist to ever
Speaker 10: own their master. You see, but I learned that because
Speaker 10: of what happened over there, and I watched it. So
Speaker 10: when I owned the Master, and I came back, and
Speaker 10: when I gave Rip half of the publishing on the show,
Speaker 10: and we both split high for the publishing on Lottie Dottie,
Speaker 10: and then from there we moved forward.
Speaker 5: And then now, so was that Reality Records? Was that you?
Speaker 5: Was that your Reality Records?
Speaker 9: Yeah? See it went from oh and by the way,
Speaker 9: and every record after that, I owned the master, so
Speaker 9: it was right.
Speaker 10: So what happened is that I was seeing what was
Speaker 10: going on, and you know, I'm like around seventeen years old,
Speaker 10: eighteen years old, but I'm seeing that something just didn't seem.
Speaker 9: Right about how people are owning your master, Like I
Speaker 9: thought that was kind of And then since I spent
Speaker 9: the money, I was like, how you're gonna own it?
Speaker 10: So now the record blows up. I go to Roxy.
Speaker 10: Cory is in Roxy. The record is on fire. I
Speaker 10: mean bro, When I say fire, I mean five y'all.
Speaker 10: So now Corey comes in there and he said, Yo,
Speaker 10: could I talk to you?
Speaker 9: I said sure? He said, Yo, Man, I made a mistake. Man,
Speaker 9: I was wrong.
Speaker 10: He said, Man, this thing I just couldn't see it coming.
Speaker 10: He said, I was just seeing run DMC. I couldn't
Speaker 10: see nothing.
Speaker 9: This was just so unusual, it was so new, it
Speaker 9: was so I didn't know what to think. I said, bro,
Speaker 9: I said, it ain't no problem. I was just giving
Speaker 9: you the first opportunity because you got the label. I said,
Speaker 9: it's okay. He said, Yo, man, is it any way
Speaker 9: that we could do something else?
Speaker 10: Are you signing anybody? I said, well, I got to
Speaker 10: deal with I got my masters, and I'm also with
Speaker 10: the label. But it's a great deal. I got my publisher,
Speaker 10: I got the masters. I said, but maybe we couldn't
Speaker 10: down the road. And then after he got Dana Dan
Speaker 10: because he.
Speaker 9: Wanted to.
Speaker 5: Fame that album right right.
Speaker 9: And we didn't mind because Dana was a part of
Speaker 9: the family. You know what I mean.
Speaker 10: But I'm just showing you how sometimes once again, it's
Speaker 10: back to that fear.
Speaker 9: He told me my record was garbage.
Speaker 7: I was like, okay, so this is this leads to
Speaker 7: my follow up question. You two have undoubtedly created one
Speaker 7: of the and this is not even a thing where
Speaker 7: it's like time has to pass by.
Speaker 2: Before we know it's a classic.
Speaker 7: But it's like y'all just hit us with these two
Speaker 7: singles and then nothing else. Now of course, with you
Speaker 7: like yes, I realized that Oh my god came out
Speaker 7: in eighty six, so you did come up with an album?
Speaker 5: Why they came back?
Speaker 9: They did?
Speaker 5: Sitting in my car? They didn't come back?
Speaker 7: They Yeah, but like, yeah, there were teen years later,
Speaker 7: two years he was going to prison.
Speaker 9: Yeah why why did I know?
Speaker 2: But even before prison, what was happening with Slick Rick
Speaker 2: between nineteen eighty six in nineteen eighty nine, before he
Speaker 2: signed the Deaf Jam, Like why why didn't why capitalize
Speaker 2: on you know, the hottest single, making you guys a unit?
Speaker 2: Like was that just a one off deal?
Speaker 9: And okay, now what happened was is that to the
Speaker 9: blame of us both?
Speaker 10: I felt that once again, like I said, I was
Speaker 10: already established in the street, I was moving around. I
Speaker 10: took Will and Barry and I brought them together and
Speaker 10: that was the first time again.
Speaker 9: With two DJs DJ together at the same time.
Speaker 10: There's never been a crew before the Gift Fresh Crew
Speaker 10: with two DJs DJ at the same time. Get Fresh
Speaker 10: Crew is the foundation to the executioners because that because no,
Speaker 10: I had two sets and they're playing at the same time.
Speaker 10: Not you get on after me. So I was really
Speaker 10: always trying to push something new. The Deep Box was new.
Speaker 10: I had my guys there. I brought Rick in here.
Speaker 10: And what happened with me and Rick was, you know,
Speaker 10: I felt that he was accusing me of doing something
Speaker 10: that I didn't do.
Speaker 9: He was accusing me of not He felt.
Speaker 10: Like I was trying to make all the money of
Speaker 10: something and that's not true. I gave him half of
Speaker 10: the royalty. I gave him half of the publishing.
Speaker 9: I gave him a really good salary while he was
Speaker 9: on the road, and also the other DJs I had
Speaker 9: a manager. I gave him twenty percent. The agent.
Speaker 10: I gave him, you know, the ten percent because he
Speaker 10: was booking the shows all of these different expenses and everybody.
Speaker 9: Had to, you know, get a salary. And on top
Speaker 9: of that, I put him in on what was already
Speaker 9: in motion. And I didn't like how we were. We
Speaker 9: were like this, you know what I'm saying. And then
Speaker 9: when I started to see how people was getting in
Speaker 9: his head and people was coming in trying to.
Speaker 10: Get into my head, I didn't really like the energy.
Speaker 10: So I said, I gotta pull out of this. And
Speaker 10: I didn't want no money. I didn't want no producer
Speaker 10: or no override or no find this speed. I was like, bro,
Speaker 10: you go ahead and do what you gotta do, because
Speaker 10: the energy is not feeling good no more. And I
Speaker 10: think we got too much love for one another for us.
Speaker 10: I felt that the magic were creating is because once
Speaker 10: again he trusted me. I trusted him, and when I
Speaker 10: felt that there was a violation of him trusting me
Speaker 10: bothered me. And I was young and I should have
Speaker 10: just allowed him to express that, but I took it
Speaker 10: personal and I just say, yo, you go do your thing.
Speaker 10: And then when he went over there, Russell sat him
Speaker 10: on the bench for multiple years, And if we're being real,
Speaker 10: it's because you know, at that time, he didn't really
Speaker 10: know what to do with him. And over there depth Jymp,
Speaker 10: everybody was happy, but not so happy because we were
Speaker 10: we were a little bit of a threat to people
Speaker 10: because of the dynamics of all of the things that
Speaker 10: we were bringing together. But I love Rick, so I
Speaker 10: didn't want nothing but the best for him, and I
Speaker 10: just felt like, you know, if the energy is not right,
Speaker 10: it doesn't make sense for us to go any further.
Speaker 7: Was there any conversation or reach out to you to
Speaker 7: do anything on The Great Adventures Life?
Speaker 2: Like did they try to say something or no.
Speaker 9: They tried to. They didn't call me, but they tried to.
Speaker 9: They tried to put me in it because if you
Speaker 9: listen to maybe six or seven eight songs, my voices
Speaker 9: is throughout the whole album. So they're trying to balance
Speaker 9: out the formula of what it was that we created together.
Speaker 9: So when people are listening to that album, they they're
Speaker 9: hearing his brilliance and the excellence of the production, but
Speaker 9: they're also feeling my frequency in there in a subtle way,
Speaker 9: because I'm in there, you know, and I'm in multiple songs.
Speaker 9: So they were trying to figure out how to bring
Speaker 9: him where he needed to be. And I look at
Speaker 9: it like this too.
Speaker 10: To be completely transparent, I think that it was necessary
Speaker 10: because Great Adventures of Slick Rick gave him the platform
Speaker 10: to express things that I think was important for him
Speaker 10: to express, and we probably could have figured it out.
Speaker 10: But I think that would he have been what I
Speaker 10: call the greatest storyteller?
Speaker 9: Could he have been that with me? And could I
Speaker 9: have been the entertainer that.
Speaker 10: I've grown to become, because maybe it would have been
Speaker 10: too much forced from two different you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 10: Two different energies and it would not really have been
Speaker 10: as great as it could have been.
Speaker 9: And you know, I just I just know that.
Speaker 10: Like and then when he was about to go to prison,
Speaker 10: because he knew it was happening, I went up to
Speaker 10: Neurochelle and vance Wright was up there and I said,
Speaker 10: let me hear some of his music, man, and he
Speaker 10: played something in her sitting in my car, and I said, nah,
Speaker 10: y'all got a drum machine.
Speaker 9: Pull that out.
Speaker 10: And he was getting ready to do the same thing
Speaker 10: that he did with jam Master Jay. I said, let
Speaker 10: me do it, and then I put it in there,
Speaker 10: and then I kept the loop in there.
Speaker 9: And then when he got out.
Speaker 10: Of prison after doing a long, long rough ride, I
Speaker 10: was there for him.
Speaker 9: To perform with him when he got out in LA
Speaker 9: and I did that for him to support him, you
Speaker 9: know what I mean. And then I had the Senator
Speaker 9: to go up and you know, make sure you didn't
Speaker 9: get depored in. And then when the Senator became the governor,
Speaker 9: I brought the governor in because I felt like, even
Speaker 9: though we're not together, we're always together.
Speaker 4: All right, y'all. I know you want some more and
Speaker 4: we got it for you.
Speaker 8: That was part one of Quest Love Supreme's interview with
Speaker 8: Dougie Fresh.
Speaker 4: You ready for part two? All right, stay tuned's coming up.
Speaker 5: West.
Speaker 1: Love Supreme is a production of iHeart Radio. For more
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Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite Chills