Speaker 1: Of Course Love Supreme is a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: This classic episode was produced by the team at Pandora.
Speaker 1: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to part two of Quamite's interview
Speaker 1: on QULIS Classic from October two thousand and eighteen. He
Speaker 1: went through so many stories about his childhood and growing
Speaker 1: up in his father's house and then working with Herbie
Speaker 1: love Bug and you know, Atlantic Records and that whole
Speaker 1: like connection with Philly rappers and also the idol majors
Speaker 1: with Salt and pepper Kid and Play and all that stuff.
Speaker 1: You know, so much crazy buckout stories. Hope you enjoy
Speaker 1: Part two of quls Classic and Quamity previously on West
Speaker 1: Love Supreme. Uh, the legendary Qualmine talks about growing up
Speaker 1: in Queens, discovered hip hop and rising and touring with
Speaker 1: the likes of Pepper Kit and play in way all
Speaker 1: that stuff and when you know, we're gonna get into
Speaker 1: that leag thing as well. So here's part two of
Speaker 1: of Course I Love the Supreme with uam Okay. So
Speaker 1: I the one important aspect of your career that we've
Speaker 1: yet to get into, which is very vital to your career,
Speaker 1: is your sense of style and what you brought to it, Um,
Speaker 1: Polka dots, the you know, two tune hair, the crazy
Speaker 1: haircuts and and the kind of the g Q dressing
Speaker 1: like you were. Couldn't get I couldn't get that I
Speaker 1: had a polka dot shirt. My mom on, let me
Speaker 1: get the diamond. She would she wouldn't go, pil you
Speaker 1: don't get a polka dot shirt, wouldn't let me get
Speaker 1: this known Me and Treka brothers like we basically would
Speaker 1: just share three shirts like I had. I had the
Speaker 1: urban now Fitters love shirts doing it yeah me and
Speaker 1: share that shirt the preppy bit of time to the
Speaker 1: Coca Cola sweaters and all that stuff. Like, So, I
Speaker 1: mean your style was definitely it was it was. It
Speaker 1: was preppy and kind of progressive hip like it wasn't
Speaker 1: the street. You know, it wasn't dapper Danish. So what
Speaker 1: made you in the era where Dapper Dan was running
Speaker 1: ship and track suits and you know even with Philly,
Speaker 1: like with Alpianas and you know, the drug dealer looked
Speaker 1: like what made you like, Okay, I'm gonna go with this,
Speaker 1: Like I think, Um, because of my influences and because
Speaker 1: of parental guidance. Actually you know, like one of the
Speaker 1: biggest fights that I ever gotten to what my father
Speaker 1: was the fact that I went and I had a
Speaker 1: job at a sea town actually, and saved up my
Speaker 1: money and bought this fake fat rope. Was sick giant
Speaker 1: fat rope, and my godfather, who was a cop, confiscated
Speaker 1: a beeper and gave it to me. So I had
Speaker 1: the beeper and the fat rope, and my father came
Speaker 1: downstairs and and that was just my rapper constume. And
Speaker 1: my father came into my room, I guess to get
Speaker 1: laundry or whatever he did, and he saw the fat
Speaker 1: rope and the peper and he threw him out. So
Speaker 1: when I came home, like it was my fat rope
Speaker 1: with my peoper, I'm about to go to this party,
Speaker 1: I gotta look like me um, and my Pop's like,
Speaker 1: you're not wearing that ship outside. You're not gonna, you know,
Speaker 1: look like a drug dealer. You know, on my watch,
Speaker 1: you're not doing that. No, But that's what I gotta do.
Speaker 1: That's that's me. That's that's that's I'm a rapper. Said, no,
Speaker 1: you you're like an idiot, you know, like that's not
Speaker 1: even you. You're not You're not from that you wear
Speaker 1: you like to wear suits, you don't even wear eekers,
Speaker 1: you like to wear shoes. You asked me for money
Speaker 1: to buy you know. I definitely was into balleys and
Speaker 1: wing tips and all this stuff. What are you doing?
Speaker 1: You know? And and we got into this knockdown, drag
Speaker 1: out fight, you know, like almost physical, like my pops
Speaker 1: had to like grip me up because I was popping
Speaker 1: so much. Ship like you don't go in my room
Speaker 1: touch my ship, you ship boom, you know what I'm saying. It.
Speaker 1: It was like it was one of those things and
Speaker 1: it was almost like a wake up call because when
Speaker 1: I sat there and I was like, you know, I
Speaker 1: cannot afford Dapa dad mhm. I don't like to be
Speaker 1: fake in any way, shape or form. So I'm walking
Speaker 1: around with this orange, yellow and white looking chain that's
Speaker 1: been turning like the earth, and it's like, you know,
Speaker 1: the beeper don't work. You can't put the four one
Speaker 1: one on the nine one one, and me so like,
Speaker 1: what it's not It's not me, you know. And and
Speaker 1: I like to dress up, but then at the same
Speaker 1: time I know that I'm not I'm a different kid.
Speaker 1: I'm just I'm different, and I don't have a problem
Speaker 1: with expressing that there is a side of me that
Speaker 1: does like some of the hip hop things. So like
Speaker 1: if you look at like, for example, my first album
Speaker 1: cover Boy Jenius, I'm sitting there, I have on a
Speaker 1: preppy Mickey Mouse shirt. Um you know, but I do
Speaker 1: have a sick cable tucked in the shirt. But and
Speaker 1: it was a real one. But that was like saying that, Okay,
Speaker 1: look I can I can go here, but I choose
Speaker 1: to go there, and you know at my nerd uh
Speaker 1: wayfair glasses on, and and it wasn't necessarily a gimmick
Speaker 1: at all. It was just saying that, look, man, I
Speaker 1: gotta set myself apart. Now. The polka dots came in
Speaker 1: three things when I was, like I said, I was
Speaker 1: super big Prince fan, and Prince used to rock these
Speaker 1: Kea outs on the Love Sexy Tour and eighty seven,
Speaker 1: and I just thought it was cool. And I used
Speaker 1: to love the Madhouse album covered with the chick um
Speaker 1: with the polka dot skirt on it, and I just
Speaker 1: wanted her to be my wife, man, I just like
Speaker 1: I know, I wanted them. Yeah yeah, yeah, so so
Speaker 1: I was like, you know, she can be my girlfriend
Speaker 1: and I can just you know, but I can hip
Speaker 1: hop these like polka dots out a little bit. But
Speaker 1: then I'm like an overthinker. So I'm like, you know,
Speaker 1: any time I look at I'm a heavy comic book guy.
Speaker 1: So like anytime somebody has like on polka dots, he's
Speaker 1: either the nerd or the clown or just the the
Speaker 1: weird guy. So I think I'm gonna I like that.
Speaker 1: And like how you said you would share with with Terek,
Speaker 1: I just had one polka shirt I swept and I
Speaker 1: used that like five different ways. It was the shirt
Speaker 1: on my back of the album cover, same shirt. It
Speaker 1: was white, black dots, and I was like, I can
Speaker 1: find so many ways to match black and white. Yeah,
Speaker 1: my my polka dot shirt was black with white dots,
Speaker 1: so I just had my my white shirt black dots.
Speaker 1: I had a black tie with white dots, so if
Speaker 1: I had the shirt in that tie, I could just
Speaker 1: go crazy with the black and white and not spend
Speaker 1: any money. And then in the video it was my
Speaker 1: pajamas and and then on stage it was you know,
Speaker 1: my my stage stuff. But it never went really past
Speaker 1: the first album covered in the video until I did
Speaker 1: my first show, and everybody in the audience had on
Speaker 1: polka dots and streaks in their hair, and so I
Speaker 1: was like, Okay, somebody threw a joke on me, blah
Speaker 1: blah blah, and everywhere I would go, man, who was
Speaker 1: your polka dot? And also I would never shop at
Speaker 1: normal stores. I was shot. There was a store in
Speaker 1: the village called Reminiscence, and Reminiscence only did repro fifties clothes.
Speaker 1: So I bought all my polka dot ties from Reminiscence,
Speaker 1: all my poking out shirts, everything I wore were reproduction
Speaker 1: fifties outfits. And and then whatever thrift store I would
Speaker 1: find whatever. I would get everything from thrift stores and
Speaker 1: not spend. I was not chasing Gucci, I wasn't chasing
Speaker 1: Louis Vatano Dapper Dan, and that just that was it.
Speaker 1: I was like, I'm not gonna do that. I see,
Speaker 1: I can buy an MPC sixty instead of a fat chain.
Speaker 1: I can buy an SP twelve hundred instead of a
Speaker 1: two finger ring. And that's where it's just all snowball
Speaker 1: from how did you sign? Who signed you to your
Speaker 1: first deal to Atlantic? So so Herbie love Bug went
Speaker 1: to Sylvia Rhone and um, so I got this kid
Speaker 1: act blah blah blah, and he you know, the deal
Speaker 1: was met based on the fact that he was going
Speaker 1: to produce me. But Herbie was just so busy. Most
Speaker 1: of the album was already done. I'd saved up my money,
Speaker 1: and um, if anybody who's really deep into hip hop,
Speaker 1: as a guy named Paul C. Paul somewhat, Paul taught
Speaker 1: me how to use the sp twelve and um, well
Speaker 1: basically it was a music It was called the Music
Speaker 1: Building and Queens and um, Paul had a studio, Studio
Speaker 1: twelve twelve, and um, I've saved my money. And I
Speaker 1: found out about it from a mutual friend. And I
Speaker 1: didn't understand what Paul was doing, you know four hip
Speaker 1: hop at the time. I just knew it was a
Speaker 1: place I can record for cheap. So I went there
Speaker 1: and I was like, Um, I got this amount of money,
Speaker 1: how many hours can I get? Eight hours? Cool? When
Speaker 1: can I get it Christmas? What damn midnight to eight
Speaker 1: o'clock in the morning Christmas Day? You want to do it?
Speaker 1: Fucking Yeah? So I went and I did, say five
Speaker 1: of the eight songs on the boy jeans that on
Speaker 1: those eight out because I figured that was all I'm
Speaker 1: gonna get came on. That's that's how the line kind
Speaker 1: of um formed itself because it was like, I gotta
Speaker 1: do this Christmas so so um. But it really didn't
Speaker 1: mean anything because my father was like a devout Muslim,
Speaker 1: so I didn't really celebrate Christmas anyway. So um, I
Speaker 1: did did most of that album there, but gave it
Speaker 1: to Herbie. This was the second demo gave the her
Speaker 1: the first demo he was not rocking with, so I
Speaker 1: gave the second demo and the demo that demo had.
Speaker 1: If anybody's familiar with the album and had the song
Speaker 1: you had the rhythm on it, Um, the mic is mine, UM,
Speaker 1: keep on doing example, Yeah, the first one to use it.
Speaker 1: There was another song called the New Beginning that never
Speaker 1: made the album. Is another song called mind Power that
Speaker 1: didn't make the album. Um, and I want to say
Speaker 1: one more. I came got down. Excuse me, dumb question.
Speaker 1: So how much of your albums do my too? As soon?
Speaker 1: Did you produce everything that you wrapped on? Yeah? So
Speaker 1: so Herbie, so she to Herbie takes it in. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Herbie takes it in and you know, so this is
Speaker 1: what I produced, and so she Sylvia gives me the deal.
Speaker 1: And I didn't have a problem with her be producing
Speaker 1: a record for me because you know, you know, I
Speaker 1: learned from him, so you know, hey, why not, well
Speaker 1: seeing his name on there let me that gave me
Speaker 1: the green lay. I don't know if I've been so
Speaker 1: quick to if you were just you and your name alone.
Speaker 1: The video was dope enough to make me buy it,
Speaker 1: but definitely see yeah, I was like, oh, I gotta
Speaker 1: buy this because back then you brought the Birds of
Speaker 1: a Feather thing and so and then it said produced
Speaker 1: by Herbie loved Buck and the Invincibles. So I was like, yo, man,
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna get no crazy. So now you the Invincibles.
Speaker 1: So who was the Brother's Grim. The Brother's Grim was
Speaker 1: just me and my boy a are out. We used
Speaker 1: to like to come up with a lot of concepts,
Speaker 1: so so so we would just sit around and come
Speaker 1: up with concepts. So just it was just like, you know,
Speaker 1: we're the brothers, Graham and Grim. We we have our
Speaker 1: own we used to have our own little language. And yeah,
Speaker 1: we used to tell Grim's Grims were lies basically, so
Speaker 1: like safe for example, I would say your fante Um
Speaker 1: ninth one that said that you never wrote none of
Speaker 1: your raps and you would be like, we are you
Speaker 1: talking about? I said, no, I don't know. I was.
Speaker 1: I was. I was in a studio and he was
Speaker 1: just talking about talking so greasy about you. Man, I
Speaker 1: don't understand why why would he do that? And we
Speaker 1: would sit there and watch you just get heated. Oh no, no, no,
Speaker 1: I'm talking about We've had like Salt wanting to go
Speaker 1: fight MC light, like like we would be terrible. So
Speaker 1: those were Grims. So when you get to your hottest point,
Speaker 1: we were like Graham. So so that's where the brothers
Speaker 1: Graham came from, because that's all to the point where
Speaker 1: people would be like, look when they come around, don't
Speaker 1: say nothing. Yeah. So that that was how so Sylvia
Speaker 1: got the Um the first demo, and I just spent
Speaker 1: days and days and days waiting for her we to
Speaker 1: show up to give me a record, and I was like, man,
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna finish this ship up myself. And then
Speaker 1: you know, records like and this is how I met
Speaker 1: Slick Rick. For example, sweet thing I did sweet thing
Speaker 1: and then somebody from the studio, and the studio was
Speaker 1: out of a house. It was a regular house in
Speaker 1: racist Bayside Queens like we would I'm talking about. It
Speaker 1: was to the point where it was like old school
Speaker 1: seventies dudes with mullets and muscle cars would get out
Speaker 1: of the town nigger and chase something. We have to
Speaker 1: run into this house. And the house was owned by um,
Speaker 1: a man dave In so it's like a Chinese family.
Speaker 1: So run into the Chinese house. And downstairs was like
Speaker 1: the most incredible history making studio. Also and Pepper Records
Speaker 1: all Kidn't Play records, all of my records, day of
Speaker 1: Dane Records. Everything was made out of this house. And
Speaker 1: Push the bathroom like where they did the yesh it's
Speaker 1: all in the vocals in the bathroom. No, No, we
Speaker 1: had a we had a vocal vocal booth. But then
Speaker 1: there's you know between Herbie's bedroom, which was probably the Push.
Speaker 1: It was probably done there. But um, between Herbie's bedroom
Speaker 1: and this studio and Bayside called Bayside Sound, that's where
Speaker 1: everything was done. And I remember somebody calling me It's
Speaker 1: like yo, um, I think you need to get here quick.
Speaker 1: So I'm running to the studio and I hear a
Speaker 1: beat that sounds like Sweet Thing playing. I'm like, yo'
Speaker 1: jacking my ship. And then I get into the room
Speaker 1: and then you know, we had the two inch tapes,
Speaker 1: so I saw my two inch tape next to theirs,
Speaker 1: so I'm like, oh, somebody's really jacking. So I'm beefing, like, yo,
Speaker 1: who the fun? So this dude is in there producing
Speaker 1: this beat off the Sweet Thing. I'm like, what the
Speaker 1: fun man jacking my ship? And then Dana comes running out. No, no,
Speaker 1: that's Rick man, it's my man, Rick, this slick Rick
Speaker 1: or about to go crazy. I'm like, well, you know,
Speaker 1: just because I was just seeing Flames. Man, my album
Speaker 1: didn't even come out yet, and somebody's trying to jack it.
Speaker 1: And Rick was like, nah, you know he let me here.
Speaker 1: I didn't know, so we're not gonna use this because
Speaker 1: Rick was producing a record for Dana and you know,
Speaker 1: and that's you know, my my introduction to click Rick.
Speaker 1: But um, it was crazy. So so back to the question.
Speaker 1: So Sylvia sign me I was waiting for her read
Speaker 1: to finished producing. I was sixteen, so I had to
Speaker 1: get like I had to go to court and get
Speaker 1: a parental waiver to de sign the deal. Um, and
Speaker 1: I just used to always be at the record label,
Speaker 1: just like a kid, hanging around, like anybody understands Lantic records,
Speaker 1: like running into the office and not this is pre them,
Speaker 1: but running around and I'm running into I'm at Ernigan's
Speaker 1: private office where he had made, serving him breakfast and luncheon,
Speaker 1: like telling him how cool the record label is, and
Speaker 1: he's looking at me like, I don't even know who
Speaker 1: you are. You're signing here? Okay, well, you know, and
Speaker 1: just hanging out with Sylvia, hanging out with the different
Speaker 1: because back then A and rs there were no and
Speaker 1: rs in our age range in any way, shape or form.
Speaker 1: Everybody was like my parents hate you know, like my
Speaker 1: A and R was like the old jazz A and
Speaker 1: our guy who plays an election? Yeah you know, did
Speaker 1: you work with Craig comment at all when he was
Speaker 1: or what about who's that guy? Reef? Oh yeah no,
Speaker 1: so so my and R, Well, Sylvia was in my
Speaker 1: original and and R. And then um, there was a
Speaker 1: guy named Merlin Bob Lecture. Yeah he was, yeah, he was.
Speaker 1: He was under Sylvia. And then when Sylvia and Merlin
Speaker 1: were able to take over. When Silvia was able to
Speaker 1: take over Electra and the change the name to East
Speaker 1: West UM Merlin went with her and I felt like
Speaker 1: mad a bandit. So then my UM and I was
Speaker 1: got named Richard Nash. Richard Nash is now the head
Speaker 1: of promotions at BMG, if I'm not mistaken, But Richard
Speaker 1: Nash was the head of Atlantic and he took my UM.
Speaker 1: He took over, and he used to always confuse me
Speaker 1: with K solo but that's fine, yah. Both He would
Speaker 1: introduce me, this is our our artist case solo, the
Speaker 1: opposite of you and and exactly and and but see
Speaker 1: what they were doing at that time. They were hiring
Speaker 1: house DJs to be a and also Merlin Bob was
Speaker 1: a big house DJ. UM My other and and I
Speaker 1: was a guy named Kevin Woodley. He was a big
Speaker 1: house DJ, and they were bringing them in. And then
Speaker 1: the first hip hop guy that came in was Clark Kent.
Speaker 1: So then they bring Clark Kent in UM, but he
Speaker 1: wasn't UM and and that's when it started to kind
Speaker 1: of start. The industry started turning over, and you're starting
Speaker 1: to let people who actually know the music in into
Speaker 1: the business. Um, but it was real weird. They did
Speaker 1: not understand what to do with my records. They didn't
Speaker 1: really understand how to promote them. I was the first
Speaker 1: you know, solo male act signed. It was me. I
Speaker 1: want to say d O C. But d O C
Speaker 1: was with Priority so it didn't really I mean ruthless,
Speaker 1: so it didn't really count. Um they were handling their
Speaker 1: own stuff. Um M c Light was with first Priority,
Speaker 1: so she was handling her own stuff. But I was
Speaker 1: the one guy directed on Atlantic and it was just like,
Speaker 1: you know, my my publicist was you know, in her
Speaker 1: sixties at the time. Uh, it was just you know,
Speaker 1: it was just figure it out, man. It was real
Speaker 1: when the record became a success. What what was it
Speaker 1: like to be sixteen years old in high school with
Speaker 1: like a hit record. It was weird because by the
Speaker 1: time the record came out, Um, they put me immediately
Speaker 1: on the tour. So I went to like this, I
Speaker 1: don't know why I went to this thing, but I
Speaker 1: went to this alternative school in Bushwick, Brooklyn for like
Speaker 1: bad kids or pregnant teams or kids that risk I
Speaker 1: have to go to work to support a family. And
Speaker 1: but I was like full blown quam at the time,
Speaker 1: so I had to go to this after that neighborhood
Speaker 1: was crazy. The school, I don't know. The school wasn't bad.
Speaker 1: I don't think. I don't know because I wouldn't. I
Speaker 1: didn't see anything. I had security guards and he locked
Speaker 1: me up in this closet to do my work. I
Speaker 1: couldn't interact with the kids. Yeah, so I had to
Speaker 1: be in I'm like, this is whack, and and it was.
Speaker 1: You know, Herbies management company recommended it because Pinderella had
Speaker 1: to go there, so so she went there the year before.
Speaker 1: And you know, I'm like, this is kind of whack.
Speaker 1: And I remember being in my regular high school and
Speaker 1: I would show up. This is pre me realizing who
Speaker 1: I need to be, you know. I I reverted a
Speaker 1: little bit. I got my advanced money, and then I
Speaker 1: reverted to the gold chains and and everything. I would
Speaker 1: like wear my goal chains. Then I would borrow Herbie's
Speaker 1: gold chain. Then I borrowed Herbie's brother gold chain, and
Speaker 1: I reverted to these gold chains. And I would walk
Speaker 1: around school, and they thought I was a drug dealer,
Speaker 1: so they would have they would hire a detective to
Speaker 1: follow me around. And when I found that out. I
Speaker 1: went to the principals office and this is how foul
Speaker 1: this was. Went to the principal's officer and showed him
Speaker 1: to layout of my album cover. I UM showed him
Speaker 1: to contract and said, well, this is what I do.
Speaker 1: I'm after school, I make I recall, I'm recording an album.
Speaker 1: So the principal looked at me and was like, well,
Speaker 1: if you're doing all this, why don't you just drop outation?
Speaker 1: He said, why don't you just drop out? I don't know.
Speaker 1: Why would I do that, I'm saying because I was
Speaker 1: asking for permission to go on this n w A tour.
Speaker 1: And that's like, I know that there's a work study program.
Speaker 1: You know his name, I don't even remember. I don't
Speaker 1: remember half of my teachers na um, And I was like,
Speaker 1: there's a work study program. Why can't I just do that? Now?
Speaker 1: You're gonna be a big star, right, What do you need?
Speaker 1: What do you need this for? You know? And this
Speaker 1: is not the first time my teacher has told me that.
Speaker 1: Pre that, when I was in eighth grade, my math
Speaker 1: teacher was like, why would you go to art school?
Speaker 1: Or you do is sit around and try to wrap
Speaker 1: You're never going to become an artist, you can might
Speaker 1: as well just go to your own school, you know.
Speaker 1: So it's so it shows you like those type of
Speaker 1: teachers that didn't look like me and didn't understand what
Speaker 1: I do or what my perspective was. I was not
Speaker 1: a bad student in any stretch of the imagination. I
Speaker 1: may have been bored half the time so wouldn't show
Speaker 1: up to a class. But anybody to tell you I
Speaker 1: wasn't bad? What was your advance at that time? How
Speaker 1: much did they give you that much? The first album
Speaker 1: cost sixty dollars to make and I got eleven thousand
Speaker 1: out of it. That was my advance eleven I mean
Speaker 1: compared to other eighty nine brothers we heard that was
Speaker 1: Sylvia was sort of nice because Daylight So was there.
Speaker 1: It was supposed to be a UM but that wasn't
Speaker 1: a major label. Oh where do you say that? Because
Speaker 1: I remember that Funky Diva's budget was two point five million.
Speaker 1: That was a lecturer, right, But so sixty and the
Speaker 1: reason it was supposed to be a hundred and twenty
Speaker 1: but it was going to be an ep M. And
Speaker 1: I turned in the remainder of songs and like she
Speaker 1: didn't just giving an album. It's like, you can make
Speaker 1: it album of ween giving no more money. And I
Speaker 1: was like, I just thought the term having an EP.
Speaker 1: I thought that was just whack. I was like, no,
Speaker 1: I want an album. So it was just an eight
Speaker 1: cut album supposed to be five cuts, not turning the
Speaker 1: last three songs? Um, what were the last three you remember?
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't. I think I think UM the
Speaker 1: mamor on a Love Sweet Thing. I don't even remember,
Speaker 1: to be honest, because always they seemed like the dope
Speaker 1: should always come at the end. I was it was
Speaker 1: never the beginning of the and it's just like I
Speaker 1: got three more songs to give you all. It wasn't
Speaker 1: you know. It wasn't like UM recorded in a certain
Speaker 1: way like oh this is the this is the hot one,
Speaker 1: It's the last song that I'm going to record. I don't.
Speaker 1: It wasn't done that way. You didn't even know, like
Speaker 1: what your singer is going to be, like the rhythm,
Speaker 1: did you know? I had no idea. You know, we
Speaker 1: thought the man that we didn't hear. They didn't hear
Speaker 1: a commercial single off of that album. So the most yeah,
Speaker 1: of course, they were definitely looking forward so and I
Speaker 1: was very you know, in the beginning, I was very
Speaker 1: I was into being lyrical um and telling stories and
Speaker 1: and more serious about UM and the many on No.
Speaker 1: One Love was a parody record technically, and I was
Speaker 1: if you look on the on the vinyl, it doesn't
Speaker 1: say it was performed by me. It was a character
Speaker 1: that I had called he Me and he is me,
Speaker 1: so so he Me that was just like a parody
Speaker 1: of just bugging out. That was like a bugout, you know.
Speaker 1: That was like a throwback to Prince when Prince had
Speaker 1: his little coming on. So so he Me was like that,
Speaker 1: and they were like, we want this to be the single.
Speaker 1: I'm like, what, that's a record that's not even supposed
Speaker 1: to be. You're like, now, it's very entertaining. And so
Speaker 1: you know, you can visualize the um and and my
Speaker 1: man Paris Barclay um who like video, Yeah he directed
Speaker 1: the video. Is he still alive? Yeah, Paris is on
Speaker 1: you know, shout to Paris, because you know, Paris is
Speaker 1: dope now, like he he goes in like he's responsible
Speaker 1: for sons of anarchy. Yeah, we gotta get somewhere around away, girl,
Speaker 1: Just because I have never heard anybody talking about her
Speaker 1: in the last two years. Anybody seem big last all
Speaker 1: the time she was at my house, not even a
Speaker 1: year ago. She's in l A Yep, I can she's
Speaker 1: in my neighborhood. I can link check it out. So
Speaker 1: so um so so Paris, you know, me and Paris
Speaker 1: came up with the idea for the Mamory on No.
Speaker 1: One Love and you know you mentioned Malcolm. Malcolm was
Speaker 1: studying under Paris to direct, and so Malcolm wanted to learn.
Speaker 1: So he came on the set and I was like,
Speaker 1: you know, you want to get into videos, like yeah,
Speaker 1: but you gotta let my homeboy Brian in and so
Speaker 1: so this is a random kid like in the beginning,
Speaker 1: you know, in all the faces that you know, and
Speaker 1: it's like a one guy that you don't know and
Speaker 1: that's his homeboy, so you know, because Brian was trying
Speaker 1: to be an actor at the time, so you know,
Speaker 1: it was just but and that was another thing that
Speaker 1: I don't think happens anymore. If you got win that
Speaker 1: there was a video being filmed, everybody showed up, you
Speaker 1: might not be in the video. Like for example, um,
Speaker 1: I remember what E. P. M D record this was,
Speaker 1: But I remember that We've got when that they were
Speaker 1: filming in Central Park. We got to Central Park and
Speaker 1: I remember seeing Malcolm then I'm like, what you're doing here?
Speaker 1: I'm just here and I was like, where's the video? Yo?
Speaker 1: It's underground? Like what yeah? Yeah, So we climbed down
Speaker 1: the sewer. Yeah, and everybody's in this. I'm like, how
Speaker 1: did y'all get a permit in? It was like it
Speaker 1: was like a whole city under Central Park, you know.
Speaker 1: And and I think everybody if you found out that
Speaker 1: there was a video, everybody would show up just you know,
Speaker 1: you may get in, you may not get in it.
Speaker 1: But it was like you know, on set, party it
Speaker 1: all times. So so so, um wait, a question about
Speaker 1: your performances because and sort of slick Rick mode or
Speaker 1: what you were saying your Prince Camille thing, because you
Speaker 1: did these character voices, uh, sometimes using a natural voice,
Speaker 1: sometimes very speeding your higher voice. How would that come
Speaker 1: off in concert? Because I mean sometimes you were like
Speaker 1: three you were like your own muppets almost You're like
Speaker 1: three characters. I would do it. I would just you know,
Speaker 1: um oh, I love you, you know, just saying those voices.
Speaker 1: You know, it was just like you know, I would
Speaker 1: just do it, or but the aid of the audience
Speaker 1: they would know some of those parts too, so so
Speaker 1: um it was never um, I never thought about like that.
Speaker 1: But what's your question? Oh put you on this spot? Yeah,
Speaker 1: this is It has to do with the second album too,
Speaker 1: almost there anyway, So on the second album, you introduced
Speaker 1: me to an album that I actually wouldn't hear for
Speaker 1: another four years. And I want to know if you
Speaker 1: cleared the sample on Skinny Mother. Yeah wait, what how
Speaker 1: Prince you clear George? Okay, but what I want to
Speaker 1: do further, even further than that, he'll out me to use.
Speaker 1: I went prints crazy on my third album, and I
Speaker 1: don't know yet. I don't know who who who called me?
Speaker 1: Two people. I got like super permission from two like
Speaker 1: whoever was running Joe Bett Music. Somebody from Joe Beck
Speaker 1: called my house. My mother answered the phone. Somebody Joe Bett.
Speaker 1: I'm like, wait a minute, like you know what we
Speaker 1: you know, we really like what you're doing. Whatever Joe
Speaker 1: Records you ever want to use, you can you have
Speaker 1: full I'm all right? And Controversy music. I don't know
Speaker 1: who it was. I don't know when they called it
Speaker 1: was like, yo, man, it's not a problem in you know,
Speaker 1: and and you know, my my my experience, you know,
Speaker 1: I think you know, I know you you've had better
Speaker 1: experiences with him than I have. I've never had. I
Speaker 1: don't think I've had a good experience with him. But
Speaker 1: but he allowed me to use music when he wasn't
Speaker 1: allowing anybody to use What does that mean? I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: I mean I never had a good experience Prince, because
Speaker 1: I kind of viewed you as a prince like figure
Speaker 1: because you did it all and I was cool with
Speaker 1: like me and Jerome Benton was super cool. Me and
Speaker 1: Mars were cool, you know. So I don't I don't know.
Speaker 1: And I know that members like Tony m and other
Speaker 1: members of the crew would tell me that they listened
Speaker 1: as a collective listen to my music. So so I
Speaker 1: guess that was in and around. I guess that helped out.
Speaker 1: But like I said, my personal interactions with him personally
Speaker 1: was never like it was not a super dope experience.
Speaker 1: Talking about Tasha, I'm like, I have I have a
Speaker 1: think where I just always keep tabs on, like all
Speaker 1: like obscure army singers. Tasha, this is a very interesting
Speaker 1: story and I never let her live it down. Man
Speaker 1: kid it every time. So Tasha and my girl Angie.
Speaker 1: Angie would later on going to write Empire State of
Speaker 1: Mind the singing part Um but Angie and Tasha Angie
Speaker 1: I used to know my boy alt. Angie introduced me
Speaker 1: to Tasha. I used to think she looked like shot
Speaker 1: and then she said she could sing. So I wanted
Speaker 1: to make like hip hop shot A records. And they
Speaker 1: were a group. I can't remember the group that I
Speaker 1: named them. They were like my version of Salt and
Speaker 1: Pepper but singing and rapping, and I made like the
Speaker 1: worst records for them. They were like the worst. They
Speaker 1: had a single called the mic is My Boyfriend. It
Speaker 1: was like it was like this super whack record. I
Speaker 1: don't know what I was. It was very whack. But
Speaker 1: Only Only You was made for two reasons. One, Vanessa
Speaker 1: Williams was looking for a hip hop dance type record,
Speaker 1: and I wanted to marry Vanessa Williams, so I wrote
Speaker 1: only You for her and our only girl female singer
Speaker 1: and no no, and he goes even bigger thing to
Speaker 1: Sheina Arnold little sisters and they went to school with
Speaker 1: me and Zane Is a incredible singer. So Zany I
Speaker 1: brought Zane from school sin can you sing this song
Speaker 1: I wrote called Only You? So Zany sings only You
Speaker 1: and I want Zanna to be down. But they were
Speaker 1: very religious and their pops was not been the secular music,
Speaker 1: not at all. So the second singer they only knew to.
Speaker 1: The second one was Tasha where from Tasha's from Brooklyn,
Speaker 1: from East flat Bush, Brooklyn. So Tasha comes in and
Speaker 1: if you really listen to Only You, you will hear
Speaker 1: two separate singers. So Tasha's singing, Tasha singing the lead
Speaker 1: and a lot of the ad libs, but the first hook,
Speaker 1: the first hook ad libs is an A and the
Speaker 1: harmonies or is in A and then Josha comes in
Speaker 1: after that. So that I didn't care because it was
Speaker 1: a demo for Vanessa Williams. Wait supposed to say I
Speaker 1: can't and that was comfort. This would have been given
Speaker 1: you the benefit. I don't know what replaced nothing replaced
Speaker 1: it because I missed the album. Okay, so Herbie pretty
Speaker 1: much put me onto it. Excuse me, and Herbie wanted
Speaker 1: I think Herbie wanted me to do it. And then
Speaker 1: he was gonna say he produced it, and so it
Speaker 1: just didn't happen. But then at the same time, radio
Speaker 1: was doing this campaign against rap and they would do
Speaker 1: this thing called the No Rap Work Day was the
Speaker 1: first station, but it was around the country or no
Speaker 1: rap crap yes you know, so so from six am
Speaker 1: to six pm, no rap was allowed. So my thing was, Yo,
Speaker 1: put this record out. Don't say it's a rap record.
Speaker 1: Act like it's an R and B record from Atlantic.
Speaker 1: Um you know, let the arm because because Atlantic was separating,
Speaker 1: it was Atlantic Street in Atlantic Street would do all
Speaker 1: hip hop. Atlantic Proper would do like in the InVogue
Speaker 1: records and everything. So I'm like, no, let the Atlantic
Speaker 1: Proper push this record to radio and let's see what happens.
Speaker 1: Wake up six in the morning. It goes only you.
Speaker 1: So it was just like it was really a social
Speaker 1: social experiment. But back to Tasha, I'm rambling. Um so
Speaker 1: Tasha Sylvia gave Tasha deal. So I go in the
Speaker 1: studio and while I'm recording my second, my third album,
Speaker 1: I'm recording Tasha's album at the same time. UM we
Speaker 1: actually and why you probably saw me in Philly a
Speaker 1: lot uh Stone Creek STUDIOSUM boys man Studios used to
Speaker 1: be a studio called KJIM and I pretty much owned KJIM.
Speaker 1: I had a house in man Young that I rented,
Speaker 1: and I lived in KJM, and you know all the owners,
Speaker 1: you know, we were all good friends. And I was
Speaker 1: doing the two albums, was at the same time, and
Speaker 1: the album got finished. I don't know if it was good,
Speaker 1: and I'm honestly, I can't say if it was good
Speaker 1: because I wasn't like my my boyfriend so but my
Speaker 1: R and B chops wasn't where they like they are now,
Speaker 1: So it was just it wasn't Yeah, yeah, I would
Speaker 1: bring I would bring some you know, like I can't
Speaker 1: play every instrument in the world, so I would bring
Speaker 1: people in. But um, you know, I would play it,
Speaker 1: you know, electronically first and then you know, have somebody
Speaker 1: coming and so so um mainly strings, mainly horns. I
Speaker 1: don't like. I don't like fake strings and horns for nothing,
Speaker 1: and I don't like fake guitars or baits, so you know,
Speaker 1: those four elements always um put in. And then after
Speaker 1: recording that album, Tasha and I were in a relationship,
Speaker 1: and during that we stopped being in a relationship and
Speaker 1: she became she became and you know, she got into
Speaker 1: a high school boyfriend, high school sweetheart and later her husband,
Speaker 1: and so they're in their relationship and he's full roster.
Speaker 1: So she becomes full roster dead in the middle of this.
Speaker 1: What does that mean? What does that tell me? Because
Speaker 1: you know, she starts her you know, she starts coming
Speaker 1: in locks, she starts coming in looking like Freddie from
Speaker 1: different different world and and and um. For me, I
Speaker 1: understood that the nineties were coming in and that was
Speaker 1: the wave. But for me, I was like, yeah, if
Speaker 1: it ain't g Q, it ain't strictly GQ going some fly. Na, man,
Speaker 1: you're looking crazy out here looking. Yeah, I was one
Speaker 1: of them. So um, you know, you know it's like no,
Speaker 1: I don't you know people were, you know, replacing flattops
Speaker 1: for locks. And it was like, no, you gotta gotta
Speaker 1: keep sharp, you know. I was just on my little
Speaker 1: one year dumb stuff. So so she and and and
Speaker 1: you know, nothing against anybody who partakes in in the
Speaker 1: Mary Jane, but I'm not. I don't drink, I don't smoke,
Speaker 1: and I don't want that in my environment, my work environment.
Speaker 1: I want my work environment conducive to how I live
Speaker 1: so I can have the best creative process. That's just me.
Speaker 1: So if you're so so, um, when you're full blown roster,
Speaker 1: your your your outlook is different than that. So we
Speaker 1: started clashing creatively, but we still pushed on. But then
Speaker 1: from roster they became like super saved Christian. So the
Speaker 1: super like I'm talking to about, it's quite a swing,
Speaker 1: but that's that's Tasha. So she knows that I'm I'm
Speaker 1: not saying anything bad about her. She understands that teaser
Speaker 1: every I talked to her all the time. So so
Speaker 1: Tasha becomes you know, the female Jerry Farwell or somebody.
Speaker 1: She's like, she's like a missionary, like everything is God
Speaker 1: is great, Guy is good good cool. No, no, no,
Speaker 1: she's back to so she's like a mix of everything.
Speaker 1: Though actually she's half ross to have Tasha, to have evangelists. So, um,
Speaker 1: the album is done and it's being mastered. At this point,
Speaker 1: her solo album, she calls Sylvia. The Lord tells me
Speaker 1: I cannot move any further Lord with this music, but
Speaker 1: her signature saying something different though I request and my
Speaker 1: church request, let me out of my car track. Yeah,
Speaker 1: m whatever, because you think about it, like this. A
Speaker 1: lot of artists don't seem to understand there are two
Speaker 1: and I think Tsha probably fell into this category. And
Speaker 1: you know, artists will never want to admit it or
Speaker 1: or fear to fear this, but there are certain artists
Speaker 1: that are signed just for a tax right off. A
Speaker 1: label gets a high budget every quarter, so you gotta
Speaker 1: you have to do something that you gotta dump that money. Man.
Speaker 1: So you give me a hundred and twenty grand to
Speaker 1: duke Toosha's album and it don't come out, that is
Speaker 1: a right off. That is a good thing for you
Speaker 1: and your your your your your quarterly balanced because it
Speaker 1: was something you spent. It didn't work cool, but it
Speaker 1: was an expense. It was a loss. And now we
Speaker 1: don't have to pay this much tax, so I think so. So,
Speaker 1: you know, at that time, Sylvie had Keith Sweat, she
Speaker 1: had Gerald Overt, she had Um in Vogue. Um Buster
Speaker 1: was coming in. You know, it's like, you know, and
Speaker 1: and nothing against the music that I did or Tasha,
Speaker 1: but it was just you know, it wasn't it didn't
Speaker 1: It didn't make a dent in her. So but then
Speaker 1: Tasha Um started working for as Cap and became a
Speaker 1: head of special awards at as cap and Um. She
Speaker 1: did that for a while. You know, her and her
Speaker 1: husband got married at a child they opened his dope
Speaker 1: um candy store in Park Slope, Brooklyn called Rappers Delight
Speaker 1: put a dope candy store, you know, you know, and
Speaker 1: that that lasting for a few years and then you know,
Speaker 1: she just she's living life. She you know, she sings
Speaker 1: when she feels like singing, but you know, she just
Speaker 1: she's a mom. Okay, I have a question that concerns
Speaker 1: my group. How did you discover come on when he
Speaker 1: was newborn? You don't know that was a newborn. He
Speaker 1: kind of had a cover of uh, I forget their name.
Speaker 1: They sound like a law for him. So came out
Speaker 1: newborn newborn. I make comal. I'm sorry. Jim Jimmy, well
Speaker 1: he was Jimmy at the time. Dave Howard was Jimmy
Speaker 1: like he was fourtune um, so Jimmy always out well,
Speaker 1: like I said, he was a cute fourteen, he was fourteen.
Speaker 1: I was nineteen so eight yeah, I was like nineteen
Speaker 1: and the owner of Kjim Studios, my man Kurt Kurt Shure.
Speaker 1: Kurt brought the group to me and there was a
Speaker 1: group out of North Philly. He was a young kid
Speaker 1: at the time, he was seven years old, and he
Speaker 1: was a drumming prodigy. His name is Sammy, and Sammy
Speaker 1: was he was a prodigy, and his father was a prodigy,
Speaker 1: Big Sammy, and so they wanted to form a hip
Speaker 1: hop Jackson five things. So it was Sammy on the
Speaker 1: drums and rhyming, and his sister on a keyboard, and
Speaker 1: there was a cousin on the base. No, there was
Speaker 1: a brother, Mike. Mike was on the base, and then
Speaker 1: another cousin played another keyboard, and that was the group.
Speaker 1: But the music didn't wasn't wasn't dope, and they had
Speaker 1: a deal. I can't remember what deal. I think there
Speaker 1: was like tv T. I can't remember what label this was. Um,
Speaker 1: they had a deal, but it just wasn't dope. So
Speaker 1: they brought me in to clean up. They brought me
Speaker 1: in to rewrite all the rhymes, teach him out of rhyme,
Speaker 1: redo all the ideas that they already had relativity, yes, um,
Speaker 1: teach him how to do you know, redo the record?
Speaker 1: So you know, I was the clean up man. But
Speaker 1: the father wasn't having it. He was like I don't
Speaker 1: want to say Joe Jackson, Yo. It was It was different, man.
Speaker 1: It was like that fall in the Love record that
Speaker 1: I did did very well in certain regions. So we
Speaker 1: were performing at six Flags and I would be in
Speaker 1: the group. I would be like how how like how
Speaker 1: you would have like the shot smith on the drum
Speaker 1: machine while the real band I would be like on
Speaker 1: my MPC playing with the band and and probably a
Speaker 1: keyboard here and there, just to keep that element going.
Speaker 1: And they were so afraid of their dad that they
Speaker 1: would perform to the side to him. There would be
Speaker 1: ten thousand people in the audience, but they will performed
Speaker 1: to the dad. And if father would be giving thumbs
Speaker 1: up and thumbs down during the performance, and extremely abusive,
Speaker 1: extremely abusive to the point where he had to get
Speaker 1: dealt with, like between me and the dad, you know.
Speaker 1: And I think my bond would Kamal was based on
Speaker 1: that because we weren't when Camal. Kamal was on the guitar,
Speaker 1: so when he was brought in he was the guitar
Speaker 1: player slash barber. He played guitar with us sometimes before.
Speaker 1: So Kamal and I bonded because we were we were
Speaker 1: the outside guys. We weren't in their family, so it
Speaker 1: would be like, yo, man, did you see what the
Speaker 1: pops just did to the brothers, like you know, and
Speaker 1: and and I kind of like gripped him up like
Speaker 1: little brother, you know what I'm saying. And and um
Speaker 1: and and that's how we we bonded from that group,
Speaker 1: because we would go on the road like and and
Speaker 1: like Gilly the kids. Pops was down with the whole
Speaker 1: thing too, so young Gilly would be around like kid, um,
Speaker 1: you know. So so it would be like and you know,
Speaker 1: the rest rest in peace because all the Sammy's dead,
Speaker 1: so I can tell the story. Um, we were being
Speaker 1: kjim and I remember, you know, they were getting their
Speaker 1: advance and the father had no teeth in his mouth.
Speaker 1: Father would come and like, you know, man, you know,
Speaker 1: we write these records and we do these things man,
Speaker 1: and you know, um, you know, I like the fact
Speaker 1: that you came in with your published with your records
Speaker 1: and everything. But you know, I gotta say I wrote
Speaker 1: them records, man, Like well, first of all, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm not homie from down the block, you know, Like
Speaker 1: I do have a name to myself, you know, So
Speaker 1: let's let's not forget this second of all, there's no
Speaker 1: way you're gonna get my publishing. Oh man, I'm getting
Speaker 1: that published. And you ain't gonna leave the studio without
Speaker 1: it a word. So we get to rumble and in
Speaker 1: the studio what so like you very much? So I
Speaker 1: don't you know, but but so we're we're in the
Speaker 1: studio and and it doesn't turn out well for Sammy.
Speaker 1: But the funny thing is we have to go on
Speaker 1: tour the next day, so I wish I could find
Speaker 1: this video. We're sitting on the plane, Sammy got the
Speaker 1: busted lip. I gotta busted lip. We're all sitting there
Speaker 1: like the next thing we gotta do is uh six
Speaker 1: Flags show? And then I was like why am I
Speaker 1: and me? And Kamal was like why are you even here?
Speaker 1: Like why are you even dealing with this? And I'm
Speaker 1: like why are you dealing with this? And then I
Speaker 1: remember he called me up one day He's like yo,
Speaker 1: man being another group what He's like, you're the route,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be in the boots like yeah right, And
Speaker 1: I remember he gave me the call the day whatever
Speaker 1: whatever y'all did. Yeah that that because a matter of fact,
Speaker 1: me and him. I went to see y'all at the
Speaker 1: track of Darrow I believe opening for Trip Yeah, and
Speaker 1: I was like, Yo, that is the dope group. It's like, yeah, man,
Speaker 1: they do sheep and so for them to tell me,
Speaker 1: for him to call me, it's like maybe they group
Speaker 1: be seen. Yo, I'm in that group now, And I'm like, sure,
Speaker 1: that's what you want to do? You know? Is there
Speaker 1: anything like Newborn Now? It's like the real everybody knows
Speaker 1: how to play the music, you know, not like just
Speaker 1: one person. So so you know, you know, that's how
Speaker 1: you know we our bond is you know, our bond
Speaker 1: is that old. So now you know why I hang
Speaker 1: out backstage. You've seen me when I'm doing I'm gonna
Speaker 1: I'm gonna ask this question from a different angle. All right.
Speaker 1: Have you and Biggie ever had a sit down or
Speaker 1: talk before? Never? Yes? Oh more than that? What was
Speaker 1: huh Olive branch or can you tell us you made
Speaker 1: you made a record on him? No? I never. I
Speaker 1: never made a record video on Biggie. But the video
Speaker 1: had visuals that that record was done, right, it was
Speaker 1: like a year before Ready to that even came out.
Speaker 1: That record was done. Um, going through a real whack
Speaker 1: period on a real whack independent label. And yeah, it's
Speaker 1: that was the that that experience as a movie in itself.
Speaker 1: Atlanta Kenna saw Georgia and it was it was run
Speaker 1: by an old English, proper englishman named John. And John
Speaker 1: would sip his tea every day at four o'clock and yeah,
Speaker 1: and he would tell us what to you know, we
Speaker 1: do not want samples on this record. We would like
Speaker 1: you to like, oh your life instrumenttion and you know,
Speaker 1: very proper, and you know, you were going to John's
Speaker 1: office and you're like in somewhere in Surrey, somewhere. You know,
Speaker 1: it wasn't like anything. You didn't even think you were in.
Speaker 1: Georgia had like toy trains and weird stuff. So but
Speaker 1: so we do this in your bond record. This is
Speaker 1: the Incognito. Yes, Incognito album actually my favorite, one of
Speaker 1: my favorite productions, honestly because I was forced to learn
Speaker 1: not to sample, you know, I was forced to bring
Speaker 1: in a lot of live instrumentation and and and singers
Speaker 1: and just re imagine things that I could have easily sampled.
Speaker 1: And it was like, now now I'm gonna go in
Speaker 1: and actually be a producer that I did. I become
Speaker 1: so um so with big I never took it personally.
Speaker 1: Somebody sent me the tape, a tape of the song
Speaker 1: like maybe six months before a record came out. I
Speaker 1: thought it dope, But I love the record. I love
Speaker 1: Unbelievable and I think people made it bigger than what
Speaker 1: it was because the wave change so drastic that whatever
Speaker 1: bad Boy said or whatever death Row said was long.
Speaker 1: So here you go somebody like me. You know, I
Speaker 1: have no beef with nobody. You know, I'm not that
Speaker 1: type of guy in any way, shape or form, you know,
Speaker 1: for the most part, and and everything that I represented
Speaker 1: was about, you know, just being laid back, cool, fun,
Speaker 1: having fun, blah blah blah. So then you have Biggie
Speaker 1: come out say that, you know, my style in life
Speaker 1: has played out like the Polka dozs blah blah blah.
Speaker 1: It's cool. But then people take that literally. You know,
Speaker 1: it's like it was a literal thing. I would come
Speaker 1: something going somewhere and it's like I don't let quam
Speaker 1: and he's played out, like what stupid sh like that?
Speaker 1: So Incognito album comes out, and my only way to
Speaker 1: address it, because this is not like the land of
Speaker 1: you know, you can make an album. You know, you
Speaker 1: have forty eight hours to respond. You know, that doesn't
Speaker 1: happen in so it's like I gotta go and make
Speaker 1: a record, you know what I'm saying. I gotta make
Speaker 1: a whole full record and get it pressed up and
Speaker 1: hand it to DJ. You know, like I don't have
Speaker 1: time or money for that, you know. Um, So the
Speaker 1: only way to respond some way is to put a
Speaker 1: Biggie look alike in the What's It Like? Video? And
Speaker 1: it was just him in the background and people throwing
Speaker 1: stuff at him while he was on stage in the
Speaker 1: in the in his shirt said sad boy or whatever.
Speaker 1: And the thing was, Biggie was so hot at the time.
Speaker 1: Even the extras was not trying to do it. It
Speaker 1: was like, yeo, man, we can't do that, man, you know,
Speaker 1: if we come in here. They thought everything he said
Speaker 1: was like, really he might shoot us, man, he might,
Speaker 1: you know, like they were so brainwashed, and some people
Speaker 1: still are, you know, like you know, it's like he's
Speaker 1: got to a lot of people, so you know, the
Speaker 1: brainwash was serious. So there was this thing if you actually,
Speaker 1: if you listen to reasonable doubt, there's a skit in
Speaker 1: the lady named Maria Davis, and she does a thing
Speaker 1: called Mad Wednesdays. So that's a real thing, so Mad Wednesdays.
Speaker 1: So on Mad Wednesday, I was supposed to perform. Was
Speaker 1: Big he's supposed to perform, Dave? Or was he just there? Yeah?
Speaker 1: So everybody came out to see to see me before,
Speaker 1: and Big was there. I mean and say anything, put
Speaker 1: my just like straight instigated it. Man. She was like,
Speaker 1: you here, bigg he's here. Why don't you just deal
Speaker 1: with it now? Oh my god, you don't want you
Speaker 1: deal with it now? Why don't you'll just deal with
Speaker 1: it now? Just you know how y'all want to do it.
Speaker 1: Y'all can take it to the stage. I can take
Speaker 1: it outside. How y'all want to do it, But y'are
Speaker 1: both here. We can't have you're both here and have
Speaker 1: this issue. So it's so funny because it's like, come
Speaker 1: in full I'm still me. So I'm in a remember
Speaker 1: exactly what I was when I was in a full
Speaker 1: black like Almani suit with slip slip ons and a
Speaker 1: black turtleneck looking like shaft. And I remember Bigg and
Speaker 1: one of those nasty looking cooljie sweaters, and he came
Speaker 1: over and he's like five times bigger than me. I'm
Speaker 1: like only five six, so he's like six two six three.
Speaker 1: He comes over and he's rolling like the biggest blunt
Speaker 1: I've ever seen in my life. It was like the
Speaker 1: size of this microphone is roll Like, you gotta problem
Speaker 1: with me? I was like, no, you gotta problem with
Speaker 1: So we're in they're talking and I'm like, what am
Speaker 1: I gonna do with this big This big motherfucker's gonna
Speaker 1: kill me and all his boys on And the funny
Speaker 1: thing is I know so many people from so many places,
Speaker 1: which is a good thing. Like a lot of the
Speaker 1: people that's from his area I knew. So it was
Speaker 1: like it was just weird to know that I just
Speaker 1: had a problem with this guy for no real reason. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I world just like he said things like that about
Speaker 1: so many people on that album. But I don't know
Speaker 1: how I caught that bullet. So we're in there just
Speaker 1: popping shipped to each other, and I remember little Seeds
Speaker 1: came in between us. Man, I think Clay, that's supposed
Speaker 1: to be loving you and being and all, it's just
Speaker 1: all this commotion. Remember the dudes that I was with,
Speaker 1: I'm naming no names. I'm not gonna say you, Dave,
Speaker 1: where are you there? Where are you there? So back
Speaker 1: to yo, I never knew that the two guys that
Speaker 1: I was with knew how the moon walk so well,
Speaker 1: oh no, oh my god, there was moonwalking and and
Speaker 1: so it's just me in a suit, biggie and every
Speaker 1: person in Brooklyn, everybody in the seven one area code
Speaker 1: was right there. And I was like, this is some ship.
Speaker 1: What am I going to do? So so so so
Speaker 1: then it turned into y'all not gonna fuck this place up.
Speaker 1: Buff y'all get the funk out. So they kicked him
Speaker 1: out the front to kick me off the back. And
Speaker 1: luckily I knew the area very well, all angles, just
Speaker 1: Brooklyn dudes and all. And I was like, oh, man,
Speaker 1: am I gonna I can talk my way out of anything?
Speaker 1: But I don't think I could talk my way out
Speaker 1: of But I don't know if it would have came
Speaker 1: down to it, but yo, my ninja skills was on
Speaker 1: ten billion, and yeo, man I there you go, and
Speaker 1: and and and that was and then I think I
Speaker 1: saw and it was always weird moments like that that
Speaker 1: I would run into him. Like one time I was
Speaker 1: in his neighborhood with a girl and it was in
Speaker 1: the million of the night. We're walking down the street
Speaker 1: by BAM music by Bam in Brooklyn, and there was
Speaker 1: like this little alley between right when you get Flatbush
Speaker 1: and Fulton, there's like a small alley, and I decided
Speaker 1: to cut down the alley. In the alley is Biggie
Speaker 1: and his boys. I'm like, but I knew. I knew
Speaker 1: the car that he drove, you know, I knew. So
Speaker 1: his head was turned and I was just like like, man,
Speaker 1: I'm just not going to deal with this man, uh exactly,
Speaker 1: you know. And it was it was always something like that.
Speaker 1: Or it would be like in a party, like there
Speaker 1: was the next time I was in the party and
Speaker 1: I'm trying to cut through the party and I go
Speaker 1: through the shortcut one into its just me and him.
Speaker 1: He's like he just it was just so fucking funny.
Speaker 1: We just laughed and then I just walked the other
Speaker 1: way and he was you know, it was just those
Speaker 1: kind of kind of experiences and and it's just so
Speaker 1: weird because I was super cool with puff and and
Speaker 1: and we never really addressed it. But then we ended
Speaker 1: up working together at time. You know, I've ended up
Speaker 1: working with everybody pretty much around the situation. So it's
Speaker 1: just like I think it was just more of a
Speaker 1: trump up. Well, I thank you, because at the end
Speaker 1: of the what They Do video, he was after He's like, yo,
Speaker 1: the nickel with the stick. I'm gonna sum up. He
Speaker 1: said that he told Dreams hated that old nickel with
Speaker 1: the stick, and we specified with the stick acord for him. Wow.
Speaker 1: So y'all never talked like y'all never like I guess squat.
Speaker 1: It just kind of just faded away whatever. They just
Speaker 1: boot walked right out and got my I got my
Speaker 1: my my Billy Jean jacket on my little boa time. Okay,
Speaker 1: so before we close, because I feel like the world
Speaker 1: really doesn't know. You didn't go anywhere, but you elevate
Speaker 1: it to the next level of production. So was it
Speaker 1: just a do or die moment for you? Like I
Speaker 1: used to go out like I am you know what
Speaker 1: I think? Um? For me, music is just m It's
Speaker 1: not just what I do. You know a lot of
Speaker 1: people like you don't you know, it's not who you are,
Speaker 1: it's what you do. Know. For me, being creative. Doing
Speaker 1: music in some shape or form is pretty much my
Speaker 1: full makeup. And so you perplexed when people because I'm
Speaker 1: certain that people see you as cooment, like ye know,
Speaker 1: what the hell you've been like whatever he fell up
Speaker 1: and like when you say like no, I'm K one Mill,
Speaker 1: no is it like it's not even that because like
Speaker 1: the K one thing that that that probably lasted two records,
Speaker 1: and it was because somebody talked me into like, yo,
Speaker 1: your name is mud Man, you gotta you gotta switch
Speaker 1: that you were producing No, so it was like the
Speaker 1: Lloyd Banks on Fire and I did a group of records.
Speaker 1: I did a Mary J. Blige record on her Normal
Speaker 1: Drama album and to l O Cool J Records, so
Speaker 1: four records and all in total. Tweet that yeah. So
Speaker 1: so after after that it came I love her Joo
Speaker 1: is actually dope her Week and rendition. I heard that
Speaker 1: first album. I remember we put it on like what yeah.
Speaker 1: So I think one of the the changing points to
Speaker 1: not use k Kane one Mill is LLL. When I
Speaker 1: got to the studio, You're like why are you here?
Speaker 1: And I was like, because I'm doing the record, and
Speaker 1: like I'm on the record. With him and the whole thing.
Speaker 1: He's like, wait, that's you. He's like, why are you
Speaker 1: what the fund is that? K one mill? Like what
Speaker 1: the hell is that? And then you know, it was
Speaker 1: like you know what, yeah, and I'm like, you know,
Speaker 1: why am I allowing? Why am I allowing others? And
Speaker 1: and and it was done. It wasn't done in malice,
Speaker 1: you know, shouts to my man Ron Lawrence, because he
Speaker 1: Ron Lawrence. Yes, I'm in, I'm in wrong. He's from
Speaker 1: my neighborhood as well. And he pretty much put me
Speaker 1: back in. You know what I'm saying. He threw his
Speaker 1: through his connections and his production. He put me back in.
Speaker 1: But he was like, yo, man, don't use quam a
Speaker 1: because people they're associated with something old and go by
Speaker 1: K one mill and K one mill was a joke.
Speaker 1: Actually it was me playing around on the microphone. I
Speaker 1: was acting like a robot. I am K one mail
Speaker 1: and I'm here too. It was that that's literally what
Speaker 1: I was doing, bugging out and so um. So that
Speaker 1: turned into when l was saying that and didn't realize
Speaker 1: that I was there. I was like, look, man, I can't,
Speaker 1: I can't I am who I am? And and I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna allow things to cut that short. So either
Speaker 1: you're gonna accept this music if you don't accept the brand,
Speaker 1: I can't. I just guess this is not for me.
Speaker 1: But the music should be able to speak for itself.
Speaker 1: And and I never wanted to be the producer that
Speaker 1: just did one type of genre, one type of artists.
Speaker 1: So I would you know, I'm doing say Switch from
Speaker 1: Will Smith and you know that record Criminal but it
Speaker 1: was a number one countries. You know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: you know, and and and and people every but he
Speaker 1: told me, don't do that. It'll destroy your life, like
Speaker 1: changed my life, you know. But so you have Switched
Speaker 1: on one side, with Lloyd Banks on the other side,
Speaker 1: and then you have tweet over here. And then then
Speaker 1: I do a Christina Aguilera record and a Pussycat Dolls
Speaker 1: record and the Mary J. Blige record, and then you know,
Speaker 1: they'll they'll be things for movies like Step Up and
Speaker 1: you know, just little things falling in to too. It's places,
Speaker 1: and um, you have we had music in that HBO
Speaker 1: movie Dancing in September. That was the first thing that
Speaker 1: was the first thing that you know that was like
Speaker 1: actually like kind of like my coming trying to really
Speaker 1: really come back, and it was dominated for emmy foot,
Speaker 1: you know. So it was one It was like Bamboozoo.
Speaker 1: Nicole are Parker was in it and uh and your boy.
Speaker 1: Um that was on grades but got fired. Um asaia
Speaker 1: asaia Watchington. Yeah, I think that take place in Baltimore. Now,
Speaker 1: she just run Baltimore. There was like a TV and
Speaker 1: we forgot something. We skipped over something major. Okay, what poison?
Speaker 1: Excuse me? Wait what excuse me? What are you saying?
Speaker 1: What are you saying? You wrote that right? I wrote?
Speaker 1: I wrote, I wrote, um, I wrote, technically wrote the
Speaker 1: rhymes and then it just turned into Ronnie de Vot's rhyme.
Speaker 1: But it was wait what Yeah, it was the funny
Speaker 1: thing I never told anybody because so so the secretary me,
Speaker 1: this is the weird story. I was in l A.
Speaker 1: I was staying in like that that that summer I
Speaker 1: lived in l A. One house party was being filmed
Speaker 1: and I ended up not doing anything but messing around
Speaker 1: with chicks. So this is one girl I was dealing with,
Speaker 1: and it was just it was so weird. Man. I
Speaker 1: was like staying at this girl's house and she had
Speaker 1: a job, so I would like she would just leave
Speaker 1: me in her house with a little brother. And then
Speaker 1: a brother was like, hey man, you're like new addition. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I guess, so you want to meet him? Sure, so
Speaker 1: he takes me to Ralph's house. Shall we go to ralsehouse? Like,
Speaker 1: so we go to Ralph's house. We're all in the
Speaker 1: valley somewhere. I have no idea where I'm at. I
Speaker 1: cannot because I was staying at this this apartment complex
Speaker 1: called Oakwood. So Oakwood was in in proper l A
Speaker 1: and I was somewhere out in the valley. I have
Speaker 1: no idea because I had to wait for her to
Speaker 1: come home and take me back. So so the so
Speaker 1: the brother takes me to Ralph's house. So I spend
Speaker 1: like half the morning me and Ralph just chopping up,
Speaker 1: getting super cool talking and everything. And he say, hey,
Speaker 1: you want to meet the rest of you guys. So
Speaker 1: then we go to this other house in the hills
Speaker 1: and Ronnie, Ricky and um Um you know Ronnie and
Speaker 1: Ricky were living together. Mike was there. So everybody's playing
Speaker 1: sega all day. So then Michael was like, hey, man,
Speaker 1: you want to hang out tonight? I'm like, sure, sure,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna let you hear some stuff because we're all
Speaker 1: gonna be a group. Who's the group us three, We're
Speaker 1: gonna be a group, yo. Man. I was like, get
Speaker 1: the two nights. I was like, man, y'are bugging. What's
Speaker 1: the name is? Go bbd yo exactly. So, so that night, me, Mike, Dana, Dane,
Speaker 1: and our homeboy Dug well In. He had a Jeep Cherokee,
Speaker 1: brand new Jeep Cherokee. We thought it was the dopest
Speaker 1: car in the world. And we're driving to this club
Speaker 1: called the Palladium and he puts on the demo the
Speaker 1: beat of Poison, and I was like, y'all just jacked
Speaker 1: only you. That's almost like and and so I'm like,
Speaker 1: all right, they get me. You should write some rind
Speaker 1: for us. And I heard like it was like a
Speaker 1: loose singing, and I'm like, this is the worst thing.
Speaker 1: And that was kind of offended because the beat reminded
Speaker 1: me only you. So I was just like, I was like,
Speaker 1: give me a napkin. So in the napkin like poison,
Speaker 1: deadly moving and slow looking for a mellow you don't
Speaker 1: know how money. I was like, here this will never
Speaker 1: come out, and I was like, play the beat, this
Speaker 1: is how you say it, you know, I said it
Speaker 1: to the beat, and it was like, hey man, I
Speaker 1: think I got I think I got it. And the
Speaker 1: next year and you didn't ask any publishing and that
Speaker 1: like that, please tell me you did. It worked out
Speaker 1: after the but on the album it just says thanks,
Speaker 1: but technically I have a technically can you can? You
Speaker 1: You could live off of this this song alone? And
Speaker 1: I already learned in previous episodes that when there's more
Speaker 1: than one unless you publishing, okay, so okay, you sneak
Speaker 1: money money? Did you say sneak? Ali Willis? Yeah, she
Speaker 1: was the worst example. She really did. She waited and
Speaker 1: do you know Ali Willis, She wrote September she was
Speaker 1: the black whisper, the black barbecue whisper. Automatic. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: love Automatical friends the friends no seriously colored purple. The
Speaker 1: lyrics to Automatic are incredible, Like I love that song
Speaker 1: Pointer Sisters Automatic, Yes, just making sure automatic lyrics. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Neutron dance. Yeah, maybe I was wrong something about Automat
Speaker 1: I love that and um but um yeah. So that's
Speaker 1: how that's how poison I was. I was in the video.
Speaker 1: I was at the video. I didn't get in the video.
Speaker 1: I can't believe you didn't know that. Matter of fact,
Speaker 1: the girl I was messing with was the poison girl.
Speaker 1: I was like making sure, yo, y'all, just you know
Speaker 1: you can sing about her. But but are there any
Speaker 1: other ghost weird stories that I don't know that on
Speaker 1: that level? No, I don't. I don't think so, I
Speaker 1: don't know. Do you ask the random so Ben Diesel
Speaker 1: was the cousin, but he didn't help you get out?
Speaker 1: Was your cousin? Yeah, he's my cousin. But he's not
Speaker 1: just the bouncer at the club. I thought it once
Speaker 1: two a time in his life. So would I want
Speaker 1: to call him up to fight nobody? But different die?
Speaker 1: But but he's in. He's in. He's in my nasty video,
Speaker 1: the nasty video. He's dancing. No, he's the boyfriend that
Speaker 1: trying to beat me up in the nasty video. Hold on,
Speaker 1: because that means he has hair, you know, he has
Speaker 1: from us? So we and the funny thing is me
Speaker 1: I was gonna. I was gonna put him before he
Speaker 1: wanted to. Well, he was always acting and stuff. He
Speaker 1: was just a creative guy into the arts and he's
Speaker 1: he's my he's my older cousins and he's not like
Speaker 1: we're not the same age, so they would have to
Speaker 1: watch me and types Um. He has a twin brother.
Speaker 1: Him and his twin brother, I used to always hang out.
Speaker 1: But Paul, his brother, Paul, he's a he's a dope
Speaker 1: video I mean film editor, like trailers and actual films
Speaker 1: like Paul. You look at my Paul vincent Um and
Speaker 1: their younger sister, Samantha. That's she's my so we used
Speaker 1: it more. I need to see this hair texture. Hold On,
Speaker 1: I got to get one of these siblings. Hold On.
Speaker 1: There's a running theme on Cosslet Supreme about a mere
Speaker 1: getting in trouble for records that our guests have done,
Speaker 1: but on this episode, we're gonna do a little different.
Speaker 1: This time. It's me that got in trouble for a
Speaker 1: qualm for a um what I did with a qualm
Speaker 1: a record? My parents got an answering machine shortly after
Speaker 1: the second album came out, and if you know how
Speaker 1: you remember the first album, The second album starts starts
Speaker 1: with quam, leaving an outgoing message welcome to the bony.
Speaker 1: One day when my parents were out. I replaced our
Speaker 1: outgoing voicemail message with kwame. My parents were not pleased. Well,
Speaker 1: that was fucking stupid. Should I do it? That was
Speaker 1: what I mean. It was the first answer machine my
Speaker 1: dad had, you know, some generic, boring outgoing messages like no,
Speaker 1: we can't be lame, like oh wow, we gotta put
Speaker 1: something cool on there, and you that was your outgoing message.
Speaker 1: Was our outgoing message for like an hour. So somebody
Speaker 1: calling like told your mom, like, yo, what is going on?
Speaker 1: They're like, what is It's on your outgoing Like y'all
Speaker 1: need to change that. So, you know, I got on
Speaker 1: punishment for a while. I got the public punishment that
Speaker 1: that ain't weapons. You know, it's funny. I don't I
Speaker 1: can't go back and listen to the old records, not
Speaker 1: that I don't like them, I just just don't listen
Speaker 1: to him. I don't watch videos, I don't watch old records.
Speaker 1: And the only time that the old record will come
Speaker 1: on the mind that I listen to, it's because it's
Speaker 1: it's on Shuffle Shuffle. I thought you're gonna it's on
Speaker 1: Fresh Prince. But you know what, I didn't see that
Speaker 1: episode too, Like ten years after I think Jeffreys dancing
Speaker 1: to it. Yeah. Yeah, it's called the episodes Loving the
Speaker 1: Elevator and then they use it again on another episode.
Speaker 1: But but now those checks were yes, and I bought
Speaker 1: some milk and there was there was some lean years
Speaker 1: and those those uh fresh prince and I let Will know.
Speaker 1: It's like, let me tell you something man Will has
Speaker 1: definitely Will shows up in my life and very pivotal points.
Speaker 1: So so the first time I met Will back of vantage.
Speaker 1: The first time. The first time I met was in
Speaker 1: eight nine and l A and Um I met him.
Speaker 1: He hosted a show. It was me um uh mc
Speaker 1: hammer um, I want to say too short and Tony
Speaker 1: Tony tone and he hosted this show. And it was
Speaker 1: actually that day I met ice Cube. He introduced, Man,
Speaker 1: my name is ice Cube. I was about to say,
Speaker 1: everyone this show those love shirts, but then ice Kid
Speaker 1: came in with a black T shirt, So so I
Speaker 1: was Will saw me in the crowd. I used to
Speaker 1: go out into the crowd and try to get girls,
Speaker 1: and he just saw me in the crowd not be
Speaker 1: as professional as I could be. So I didn't know.
Speaker 1: I didn't know. He's like, yo, let me pull He
Speaker 1: pulled me to side. Let'm talking to you for a second.
Speaker 1: So you gotta understand what you're doing. You know, you
Speaker 1: gotta you don't act like you're better than anybody else,
Speaker 1: but you have to understand that you have to put
Speaker 1: yourself on a level and and and even if you're
Speaker 1: not on that level yet, prepare yourself for the next level.
Speaker 1: And and and prepare yourself to be on the next level.
Speaker 1: You know, like, I'm like, what that's most preaching to me?
Speaker 1: And but he you know, he kept talking, and you know,
Speaker 1: and it it kind of changed my attitude at the time.
Speaker 1: And then he had like this house party and he
Speaker 1: had a house in Gladwin, all right, I think, he said.
Speaker 1: But he has this house and Gladwin, Pennsylvania. And we
Speaker 1: went to the party and he's like, man, you know,
Speaker 1: I want to show you something I don't know, all right,
Speaker 1: So he takes me to like the living room or
Speaker 1: whatever and whatever the grammars he had at this point
Speaker 1: it was I think it's like three at the time.
Speaker 1: He's like, you know, I want you to understand why
Speaker 1: I'm showing you this, he said, because you know, I
Speaker 1: don't know if you'll ever win one, if you ever won't.
Speaker 1: But a lot of times people don't set to achieve
Speaker 1: something because they can't visualize it, they don't see it,
Speaker 1: they don't understand it. So I think that you can
Speaker 1: at some point be able to achieve this. So I
Speaker 1: just wanted you to see what it's, what this is
Speaker 1: and and and understand. He was like, you know, he
Speaker 1: showed me the cribments. Like you know, like a lot
Speaker 1: of rappers they just try to buy chains and cars
Speaker 1: and clothes or whatever. But you know, you know, should
Speaker 1: really point at real estate. You should really point looking
Speaker 1: at you know, understanding what the mortgages. He was just
Speaker 1: doing all this real talking, you know, like preaching fatherly stuff. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and and and well and he was saying that and
Speaker 1: and so that was another point. And then when I
Speaker 1: needed money the most, the Fresh Prince of bel Air
Speaker 1: show did only you and that helped, you know. And
Speaker 1: then um to bring me to another level as a producer.
Speaker 1: He shows up again and he picks switch and you
Speaker 1: know and even recording switch, just having real in depth
Speaker 1: life conversations. Um, you know. And also he had a
Speaker 1: video so Fresh and it was him and Bisin Markey
Speaker 1: and I was like, at a you know, there was.
Speaker 1: Like I said, there was a period of time. It
Speaker 1: was nothing popping, you know, I just I did not
Speaker 1: have any paper. You know. He reached out and said,
Speaker 1: your man getting the video. You know, blah blah blah.
Speaker 1: Um allowed me to be in a video. You know,
Speaker 1: it gave me some you know, some cool exposure. So
Speaker 1: there was always little points of points of light that
Speaker 1: that will will Um put down. So you know, I
Speaker 1: definitely appreciate him for that. You should probably hang out
Speaker 1: with him more often, you know, on the regular. Actually, Okay,
Speaker 1: before I wind up, it's probably my last chance to
Speaker 1: have this moment to ask this question. Oh yeah, dog,
Speaker 1: do you have any Latin Quarter stories? I was waiting
Speaker 1: for this. I don't because I was too young to
Speaker 1: get in there. So so so so Latin. So there
Speaker 1: was three clubs that that meant something, the Latin Quarter,
Speaker 1: the Union Square, and Red Parrot Um Red Parrot that
Speaker 1: was like the Mellie Mail crowd. But you know, you
Speaker 1: hear about the Red Parrot. You gotta go. So I
Speaker 1: was able to. Sometimes I would tag along with Salt
Speaker 1: and Pepper and Herbie and Dana and sneak in places.
Speaker 1: But the Latin Quarter and Union Square that I don't know.
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure you've heard a million stories. But when
Speaker 1: I tell you it's like beyond the thunder Dome, you
Speaker 1: don't yet. I've been. I've been outside the Latin Quarter.
Speaker 1: I've been at the door and the door swings open
Speaker 1: and everybody runs out. But wait outside is probably the
Speaker 1: most We've heard more stories about outside the Latin Quarter
Speaker 1: than probably inside. Outside was grimy, Inside was grimy the eighties. Man,
Speaker 1: Like y'all don't understand New York City in the eighties.
Speaker 1: It's the Latin Quarter. That's the least of your worries,
Speaker 1: like going to a club like they were going to
Speaker 1: the Union Square or even the tunnel, you know, early tunnel.
Speaker 1: It's the train ride home, you know, it's that's the
Speaker 1: that's the that's the Russian Roulette. Yeah, it's the train
Speaker 1: ride home. It's trying to get in, it's trying to
Speaker 1: get out. It's it's yo, man. And and I don't
Speaker 1: understand everybody body played that Russian Roulette. They get their chain,
Speaker 1: they get there whatever. You know, you would get sliced
Speaker 1: for polo, Like if you got on a polo visor,
Speaker 1: you would get lumped and you were fresh all the time,
Speaker 1: so like it wasn't risky for you to be well,
Speaker 1: my fresh was thrift store fresh, so it wasn't like
Speaker 1: we don't want that. But then at the same time,
Speaker 1: like I said, you weren't out, you weren't there would
Speaker 1: be ballets, but then in the thrift store everything else,
Speaker 1: because all the money would be at the battot on
Speaker 1: on the Baalley. So yeah, So so it was never sneakers,
Speaker 1: you know. So you know, like when Jordan's once came,
Speaker 1: it was like the first hundred dollar sneaker. So it
Speaker 1: was like I was not I wasn't doing that. Um,
Speaker 1: but outside of that, it was I'm telling you, man,
Speaker 1: like a shock. I lent him had a goose that
Speaker 1: resembled a polo goose. It was like polio by Ralph Krampton.
Speaker 1: It wasn't me. And and he he got sliced on
Speaker 1: the four train, some shoulder to hit and they sliced them.
Speaker 1: They sliced through the jacket and the slice was so clean.
Speaker 1: He didn't know until he got home and he's like
Speaker 1: they were like, yo, your back is wet. It just
Speaker 1: they sliced it. And I don't know what the commotion was,
Speaker 1: but it was my coat, and so I didn't put
Speaker 1: this way. He told me he got sliced, but he
Speaker 1: never told me he got sliced for my coat, and
Speaker 1: I didn't find out for like years. I was like,
Speaker 1: when are you gonna get my cold back? Oh? Man,
Speaker 1: my mom put it somewhere. I can't find it. He would.
Speaker 1: He was just so ashamed to tell me that that's
Speaker 1: why he got sliced, and I felt terrible. I'm lending
Speaker 1: him my my googles. My mother is like, I bought
Speaker 1: you this coat and you're not. You don't wear it.
Speaker 1: I said, I don't know what the al had it
Speaker 1: stopped lending your clothed Alan, because we used to trade
Speaker 1: like you, you know, like you and we would trade
Speaker 1: clothes and stuff. So that's like how it was going
Speaker 1: to these clubs. So you would literally if you didn't know,
Speaker 1: if you didn't have a crew, it was like the warriors. Man.
Speaker 1: It's like that's the best way to describe it. Like,
Speaker 1: you know, you and your six guys got together. What
Speaker 1: we're gonna do tonight, We're gonna go to Latin Quarters.
Speaker 1: You're ready for this? Will listen to some songs we
Speaker 1: made meet a girl We made dance, but you don't
Speaker 1: know that we are fighting our way out and it's
Speaker 1: gonna be we have to be one for all on
Speaker 1: his train. So it would and and then you know,
Speaker 1: like I said, my age, I'm fifteen, you know, fourteen fifteen,
Speaker 1: Latin clos is really popping. So there's no way I'm
Speaker 1: just going to get in. Um. I wasn't savvy enough
Speaker 1: for the fake guy demon like the fat boys, right, Um,
Speaker 1: I couldn't do that. And Herbie was like, no, man,
Speaker 1: I can't subject you to this like you're you're a
Speaker 1: little kid. You can't do it, man. So we would
Speaker 1: just sneak around. But you know, from okay, that's a
Speaker 1: non Latin quarter story enough to warrant this anything to
Speaker 1: warrant that. It's so it's the perfect conclusion. Ka, man, wow,
Speaker 1: this is way beyond my expectations for this man. It
Speaker 1: was life lessons. It was a journey. It was everything
Speaker 1: that I year old dream come true. Man, I don't
Speaker 1: know Scots who you know. He talks about how like
Speaker 1: you were his favorite rapper and stuff, like me and
Speaker 1: him we talk about it and like I just want
Speaker 1: to just thank you man, like you really you were
Speaker 1: like just the memories I have in my childhood of
Speaker 1: like buying your take. You were my first. You were
Speaker 1: like the only music that my pop's ever bought me.
Speaker 1: You remember when we first met, when was this Sean
Speaker 1: Burke Center, Harlem? It was this was was it that
Speaker 1: thing that like it was like a form or some ship.
Speaker 1: Stop the violence, you know, because there was violence in
Speaker 1: two thousands six. Now I wasn't by It was like
Speaker 1: it was like where we get together to talk about
Speaker 1: like images and media. Like I got super cool night
Speaker 1: from there. And you know, I always thought that y'all
Speaker 1: was like super You know. My thing is it's it's
Speaker 1: cool to meet people on a musical level, but I'm
Speaker 1: more on a personal level and how people are as
Speaker 1: as people. You know, what we do is what we do,
Speaker 1: you know, and it's it's always a matter of opinion
Speaker 1: to whoever listened to it. But when you meet people
Speaker 1: on a personal level, I think that's I just wanted
Speaker 1: to drop down, man, Thank you much appreciated man. The
Speaker 1: same to you, like just just thank you for them
Speaker 1: with certainly inspirational and beautiful music together. Thank you. You
Speaker 1: know that's you know, real quick, I know you want
Speaker 1: to wrap up but you know, luckily, UM, you know,
Speaker 1: I always wanted to control my own music and control
Speaker 1: the fate of my music. Being a producer, you just
Speaker 1: get a check and you don't know which if you're
Speaker 1: number one on the album, number seven on the album,
Speaker 1: you don't know if it's going to be single or not.
Speaker 1: And if it is the single, you don't know. You
Speaker 1: don't know the ins and outs. So UM, I have
Speaker 1: a label, Make Noise, and it's distributed through Caroline Capitol Records,
Speaker 1: and the first artist on that label is Verbing Green
Speaker 1: from Philly and UM and the way that turned out
Speaker 1: it was it's weird because it turned out me trying
Speaker 1: to suggest that she makes a certain type of record
Speaker 1: and she's not being with it at all, and I'm
Speaker 1: sending her tracks and song ideas and everything, and we
Speaker 1: recalled this one record called get Right Back to My
Speaker 1: Baby on them over Frankie Beverley, UM sample and UM,
Speaker 1: I just threw it out there without her knowing, and
Speaker 1: you know, it became it became a barbecue type hit record,
Speaker 1: you know, the piggyback off of the original record, and
Speaker 1: and and it spawned the whole label deal and everything.
Speaker 1: So so you know, I enjoy. I'm at a point
Speaker 1: in my career that I don't know where things are
Speaker 1: gonna go. I don't know if it's gonna be a
Speaker 1: super hit record or whatever. But I'm also at a
Speaker 1: point where my concern isn't there. As long as I
Speaker 1: have an outlet to put something out creative, I don't
Speaker 1: know what's gonna happen. So like with the Vivian records,
Speaker 1: you know, each record that we put out for the
Speaker 1: charts that she's on in the UC charts were like
Speaker 1: number ten, five to three, you know. So so we
Speaker 1: do well in that space, and it's cool. We do great,
Speaker 1: you know, I perform with the band, you know, it's
Speaker 1: it's it's great. You know, we do arenas, we do clubs,
Speaker 1: we do and she's doing more than ball. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: that's another thing. It's like I like, I like live energy,
Speaker 1: like live musical energy. So so it just gives me
Speaker 1: an outlet to to do that amongst you know, the
Speaker 1: other artists that I'll have coming later. But you know,
Speaker 1: there's another artist out of Philly named Michelle Um. She's
Speaker 1: out of Bucks County that that Um more of a pop, pop,
Speaker 1: electoral artist. So that gets me to explore that side
Speaker 1: of UM production as well. So that's that's the next
Speaker 1: situation coming just Michelle. She didn't want to change. Hey man,
Speaker 1: it's the way you're spelling is a my s H
Speaker 1: G L. Hey man, you know, psychological exactly what can
Speaker 1: you do? Man? It's like, you know, I think a name,
Speaker 1: a name definitely is very important. And I think an
Speaker 1: artist before they come out has a million names. So
Speaker 1: if it's Michelle now, it could be poop by the end,
Speaker 1: by the end it comes out, you know. And and
Speaker 1: and I'm glad you guys are saying that. I'm glad
Speaker 1: you guys are you're you're you're saying what you're saying
Speaker 1: because sometimes artists need to hear that. You know, there's
Speaker 1: another rapper. There's another rapper that I work with now
Speaker 1: UM phenomenal rapper, but the stuff isn't not yet. You know,
Speaker 1: he his name his he goes by the name of
Speaker 1: Bobby J. So it's like, why are you using why
Speaker 1: are you saying that there's nothing against me? Because you
Speaker 1: are a great lyricist, you're a great MC. But sometimes
Speaker 1: artists feel like they are married to a name for
Speaker 1: a certain reason, and sometimes it works sometimes we'll hear
Speaker 1: her name and like what but it still works. Like
Speaker 1: when I heard Lady Gaga for the first time, I
Speaker 1: was like, what is that? You know? And it but
Speaker 1: it worked. When I see her, I was like so
Speaker 1: so so you never know where it falls. But it's
Speaker 1: always good for that constructive criticism to hit you, you know,
Speaker 1: because I could have been Jazz kg Q and y'all
Speaker 1: would not been talking about would you be quest for Love?
Speaker 1: What was it? My first question? Question? The rhythm? Well,
Speaker 1: first I was a sample and then I was another
Speaker 1: name that divine technician and brother you know you know, yeah,
Speaker 1: but that's why he left K one. Your name is
Speaker 1: your name, yeah, because you know, like you know and
Speaker 1: out now you don't want to be a real affiliated yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, and that's killing niggas in d C. O
Speaker 1: K two is the mounta that the yo. If you
Speaker 1: ever see somebody in real life on that run, you're
Speaker 1: gonna eat your face. This we did. We did a
Speaker 1: show in d C and these firemen with it. He
Speaker 1: was like, you want to show you something, man. We
Speaker 1: had to stop this guy on K twelve and he
Speaker 1: showed me the video. This dude was butt naked in
Speaker 1: the middle of street doing his crazy dancing and starting
Speaker 1: to roll around. He thought monsters were eating him. That's
Speaker 1: something real. That's it's definitely like me once only had
Speaker 1: brownie too. We no, I just guess, Yeah, it was bad,
Speaker 1: so I have I have a brownie experience. It was
Speaker 1: everything happens in l a. Man. I swear I got
Speaker 1: this weed cookie and I swear like I thought aliens
Speaker 1: were coming to get me. I thought Feds were coming
Speaker 1: to get me. I thought it was like I was
Speaker 1: driving home and I was like super paranoid. I was like,
Speaker 1: if they stopped me and he can check my DNA,
Speaker 1: I wanted to go out. I can't say bad man.
Speaker 1: I was like, I don't know what is the car
Speaker 1: actually dry? I was so fucked up. Many Yeah, I
Speaker 1: want a cookie. Whatever I want. It won't do it again, Steve.
Speaker 1: It won't do it for you, And it's for them
Speaker 1: because they're you know, light weight. What's wrong about is
Speaker 1: there a third story? You got that ben a time
Speaker 1: jack at all? Because Barcelona? I'm sorry you about the
Speaker 1: light weight? What about the hat though? We're can we
Speaker 1: get one of the hats? Um? Actually with the logo,
Speaker 1: what I'm doing it's going to be a thirty anniversary
Speaker 1: of boy Genius coming up next year. So all the
Speaker 1: like paraphernalia like um dad caps, fitted pins, buttons, you know,
Speaker 1: like exclusive um let him in jackets, all that, even
Speaker 1: a BMX bike we're doing. Yeah. Yeah, and the desktop
Speaker 1: that was on the front of that old yeah, that
Speaker 1: old everything. Alright you can find no, let me say
Speaker 1: my social media. I think that's everything. So at at
Speaker 1: um quam a vision on Instagram and kuam a did
Speaker 1: it on Twitter, and I'll post I post a lot.
Speaker 1: So but I'll post, you know, information about the paraphernalia
Speaker 1: and all that kind of stuff. Okay, we will definitely, yeah,
Speaker 1: you will make sure that the socials get all the information. Uh.
Speaker 1: Like I said, it's been real. Thank you man, thank
Speaker 1: you for having me. It's been fun. And as a kid,
Speaker 1: I still getting over the poison. Just where's that napkin
Speaker 1: instag checks playing? Yes, you know what Instagram said that
Speaker 1: I was not worthy of a blue check. Let me
Speaker 1: let me vouch. I'll make some phone call. I got you,
Speaker 1: I got you, all right. Yes, I was just saying
Speaker 1: thank you for company me on all those school bus rides. Yes,
Speaker 1: I'm having a moment. Yeah, I really, Lama, what's that
Speaker 1: dude for me? Back to the damn thanks that straight
Speaker 1: up kids anyway, Steve and then Sugar Networks, Why are
Speaker 1: you hating after that? I'm sorry? Yeahs say that out loud.
Speaker 1: Uh Fontigo, it's like you. It's still like you. Uh
Speaker 1: boss Bill, unpaid Bill, Thank jam Thank you very much.
Speaker 1: We will see you on the next go round of
Speaker 1: coests Love Supreme. My name is courts Love and this
Speaker 1: is Pandora. See you later, m. Courts Love Supreme is
Speaker 1: a production of I Heart Radio. This classic episode was
Speaker 1: produced by the team at Pandora. For more podcasts for
Speaker 1: my heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.