Speaker 1: Quest Love Supreme is a production of I Heart Radio,
Speaker 1: Ladies and Gentlemen. I'm gonna try to save this without
Speaker 1: to bring up, yes, exactly breaking news. I don't have
Speaker 1: kids yet. I will say that I probably I heard that.
Speaker 1: I will probably say that I used my guests as
Speaker 1: an excuse to being with pride. Uh that of that
Speaker 1: of a dad watching uh this kid or older brother
Speaker 1: watching his kid brother shine and in the big game.
Speaker 1: It's it's literally because I've seen this person in his evolution.
Speaker 1: And yes, it's even scary to me. But you know,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna save as much. And this is where I
Speaker 1: get my FiOS. If you are an entertainer or a singer,
Speaker 1: you know, worth your your weight in gold or whatever
Speaker 1: like good. If you even think you're gonna do anything
Speaker 1: creative in this lifetime without this, gentleman, oh ho ho,
Speaker 1: you're sadly mistaken. Um, seriously, I can go through it.
Speaker 1: It will probably take a half hour before I say
Speaker 1: his name, Jill Scott needs work done. Whatever you're calling.
Speaker 1: Adam Blackstone, Demi Levado, Jonas Brothers, Adam Blackstone, Room five,
Speaker 1: Adam Blackstone, Aljabro, Adam Blackstone, Al Green, Adam Blackstone, Who's
Speaker 1: Dr Drake Carl when his Super Bowl time? Adam Blackstone,
Speaker 1: Who's jay Z Carl when it's time for his show
Speaker 1: to be tight? Adam Blackstone. Even the artists now known
Speaker 1: as the unmentionable, Yeah, Adam Blackstone, Janet Jackson, Adam Blackstone, Eminem,
Speaker 1: Queen Latifa, Alicia Keys, timber Lake, Rihanna. Like when you're
Speaker 1: watching the Oscars, even when I accepted my own Oscar,
Speaker 1: when you're watching the Voice, when you're watching the Grammy Awards,
Speaker 1: when you watching the Soul Training Awards, all them specials
Speaker 1: on v H one, on b T, on MTV. Even
Speaker 1: my my boss, Jimmy Fallon uses for that. That's my
Speaker 1: jam the mass singer Adam Blackstone. Let's not forget he's
Speaker 1: currently Yes, he will be an easy egot any day now,
Speaker 1: like he's currently working on his Grammy for his his
Speaker 1: his awesome I didn't even get to talk to you
Speaker 1: about this. I really like legacy, yes, even his awesome
Speaker 1: legacy LP. I just have to say that I don't
Speaker 1: have the worries to express the pride that I have
Speaker 1: for my guest. I'm sorry to use the entire ninety
Speaker 1: minutes to brag about our guest today, Adam Blackstone on
Speaker 1: Quest Left Supreme. I am wonderful. That was the best
Speaker 1: introduction ever. I'm trying, man, you know you you deserve
Speaker 1: your your past flowers. Man, you're like you're I think
Speaker 1: everybody needs to know that the artists that you name
Speaker 1: for me came from you. Not no, not even like
Speaker 1: your your reputation. Like I remember the day that Um
Speaker 1: and Rest in peace room five manager um Jordan's Yes,
Speaker 1: when Jordan's hit me up, you know about adding some
Speaker 1: spices to the group and arrangement whatnot. I don't know, man,
Speaker 1: Like for you, I'm I'm in all because of all
Speaker 1: levels of creativity, I say, even though people will say,
Speaker 1: like the greatest strength of my career or my legacy
Speaker 1: of course is the roots live show. The pressure that
Speaker 1: it takes to think of ideas to spice up someone's
Speaker 1: live show, man is like, I don't know, I don't
Speaker 1: know how you do it. I will say that it's
Speaker 1: one of the most things English jobs, because no one
Speaker 1: ever thinks about what the music director has to go.
Speaker 1: It's a it's a beast. Yeah, And and you know,
Speaker 1: I have so many questions to ask you, so thank you.
Speaker 1: I'm I'm glad we finally got to take time out
Speaker 1: to do this. Where are you hitting me from? Right now?
Speaker 1: We are in Las Vegas right now working on the
Speaker 1: Soul Train Awards. Um left just left, which I didn't
Speaker 1: see you at. We're gonna talk about that too. Rock
Speaker 1: and Roll Hall of Fame Saturday. How was it? It
Speaker 1: was really good? Man any Lennox asked me to move
Speaker 1: to London where her you know, don't tell my wife,
Speaker 1: but nice, nice honored the Rhythmicsma Lewis right, Harley Simon
Speaker 1: and Eminem and Lionel dolly Parton really did line perform
Speaker 1: with you guys? He did? We did Hello easy and
Speaker 1: all night long? Was crazy? Bro Yo? Can I ask you,
Speaker 1: Adam because you did a few things leading up and
Speaker 1: even though you didn't invite me and Jimmy Jam, did
Speaker 1: you did this nice? Uh tribute to Jimmy Jam and Terry.
Speaker 1: I just wanted this to be in the big quest
Speaker 1: love letters like you are invited to my life. Okay,
Speaker 1: well that's did you know about the jam session? When
Speaker 1: Jimmy Jam told me after the fact, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: I went So that's when my question was because he
Speaker 1: did this jam section with a lot of kind of
Speaker 1: maybe unknown singers that were very dope that did like
Speaker 1: all these Jimmy and Terry songs. And I kind of
Speaker 1: want you to talk about that too. Yeah, I will
Speaker 1: say that the night after. It's rare that Sean g
Speaker 1: uh Supermanager Live Nation Executive. It is rare that Sean
Speaker 1: G will ever the house that too. But it's rare,
Speaker 1: like Sean is a family man. But I will say
Speaker 1: that if we get a text from Sean G eleven
Speaker 1: o'clock East Coast standard time, like he's basically off the
Speaker 1: clock after five p m. He couldn't stop talking about
Speaker 1: how much he liked this damn legacy exam. Yeah, exactly,
Speaker 1: that's exactly what I did. And and um, you know,
Speaker 1: cultivating what you Rich Nichols. You know my my father
Speaker 1: in the game, and you know Seauan G have brought
Speaker 1: to me. I brought East Coast vibes to l a man,
Speaker 1: and it was much needed. Like, yes, it's interesting that
Speaker 1: you said you didn't know, but one of the things
Speaker 1: that happened with the Lily before social media it was
Speaker 1: word of mouth. Yeah, yeah, I'm really cultivating that I
Speaker 1: didn't post anything about Yeah, No, it wasn't. It wasn't
Speaker 1: like a thing. It was just like, you know, one
Speaker 1: of the And I hope I don't get in trouble
Speaker 1: for talking about this, but I felt really bad with
Speaker 1: Jimmy and Terry for Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Speaker 1: not getting a performance slot, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: Their their music has impacted me and Ulcher in the
Speaker 1: global world past R and B or pop or whatever.
Speaker 1: It's just induction wasn't really it promoted like that either.
Speaker 1: So it wasn't until he told me that, I was like,
Speaker 1: oh ship. And so when I found that out. This
Speaker 1: is my first year m D and the whole show.
Speaker 1: When I found that out, I said, yo, I gotta
Speaker 1: do something, you know what I'm saying, because this is
Speaker 1: what they need. When I called Jimmy, you know, we
Speaker 1: had an emotional moment because he was very thankful about
Speaker 1: what I was about to do. And we didn't know
Speaker 1: it was going to turn that into what it was,
Speaker 1: but it was. It was awesome. Man. I gotta give
Speaker 1: people their flowers, you know. So where did you find
Speaker 1: because I've seen the clips and the one thing I
Speaker 1: always wonder about is the legacy, like who you know
Speaker 1: where are where are the heads that would have been
Speaker 1: at Black Lily? Like, who's that audience one? How did
Speaker 1: you find the singers too? How did you find the
Speaker 1: audience that would receive them as well? Got you? So
Speaker 1: A big part of what I've been doing with this
Speaker 1: legacy experience, I mayor is that the narrative is that
Speaker 1: I've been on the road with everybody from Okay player
Speaker 1: tour to more recent you know J and j T
Speaker 1: or something like that, and so along the way, because
Speaker 1: I'm such a fan of music and vocalists, I find
Speaker 1: my own favorite singers by playing with these incredible artists.
Speaker 1: So a lot of them have either sang backup for
Speaker 1: who I've for who I've rocked with, or there'll be
Speaker 1: a new artist in the city. And you know how
Speaker 1: we used to like go to London or something and
Speaker 1: we just go to a jam session and find you know,
Speaker 1: Daily or find Amy or find Jesse j. I remember
Speaker 1: pulling up somewhere random in London, like and same thing
Speaker 1: with Philly is like you know, Jill Music, India, Erica.
Speaker 1: At any point somebody could walk in there. But then
Speaker 1: you also get somebody like a new kid at the
Speaker 1: time below you know what I'm saying, or you get
Speaker 1: a new kid at the time, Vivian Green or something
Speaker 1: like that. So it's like I'm cultivating that same structure
Speaker 1: that you guys have laid and what it is is
Speaker 1: I'm letting everybody shine um in their element, but also
Speaker 1: Dick trying to dictate the same sort of tour type
Speaker 1: of set lists that I would do if I was
Speaker 1: out on the road with a Jimmy and Terry and
Speaker 1: matching the voice with them with the moment. That's why
Speaker 1: we had somebody like a Coco Jones do I Guess
Speaker 1: so lonely who She's the new vibrant, sexy, you know
Speaker 1: it girl kind of doing that. But then I had
Speaker 1: a Naya Do Damage and she's kind of like this raunchy,
Speaker 1: you know, Houston rapper singer. And then I had somebody
Speaker 1: like Lena bird Mouse new Gospel I'm coming out, and
Speaker 1: she did I wanted to highlight Jimmy and Terry, Yolanda
Speaker 1: Adams catalog, you know what I'm saying, who people don't
Speaker 1: know about, So she ended up doing Open My Heart
Speaker 1: and so like it was just a night full of
Speaker 1: of gems. Man, Like, straight up, how many nights do
Speaker 1: you have to prepare from the moon you decide, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm gonna pay, you know, pay tribute to them?
Speaker 1: How many nights do you have to prepare for such
Speaker 1: a thing. So this is where you have taught me wrong. Okay.
Speaker 1: I have been in so many instances where it's the
Speaker 1: day of through roots, through play or whatever and it
Speaker 1: comes off without a hitch, or and I would say
Speaker 1: externally without a hitch, you know what I mean, Because
Speaker 1: you know I might get up, I might get a
Speaker 1: every once in a while note that I've been or whatever.
Speaker 1: But yeah, so I I take about a day and
Speaker 1: a half to two days. Really, curating the set list
Speaker 1: is the most thing, is the most important thing for
Speaker 1: me because people move off of energy, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. So it's like a bad set lists again,
Speaker 1: which I've learned from you, is like a bad setlist
Speaker 1: can dictate a bad show, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: You gotta know you know we're yelling, we we I've
Speaker 1: seen me yell you yell at key for whatever. It's like,
Speaker 1: go get to now right, where's the Where's it? And
Speaker 1: so that's kind of what I've been doing the week
Speaker 1: leading up to and then it's like, yo, I just
Speaker 1: want to catch a vibe, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: and and and let it, let it be a natural thing. Okay.
Speaker 1: So for our audience that is not familiar because I
Speaker 1: mean to the industry, you are literally the Quincy Jones.
Speaker 1: I mean the part of Quincy Jones that I play
Speaker 1: is being a connector. I always said that Quincy Jones
Speaker 1: is telephone or his rolodex was always his best instrument,
Speaker 1: his ability to reach people. But the idea of what
Speaker 1: we think Quincy Jones is, which he also is, is
Speaker 1: just to be the go to guy to get the
Speaker 1: right performance out of the artist, live, studio or whatever.
Speaker 1: And the thing is you you do have to do
Speaker 1: both because you know, in my world I will say
Speaker 1: that maybe yes, with with the addition of like stro Elliott,
Speaker 1: or even with with Jeremy, like in the Roots, we're
Speaker 1: now just adding sample elements to the show in the
Speaker 1: last for you know, four or five years. But with you,
Speaker 1: I know that you not only they have to you know,
Speaker 1: combed through their entire studio history and grab that background
Speaker 1: vocals and are you doing this all yourself? Like all right,
Speaker 1: take me through a process of so I assume that
Speaker 1: since Rihanna's got something cooking in the kitchen for top
Speaker 1: of let's just hypothetically, let's just hypothetically say that you
Speaker 1: might have gotten a call from Rihanna, you know, saying
Speaker 1: that all right, I'm about to ramp up and surprise
Speaker 1: drop this album then maybe April and she wants she
Speaker 1: wants to go on tour. And the way you're smiling
Speaker 1: right now, I think that this conversation actually might have happened,
Speaker 1: even though I don't know Jack, so I know how
Speaker 1: n d A s are. But walk me through the process. Yeah,
Speaker 1: no problem. So I used to do everything. I was
Speaker 1: super hands on as far as like curating the set list.
Speaker 1: I would sit down with the artists. I would say,
Speaker 1: what is the story you're trying to tell, like through
Speaker 1: either this album or through this live show process. Um,
Speaker 1: I've done it with every artist. I just want to
Speaker 1: sit down and talk. I just want to see where
Speaker 1: your head was when you were singing freaking poured up.
Speaker 1: I want to see where your head was when you
Speaker 1: wrote Diamonds. You know what I'm saying, like, what what
Speaker 1: what is the story? Are you trying to go to
Speaker 1: the strip club? Are we going to the stadium to
Speaker 1: hold up the phone like, are you trying to do both? Okay? Cool?
Speaker 1: So now I take a I take an artist like
Speaker 1: and say, you know, how do we start, what's the
Speaker 1: middle and what's the end. I like to build my
Speaker 1: show in what I call acts, right, because you take
Speaker 1: the listener, the audience on a journey. Um So that
Speaker 1: first process is about getting the song list together, no
Speaker 1: specific order or anything. Then I kind of work backwards.
Speaker 1: I say how do we start? How do we end?
Speaker 1: And then I fill the middle in like that now
Speaker 1: with a pop artist and a lot of artists these days,
Speaker 1: but UM pop specifically, as far as getting the tracks
Speaker 1: and stuff together, the backing tracks, playing with a little
Speaker 1: bit of backing vocal stuff like that. I called my
Speaker 1: programming team, and I called my you know a lot
Speaker 1: of my a lot of my How many on the
Speaker 1: programming team, it depends on what it is. What I
Speaker 1: just did with this past super Bowl was myself, Terrence
Speaker 1: v On and Derek Cobbs, and I had Omar there
Speaker 1: with me. Omar l was there with me every step
Speaker 1: of the way. Because in a in a gig like
Speaker 1: the super Bowl specifically, I'm going to set design meetings.
Speaker 1: I'm going to choreography rehearsal, I'm going to how are
Speaker 1: the instruments gonna look? So once I have the concept
Speaker 1: and the idea my team, for sure, it begins to
Speaker 1: try to execute in a rehearsal setting where I'm in
Speaker 1: and out of because of the other things that are
Speaker 1: going on as a musical director. And I, like I said,
Speaker 1: I've learned that a musical director is half about the
Speaker 1: music and more about the other stuff. And and it's
Speaker 1: really really crazy. The higher up you go, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: I'm gonna get blasted for saying this, but the higher
Speaker 1: up you go, the less it is about the music
Speaker 1: when it comes to the m D alright question, So
Speaker 1: all right, you you just you just okay now. And
Speaker 1: there's always an inside joke with musicians, and we do
Speaker 1: it all the time, uh, and that is hashtag you've
Speaker 1: been black stone. And this is a real hashtag. Whenever
Speaker 1: we joke you've been blackstone, that always means that there's
Speaker 1: a part of the song that's just has extra spice
Speaker 1: into it, your little trademarks. It's it's almost like the
Speaker 1: way I can to describe it to you. If you guys.
Speaker 1: Remember TLC's video version for Digging on You, Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: if if you also remember the Hookie baby sample, damn,
Speaker 1: And there's always that element in the song that happens.
Speaker 1: And always wonder when you add your trademark, like that's
Speaker 1: your version of it, you add your trademark, Yeah, but
Speaker 1: when you add your trademark black Stone eyes thing, yeah,
Speaker 1: I wonder where's that come from? But then you tell
Speaker 1: me that you are also in the meetings with the choreographers.
Speaker 1: That's twenty seventeen and above. You feel what I'm saying this,
Speaker 1: This is why this this interview is so good, because
Speaker 1: these young kids didn't see the work that I put
Speaker 1: in and oh four oh five coming off of failure
Speaker 1: and like you throwing me to Kanye and you thrown
Speaker 1: Omar to Jay and and all of that, where it
Speaker 1: was like we then had to take everything we had
Speaker 1: learned for the last seven years and put it together
Speaker 1: on our own and and give that same amount of energy,
Speaker 1: same amount of musicianship to these new artists out there.
Speaker 1: And you know I have been big. The hole baby
Speaker 1: thing means so much to me that you would even
Speaker 1: say that, because I try to make my shows a movie.
Speaker 1: You know you you are the John william Is of
Speaker 1: a musical director. That that is a really I appreciate that,
Speaker 1: but that's a great analogy because I want to take like,
Speaker 1: you know, I got a folder of sounds that's called
Speaker 1: Jurassic Park, you know, and it's just like shots, Like
Speaker 1: it's like, you know what I'm saying, Like I'm in
Speaker 1: my head. I'm like, yo, if somebody, if I start
Speaker 1: my show like that, you are tuned in from minute one,
Speaker 1: and it's very different than what I what I grew
Speaker 1: up on. But I've always been a fan of pop music,
Speaker 1: and not like you know, just Brittany pop, but just
Speaker 1: like you know, popular and what was on the radio.
Speaker 1: Um um. It was something for me about adding that
Speaker 1: backing track. One of the first times I did it
Speaker 1: was working um with um A sixteen eighty over at
Speaker 1: Carvon and Ivan's because they were pro Gramm and music
Speaker 1: Soul Trials show, you know what I'm saying, and so
Speaker 1: they wanted some of those samples like girl next Door
Speaker 1: because we didn't have upright out, or they wanted like
Speaker 1: the just Friends beat box, and it was like, how
Speaker 1: do we accomplish that? And so I started being like, Yo,
Speaker 1: why don't we just play alone to the loop? You
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. And then that grew from there
Speaker 1: to me, you know, me and ya at Fade the
Speaker 1: Black and then like doing Glowing the Dark tour, and
Speaker 1: then it was like, Okay, there's a song with daft
Speaker 1: Punk in it, and we don't have daft Punk on
Speaker 1: stage with us, what's the best way to achieve that? Okay,
Speaker 1: let's run with their track. But then at the same time,
Speaker 1: I always like to have the backing track playing along
Speaker 1: with us. This is what I call it, and us
Speaker 1: not just playing to the backing track. If you notice
Speaker 1: with my tracks on Mirror, they all kind of move
Speaker 1: even though we're locked into a tempo. It's a live
Speaker 1: feeling thing. And so yeah, I've been the one to
Speaker 1: create that sound. You know. Now I'm able to when
Speaker 1: you laugh with me all the time, depending on who's
Speaker 1: coming on foulon and you'd be like did you do this?
Speaker 1: Did you do this? And be like I'll be like, nah,
Speaker 1: you know, you're you're, you're. You now have a generation
Speaker 1: of new black Stones, and that to me is even
Speaker 1: crazy of your legacy. Wait, I always wanted to know,
Speaker 1: all right, right, now in the DJ world, Yeah, there's
Speaker 1: been a new development that's happened for DJ's and most
Speaker 1: of us are using beta beta products. And the risk
Speaker 1: with with when you're using beta programming is you might
Speaker 1: get a visit from the rain bull will. Absolutely And
Speaker 1: I always wanted to know one. Have you ever been
Speaker 1: in a predicament where you've been rainbow willed? Or in
Speaker 1: a predicament where fuck I left my laptop f a
Speaker 1: hotel or it fell to the like a hard drive
Speaker 1: crashed or yeah, yeah, yeah, And how do you handle
Speaker 1: a situation? Well, this, this is where the musicianship comes in, right,
Speaker 1: like don't get it twisted. We are rocking with some
Speaker 1: backing track and we got some samples and some loops
Speaker 1: in there, and as budgets get cut, I may not
Speaker 1: have a percussionist and stuff like that. So it's like whatever.
Speaker 1: But when that swirly will comes up, we playing good
Speaker 1: and live like don't I will wear you out on
Speaker 1: that base like live you know, and Omar will where
Speaker 1: are you out on them kids? And Brian Fraser Moore
Speaker 1: will where you out on the drums? And you know,
Speaker 1: Randy Bowling will where are you out on the guitar,
Speaker 1: so like the backing track is there, but that's really
Speaker 1: given album vibe. Sometimes when we hit that squirly will,
Speaker 1: it doesn't happen often knock on would, but when it
Speaker 1: does we are able to go live. I remember one
Speaker 1: time at Essence Fest with Janet, we was playing funny
Speaker 1: how Time Flies and we got the squirrely will and
Speaker 1: we were able to just I you know what I'm
Speaker 1: saying because it was just like the two chords and
Speaker 1: then we were right. We had the guitar solo and
Speaker 1: just come in until it until we had to shut
Speaker 1: down boo who wear it up? But it was like
Speaker 1: we was playing is it like eye language? Y'all look
Speaker 1: at each other and even acknowledge that y'all just is
Speaker 1: there is there a warning that she gets like we
Speaker 1: might have a technical difficulty or well I'm talking to
Speaker 1: her in her ears or I'm talking to Justin or
Speaker 1: I'm talking to Red or whatever it might be, Like,
Speaker 1: you know, give me a second, I need to like
Speaker 1: we're gonna vibe for a second. Don't worry about it,
Speaker 1: because you know, I mean when that click cut off,
Speaker 1: we all look around like what the heck? It's like
Speaker 1: the sound silence is the sound of death when you
Speaker 1: run into with with some backing track. Um, but it
Speaker 1: doesn't happen often. One of the craziest things I remember
Speaker 1: is it's not that it crashed, but walking to the stage,
Speaker 1: Kanye said, oh yeah, Adam, I don't want to do
Speaker 1: the second verse tonight. And it's like four three and
Speaker 1: the and the lights come on. I'm like, wait, what
Speaker 1: did he just say? And so I run over to
Speaker 1: the side of the stage with my programmer, Demetrius. The
Speaker 1: show is Demetrius is God. Yeah, Demi is the guy. Yes,
Speaker 1: the show is playing on one laptop. We're editing on
Speaker 1: the next laptop for the next song, and we take
Speaker 1: the verse out of that song. We switched to the
Speaker 1: B rig when it's the second song is about to
Speaker 1: come on, and then we switched back to the A rig. Um.
Speaker 1: You have to computers running at the same time in
Speaker 1: case what we call redundant systems, but you also walk
Speaker 1: into the stage talking to Demetrius at the same time.
Speaker 1: By you walking to the stage because he just said it,
Speaker 1: and you gotta hurry up. In that all happens right,
Speaker 1: he's on this Demi is at the stage already and
Speaker 1: me and yeah, you are walking. He's like, oh yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't want to do And I was like, wait
Speaker 1: what I was gonna ask? Who? Who is your who
Speaker 1: has been your most wild pitch client? That's the this
Speaker 1: question I've ever Kanye West after I did the Kanye
Speaker 1: West Go On the Dark Tour, I could do anything.
Speaker 1: He said, I want you to make a robot fly
Speaker 1: across the stage and score it, but I want the
Speaker 1: scoring to sound like flashing lights. And I was just
Speaker 1: like huh huh, and we we did it. Do your
Speaker 1: artists have a basic general understanding that any slight suggestion
Speaker 1: they might have might be a five minute time out
Speaker 1: like a guy like Prince never had patience for his engineer.
Speaker 1: I don't think any of the artists do right now.
Speaker 1: And a lot of that is our fault here, because
Speaker 1: we make it happen, you know what I'm saying. You know,
Speaker 1: five minutes, fifteen minutes, whatever, it's just like get it done,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. I pride myself on making
Speaker 1: sketches ahead of time so that they know, okay yo,
Speaker 1: I was feeling that, but I'm not feeling this work
Speaker 1: on this as opposed to showing up to rehearsal or
Speaker 1: showing up to the gig and then asking for the
Speaker 1: change then because it is a stop down, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. But that's why team is so important. Man.
Speaker 1: When I have somebody like Demetrius or have somebody like
Speaker 1: Danny Song with me, I know they're like bloop boo
Speaker 1: boo boo boo boo bloo, and it's like we speak
Speaker 1: the same language, you know what I mean. But I
Speaker 1: think every artist is impatient, especially when you're on that stage,
Speaker 1: especially when you're at the rehearsal studio. It's like, yo,
Speaker 1: let's let's get this popping, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: I know that this is like a moment where y'all
Speaker 1: don't really get to talk that often, and we are
Speaker 1: in it and even even forgot to say our names
Speaker 1: or whatever. But you got to ask him the question
Speaker 1: that we ask everybody. We got to know that like
Speaker 1: the beginnings and even y'all story I forgot, yes, like
Speaker 1: who is right? I'm sorry, ladies and gentlemen, welcome. We
Speaker 1: got a little somewhere and making millions. No, no, seriously,
Speaker 1: y'all don't get this time, and y'all don't get this time.
Speaker 1: So I totally get it. I'm so close to Adam
Speaker 1: that I'm actually having a conversation that I would have
Speaker 1: if we were actually on the telephone. You are all right,
Speaker 1: so yeah, let's let's let us start at the beginning.
Speaker 1: What was your first musical memory. My first musical memory, yes,
Speaker 1: in life? Wow? Yeah, Well I remember just playing at church.
Speaker 1: And one of the high praise moments was when I
Speaker 1: was about six or seven years old and I went
Speaker 1: from drums to base to Oregon and as a kid,
Speaker 1: and they everybody was like, you've got to play board,
Speaker 1: Oh my god, And I was cool, got up, played
Speaker 1: a base bo sat down to ore I don't know
Speaker 1: what I was playing, good or bad, but they hyped
Speaker 1: me up and I just I was like, okay, I
Speaker 1: can do this. And one of my other early memories
Speaker 1: is more non direct musical. But my dad came home
Speaker 1: and quit his job and he told my mom like, yo,
Speaker 1: I want to do music full time. And we looked
Speaker 1: around like what are we about to do? And he
Speaker 1: supported us and sustained us. What what you would call today,
Speaker 1: you know, a wedding band singer or ever. But it's like,
Speaker 1: you know, he played weddings by myth flis, three services
Speaker 1: on Sundays, you know, banquets, all of that. He did
Speaker 1: it full time, man. So it was like, that's one
Speaker 1: of my other early music memories. What a play my
Speaker 1: dad plays keys? My dad plays keys. As I looked
Speaker 1: back at it, he was really the first MD that
Speaker 1: I saw, because I don't know if I knew what
Speaker 1: that was like, you know, getting into musical director terminology.
Speaker 1: But he had a little TR nine O nine. He
Speaker 1: just throw on a beat at one ten and he
Speaker 1: would play brick House, electric Slide, mac Arena all to
Speaker 1: the same beat and just like took took it to
Speaker 1: my gad, she's our bread. They're like, oh, night long.
Speaker 1: And then folks would just go crazy, like you know,
Speaker 1: like keep the party going. It's like, you know, it's
Speaker 1: electric could Like he was one of those dudes, man.
Speaker 1: And as I look back at it when I became older,
Speaker 1: I was like, Yo, that's a big part of how
Speaker 1: I put set list together for freaking justin Timberlake or Rihana.
Speaker 1: I'm like, what's the feeling, What's what's gonna keep the
Speaker 1: party going. How I've done the last four Super Bowls
Speaker 1: is like we can't stop we only got twelve minutes,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, And like a big part
Speaker 1: of that as I look back as my dad like
Speaker 1: curating his banquet sets or his Saturday night party, you know,
Speaker 1: um Lodge straight up and he sustained. Listen, did you
Speaker 1: ever join his actual So I did as I became
Speaker 1: thirteen fourteen fifteen, Like I played drums with him a
Speaker 1: little bit. I played bass with him a little bit.
Speaker 1: But you know that's also another detriment to like non rehearsal,
Speaker 1: but it works. So it's like like, oh, yeah, we
Speaker 1: don't we don't need to rehearse. And I think when
Speaker 1: I got a little baby budget and I was like,
Speaker 1: oh I could rehearse for a week, it was like,
Speaker 1: oh we were heard. I'm tainted by quest love and
Speaker 1: my dad not. Sometimes you just gotta sink or swim
Speaker 1: with it. You gotta go with it. Yeah, but those
Speaker 1: are my first early memories. And then moving to Philadelphia
Speaker 1: and two thousands just changed my life, Like, so where
Speaker 1: were you previously? Before I was a willing brow, New Jersey.
Speaker 1: I grew up born in Trenton. You know, William Burrow
Speaker 1: was like jan Ya and Ty Trippett and in city
Speaker 1: now they were. They were like, you know sound to
Speaker 1: Jay Skiing too, Yeah, Shock Zulu Odka and stupid Yeah,
Speaker 1: Mike Zombie are all of you know. Yeah, so William
Speaker 1: brow Man And then I went to college at University
Speaker 1: of Arts and moved to Philadelphia and changed What year
Speaker 1: did you go to Universal thousand? Make you feel old? Yeah? Man,
Speaker 1: you did. I'll explain to our audience that you know, um,
Speaker 1: you know back in back in late ninety seven where
Speaker 1: Richard Nichols our our beloved North Star where we were
Speaker 1: trying to do this for a fourth time, and rich
Speaker 1: was sort of like, this is our door diet moment.
Speaker 1: And his suggestion was like, we gotta we gotta come
Speaker 1: up with a story for Philadelphia. This is what's not working,
Speaker 1: Like we got the critical claim and you know, we're
Speaker 1: getting slow traction, but we need a story that that
Speaker 1: will stick. And his version of the story was we
Speaker 1: gotta have a jam session. And I was like, why
Speaker 1: do we have to have a jam session? He's like, well, one,
Speaker 1: you know, collaborators for your own record, but more than that,
Speaker 1: we have to build a music community. And because he
Speaker 1: said that, you know, it's like we always thought we
Speaker 1: were going to be like the adopted little brothers of
Speaker 1: you know, the native tongues and yeah and all that stuff.
Speaker 1: And I mean, you know, they were they were filling us,
Speaker 1: but none of them were really in the mind state
Speaker 1: of doing those things that they were doing earlier, like
Speaker 1: pasty cuts and all those things. So you know, Rich
Speaker 1: was basically like, well, we could either wait for someone
Speaker 1: to adopt us, or we better just do it ourselves.
Speaker 1: So I'm so glad he did, because do you guys
Speaker 1: became the big brothers instantly, bro Like instantly, I I
Speaker 1: we have no choice. I walked into the five spot
Speaker 1: and I was like, I ain't never seen nobody play
Speaker 1: like this, look like smell like this, eat like this,
Speaker 1: thing like this, dance like this, rap like this. It
Speaker 1: was just a car shifting moment for me, even as
Speaker 1: a black man, because I grew up in Willingboro, very
Speaker 1: affluent African American town, you know, almost you know, Huxtable, Like,
Speaker 1: but I thought Philadelphia was so far away culturally, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, And like just crossing the bridge
Speaker 1: thirty minutes it's nothing, you know what I mean. But
Speaker 1: I thought it was so far away, and it was
Speaker 1: a whole another world. When it came to the music
Speaker 1: meeting Rich and Jazzy Fat Nasty's like changed my life,
Speaker 1: like straight up, like just my my entire like literally
Speaker 1: changed my life. Well, yeah, what I was gonna say
Speaker 1: was that the plan worked. Everyone wand up getting record
Speaker 1: deals and every you know, then we wind up going
Speaker 1: on tour, and I will say that it morphed from
Speaker 1: the roots jam sessions and then around it became more
Speaker 1: black lily focused. So for you, can you talk about
Speaker 1: just the the because even I don't know, like I
Speaker 1: would just come to the five spots to see the
Speaker 1: results of it. But are you guys rehearsing, Joe all
Speaker 1: those times? Are you rehearsing? And how did you get
Speaker 1: I think I stalked Larry gold studio. I stayed there
Speaker 1: for days on and just with my guitar. I was
Speaker 1: the big dude that played the base, waiting for my chance,
Speaker 1: like just waiting. Um. I got invited down by a
Speaker 1: fourteen year old Jasmine Sullivan invite I love it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean her band, you know, Darren Robinson and Aaron
Speaker 1: Drake and at that time it was like Aaron Draper
Speaker 1: and continues to still be the connector like, I don't
Speaker 1: know what nobody says. Aaron Draper, you know, has has
Speaker 1: really plugged nine of our generations musicians too rich to
Speaker 1: sean to my mayor to read to hub you know,
Speaker 1: I mean, rest the peace is like you know, Aaron
Speaker 1: Draper was that guy and he would just always say, hey, yo,
Speaker 1: come down to He wouldn't ask. He still don't ask.
Speaker 1: He's out with Adell right now, he's Liken. Just just
Speaker 1: come over. Just shout out to Aaron for my discount,
Speaker 1: because you know, two thousand dollars a little bit too
Speaker 1: steep before a guy with a good job like me.
Speaker 1: So we're here now, bro, and they're killing It's gonna
Speaker 1: be worth it. We out in Vegas now they over there,
Speaker 1: they across the street. Um. And so when I got
Speaker 1: the opportunity to go to the studio, I just sat
Speaker 1: there like yeah, like I just sat there for days
Speaker 1: and weeks. And then it was a few of y'all,
Speaker 1: a lot of it was a lot of us. And
Speaker 1: then you know rich Man, so you were just chilling,
Speaker 1: see and then rich would say, life is laughing because
Speaker 1: she knows where I'm about to go with this, Like
Speaker 1: I might not have been paying attention or using the
Speaker 1: background while you were not. You kept it straight line
Speaker 1: to the studio, you know how. Anyway, So there was
Speaker 1: a couple of times I think, like as y'all were
Speaker 1: making like this might be a little what's the album
Speaker 1: before tipping point. Yeah, that's when they did the Jam
Speaker 1: sessions Phnology. That's when they started Phnology. It was like,
Speaker 1: let's just get our mirror and reek some ideas like
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, like you know, and uh
Speaker 1: Me and Omar and and I mean Aaron and Darryl
Speaker 1: were just and Randy and Kevin Hanson like we would
Speaker 1: just go down there and just give I like, do
Speaker 1: loopy ideas with you for with you in mind, with
Speaker 1: reaking mind from dice roll and stuff like that. But
Speaker 1: at the same time we didn't know that that was
Speaker 1: our audition, right for rich to actually bring us to you,
Speaker 1: because there was a vetting process. I don't care what
Speaker 1: nobody is saying about that back room. You if you
Speaker 1: make it to our marriage room, you made it. Hey,
Speaker 1: I am I telling the truth. You have to if
Speaker 1: you don't know that bell door in to the studio
Speaker 1: and the secret route, that's hilarious. You don't know. So
Speaker 1: when you go past the main door and you go
Speaker 1: to the back room, that's the audition that ain't and
Speaker 1: so and so listen and then fast forward where you
Speaker 1: make it through the big door. Right you're peeking your
Speaker 1: head out like, oh y'all going in the bat Yah
Speaker 1: know we we're in here, bro we we room we
Speaker 1: room yeah, man, so that we you know, huge, I
Speaker 1: I can I can't do any interview with out bigging
Speaker 1: up Rich Nichols and his vision for us and his
Speaker 1: vision for for me and us as as a generation
Speaker 1: under you guys where it was like we passed some
Speaker 1: of us passed the test to make it to you
Speaker 1: for then you to say and James to say and
Speaker 1: and say like yo, come due black party or come
Speaker 1: do hove or come do whatever. Where it was like
Speaker 1: you guys were then to me like you know it.
Speaker 1: It was hard to lock you all down because you
Speaker 1: was on the road so much, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: But we also make records and we were getting calls
Speaker 1: for bigger gigs and and um I got a whole
Speaker 1: another still doing the literally too though, right Adam, Like,
Speaker 1: so how does that work? When did you officially like no,
Speaker 1: I never igre, I'm bringing Lily. What I'm doing now
Speaker 1: is all literally five my head. So I'm not but
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, but it's like, it's like, so, so
Speaker 1: you guys got all these people and themselves as well,
Speaker 1: so let me big up to all the artists. But
Speaker 1: once somebody gets a deal, they then have to they
Speaker 1: want that same vibe that got them to deal to
Speaker 1: have know what I'm saying. Let me explain also that
Speaker 1: once this outgrew my living room and then went to
Speaker 1: the five Spot and sometimes wet Lands in New York,
Speaker 1: then eventually these are to started getting record deals and
Speaker 1: next thing you know, like they would pull six band
Speaker 1: members and whatnot. There was one point where I came
Speaker 1: home and without any context whatsoever, I was walking down
Speaker 1: the fire Spot. I was like, yeo, that looks like
Speaker 1: Diddy conference. I was like, yo, what the fun is
Speaker 1: pop Datty doing here? The artist and literally, like you know,
Speaker 1: I've been going for like four months, and Richard's explain
Speaker 1: it to me like you don't even know, Like now
Speaker 1: is the wild wild West, and everybody done heard that
Speaker 1: Philly has the best musicians and they're coming down stealing.
Speaker 1: But eve been even the musicians that I felt weren't
Speaker 1: even up to part on that level. Like everyone was
Speaker 1: getting work. The stigma of Philadelphia alone got people a
Speaker 1: lot of work based off of the city. Yo, It's funny.
Speaker 1: I just had a flashback. I'm like, I remember when
Speaker 1: Fonte had his album released at the five Spot in Philly,
Speaker 1: like Forlorn Exchange, No, No, we had our we had
Speaker 1: our released party at five Spot in Philly. And then
Speaker 1: when we did this is oh three. I want to say,
Speaker 1: when we did the roots y'all did y'all Christmas went
Speaker 1: on great tour and that was when y'all you played.
Speaker 1: You were playing bass for us, little bro. That was
Speaker 1: the first time we met. Yeah, straight up, that was
Speaker 1: the first time we don't it was us Jane Gray,
Speaker 1: That's right. It was Okay Player Tour, yep, oh three,
Speaker 1: And that was the first time me and you worked
Speaker 1: together and you played for us, and I just remember thinking, like,
Speaker 1: you know, this is the happiest bass player I've ever
Speaker 1: seen in my life. I was like, I gotta say, man,
Speaker 1: going on the Okay Player Tour my first tour. Yeah,
Speaker 1: as I look back at our mirror, had us there too. Uh?
Speaker 1: He overworked us right, but no, Now, this is what
Speaker 1: I want to say you. You stayed on the drums
Speaker 1: the whole night too. So it's like I always I
Speaker 1: tell young kids, Now, I'm like, yo, if i'm playing too,
Speaker 1: like I'm not, you know what I mean. I'm not
Speaker 1: telling y'all to do anything that I wouldn't do, and
Speaker 1: so I don't see it as that. What I see
Speaker 1: it as as setting the blueprint for how to work
Speaker 1: hard to achieve success and you have to go above
Speaker 1: and beyond. And we love music so much. I was like,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna play for everybody out here that they allowed
Speaker 1: me to play for because that relationship equity means more
Speaker 1: to me and anything, you know what I'm saying. So,
Speaker 1: what was the first time that you played for a
Speaker 1: non Lily act. My first big gig, I tell the
Speaker 1: story was you guys did Unplugged and Big Homie Card
Speaker 1: y'all said, oh, that's right for that, Illa del Phonics,
Speaker 1: Ella del Phonics, and so he was gonna retire and
Speaker 1: it was like and it was super loose though, bro,
Speaker 1: I don't know if you remember that, but it was
Speaker 1: like we went up to s I. R. Faith the
Speaker 1: Black was your first big, big gig. Yes, it was
Speaker 1: si oh three, yeah, man, that I could have sworn
Speaker 1: by then you was picking at Michael Jacksons house and
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, Vivian music, so child all that,
Speaker 1: but oh three is like, you know, that's that's that's
Speaker 1: I was. I was nineteen turning twenties. So that's the
Speaker 1: first time you were in like Masson Square Garden all
Speaker 1: that stuff, absolutely first first time. You rarely hear me say,
Speaker 1: I mean, now I'm having fun, but that week was
Speaker 1: so fun to me, fun bro, so fun. And that
Speaker 1: taught me so so much about how to curate, is said.
Speaker 1: You know, at that time, we didn't know who was
Speaker 1: going on next, second, last, first, whatever. It was like, yo,
Speaker 1: I saw you put that whole thing together. But at
Speaker 1: the same time, utilize the genius people around you, and
Speaker 1: you know, young Beyonce and and and Mary and you know,
Speaker 1: just like this is Jay's last album and we're playing
Speaker 1: encore too, and everybody's saying, hohver r. It's just like
Speaker 1: super crazy. And and that gig spawned me meeting Ya,
Speaker 1: which spawned me meeting Red, which spawned me meeting Janet,
Speaker 1: which spawned me meeting Drake, which you know, with spawned
Speaker 1: me meeting justin Termula. So that Fade to Black alone
Speaker 1: set the path for my entire career. And I like
Speaker 1: to tell the other thing I just wanted to speak
Speaker 1: on real quick, is that one thing in Philly that
Speaker 1: we do do as musicians, as we we try to
Speaker 1: be nice and speak to everybody because you never know
Speaker 1: who up next, right, So it's like, you know that
Speaker 1: week as well American expound on it, but like it
Speaker 1: was some heavy hitters in there and them rehearsals that
Speaker 1: who they were then is not who they are right now,
Speaker 1: and like they we we we treated everybody equally like
Speaker 1: and so you know, Beyonce then was not Beyonce now,
Speaker 1: and you know, just blazed then in Swiss and you
Speaker 1: know what I mean, arguably even you know what Jay
Speaker 1: has done the last twenty years from that show alone,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, They didn't even let you
Speaker 1: on that night. Yeah, I was gonna say that. I
Speaker 1: I remember him not being able to get backstage. You
Speaker 1: remember speaking to Yeah, So one of the things that
Speaker 1: happened after that, he was like, Yo, I'm working on
Speaker 1: my music too. We should work together, Like you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, I just just say yes to everybody,
Speaker 1: because that's how it was for me being in Philly.
Speaker 1: You know what I mean. I was just like you
Speaker 1: never know which opportunity is going to be the next
Speaker 1: big thing. Okay, I'll ask you now because I know
Speaker 1: that you're older and wiser now when you're vetting and auditioning,
Speaker 1: someone says, y'all got this young boy, and dada da
Speaker 1: da da da da da da. Like my dad told
Speaker 1: me the audition process. He used to always make me
Speaker 1: audition musicians by playing a ballot. He would make me
Speaker 1: play the most simple He would say, no, don't do
Speaker 1: the intricate ship. He says, I'm gonna teach you something.
Speaker 1: I pick the simplest ballot that we got in our
Speaker 1: repertoire and make them auditions man, And sure enough, like
Speaker 1: musicians would fall apart because they couldn't play something so simple.
Speaker 1: They knew the enter kid ship, but they couldn't play
Speaker 1: the simplest ship. Well, first of all, are you a
Speaker 1: don't come to me, I'll come to you type of cat.
Speaker 1: Like if I said, Yo, I got this young boy,
Speaker 1: he's a ship. You should use him. How how do
Speaker 1: you know how good he'll be? Do you just go
Speaker 1: to his YouTube page or like what yeah, but like
Speaker 1: you know, are we talking now because before you know,
Speaker 1: twelve years ago, we have none of that, like you know,
Speaker 1: so it was total word of out and that's how
Speaker 1: I got on, you know what I mean, Like my
Speaker 1: my career spawned from people seeing and hearing the music
Speaker 1: on stage, but also a word of mouth like yo,
Speaker 1: let me get that dude number whatever whatever, So what
Speaker 1: I look, I mean more or less, Like I know
Speaker 1: that you should at least know two to three people
Speaker 1: that play the same thing, Like you'll use Clay Sears
Speaker 1: for guitar. If not, you'll use Randy Bowling. But I'm
Speaker 1: certain that there's put me in coach energy always all
Speaker 1: the time. So how how do you how do you
Speaker 1: deal with the expectation factor of the music? And I'm
Speaker 1: sharing right now is even past feeling. I'm sure that
Speaker 1: you know musicians worldwide now it's global. Man, the damns
Speaker 1: go crazy with videos and stuff like that. Now I
Speaker 1: have to be honest and say people hiring me or
Speaker 1: hiring me for my sound, So I'm not up. I'm
Speaker 1: not mad at using the same twenty folks because I
Speaker 1: know I get what I get out of them. You
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. It's very rare that you know,
Speaker 1: even back in the day we used to just tag
Speaker 1: somebody in. It's very rare that that happens, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. And so when it does happen, it's
Speaker 1: because they have a vocabulary of genre that I love,
Speaker 1: Like I love a dude to you know, play country
Speaker 1: bat and then play a hip hop bat and it
Speaker 1: still feel very authentic, you know what I'm saying. Um,
Speaker 1: and then just like feel timing and feel um. James Poiser,
Speaker 1: let me have it. The first time I played the
Speaker 1: Bias show, I had a six string Ken Smith and
Speaker 1: he said, hey, yo, don't ever come in this studio
Speaker 1: with this front. He said it was a He said
Speaker 1: my base was a piece of furniture, and so I
Speaker 1: didn't know what that meant. I went to a jazz school,
Speaker 1: you know, I thought I was freaking Anthony Jackson at
Speaker 1: the time, like I was doing everything like and he
Speaker 1: handed me Little Brother Slum Village Voodoo um, and then
Speaker 1: I was like pint Pine Pine. You know, he knew
Speaker 1: and I was like, oh he know, palette okay cool?
Speaker 1: Or like Dilla, oh okay, my electric base should sound
Speaker 1: like some MPC pads, like you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: And like he put me, James and Omar put me
Speaker 1: on so much music that you had either giving them
Speaker 1: or they that opened their ears up to when he
Speaker 1: told me my basse was a piece of furniture, bro,
Speaker 1: I was just like I saved up. I saved up
Speaker 1: the fastest three hundred and seventy five dollars that I
Speaker 1: could to just go get a four string Fender Jazz
Speaker 1: and uh, I don't know, it's still my weapinar choice.
Speaker 1: I do play five, but like that base. You know,
Speaker 1: we did Yes Sirs with We did john Stone, That's
Speaker 1: on a lot of records. We did Our Green you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. That was the one and to
Speaker 1: the point where even Rich was like, hey, yo, where's
Speaker 1: the bring the fourth string in? Like you know, like
Speaker 1: I had to learn genre specific vocabulary and not just
Speaker 1: what I had known through chops or whatever. So that's
Speaker 1: even what I look for, you know, the antithesis of
Speaker 1: what I started is what I look for now, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean? The music, I mean, I made
Speaker 1: a lot of money and a big living playing low
Speaker 1: on the base, Like you know what I'm saying like
Speaker 1: I don't have to do all that up high stuff
Speaker 1: to make it feel right for me personally, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. And like, coming from a dealer record,
Speaker 1: it's like that ain't even what he was doing, coming
Speaker 1: from a from a from a slum of voodoo places
Speaker 1: like you know, I mean, people can't play anything. But
Speaker 1: it's like it was really about the groove in the field.
Speaker 1: And so that's what I tried to hone in on
Speaker 1: for about two years. What were you listening to growing up?
Speaker 1: Because you were saying that James everybody would put you
Speaker 1: on like the slum. I had never listened to that stuff.
Speaker 1: So I was listening to the Clark Sisters, the Well
Speaker 1: and and then like a lot of now Rogers, but
Speaker 1: through samples like you couldn't I was. I was bigg
Speaker 1: a small as in my head. So I was like,
Speaker 1: who's hot? Who's not me? Who got to So I
Speaker 1: was like, wait a minute, but that that guitar part
Speaker 1: is cold, Like let me find out what that is.
Speaker 1: Supernard Edwards was your base god and and now Rogers
Speaker 1: now Rogers, And then I was like, um, got a
Speaker 1: lot of yo, I'm gonna be I'm gonna keeping a honey.
Speaker 1: I ain't never said this out loud, but like, you
Speaker 1: couldn't tell me that Bad Boy didn't have the coldest musicians.
Speaker 1: Before I knew they were samples, I was like no, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: no no no. I was like, what's that? I was
Speaker 1: like boom. I was like, Yo, they ain't killing in
Speaker 1: the studio. I was twelve years old, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. So I'm listening to One More Chance, I'm
Speaker 1: listening to the the Warning, I'm listening to more Money, more Problems.
Speaker 1: I'm listening to hypnotized boom boom. I played that at
Speaker 1: by Marcher Badge when it was like, yo you Biggie Small,
Speaker 1: that was like the way you described that album, that's
Speaker 1: the same way. That's what Midnight More This was for me. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I swore you you couldn't have told me me Night
Speaker 1: Marauders wasn't them playing all that role? Like you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, the amount of times I grew by
Speaker 1: power about electric relaxation. Yes, even Michelle Digochella gave like
Speaker 1: damn near her whole entire Rolling Stone interview about like
Speaker 1: QI the next uh just his court structure of blah
Speaker 1: blah blah, blah blah, you buy the record like damn no.
Speaker 1: But I mean even then to discover it and here
Speaker 1: it in that way, that's still genius. So that's not
Speaker 1: to take away from no no, no no, but I'm
Speaker 1: just saying like, those are the baselines that like, tell
Speaker 1: me what you want from dud think think. I'm like,
Speaker 1: yod this cold. The Hitman is cold, and so you know,
Speaker 1: learning where they came from and El de Barge flips
Speaker 1: and and and you know, Bernard lips and now slips,
Speaker 1: it was like it was mind boggling to me. So
Speaker 1: then when I finally dove into the original records and
Speaker 1: really honed in on my own tone, I was like,
Speaker 1: this is where it comes from, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: the original the original vibe and then like you know,
Speaker 1: a huge drawn Carner fan and you know, flipping that
Speaker 1: from tribe as well, Like I was one was mind
Speaker 1: boggling too. Did you commissioned for Hammon? Were you? I
Speaker 1: was more take six, would take six? Okay, I was
Speaker 1: more to take six. Wow the generation after commission right,
Speaker 1: I was. I'm being honest, I was afraid Hammon fan.
Speaker 1: And then it was like, oh he came from commission
Speaker 1: so you know, I'm just being honest. I'm just East
Speaker 1: Coast Church, all right. And then lastly, my uncle had
Speaker 1: a gospel group, so to me, they was like they
Speaker 1: was commissioned and in New Jersey, I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: that's they better than they like Jody see in my town.
Speaker 1: I always wanted to know, have you ever been in
Speaker 1: a mut is a good situation where it did not
Speaker 1: work out? Well? I don't know if this is what
Speaker 1: you mean, but I'm gonna tell this one story. We're
Speaker 1: doing Coachella with Dr dre right, right, he brings in
Speaker 1: this this new young kid rapper from from from l
Speaker 1: A Compton, right, like he's all right, I mean, y'all
Speaker 1: want me to arrange. He's gonna he's gonna do two
Speaker 1: songs in the middle of ourselves. Like I don't know, man,
Speaker 1: like he he okay, you know what I'm saying. I
Speaker 1: was like, you know what I'm gonna. I'm gonna let
Speaker 1: my man do this one because like, I really want
Speaker 1: to concentrate on this pop and I'm gonna, really, you know,
Speaker 1: I really want to get this right. Eminem's on the
Speaker 1: way and he's like, nah, like yo, just you know,
Speaker 1: help the kid out was like I can't do it,
Speaker 1: and it's like all right, he comes in great energy.
Speaker 1: I was like, what's your name, man Kendrick, And I
Speaker 1: was like alright, alright, okay, like you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: So it's like I've lost twice like that in my life.
Speaker 1: Really wasn't really feeling it when I first heard it.
Speaker 1: And then his his energy is what brought me into him,
Speaker 1: if I can be honest, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: Before the energy in the music, before the early music,
Speaker 1: it was like he was just like and then the
Speaker 1: same thing. Sewn G said, Yo, I need you to
Speaker 1: work with this kid from North Carolina. I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm busy, bro, Like he said, listen to this.
Speaker 1: He could rap. Bro. I was like Friday Night Lights
Speaker 1: all right, you know, ran Friday Night Lights down my
Speaker 1: throat man like yo, old man j Cole Bro and
Speaker 1: it was like, yo, just let me fly you to
Speaker 1: North Carolina. I was at ninth Wonder was like, come
Speaker 1: to North Carolina and same thing hit is energy is
Speaker 1: what did it for me over the minute. So I
Speaker 1: got two else for sure, I got like, you know,
Speaker 1: they arguably top ten of all time. Right now, Yo,
Speaker 1: But how many more kindred shows have you been kind
Speaker 1: of forced to m d anyway based off of like
Speaker 1: from halftime to award shows, Like it's been great to
Speaker 1: work with him, you know, specifically last halftime. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: and and like I said, the relationship and the energy
Speaker 1: is always right. But I'm saying I've taken creative else
Speaker 1: because I was like, I don't hear it, yo, I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't know what to do, I don't know how
Speaker 1: to range. I'm not I'm not connected to this too else.
Speaker 1: Kendrick and j Cole for sure arguably like I said,
Speaker 1: number one two great human black men, just great guys,
Speaker 1: and then arguably top ten lyricists. And then it was like,
Speaker 1: you know, I almost missed it. I do want to
Speaker 1: ask I mean, so many questions to ask you about
Speaker 1: your career. But now with you winning the Emmys and
Speaker 1: I you know, I know that to be in that
Speaker 1: particular position, like it's such a teflon air tight space
Speaker 1: where one person could monopolize the whole marketplace. Like for
Speaker 1: the longest I thought, what's your brother's name bass player? Um? Yeah,
Speaker 1: Like I thought, like, oh god, Ricky mind is going
Speaker 1: to own the Emmy's until he's one hundred and nineties
Speaker 1: seven years old, Like not ever giving up space or whatever,
Speaker 1: But tell me about navigating your way through non concert stage,
Speaker 1: non studio world, like getting into television scoring, and I
Speaker 1: mean eventually, I guess you're gonna start doing movie soon. Yeah, man,
Speaker 1: I'm looking forward to that as well. I've I've worked
Speaker 1: on a couple of big ones, great as Showman. I
Speaker 1: did the soundtrack in the Heights and I just did
Speaker 1: a Kids Won't Call Alloudou Crocodile, and all of that
Speaker 1: is with our brother our Philly brothers, Ben Jim poc
Speaker 1: m hum. But yeah, you know how I got into
Speaker 1: the television space for sure. You know, I remember two thousand,
Speaker 1: twelve thirteen ET Awards. I had about six or seven
Speaker 1: clients on the b ET Awards and Jesse Collins was like, y'all,
Speaker 1: I'm giving this dude seven checks, Like just hire them
Speaker 1: to do the whole show. We could save some money,
Speaker 1: you know, I saying. I never forget that. I just
Speaker 1: remember like showing up to meeting after meeting and they
Speaker 1: were like, Yo, you here again, you hear again. And
Speaker 1: that was one of the things that I saw Ricky
Speaker 1: Minor do and you know at the time like Ptrus
Speaker 1: Russian and like um, you know Rache you of course
Speaker 1: and on front the Apollo, I had been doing killing
Speaker 1: touring sets. So in my head, I was like, Yo,
Speaker 1: what of these artists for three minutes and thirty seconds
Speaker 1: get a touring Adam Blackstone experience on television? And when
Speaker 1: I'm made up in my mind, I was gonna spend
Speaker 1: the same amount of time programming and arranging one song
Speaker 1: as I did a whole show. It was a game changer, man,
Speaker 1: and they haven't been able to, you know, like move
Speaker 1: forward from that because I give each artist an experience
Speaker 1: in that TV moment that they've never had before. I'm
Speaker 1: not just playing the record most of the time. I'm
Speaker 1: giving them that live show experience in there's three minute segment,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, and so that makes audiences excited,
Speaker 1: that makes the network excited. Um, it was hard to
Speaker 1: navigate it, and I'm still learning. I'm mayor like you know,
Speaker 1: empty and the Oscars last year and following you it
Speaker 1: was like making those sandwiches and writing out charts and
Speaker 1: you know, sixt Orchestra was like yo, I'm I'm I'm
Speaker 1: still learning, but at the same time, I believe in
Speaker 1: myself so much that I know I can do anything.
Speaker 1: And if I don't know something, I'm a huge question
Speaker 1: to ask her. So all right, answer this question for me.
Speaker 1: I've been dying to know four awards chose, especially when
Speaker 1: you're doing awards chose, how much leeway do you have
Speaker 1: a knowing who the winner is going to be? Or like,
Speaker 1: what what is the process? Do you have five different
Speaker 1: sets of music on standby and they're like the winner
Speaker 1: is so you're like, all right, see two three? Like
Speaker 1: how so what we did for Oscars was the winner music. Specifically,
Speaker 1: I pre recorded down there in the pit each of
Speaker 1: the five nominees so that we could just trigger it
Speaker 1: almost like playback, depending on who won. You know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, They do not let me know. I want
Speaker 1: to be super clear with that. I do not know
Speaker 1: until it flashes up on the screen. But I've been
Speaker 1: able to kind of trick the system a little bit
Speaker 1: with how our normal playback works is now just putting
Speaker 1: all the music for that one moment in playback and
Speaker 1: they can play whichever one that they want to play. Um, Now,
Speaker 1: if I'm doing something a little more general not even
Speaker 1: warning or not really Manna might flash up on the
Speaker 1: screen five seconds before you know what I'm saying. But
Speaker 1: but if I'm doing something a little more general category,
Speaker 1: I might just do something super you know in that space,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, or tempo for somebody to
Speaker 1: walk up on stage or something like that. But when
Speaker 1: it's when it's it's a direct you know, Oscars movie
Speaker 1: song thing, I'm like, yo, without us messing up, let's
Speaker 1: record all of the nominees music and let you guys
Speaker 1: pick when what you want to play. So there's thirties
Speaker 1: seven categories for the Oscars times five or six or seven. Yes,
Speaker 1: So you're trying to tell me that you have to
Speaker 1: at least prepare once like one and thirty plus music
Speaker 1: cues I did. I was at eighties seven because some
Speaker 1: of the categories weren't on TV this year. I did
Speaker 1: eighty seven music cues. Bro It was nuts And that's
Speaker 1: not also play on music when they say Ladies and
Speaker 1: Gentlemen pub Daddy or Ladies and Gentlemen day Ship, I
Speaker 1: forgot the nominees and all that stuff. Yeah, yeah, no,
Speaker 1: it's like what is that in time? Like in time?
Speaker 1: How many How long is that Christmas? To do the Oscars,
Speaker 1: which was April, and I worked every day like straight up.
Speaker 1: My team, Dante Wins a little, thank god, and Derek
Speaker 1: Haies thank god. I brought them one, uh first all
Speaker 1: black conducting teams and those of you who know those
Speaker 1: two gentlemen, yeah, they don't. They don't let nothing get past.
Speaker 1: So it's like we pretty much deviated it up and
Speaker 1: just was like, yo, you take these thirty I'm gonna
Speaker 1: do these thirty and how do you notate like orchestral arrangements,
Speaker 1: because even you know there was orchestra there, you know,
Speaker 1: Summer sold big winner. It's like, you know, we took
Speaker 1: one of those records trying to thing and I orchestrated
Speaker 1: it with no vocal. So maybe trumpet is playing the
Speaker 1: lead line for a BB King joint, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. And and and then I put you know,
Speaker 1: low brass and strings playing like it's an organ. You
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. So well, I'm only I'm only
Speaker 1: asking because like, all right, so the year before you
Speaker 1: did it last year because of COVID, I d J,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. And even then up until
Speaker 1: forty five minutes beforehand. You know there were there are
Speaker 1: a lot of monkey wrenches. Uh, Regina King is going
Speaker 1: to now do the intro so fine to you know,
Speaker 1: to clear stuff like we we were calling Londell McMillan
Speaker 1: like a half hour before the Grammars, like, yo, can
Speaker 1: we please clear this print song right now? So I
Speaker 1: can imagine for you it's even more of a nightmare. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Interestingly enough, I will say about the orchestral music. If
Speaker 1: you choose four bars and let's just say we're gonna
Speaker 1: vamp something or we're gonna move these four bars to
Speaker 1: a different intro because it has a similar vibe, you're
Speaker 1: able to do that. But that still comes with the preparation.
Speaker 1: I still got to doieces to know which bars makes
Speaker 1: sense for Regina Hall, and to know which bars makes
Speaker 1: sense for Amy Schumer, to know which of the third
Speaker 1: set of bars makes sense for one disikes this year,
Speaker 1: like you know what I mean. So we had to
Speaker 1: play through the whole thing. It was. It was. That
Speaker 1: was one of my hardest jobs ever and very much
Speaker 1: like a my first big, huge, huge tour with Kanye.
Speaker 1: I feel like like now orchestral wise, I can do
Speaker 1: anything you know, and and as you know with the
Speaker 1: Oscars or Grammys specifically, we're not linked to any time thing.
Speaker 1: So all this talk about playback and stuff like that. No,
Speaker 1: we're rocking live. So if somebody trips or if somebody
Speaker 1: starts way back, you was kind of far all we
Speaker 1: had to keep playing. Like, yeah, I was gonna say
Speaker 1: my one I can say with certainty that I had
Speaker 1: both slowest awkward walk of all time to that podium
Speaker 1: all time. Well, who could blame you? Who could blame you?
Speaker 1: So it's process and things. Are we gonna talk about
Speaker 1: this or not? Oh wow, I'm going on record before,
Speaker 1: but I do want to hear from there. It's interesting
Speaker 1: to coming from like y'all who also share this night
Speaker 1: of being from the same area. I mean, it's just
Speaker 1: so many levels to it, right, so many years, like
Speaker 1: I cried in that moment, happy for my brother, but
Speaker 1: my brother, right, you know something though, I will say
Speaker 1: this much so yes, they because of the whole COVID
Speaker 1: situation first of all, and you know they chose the
Speaker 1: right theater. It was the Kodak right where we have
Speaker 1: the right, so they sat us, they set the doctrientary
Speaker 1: people way in back, you know what I mean. So
Speaker 1: even then they do every year. They just happened that
Speaker 1: they got you this year. So well, I think in
Speaker 1: normal times we would have been a little closer and
Speaker 1: like a little more intimate. And yeah, and if it
Speaker 1: were normal times, we would have been in a bigger
Speaker 1: thing and we would have been closer to the front,
Speaker 1: but they had us all spread out because of COVID
Speaker 1: and the documentary people way in the back. And so
Speaker 1: even then, I mean, three things are happening in my head.
Speaker 1: One was that was that a bad sketch going wrong?
Speaker 1: And it wasn't until you know, and then like I'm
Speaker 1: managing my mom and then she crying on my shoulder
Speaker 1: or whatever, so that's distracting. And then I distinctly, all right,
Speaker 1: I distinctly remember by the time I got towards the front,
Speaker 1: I was looking at the Williams sister and the look,
Speaker 1: the look they had on their face, like we're being
Speaker 1: held hostage. Then I was like, oh, ship, that might
Speaker 1: have been real, right, because even then, when it's happening,
Speaker 1: I was in the pit bro watching it from underneath
Speaker 1: directed and I was like, I was like, man, I'm yo.
Speaker 1: I mean, I promised to God like yeah, I'm like,
Speaker 1: I'm like, that's not in the script. I'm like right right,
Speaker 1: And even as it's happening, like, yo, somebody, what where
Speaker 1: was that? Like where? Right? So one I was doing transmeditation.
Speaker 1: When you're doing transmanitation, I mean I do all the time,
Speaker 1: even with the Grammys. Knowing I'm not gonna win, I'm like, okay,
Speaker 1: and remember mom, and remember I'm like trying to remember
Speaker 1: names and ship. And only when I heard the word
Speaker 1: fucking came out. When I heard fucking twice, I looked
Speaker 1: at my mom like, Yo, that's how you knew it
Speaker 1: was That's how you know it was real when the
Speaker 1: exceltives right. No, even then I said, I said, dag, Mom,
Speaker 1: like will Will Packer is allowing Curson on television take
Speaker 1: a risk, right, And so I'm talking to my mom,
Speaker 1: still not hearing what's happening, and there's no television monitor.
Speaker 1: I'm weighing the back. So when I'm walking to the front,
Speaker 1: the first thing that I noticed, I was like, Ah,
Speaker 1: these bastards they're playing it. They they're they're playing a J.
Speaker 1: Diller um the J. Diller sample to the dude that
Speaker 1: the fat cat Loop that was in Summer Soul. So
Speaker 1: that was the first thing that helped me down. And
Speaker 1: then once I got closer, then it was like, oh
Speaker 1: ship and then you know, by then my mind went blank.
Speaker 1: But I do remember at least were walking into my
Speaker 1: chair to when I saw the Williams sisters, I was like,
Speaker 1: oh damn, Adam. Adam chose a J Diller sample from
Speaker 1: Summer Soul to bring me onto that. I really appreciate it.
Speaker 1: I ran up there because, like I said, in my head,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm about to go crazy because I'm like, y'all
Speaker 1: didn't tell me about this, this this this extra skit.
Speaker 1: And then by the time I got in the room,
Speaker 1: I saw and she was just had a dejected, sad look,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. I was like, oh, that
Speaker 1: was real. And then they said quest love and the
Speaker 1: four of the white guys that it was just it
Speaker 1: was yeah. It just was like I was like, what
Speaker 1: y'all should have seen using at home watch it, like,
Speaker 1: oh god, yo, I'll say I'll say this much. I
Speaker 1: never went on record with this before walking off stage.
Speaker 1: Maybe I mentioned it obviously, you know, like once you
Speaker 1: win your award, you got to take the march to
Speaker 1: the backstage in the press room. So I don't know
Speaker 1: what segment was next. I assume that it had something
Speaker 1: to do with the anniversary or either The Godfather or
Speaker 1: something might feel serious because backstage, I'm looking at de Niro,
Speaker 1: but you no, like Scorsese, like all the characters that
Speaker 1: I've known from these gangster drawings right and walking past them,
Speaker 1: and you know, Chris kind of went to them, like
Speaker 1: I remember hearing like that heavy talk, just sucking guy
Speaker 1: like that sort of thing, like yeah, yeah, I don't
Speaker 1: want to you know, I'm not even trying to louse
Speaker 1: to but it was definitely that sort of energy of like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, this entire castle, like the Guyfather and Goodfellas,
Speaker 1: like here in the corner. They were definitely like, yeah,
Speaker 1: it was. It was. It was weird, but I was
Speaker 1: say in that moment, man like we was also proud
Speaker 1: and his speech was amazing and you honestly, um brought
Speaker 1: up Stephen Hill just text me. He said, um, um
Speaker 1: you you brought it back, and then shout out the
Speaker 1: Amy Schumer because she came in the next seven and said, man,
Speaker 1: I was in the back. It's real heavier here. What happened.
Speaker 1: I just remember laughing like about that, like you know,
Speaker 1: like she was like, did I miss something? Like it's
Speaker 1: real heavy in here right now? So so yeah, man,
Speaker 1: but that was an amazing expect to see you represent Philly.
Speaker 1: And I felt the same way like going up to
Speaker 1: get Miami. I was like, yo, like all the work
Speaker 1: that you do because listen, Somersaul was never going to
Speaker 1: be a bad movie. I feel like the super Bowl,
Speaker 1: my super Bowl was never going to be bad. We
Speaker 1: do things in excellence, right, But it feels a different
Speaker 1: a to have the outsiders recognize it as an award
Speaker 1: winning whatever, you know what I mean, like whether you
Speaker 1: want or not, And I gotta say it's I might
Speaker 1: be easier to say this now because we got the trophies,
Speaker 1: but whether you want or whether I want, it doesn't
Speaker 1: diminish the work that we did, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: And that's instilled in us at such a young age
Speaker 1: that Yo, whatever you do, I don't care if you
Speaker 1: at the five spot, our mirrors, living room, Wetlands, Oscars,
Speaker 1: Emmy's do it in excellence. And that's what I continue
Speaker 1: to strive to try and do what is hard as
Speaker 1: super Bowl uh, preparation or like award hills. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: say award shows from me because the last four Super
Speaker 1: Bowls I've done, I've been fans of the artists, so
Speaker 1: it helps me navigate how I would want to see
Speaker 1: it and hear it as a fan. You know, I'm
Speaker 1: a I'm a fan of Justin timber Lake and Timberland music.
Speaker 1: And then after that, I did Shakira and j Lo,
Speaker 1: so are really dove into what that Latino sound and
Speaker 1: culture was and doing you said the Weekend before, right,
Speaker 1: I didn't do the Weekend. I didn't think that. That
Speaker 1: year is when I did Jasmine Sullivan, Yes national anthem,
Speaker 1: that was raised the anthem, and then Dre last year,
Speaker 1: huge fan and then coming up now you know we
Speaker 1: got a special one. I need to I need to
Speaker 1: know this, Adam, because for a lot of folks that
Speaker 1: don't know, like you're connected in a lot of different ways,
Speaker 1: whether you're music directing, whether you're for a ward show,
Speaker 1: for a tour, but then also your business, your agency
Speaker 1: with your wife. So I'm kind of curious with your
Speaker 1: history with everything that you've done with this agency. Are
Speaker 1: you ever present in a moment, whether it being an
Speaker 1: award show, probably an award show, probably in music awar
Speaker 1: shows when it really happens when you look around and
Speaker 1: you see every single band and you see them from
Speaker 1: this background singers to every where you have a deep
Speaker 1: musical connection with, like you could say either I played
Speaker 1: with you or I put you on this on this gig,
Speaker 1: Like have you had a present moment like that? I
Speaker 1: think like a couple of Coachella is in a row.
Speaker 1: I'm like looking at the lineups and I'm like, that's
Speaker 1: my folks, that's my folks, that's my folks, that's my folks.
Speaker 1: But I really see the fruit of it, like you
Speaker 1: when I do something like that legacy experience where we're
Speaker 1: jam packing, five six people in the room, no posting,
Speaker 1: no ticket sales, and they come out and support and
Speaker 1: love on one another through the gift of music spawned
Speaker 1: by whatever I've done to create that environment. And so
Speaker 1: that's one of the times that are those are the
Speaker 1: times where I really see feel of love. I feel
Speaker 1: genuine I feel thankful, I feel humbled by who comes out.
Speaker 1: And you know Stevie hopped on stage last week, New Edition,
Speaker 1: you know, before that, Stokely and and just all these
Speaker 1: people where you know they want to just say thank
Speaker 1: you for what I've contributed to music in their own way. Um,
Speaker 1: and so those moments I feel really good. I have
Speaker 1: to get more into the moment of the preparation, and
Speaker 1: I don't know if I know how to do that
Speaker 1: yet because I'm I'm I'm waiting for it to be
Speaker 1: over unfortunately. If I can be honest, I got a
Speaker 1: question I've been trying to ask you. Okay, I know
Speaker 1: you're dealing with a new crop of what we call
Speaker 1: young boys. For instance, I saw Omar Edwards as kid
Speaker 1: that stage of the I'm like, yo, dude, I used
Speaker 1: to take you bowling when you were six, and you're
Speaker 1: now twenty three, twenty four years old. Yeah, yeah, twenty
Speaker 1: four You're dropped, like what the hell? Like you used
Speaker 1: to put up the boundaries on the bowling alley, so
Speaker 1: you're you're bowling gutter now, like that's happening. So how
Speaker 1: are you How do you deal with mentoring? Because I
Speaker 1: know that also when you put sometimes you can put
Speaker 1: a back it together and not even step on stage
Speaker 1: like you can put you can put timber Lakes show
Speaker 1: together and not have to be on tour. So I
Speaker 1: guess it's a two part of one. How do you
Speaker 1: deal with artists that expect you to physically be there
Speaker 1: with them as opposed to you just put their all together?
Speaker 1: And how do you train the band? Like do they
Speaker 1: hire the band or do you also put together the
Speaker 1: band that you feel can best do it? And how
Speaker 1: do you just how do you deal with like, you know,
Speaker 1: make sure you're on time, make sure you're not late.
Speaker 1: The easiest thing bro is for me with putting things together.
Speaker 1: I make sure people have seen me lead by example,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, Like they see my work ethic,
Speaker 1: they see me on time, they see how hard I
Speaker 1: work in rehearsals, they see I'm a no nonsense guy.
Speaker 1: Have you got to do a little something on the
Speaker 1: side and all that, don't bring it into the rehearsal,
Speaker 1: Like there's time everybody they had their own extracurricular thing.
Speaker 1: But when we're here to work, we're here to work.
Speaker 1: Um As far as managing the artist's expectations, that's just
Speaker 1: comes with time and comfortability and trust. If I get
Speaker 1: on the phone, we just the little baby on foulon right.
Speaker 1: So it's like I was in l A and I'm
Speaker 1: talking to baby, and I'm like, yo, I got you.
Speaker 1: I have a set of guys. What I'm gonna do again,
Speaker 1: we're talking about these sketches. I'm gonna send you a
Speaker 1: sketch and a rehearsal recording, so when you walk in,
Speaker 1: you know what it is, or if you hear something
Speaker 1: that you don't like, I can fix it ahead of time,
Speaker 1: so you're not walking in having to try to communicate
Speaker 1: um an idea with me not being there. So it's
Speaker 1: a it's very much still myself pre prepping so that
Speaker 1: when they walk in, they already know what they're walking into.
Speaker 1: And then as far as the guys are concerned, I'm like, yo,
Speaker 1: if you ain't seen me do it, don't do it
Speaker 1: on my gig, you know. And I know that sounds simple,
Speaker 1: but it's like, but have you had to have a
Speaker 1: situation where you're like, yeah, I gotta let you go
Speaker 1: and I'm sorry, like yo' it's not gonna work. And
Speaker 1: then I break it down and say this is what
Speaker 1: you did, like and I mere me and you are
Speaker 1: very similar in our countenance with people. If you explain
Speaker 1: to somebody what they did and they actually take a
Speaker 1: step back, and know who we are to know that
Speaker 1: we don't want to fire them. Really they'll be like, yo, yeah,
Speaker 1: I really jacked up. So sometimes it's not a hard thing.
Speaker 1: I've learned to in the last five years, like people
Speaker 1: really want me, and so whoever I put on that
Speaker 1: stage represents me, and if there's anything that goes wrong,
Speaker 1: it's a bad reflection on me and my brand and
Speaker 1: my business that I've worked so hard to build. You know,
Speaker 1: we talked about spawning, you know, and inspiring young young
Speaker 1: boys with the program and stuff. It's getting easier and
Speaker 1: easier to find out who has studied me and who
Speaker 1: has you know, they're there there, Adam Blackstone, BB temply
Speaker 1: already in that laptop. But at the same time, being
Speaker 1: a people person, you can't teach that you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. And so that's one of the one things
Speaker 1: that I would tell the young kids is like, yo,
Speaker 1: be humble, but at the same time, don't be afraid
Speaker 1: to speak and say hello, look people in the face,
Speaker 1: and you know, talk through ideas and shake hands and
Speaker 1: and and it's and it's all love because you remember
Speaker 1: those people who have had an impact on you over
Speaker 1: there playing Yo, real talk everybody can play and sing
Speaker 1: these days, everybody, and they're playing circles around me, these
Speaker 1: young kids now. But at the same time, when I'm
Speaker 1: when I need to talk to it justin timber Lake,
Speaker 1: or I need to talk to an eminem, they don't
Speaker 1: know how to do that, I think. So the media
Speaker 1: has been a crutch. I've been saying that to not
Speaker 1: be able to actually articulate their ideas verbally and just play,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean? So, who are five of
Speaker 1: your most pleasurable clients to work with. I'm sure you
Speaker 1: love came with everybody, but like when you're like, I mean,
Speaker 1: it's gonna be fun. I can't wait for this, no
Speaker 1: particular order at all, Jay z Um. I love playing
Speaker 1: his music. I'm a fan of the music as you really,
Speaker 1: as you see I'm married from oh three on, it's
Speaker 1: gotten more and more musical as well, you know. So
Speaker 1: I'm gonna have to say, I don't know if this
Speaker 1: is another person or Slash, but Puff Daddy. I did
Speaker 1: the Bad Boy Reunion tour sixteen, and like I said,
Speaker 1: I was talking to Fonte like that music spawned how
Speaker 1: I felt sampling and hip hop and live bass playing,
Speaker 1: like what that was about for me as a kid,
Speaker 1: before I met the roots and before I was able to,
Speaker 1: you know, kind of do things. It was like the
Speaker 1: samples alone where the music bars that I was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I gotta I could play this. And when I played
Speaker 1: this at the football game on Saturday morning, who are
Speaker 1: they gonna go crazy? I was a musty tour that
Speaker 1: year too. I'm so mad. I see that. Should have
Speaker 1: heard um Jenney Jackson even one verse, one verse penny,
Speaker 1: like one verse penny. Listen when I smack, when I smack,
Speaker 1: miss you much. Just the chorus, it's okay you It wasn't.
Speaker 1: And she she taught me that. She'd said like, yo,
Speaker 1: we're just gonna get in and out. You know, I
Speaker 1: hate that, but go ahead. This is a this, this
Speaker 1: is a you can ask me this everything and it
Speaker 1: might change. So I apologize at Sharing. Okay, very musical.
Speaker 1: He's the white quest Love. He don't want no tracks. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I was gonna say. Every time I seen Sharing, he's
Speaker 1: on stage by himself with his guitar. So he's been
Speaker 1: doing this loper thing all his life. But very recently
Speaker 1: we just did Tiny Desk and we've taken that Tiny
Speaker 1: Death show to a bunch of different things, whether it
Speaker 1: be TV shows or whatever like that, nfl um. And
Speaker 1: so that's been really cool. And like I said, you
Speaker 1: asked me this any other day, it's gonna it's gonna change.
Speaker 1: But um, the last one, I'm gonna say, Ker Franklin, Mary, Mary,
Speaker 1: Nicki Minajs justin you can't do everybody all right? Number five? Everybody?
Speaker 1: How does it feel too? Finally like fulfil your wish
Speaker 1: making albums? Yo, I never in a million years, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna be completely honest thought that I would be an
Speaker 1: artist And what took you so long? Well, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: be honest with you, man, Like, Well, I lost some
Speaker 1: friends through covid like straight up you know one of them.
Speaker 1: I lost a cousin forty five years old through covid um.
Speaker 1: A couple of my friends lost their parents, but specifically
Speaker 1: I lost Paris Bones, who parents that's right, is arguably
Speaker 1: one of the greatest keyboard players and over that one
Speaker 1: of the greatest human beings. Right, And so when I
Speaker 1: went to the celebration services, it really inspired me because
Speaker 1: I was like, Yo, Bible says like, you know, our
Speaker 1: days are numbered, and it's like we we don't know
Speaker 1: the time or the day, but I don't want and
Speaker 1: this is no disrespect to anybody, but I don't want
Speaker 1: my service at the at the altar and the screens
Speaker 1: is showing me at the super Bowl and or like
Speaker 1: I'm onto support or I'm at you know that's my
Speaker 1: jam or something like that talk. I mean, I understand
Speaker 1: what you're thinking. Those are Listen, let me tell you
Speaker 1: something that those are all positions that I'm so thankful for.
Speaker 1: People would die to being right now, but I had
Speaker 1: to leave a legacy of something from my family, my children,
Speaker 1: and the people who know and loved me to be
Speaker 1: proud of that I did on my own. I did
Speaker 1: my album in thirty days, man. And what what me
Speaker 1: and my team have been found what have been calling
Speaker 1: relationship equity right, And what that means to me is
Speaker 1: I have poured so much into people un without asking
Speaker 1: for anything in return, just because I value people in
Speaker 1: relationships for the last twenty years. That when I made
Speaker 1: a call to Quest Love, when I made a call
Speaker 1: to James Poyson, when I called Jasmin Sullivan, when I
Speaker 1: call Mary, when I called Kurt Franklin, when I called
Speaker 1: Leslie Oldham, Jr. When I called Queen Latifa, when I
Speaker 1: called Robert Glasberg, they immediately said, whatever you need, we
Speaker 1: got you. You had us for all this time. And
Speaker 1: I'm I get choked up even thinking about it because like, nobody,
Speaker 1: nobody in two got the track list that I got, Perry,
Speaker 1: I don't care what what Maybe calid like my track
Speaker 1: list is crazy, and it's like it's only because I've
Speaker 1: loved on these people. I exclaim it. I'm proud of
Speaker 1: who I love. I'm proud of the people that have
Speaker 1: inspired me, and for whatever reason, they also felt like
Speaker 1: I've inspired them, and so they returned that musical favor
Speaker 1: and we made this album called Legacy that I'm so
Speaker 1: so proud of. That's what took me so long. Man.
Speaker 1: I think you know, you know, seeing loss and experiencing
Speaker 1: joy with my children, I was like, you know, it
Speaker 1: ain't nothing like having my son sing my song as
Speaker 1: one of his favorite songs. Hearing him wake up and
Speaker 1: sing fly Me to the Moon. Or I was gonna
Speaker 1: ask you what made you do the singing? Because people
Speaker 1: know you for playing, but also on his record is
Speaker 1: special because we get to hear you sang yeah, I
Speaker 1: sang a little bit. You know, I've been inspired by
Speaker 1: big band music all my life. Tony Bennan and rat
Speaker 1: Pack and Sonata and Sammy and nat Can and Cold
Speaker 1: you know there's I mean, they all can sing, but
Speaker 1: it was it was the swag that made them songs
Speaker 1: cool too, you know what I'm saying, Like Louis Armstrong
Speaker 1: is like the swag behind it. So I was like,
Speaker 1: you know, man, I I got some swag. Let me
Speaker 1: let me throw it on a record. Make me think
Speaker 1: I'll be sure more of a stylist, That's what you know.
Speaker 1: And even the song that I sang on the top.
Speaker 1: So yeah, the song I sang on it's called back
Speaker 1: on the Strip and it's a it's a no de
Speaker 1: Philly and Jersey and do it with clean la teetha
Speaker 1: and it's going good. So yeah that I'm so excited
Speaker 1: about legacy. And it's able to showcase many, many different
Speaker 1: like facets of who I am. You know, this this
Speaker 1: is volume one. I don't know when or if Volume
Speaker 1: two happens, but it's like at the same time, I
Speaker 1: had to. I had to do it. You know, people
Speaker 1: have been great to me. Music has been great to me.
Speaker 1: We bless what we do and and this is my
Speaker 1: this is my old and and thank you to the
Speaker 1: music industry for putting Lawrence Alice on there too, because
Speaker 1: everybody might not know her name, but you're gonna know
Speaker 1: that voice. Philly Cleveland girl right there. Project is on that. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And then I you know, made a call to John Schofield.
Speaker 1: He ended up jumping Yeah, I was gonna Field on
Speaker 1: the record, Scofield on their Keian Harold Wayne Berger, Run,
Speaker 1: Dante Winslow, the Truth, Jilly from Philly spitting bars, Uh,
Speaker 1: Swizzy on the backgrounds. It's just you know, it's it's
Speaker 1: fire man. I'm so so thankful. We just kind of
Speaker 1: went through your whole like crazy days and times. What
Speaker 1: does the rest look like? When do you inj your
Speaker 1: day is your week seven days a week? What are
Speaker 1: the barriers that you put on for your own self
Speaker 1: and your family? That is that is a great question.
Speaker 1: I'm still learning at four the years sold like where
Speaker 1: to say no, where to draw the line. One of
Speaker 1: the reasons I think I haven't said it was, first
Speaker 1: of all, I grew up with the roots. Uh. But
Speaker 1: at the same time we are and I'm married. You
Speaker 1: can attest possibly, but I'm so much further along in
Speaker 1: my head in my career than my dreams could ever imagine.
Speaker 1: So sometimes when I get an offer to do, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna be completely honest. Like Stevie called me today and
Speaker 1: was like, Yo, I need you to empty his house
Speaker 1: or toys. I can't do it. That's the craziest thing
Speaker 1: for me to say. I was gonna say, who what
Speaker 1: prestigious person? It just happened to me today. It just
Speaker 1: happened to me today, and it happens all the time.
Speaker 1: But I'm speaking of today because you know, I got
Speaker 1: I have Super Bowl rehearsal right, and I've already committed.
Speaker 1: And I would wear myself in my thirties or twenties
Speaker 1: be like I'm doing it all. But at the older
Speaker 1: I get the more responsibility that these prestigious gigs have
Speaker 1: as well. So the responsibility for me to be at
Speaker 1: a meeting, it's different than me going to another gig.
Speaker 1: You know, the workload is higher when you like on
Speaker 1: kind of overseas, higher up I get, the more responsibility
Speaker 1: that workload is on, It's falls on me and and
Speaker 1: and my team is incredible, do not get me wrong.
Speaker 1: But at the same time, at something, I gotta show
Speaker 1: face and I have to implement my own knowledge into
Speaker 1: what makes this show what it is. So I had
Speaker 1: to say no to Stevie, and I think that that
Speaker 1: is It is crazy, but it's also a testament to
Speaker 1: being a stand up person in which you've already agreed
Speaker 1: to and then also knowing the time that I spend
Speaker 1: with my family and my children and my wife. That's
Speaker 1: what makes me a better musician, because we've all had
Speaker 1: that moment when you get that nod in your stomach
Speaker 1: and you're like, I can't even perform today. I'm jacked up.
Speaker 1: I don't know what's going on at home or or
Speaker 1: whatever the you know, personal case maybe in some of
Speaker 1: our lives, but it's like, as long as I'll make
Speaker 1: sure that routine and that home and straight, I'm a
Speaker 1: better person for the rest of the world. And sometimes
Speaker 1: in this business, unfortunately, the world doesn't care if we're greater,
Speaker 1: if we're better people, as long as we're servicing them.
Speaker 1: I've been blessed to be able to. I've been blessed
Speaker 1: to be able to the last two three four years
Speaker 1: have people that want to pour back into me in
Speaker 1: certain gigs, and that and that is is a blessing
Speaker 1: to me. It is a blessing when I can say, yo,
Speaker 1: I need a break, or I can't do this, or
Speaker 1: I gotta get home and my son got a soccer
Speaker 1: game or my daughter got swimming lessons. I promise you
Speaker 1: it's gonna be okay. I'll be right back. They say,
Speaker 1: oh man, we got you. It's okay. You know what
Speaker 1: I mean. So those are the moments that matter to me,
Speaker 1: which in turn supports what why I do what I
Speaker 1: do for them, this legacy. You know, Adam, if there
Speaker 1: were a versus for m d s, whoa whoa who
Speaker 1: would be v Adam Blackstone versus and someone that you
Speaker 1: didn't And I don't mean like bro, that do you
Speaker 1: about this? That's like really good? I don't know. Well,
Speaker 1: who's an m D out there? That's like okay, so
Speaker 1: I see you mean listen, you know my West Coast
Speaker 1: brothers fifteen hunting and nothing they're doing. They rants and
Speaker 1: got mars. So um that A lot of my influence
Speaker 1: and pop music came from Kevin and Tunes. Okay, I'm
Speaker 1: not sure people are familiar with him, but he did
Speaker 1: every boy band in the nineties. So Backstreet and sy Degrees,
Speaker 1: Britney Spirits, Christina Aguilera, them, Jurassic Park Sounds and all
Speaker 1: that like and Sync was doing that, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, when the TVs came over their heads at
Speaker 1: Matson Square Garden. So like Kevin and Tunes would be
Speaker 1: another one. And then I'm just inspired by so many others.
Speaker 1: You know, Ricky Minor with what he did with Whitney Houston. Um,
Speaker 1: I took a lot of that catalysts and tried to
Speaker 1: bring it to Jill. You know what I'm saying. It
Speaker 1: was like our live versions of this music is almost
Speaker 1: just as good or hopefully better experience than some of
Speaker 1: the record joints. That's how you feel about Whitney, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. When he was doing when Ricky
Speaker 1: was doing Whitney and so like we Jill loved singing live,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, And at that time, I
Speaker 1: hadn't experienced somebody that was like, Yo, let's go on
Speaker 1: the stage and we're just gonna vibe and it's Jill
Speaker 1: is such a you know, a class act when it
Speaker 1: comes to that and commanding that stage. She taught me
Speaker 1: so much of how to just be in the moment.
Speaker 1: I got a lot of that from watching Ricky and
Speaker 1: Um Whitney and all the other TV things he has done.
Speaker 1: Um and Jill still use colorful metaphors when she wants
Speaker 1: something I need, I need. Yeah, yeah, I sent her
Speaker 1: a song for more album that this sounds like that.
Speaker 1: She said, it's not yellow enough, yo dog. Every Jill
Speaker 1: is the most song rejecting person I know in this lifetime.
Speaker 1: And it's always a metaphor. Yeah, it's got to be green.
Speaker 1: It's like she's been on our synesthesia. Yeah she gets it.
Speaker 1: But but let me write that word down and say
Speaker 1: what not synesthesia? Synesthesia that's when you hear music or
Speaker 1: sounds and it makes you think about color. That is all.
Speaker 1: That is all Jill Scott is about and wanted like
Speaker 1: Strawberry Moon, Yeah, and he wanted. And her genius allows
Speaker 1: her to convey it right in a way where you're like, oh,
Speaker 1: this sound, this chord, this feeling. Whether you're you're I'm
Speaker 1: going to make this up, whether you're synesthetic or not,
Speaker 1: you understand what she's saying. We play We could do
Speaker 1: that all right. So I learned a lot and I
Speaker 1: also listen I gotta I gotta do this. Man, I
Speaker 1: gotta give my men quest love his flowers. I continue
Speaker 1: to say in every interview, every I just gotta say this,
Speaker 1: like every m D also has an m D and
Speaker 1: a mayor quest left. Thompson is my forever m D.
Speaker 1: I he can or cannot three in the morning, and
Speaker 1: I say, Yo, what you think about or what the
Speaker 1: chord for this? Or how should I do this? Or
Speaker 1: like I'm still asking and gaining knowledge and and and
Speaker 1: hopefully you know, you know bro that what you've spawned
Speaker 1: in me is so many other Now the people you
Speaker 1: say I've inspired, they got to know that where I
Speaker 1: get it from. And so between you and James and
Speaker 1: rich and and and just the whole crew is like,
Speaker 1: I appreciate you for taking a chance on me. Literally
Speaker 1: Philadelphia changed my life and you here we are QLs. Well,
Speaker 1: thank you very much, thank you. Yes, I'll take these
Speaker 1: damn flowers. Thank you. Know you know what I learned.
Speaker 1: You know what I learned this episode. And I was
Speaker 1: quasi joking when it came to me, but now I realized,
Speaker 1: like damn Adams right, like I gotta control my my
Speaker 1: depths is are real? Yeah, I don't want nobody showing
Speaker 1: that damn Like every time I go to sports event,
Speaker 1: they always show the damn Justin Bieber drum battle. Yeah
Speaker 1: you like you know, listen, I gotta say, man like,
Speaker 1: no offense is just I'm only no, no, we're not talking.
Speaker 1: It's not about what we've done in our lives. That
Speaker 1: what has made the you know, the impact on people,
Speaker 1: because you don't you know that casket Man's real and
Speaker 1: we don't want to be like, oh, he was an asshole,
Speaker 1: look at him up there with like you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying like that. We want to we want to
Speaker 1: know when you freaking started playing drumming jungle and drumming
Speaker 1: bass on you got me like how that just was
Speaker 1: like what the like? Those are the things you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. And that's my moment to Adam, that's
Speaker 1: my favorite questioned legacy baby left that you've yet to
Speaker 1: do that you want to do winning that emmy, bro.
Speaker 1: Let me know that Egot was gone very much, was
Speaker 1: very much a real thing, and it's it's very much attainable.
Speaker 1: Watching you get two in one year, it was like okay,
Speaker 1: and and and sometimes we just need to see our
Speaker 1: own whether it's our own color, or our own people
Speaker 1: or our own friends, like do it because you know
Speaker 1: that you can do it. What I want to do
Speaker 1: is inspire kids to know that follow your dreams and
Speaker 1: it could happen. Like you know, earlier I might have
Speaker 1: thought I wanted to be in the NBA or play baseball.
Speaker 1: Now I'm doing halftime at the NBA All Star Game
Speaker 1: every year. I'm like, if this is if the music
Speaker 1: is what got me to the n B A thank
Speaker 1: you little you know what I'm saying. But I don't
Speaker 1: know if there's anything else. Man, I'm gonna just take
Speaker 1: it day by day and you know, gig by gig
Speaker 1: and you know, just be super thankful, y'all. Thankful music.
Speaker 1: Music has the power to take to do anything and
Speaker 1: heal and take us anywhere. You're inspiring growing up to
Speaker 1: just so you know a lot of us. What Steve, Yeah,
Speaker 1: well you gave question of balls flowers. Now to tell
Speaker 1: everybody who your favorite you is, man Dell Mix. You
Speaker 1: don't get in trouble, right, that's a hard question, rough question? Well,
Speaker 1: and everybody we love everybody. Oh no, Adam, I you know, man,
Speaker 1: I couldn't be more proud of you man and I
Speaker 1: and just to see your growth. This is awesome. I
Speaker 1: I thank you for doing this and it's it's amazing
Speaker 1: to see your work. I can't see what you have
Speaker 1: in the future. And thank you for spending this time
Speaker 1: with us on behalf of Unpaid Bill who's working on
Speaker 1: his um teeth, Tony and Sugar Steve our favorite person
Speaker 1: of all time. Uh fontigelow an inside joke between me
Speaker 1: and Adam and and my Yeah, this is another great
Speaker 1: episode of Quest Love Supreme. You know we will see
Speaker 1: you on the next go round. All right? What's Up?
Speaker 1: Supreme is a production of my Heart Radio. For more
Speaker 1: podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.