Speaker 1: Morning. Everybody is DJ Envy, Angela Yee, Charlomagne the guy.
Speaker 1: We are to Breakfast Club. We got a special guest
Speaker 1: in the building, an icon, a legend, baby Face. Welcome, Yo.
Speaker 1: What's up man? How's it feeling good man? I'm good.
Speaker 1: He worked in with a guitar, so that feels like
Speaker 1: we're gonna get something special. They told me to bring one.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I mean they told you to do it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they told me. It's not like I said, I want
Speaker 1: to bring a guitar that you said around, I bring it.
Speaker 1: But you got Girls Night Out. Now I'm excited for this.
Speaker 1: So you started off with Angie Martinez, Girls not Out,
Speaker 1: makes sense, Ladies night and I'm Lalla and they're getting
Speaker 1: ready to go out, and that's how the album starts.
Speaker 1: What made you decide to do that with Lalla? Well,
Speaker 1: it was it was fun because it's girls night out
Speaker 1: and we just wanted something to, you know, start off
Speaker 1: the project and make it a party to begin with.
Speaker 1: It's all about the girls anyway, so I want to
Speaker 1: I want to back it up if you don't mind
Speaker 1: for people like you don't know who baby Faces. Of course,
Speaker 1: I grew up on baby Face my mother did, my
Speaker 1: father the day my parents did. What got baby Face
Speaker 1: into music? Let's start from the beginning for people that
Speaker 1: don't know who baby Face is. What got me into music?
Speaker 1: First song I wrote because I fell in love with
Speaker 1: this girl in sixth grade, so I wanted her to
Speaker 1: know that, you know, I was in love with her.
Speaker 1: I never played her the song, but that didn't matter.
Speaker 1: It's just that I wrote the song for us. So
Speaker 1: that made me want to pick up a guitar. My
Speaker 1: brother had a guitar in the house, and so I started.
Speaker 1: I picked up the guitars specifically to learn how to
Speaker 1: write this song. And I wrote this song called Here
Speaker 1: I Go falling in Love and that started it? And
Speaker 1: how did it continue on? Because I mean, we all
Speaker 1: like I wrote a rap but I didn't want to
Speaker 1: be a rapper. You did put out some rap albums. Well,
Speaker 1: I was actually rapping. I was DJ. But so what
Speaker 1: made you want to take it to see it? To
Speaker 1: be a musician at the time with so much going on,
Speaker 1: It was just it was kind of in my blood.
Speaker 1: I started there. And then my brother Melvin, who was
Speaker 1: in after seven. He's not with the same one, but
Speaker 1: he was a great singer and he had a band
Speaker 1: and I just kind of used to watch him in
Speaker 1: his band play and then he asked me to sing
Speaker 1: Who's Loving You one time and a homecoming that he
Speaker 1: had a high school and I did that and it
Speaker 1: kind I kind of kind of got in my blood.
Speaker 1: And the first act I saw it was Jackson five
Speaker 1: saw them through the coming Back to Indiana tour or
Speaker 1: going back to Indiana, and I saw them on stage
Speaker 1: and it was over at that point because at that point,
Speaker 1: you know, they were big as hell, and it was
Speaker 1: just like seeing them in my hometown and which was Indianapolis,
Speaker 1: and to see them on that stage, it was something
Speaker 1: that I wanted to do. And most musicians, a lot
Speaker 1: of musicians, I should say, they're artists mode all the time, right.
Speaker 1: They want to be an artist. They want to be
Speaker 1: in front of the camera, on the stage, in front
Speaker 1: of the lights. But you also took a taken into
Speaker 1: writing as well. What made you say, you know what,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna write for some of these people and produce
Speaker 1: with some of these people because you could have kept
Speaker 1: it all for yourself and your brothers and your bad
Speaker 1: I never felt like the star anyway. I just kind
Speaker 1: of felt like it was I only wanted to do
Speaker 1: it for the love of music and to write it
Speaker 1: in the first place, So I wasn't trying to be
Speaker 1: the main one. Even when I saw the Jackson five,
Speaker 1: I didn't want to necessarily be up on that stage.
Speaker 1: I just wanted to have a piece of it, be
Speaker 1: a part of it somehow. Is it hard when you
Speaker 1: write songs for other people and they don't sing it
Speaker 1: like how you kind of interpreted it or how you
Speaker 1: feel like you heard it. Well, Usually, since I get
Speaker 1: to produce and I can usually get them to do
Speaker 1: it the way I kind of imagine, and they usually will.
Speaker 1: They usually take it up a little bit further than
Speaker 1: I would have. I saw you said another role you
Speaker 1: originally were going to keep that record? Yeah, you magine
Speaker 1: to keep the record? Nah? I mean that was huge. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's huge, But if it wouldn't have been a huge
Speaker 1: if I did so, you know, Na, how do you
Speaker 1: tell an artist like a Michael or Boys to Man
Speaker 1: or anybody else that you work with, like, nah, do
Speaker 1: that over? Because you know, artists are sensitive, they're sensitive
Speaker 1: about this shit. It depends on how you tell them,
Speaker 1: you know, because as long as you're giving them praise
Speaker 1: on the other things they do, then they'll they'll trust
Speaker 1: you enough to try something else. Who was the most
Speaker 1: difficult to tell them that you had to sing again,
Speaker 1: or that they were wrong or something didn't sound right.
Speaker 1: Who was the most difficult because they just knew they
Speaker 1: were great? Damn? I don't know. I usually don't get fights,
Speaker 1: but I can't most people. Some people you don't even
Speaker 1: you don't even get the chance to say they're difficult
Speaker 1: because they end up doing it themselves, so like it's
Speaker 1: not really um. And if I usually run into that problem,
Speaker 1: I would rather they do them do it themselves and
Speaker 1: then then kind of critique it, you know, long distance
Speaker 1: got You know what happens when you write a song
Speaker 1: that is um, You write a song, but more than
Speaker 1: one person wants it, Like how do you decide? Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna let because some of the songs I'm sure
Speaker 1: that you've written, like maybe you give it to this
Speaker 1: person they didn't respond fast enough and then someone else
Speaker 1: got it in They're like, no, I want that song. Well,
Speaker 1: there was one song, um in the beginning that I
Speaker 1: ended up, you know, giving to another artist. It was
Speaker 1: an actually la got blamed for it, but I was
Speaker 1: the one that actually did it. Nope, that uh it
Speaker 1: was Girlfriend Pebbles. Yep. That was so. Initially we had
Speaker 1: a deal. We were supposed to do a thing with
Speaker 1: Vanessa Williams. We had three songs that we're gonna do
Speaker 1: on Vanessa Williams. And then um, we met with this
Speaker 1: lady Cheryl Dickerson at UM a Universal at the time MCA.
Speaker 1: She said, you guys shouldn't meet the boys and you
Speaker 1: should meet Pebbles. And we went over and met Pebbles,
Speaker 1: and Pebbles played um Mercedes Boy. Y Couples had you
Speaker 1: know what great about Pebbles. She had like she was
Speaker 1: very I don't even want to use this weird it
Speaker 1: sounds corny, but sassy. She was sassy, and we thought
Speaker 1: she was rich because she had um champagne and stuff
Speaker 1: in her session. We never had champagne in our sessions,
Speaker 1: and she had fruits and stuff like, and so we
Speaker 1: looked at her and so I thought, wow, she's like
Speaker 1: famous already. And so then she played Mercedes Boy, which
Speaker 1: was like just so good. And as she was talking
Speaker 1: I she was planning that I thought the song Girlfriend
Speaker 1: was already written and it wasn't written for anybody specifically,
Speaker 1: but already I had already written it. And then I
Speaker 1: said to La, I said, she's girlfriend. That is, that's
Speaker 1: who that's who girlfriend is. And he was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: but we already we already put it on Vanessa. I said, yeah,
Speaker 1: but this song belongs to her. And I've always been
Speaker 1: a believer that the song comes first and the song
Speaker 1: should go where the best starterists, and I thought that
Speaker 1: she was the best starterst for it. She she was girlfriend.
Speaker 1: So ultimately we snatched the song back. Um La started
Speaker 1: dating Pebbles, so they just figured that Pebbles in La.
Speaker 1: You know, it must have happened that way, But it
Speaker 1: was actually my father, I take I take the blame. Well,
Speaker 1: it was a good call. It was a good call.
Speaker 1: It was it was the right call. The song was
Speaker 1: supposed to go where it was supposed to go. I
Speaker 1: wanted to ask, like, what a song like? Can we
Speaker 1: talk right? Huge records to this day, right old John
Speaker 1: Young made old whatever doesn't matter. Yep. So when you're
Speaker 1: working with a new artist and you have that record,
Speaker 1: and I'm sure when you did that record, you're like, oh,
Speaker 1: this is it. Do you have any reservation like, maybe
Speaker 1: we shouldn't give it into this young whipper Snapple, which
Speaker 1: Tevin Campbell was at the time, Maybe we should give
Speaker 1: it to somebody that's already season. Do you ever have
Speaker 1: those reservations? Um, not really. It all depends on the voice.
Speaker 1: If somebody has that voice and and has that gives
Speaker 1: it a good feeling, then then you think that's ultimately
Speaker 1: that's ultimately what you want. You can get give it
Speaker 1: to somebody that season, but doesn't necessarily mean they're gonna
Speaker 1: pull it off the same way. And that song was
Speaker 1: just kind of right for Tevin at the time, and
Speaker 1: I know there's this whole thing on us here and
Speaker 1: supposed to be us your song. And the reality is
Speaker 1: I wrote it specifically for Tevin because Quincy Jones had
Speaker 1: asked me to, you know, work on this project, and
Speaker 1: I had already did one song called I'm Ready, and
Speaker 1: then he would called me. Quincy Jones called me and
Speaker 1: he was excited and said can I get another one?
Speaker 1: I was like, I'm gonna give Quincy Jones an a
Speaker 1: song because it was Quincy to So I ultimately wrote
Speaker 1: wrote that and wrote that with Darryl Simmonson. We wrote Um,
Speaker 1: can we talk. And it was for Tevin from the
Speaker 1: get go um and the whole stories that kind of
Speaker 1: happened around it not true. Just it was specifically for
Speaker 1: Tevin at that time, and that's that the rumor has it.
Speaker 1: It was supposed to be for Usha and I should
Speaker 1: never got it over for whatever. Yeah, yeah, I know,
Speaker 1: and that went for a very long time. Is not
Speaker 1: the truth, Vital, That's not the truth. It was ultimately
Speaker 1: from the beginning written for Tevin and went on Tevin.
Speaker 1: I think after the fact that it was done, I
Speaker 1: think La definitely wanted to have it on Ushi, but
Speaker 1: it was it was too late. It was already done.
Speaker 1: Do you remember how much you were charging back then
Speaker 1: for records to write records? Nope, I know for the
Speaker 1: whole Um Vanessa thing. But three songs. I think we're
Speaker 1: gonna get twelve Grandpa Pelgram for three songs. We was happy.
Speaker 1: Guys were excited for that. Was excited. We was excited
Speaker 1: about that. And then but Um perhaps manager at the time,
Speaker 1: he offered us fifteen for one, so you know that
Speaker 1: up thinking about it, Jake recently posted, like his um
Speaker 1: opening for Ice cub we got one hundred dollars he posted,
Speaker 1: Yeah recently that that um you know that check. That's amazing,
Speaker 1: like to see where you started. And then as the
Speaker 1: money starts to like increase increase, you know, two levels
Speaker 1: that you never would think imaginable. Yeah, no question. Well,
Speaker 1: you know, coming to music, and in the first place,
Speaker 1: I wasn't even thinking about money. It was just I
Speaker 1: just wanted to hear my songs on the radio. That's
Speaker 1: all you thought about. You didn't think about buying no house,
Speaker 1: about no cars or anything like that. It wasn't that
Speaker 1: wasn't the thought. It was really just about the music.
Speaker 1: And I think it's changed nowadays. It's really about like
Speaker 1: it's about the money, and there ain't nothing wrong with
Speaker 1: that though. It was two occasions. The first big song,
Speaker 1: or I think the first big song placed in terms
Speaker 1: of that I did, was a song called slow Jam
Speaker 1: that was with Midnight Star. And then after that, the
Speaker 1: first like charting song was probably rock Steady that we
Speaker 1: did with The Whispers. I was gonna ask you know then,
Speaker 1: you know you were so popular, hip hop artists on
Speaker 1: calling you and ask you to do record for them.
Speaker 1: Do you remember your first rapper hip hop artist that
Speaker 1: called and said do a record? And what were your
Speaker 1: thoughts when they called? Um, I don't clearly remember. I
Speaker 1: just know I did this one record for this artist
Speaker 1: I wasn't very familiar with. And they said he was
Speaker 1: gonna be really big, and you think he had an
Speaker 1: album out already, but he said there's gonna be really big,
Speaker 1: and I did this hook for him, Sunshine exactly. You didn't.
Speaker 1: You didn't know who JAYZ was. I wasn't really familiar with.
Speaker 1: But did you want a studio, want him to record
Speaker 1: that record? Yeah? I went in and uh and um,
Speaker 1: And honestly, I don't I think he was there. I'm
Speaker 1: not sure it was it because I didn't really know him. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I do this. It was a favor. So who called you?
Speaker 1: If you heard? I think I feel like Andrew Harrel
Speaker 1: called again and you were a baby face at that time,
Speaker 1: so he was like, who is this call? What rapp? No? No,
Speaker 1: I never had this. I was never baby face, if
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. I never looked at myself
Speaker 1: as like baby face. So it never so if I
Speaker 1: if I knew somebody and they called want me to
Speaker 1: do something, that I do it. You know. Now, let's
Speaker 1: talk about the iconic waiting to Exhale soundtrack and how
Speaker 1: that happened because that soundtrack and I really think in
Speaker 1: particular back then like soundtracks are so important, but that's
Speaker 1: probably one of the best soundtracks to this day ever,
Speaker 1: So how did you work on that? How did it
Speaker 1: all of that happen? What was the process? Um? I
Speaker 1: got a call from Forrest Whittaker and who called me?
Speaker 1: And I think everybody was everybody just called you baby face,
Speaker 1: you know, or you gotta do is call you'll do it? No,
Speaker 1: But I was surprised. I got a call from Forrest Whittaker,
Speaker 1: and I was excited that he wanted to meet with me,
Speaker 1: and everybody was chomping at the bit to do waiting
Speaker 1: to excel, you know. But as a soundtrack, everything about it,
Speaker 1: everybody was hoping to get it. Then Forrest whitter could
Speaker 1: call me and I didn't know he was directing the
Speaker 1: movie at the time, and he told me, I'm getting
Speaker 1: ready through this project and ware your excel. I said, really,
Speaker 1: And he said, I'd love you to do music, and
Speaker 1: I'd also love you to score it as well, and
Speaker 1: I hadn't done that scored it and are written all
Speaker 1: the music for film, which was. I was glad to
Speaker 1: definitely write the music for the scoring. I was a
Speaker 1: little afraid of and he said, Nanna, you know, you
Speaker 1: know you can do it, and I'll walk you through
Speaker 1: it and we'll get this done. And so it was
Speaker 1: really for us that kind of called it for me
Speaker 1: to do it, and then as we were doing it
Speaker 1: that I thought it made a lot of sense support
Speaker 1: us to be all girls. And initially Whitney, since it
Speaker 1: was a Whitney film, you thought, okay, great, we get Whitney.
Speaker 1: The same with Whitney. Initially wasn't gonna sing. It wasn't
Speaker 1: any guarantee that she was gonna be on it. But
Speaker 1: then she knew it was you, and I know she
Speaker 1: trust you. Yes, she trust But even then because I
Speaker 1: had met with and I ask her, you're gonna saying,
Speaker 1: he's I don't know bay all if I'm gonna do
Speaker 1: this yet. So I was like, I wasn't writing any
Speaker 1: writing anything for her. So everything initially was all songs
Speaker 1: written for every all the other artists. And then finally
Speaker 1: she had said she would sing, and that's how Excel
Speaker 1: ultimately was written, and that I had started writing, but um,
Speaker 1: I didn't finish it, and that's how it ended up
Speaker 1: with shoop shoot instead of a full course set it
Speaker 1: because I hadn't really thought it all the way through.
Speaker 1: Very catchy. Now, you know, I want to go back
Speaker 1: to versus, right, Yeah, Versus opened you up to a
Speaker 1: whole younger demographic. Yeah, So how has that been? Because
Speaker 1: I mean, I remember the first day, you know, you
Speaker 1: and Teddy y'all were trying to figure out your WiFi
Speaker 1: problems getting going and yeah, WiFi was good, yeah yeo,
Speaker 1: why Teddy's was a little crazy. So how has that
Speaker 1: been opening up to a whole new demographical people that
Speaker 1: probably didn't know who you were at the time but
Speaker 1: now or so into you. Yeah. I think that was
Speaker 1: no question the turning point. I think that it was
Speaker 1: doing it first. I was scared as hell, a nervous
Speaker 1: as hell anyway doing that as we were doing that,
Speaker 1: because I didn't you know, it's the weirdest thing, because
Speaker 1: you know, you're sitting here watching the phone and ain't
Speaker 1: nobody else in there, and so why should you be
Speaker 1: nervous because you don't know any you know, you don't
Speaker 1: know if anybody's on the other side or not. But
Speaker 1: the whole idea of going up against Teddy because Teddy
Speaker 1: had a catalog. Teddy got a catalog. He just didn't
Speaker 1: He just didn't plan it out right. He could have
Speaker 1: got me. He just didn't plan it, you know. And
Speaker 1: I was like, I was prepared. We were prepared to
Speaker 1: come at him. You know, every song people, okay, you
Speaker 1: got that, I got this, got this, got this, and
Speaker 1: so you know, that's how I ended up doing the
Speaker 1: I knew one song he would play. I knew I
Speaker 1: couldn't beat it. That's what why I ended up pulling
Speaker 1: the guitar out and did the wing Can I See You?
Speaker 1: Because I knew I couldn't beat When he went to
Speaker 1: the remix with s WV, It's like I ain't gonna
Speaker 1: be able to beat that. So it was it was
Speaker 1: fun in that sense, but I didn't I didn't want
Speaker 1: to do it in the first place, um because I
Speaker 1: didn't want to compete like that. I thought that was
Speaker 1: I didn't like the idea of that. And it was
Speaker 1: Andre Horrell who talked to me once again. Andre called
Speaker 1: me again and talked me into it, and uh, I was,
Speaker 1: I was. I'm glad that I did it, because when
Speaker 1: I did it, it did it changed everything because it's UM.
Speaker 1: I went from like you know, Instagram follows from over
Speaker 1: overnight from three hundred thousand and two over a million,
Speaker 1: and US and and everything. It just it kind of
Speaker 1: changed to where UM, I started seeing younger people that
Speaker 1: were into me. I went to Walgreens and was in there.
Speaker 1: This is they were during COVID times. I had a
Speaker 1: mask on it, and girl says, I know who you are.
Speaker 1: I can see you under that. I said, I watched
Speaker 1: verses and and I just want to tell you I'm
Speaker 1: a big fan. And she was like eighteen years old,
Speaker 1: and I said, okay, that's that's interesting. So um, which
Speaker 1: came which brought up the idea, you know, Rica, who's
Speaker 1: my partner in this UM On Girls Night Out, she
Speaker 1: kind of came to me and said, what you need
Speaker 1: to do is do another project, not exactly ex Hell,
Speaker 1: but a project with the younger R and B girls again,
Speaker 1: and this time you should write it with them and
Speaker 1: they write what you collaborate so it can be feeling
Speaker 1: natural in that sense. And so that's what I ended
Speaker 1: up doing. And how was that? Getting all those different attitudes,
Speaker 1: all those different people, all these different moments. It was
Speaker 1: it was great, because like every girl had their own thing,
Speaker 1: and everybody wrote on the song. We actually collaborated together.
Speaker 1: So we just walk in the studio and then I say, so,
Speaker 1: what's going on in your life? What's going to be?
Speaker 1: You're happy, you said you're in love, you're not in love,
Speaker 1: and everybody kind of will talk about whatever's going on. Man.
Speaker 1: I thought about that right while I listened to the album,
Speaker 1: and there's a lot of things like what would you
Speaker 1: say when it comes to what's going on in women's lives?
Speaker 1: Kind of a theme in this album because I feel
Speaker 1: like Lama and Love, yes, you know, butterflies, yeah. But
Speaker 1: then I listened to some of the other songs and
Speaker 1: I'm like Coco Jones. You know, she's jaded, yea, she
Speaker 1: doesn't believe in love. And then you're here at Kalani
Speaker 1: and she's like, you're mad at me for breathing yea,
Speaker 1: you know. And then you hear baby take don't even
Speaker 1: think about it, and you hear stuff like that, and
Speaker 1: she's got problems with commitment. Do you feel like you know? Um,
Speaker 1: Sometimes when you're getting creative and writing in the studio,
Speaker 1: it's easier to tap into more of those type of emotions.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's that's true. But this is also a
Speaker 1: sign of where we are today because like you know,
Speaker 1: it was a time when you know, we would sing
Speaker 1: about love and when we would sing about love and
Speaker 1: being in love. And now it's it's a little bit.
Speaker 1: Everybody's more independent and and these girls they got their
Speaker 1: own They're like, I ain't taking this and I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna and I'm gonna say how I feel, what I
Speaker 1: feel and how I feel. And that was the cool
Speaker 1: part about the process because every girl that came in
Speaker 1: it was very independent and very strong and a lot
Speaker 1: different than before. And you know, plus I was writing
Speaker 1: the songs before, so it was completely what I imagined
Speaker 1: they might say, So they were saying exactly how they felt,
Speaker 1: Like this is how women really feel. Yeah, like you know,
Speaker 1: you might have thought it was love or nine. I
Speaker 1: learned that, you know, besides musically, just learning how how
Speaker 1: to flow differently, how to how the lyrics flow, how
Speaker 1: how the melodies flow of everything's not on top of
Speaker 1: the beat, it's behind the beat. It's it's everywhere. It's
Speaker 1: it's all about phil at this particular point, and just
Speaker 1: from the their perspective of life, is. Um, it's a
Speaker 1: lot different than it was, say in the nineties girls,
Speaker 1: our nineties people period, um relationships period. Everything's a lot
Speaker 1: more toxic. But that's like it's not access like Money
Speaker 1: long and her song the recipe. Yes, you know she's
Speaker 1: going through your phone. You don't have to worry about
Speaker 1: that back in the day, Like well, yeah, there's a
Speaker 1: lot of things you do. But Money came in and
Speaker 1: killed it too, she did. But I like about her,
Speaker 1: like it's not so surfaced like what she's saying because
Speaker 1: she's like going to even but at the same time
Speaker 1: she's like I don't want to leave though, right, you know,
Speaker 1: like I still want to work it out. I don't
Speaker 1: want to be here without you. But yeah, that's the
Speaker 1: real thing. Um, Money is a great writer and she's
Speaker 1: and that was, like I said, that was a great
Speaker 1: one to do, But every everybody that came in was
Speaker 1: writing great so And the funny thing is that we
Speaker 1: really just did it every song in one day, so
Speaker 1: we basically came in, wrote it and recorded drum that
Speaker 1: same day. Who surprised you the most in the studio,
Speaker 1: I don't know all that she worked with there was
Speaker 1: that kept on being surprises like I knew Money Long
Speaker 1: was great, but I didn't know that she was that great.
Speaker 1: I didn't know she could blow like she could blow um,
Speaker 1: and I knew that some surprises were Tiana Major nine.
Speaker 1: I heard her voice before, and then when she came in,
Speaker 1: I realized how richer voice really is. It's like, this
Speaker 1: girl's really good. And then Coco Jones surprised me, like
Speaker 1: where'd this come from? Baby Chate, who was more of
Speaker 1: a rapper who came in singing to I know, I
Speaker 1: was surprised with that one that was dope. I was like,
Speaker 1: baby Tate and her song is dope, So it's it's
Speaker 1: a lot of There were surprises with everyone because everyone
Speaker 1: came came strong and it was honest. You know. You
Speaker 1: know what I think? Did you film like any of
Speaker 1: your conversations. Oh, we've filmed it off because I feel
Speaker 1: like it sounds like a podcast series because, like you said,
Speaker 1: they come in, they talk about what's going on in
Speaker 1: their lives right now. I even think about you and
Speaker 1: Ry Lennox on Live Service and you kind of making
Speaker 1: her think about her responsibility and relationships ye not working
Speaker 1: out and reflect on those things. But just to hear
Speaker 1: what they have to say where they are in their life.
Speaker 1: I'm sure that's also kind of therapeutic. And Annie, you're
Speaker 1: talking to baby Face about it. Yeah, I don't know
Speaker 1: about the baby face part, but I'll just say that
Speaker 1: if you just get in there, you just start having
Speaker 1: conversation and you just chill. Every everybody gets chill and
Speaker 1: just kind of just start talking about it. Then you know,
Speaker 1: you relax. Then it just opens up and you can
Speaker 1: get a sense of where you should go musically or not,
Speaker 1: you know, or what you should talk about. Some people
Speaker 1: want to talk about things and some people don't. First
Speaker 1: time I work with Whitney, I remember I played her
Speaker 1: the song why has It Hurt So Bad? And she
Speaker 1: heard that she goes, I can't sing that. It's like,
Speaker 1: I don't I don't know anything about that. I would
Speaker 1: never be that kind of person, so that's there's there's
Speaker 1: no reason for me to sing that, and then she
Speaker 1: sang on Excel. Years later, unfortunately she learned about it.
Speaker 1: But but initially it is about you know, whether you
Speaker 1: know whether it's something you can feel or not, or
Speaker 1: whether and how honest you want to be. And I
Speaker 1: think for the most Partum most of the artists, they
Speaker 1: want to be honest about their truth to who they are.
Speaker 1: No one's no one's hiding from me anything. At this point,
Speaker 1: they're just kind of like just just giving it for
Speaker 1: whatever it is now. You know, did he recently came
Speaker 1: out and said R and B was dead and it
Speaker 1: was trending and people were mad. R and B artists
Speaker 1: were mad. Yeah, what are your thoughts on it, especially
Speaker 1: since you just did a whole Girls That Out album
Speaker 1: R and B album. Yeah, you know, R and B
Speaker 1: is is never dead. R and B is even It's
Speaker 1: in everything that we do, and it's in every new artist.
Speaker 1: I mean, Kayla has been killing it for for a
Speaker 1: very long time. You have Giveon, you have Um, you
Speaker 1: have pieces of R and B and in Lucky Day,
Speaker 1: you have R and B and Steve Steve killing. Yeah.
Speaker 1: R and B is everywhere. And also you have R
Speaker 1: and B and and pop artists too. It's like, don't
Speaker 1: think that justin Bieber, you know that that's not R
Speaker 1: and B, that that's not those those producers, those people
Speaker 1: that give those songs. That's still part of R and B.
Speaker 1: R and B will never die because it's always it's
Speaker 1: in it's in so many things, so I disagree with
Speaker 1: that wholeheartedly. You just named a lot of R and
Speaker 1: B guys, So does that mean there's gonna be like
Speaker 1: a Guy's Not Out. I don't know. Maybe you should
Speaker 1: do a Guy's Not Out absolutely positive hang over And
Speaker 1: I was gonna ask, is there any song that you
Speaker 1: wish you redid that you here? Now? I'm like, I
Speaker 1: wish I did this different order. That's why I don't
Speaker 1: listen to the radio when when songs come out, I
Speaker 1: usually won't listen to it because I will reproduce it
Speaker 1: in my head and be like, damn, I should have
Speaker 1: did this. That that could have went for this note,
Speaker 1: could have made it a little bit better. So I
Speaker 1: try not to listen to things, and I'll turn the
Speaker 1: station if I hear something, or if somebody's listen to stuff,
Speaker 1: then I just don't try not to pay attention. When
Speaker 1: you and La read had um the Face and you
Speaker 1: guys had so much success, why did you guys say, Okay,
Speaker 1: we're done with the label? M The label ultimately was
Speaker 1: in terms of the label part, it was just that
Speaker 1: kind of time for La. He wanted to move on
Speaker 1: and he got an offer to run Arista and we
Speaker 1: ultimately built uh, we were building the Face to hopefully
Speaker 1: one day sell it, you know, and we got that
Speaker 1: chance because La was able to go run Arista. I
Speaker 1: think that's why we were able to actually sell it
Speaker 1: at that point. I don't know if we would have
Speaker 1: been been able to do it any sooner than that,
Speaker 1: but it ultimately, um, we altim We put it there
Speaker 1: and he was he went on and ran Arista and
Speaker 1: and other things as well. All the artists that you
Speaker 1: signed on the face who was some of your favorites
Speaker 1: because you just really found that raw talent and really
Speaker 1: made him to who they are today. Say again, though,
Speaker 1: all the artists that you signed on the face was
Speaker 1: one of the your favorite artists that you found and
Speaker 1: you know you love watching that that journey to who
Speaker 1: they are today. I think that, Um, it's uh, it's
Speaker 1: a little hard to answer because it's so many artists
Speaker 1: that we we touched where you didn't imagine that their
Speaker 1: careers would go where it would go, you know, um,
Speaker 1: from even starting with with TLC, where you know those
Speaker 1: girls what gave you the vision for TILSA. We're gonna
Speaker 1: go through something like TLC when they came to you
Speaker 1: the way that they looked at different clothes, singing, rapping
Speaker 1: all together. What made you say that is the group? Well,
Speaker 1: TLC was TLC was actually brought brought in through pebbles
Speaker 1: and that was and she had a vision for them,
Speaker 1: and then when she brought them it was kind of
Speaker 1: clear to see. And at that point Chile wasn't even
Speaker 1: in the group yet, and Chile actually was a background
Speaker 1: d answer for Damian Dame. And when when the three
Speaker 1: of them came together, then it looked it just seemed
Speaker 1: kind of obvious. It was. It just felt new, it
Speaker 1: felt fresh, and and um, Dallas Austin kind of worked
Speaker 1: on the first part of the first records with them,
Speaker 1: and it was so clear that there was something there.
Speaker 1: And then Dallas doing the work helped it helped me,
Speaker 1: I have to make it easier for me to see
Speaker 1: what kind of music to do on them as well. Um.
Speaker 1: And then there was obviously Tony Braxton, which was in
Speaker 1: Tony was in the Girls, she was in had the
Speaker 1: group herself with the Braxton's. We pulled her out of
Speaker 1: the Braxtons because she had this voice and how difficult
Speaker 1: was that a lea? It was? It was kind of difficult.
Speaker 1: It was a family affair and they didn't really want
Speaker 1: that to happen. But I felt like she was She
Speaker 1: was a star by herself. Initially, she perfect pairing musically.
Speaker 1: I think that the thing that hit Tony, hit me
Speaker 1: about Tony was all this pain that she had in
Speaker 1: a voice. And I loved to write from pain. So
Speaker 1: when I heard her voice, I said, oh, listen to
Speaker 1: that pain. It's like, you know, that's something great, something
Speaker 1: to work with, and um, and we just it just
Speaker 1: all the things kind of fell together, right because you know,
Speaker 1: Tony ended up getting songs that weren't actually even meant
Speaker 1: for her that she you know, they were written for
Speaker 1: Anita Baker first. At first from the Boomerang sound check,
Speaker 1: we wrote love should have brought you Home, should have
Speaker 1: bought your ass home. Yep, and that's exactly and that
Speaker 1: was written for We wrote that for Anita Baker, and
Speaker 1: she turned it down and said, y'all should let that
Speaker 1: little girl do with it. That little girl do it,
Speaker 1: a little girl that did the demo. Why did she
Speaker 1: turn it down? I don't know. She didn't like it.
Speaker 1: I guess um it didn't hit her, didn't hit it
Speaker 1: it didn't seem like it was something that she wants
Speaker 1: to sing. And then I think we said her another
Speaker 1: one like, um, you mean the world to man, and
Speaker 1: she turned that one down too, So Tony got that
Speaker 1: one too. She's no, baby, I don't want to do that.
Speaker 1: Let that little girl singing. Do you ever get did
Speaker 1: you ever get offended? Like when you like, this is
Speaker 1: a hit? I got turned down. Now I got turned
Speaker 1: out many times sending a song. So never you never
Speaker 1: get offended. That's good. That's a good ego lesson for
Speaker 1: people to understand that even baby Face might submit a
Speaker 1: song that it's not it's not personal that that little
Speaker 1: girls sing it exactly. There's some other little girls sing it. Um.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I mean you it's been a good piece
Speaker 1: of your career. People turning down things that songs they
Speaker 1: don't think it works for them, and that that's fine.
Speaker 1: Now you have the Clear Burner Boys last last what's that? Yeah,
Speaker 1: the Clear Burner Boys record uh African artists that redid
Speaker 1: Tony racks the song over right, So when they brought
Speaker 1: it to you, do you automatically care about like what's
Speaker 1: your process and clearing records? Um? For the most part,
Speaker 1: when people are trying to sample or do any any
Speaker 1: piece of your records. You initially you could you could
Speaker 1: have an ego out and saying no, no, I don't,
Speaker 1: I don't think that's happening. That's but at this particular point,
Speaker 1: I think that you let you let creativity go and
Speaker 1: let everybody go for it, as long as it's not junk.
Speaker 1: You know. But sometimes how do you know what's junk
Speaker 1: and what's not jump? Because there would be some things
Speaker 1: I would hear in my whole life where out here
Speaker 1: I said, why did why is this a hit? And uh?
Speaker 1: And rather than being judgment on it, I just listened
Speaker 1: to it harder to figure out what everybody loves about it,
Speaker 1: and I think, Okay, that's what it is. Y'all played
Speaker 1: that record that y'all know who burn a Boy was?
Speaker 1: Did you know? It was an African autist? So which record?
Speaker 1: That's see? That wasn't actually my record? It was on
Speaker 1: the face, but it wasn't one too. Didn't write the record,
Speaker 1: so I didn't have to clear that one. And then
Speaker 1: sometimes you get surprised where someone does a record what
Speaker 1: was that? U? Blue Blueberry Vey go um blue um?
Speaker 1: What was it? Um? There was a huge tongue a
Speaker 1: couple of years ago that they did in my mind,
Speaker 1: pulled in my mind, mind sample out and it became
Speaker 1: it was crazy and I never I never approved it.
Speaker 1: I didn't know I did, and I found like I
Speaker 1: didn't approve it. You didn't know. So do you just
Speaker 1: wait for it to get bigging like, oh, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: get this money back? Well, yeah, somebody, somebody, the publishing
Speaker 1: company they used to go get it, handle it. You
Speaker 1: know what I want to ask you this since you
Speaker 1: just about a publishing because people always have these conversations
Speaker 1: about publishing deals. Should you sign them? Should you not? Um?
Speaker 1: You know, and we see a lot of these artists getting,
Speaker 1: you know, hundreds of millions of dollars the big ones
Speaker 1: to do these deals. What are your thoughts on signing
Speaker 1: publishing deals? On signing publishing if if a beginning artists
Speaker 1: signing it's hard to call um in some cases. If
Speaker 1: if you're if you're a prolific writer, it's great if
Speaker 1: you can hold on and not do a big deal
Speaker 1: with someone because it could be worth a lot. But
Speaker 1: you know, you never know, and at this particular point,
Speaker 1: you know, cash is king. So if you can grab
Speaker 1: grab that money at this particular point, then it's okay. Um,
Speaker 1: but know that that's it. You know, if you uh,
Speaker 1: you gotta roll with it for a little bit. So
Speaker 1: it's um. It's changed over the year, and in some
Speaker 1: cases people get a lot of money for it, in
Speaker 1: some cases they don't. So it's hard to call. What
Speaker 1: was your first publishing deal? Like, didn't have one to
Speaker 1: begin with. Our publishing was just taken because we signed
Speaker 1: up to the record company, so it was like they
Speaker 1: take it automatically. You didn't get any evans or anything.
Speaker 1: So we've been through it all the whole. Damn that
Speaker 1: sounds because I was listening to you talking, I'm like,
Speaker 1: I wonder if being that you have family that was
Speaker 1: already doing music, you know, your brother wasn't after seven,
Speaker 1: did you have more knowledge about the business? Yeah, I
Speaker 1: was in it before. Actually I was in the business
Speaker 1: before my brother was officially, and so I had ended
Speaker 1: up bringing after seven into the business. But I think
Speaker 1: initially back in those days, when you start out, you know,
Speaker 1: you kind of go. You gotta roll with what happens,
Speaker 1: and so if the record company's gonna take calf, then
Speaker 1: you know, and you want to get a deal, then
Speaker 1: that's what it is. And everybody went it. I'm sure
Speaker 1: Teddy and every We can all give your horror stories
Speaker 1: on publishing things so as it started back in the day.
Speaker 1: But it's scotten. Um, it's gotten a lot better these days.
Speaker 1: And um and kids, you know, they they it's a
Speaker 1: it's a whole different game at this particular point. And
Speaker 1: it's not even all about the music. If you're a star,
Speaker 1: then you can make so many money so many other
Speaker 1: places and and it's not really just about the music.
Speaker 1: So it's a it's a whole different game today. Ever
Speaker 1: in the industry, did was there ever a time where
Speaker 1: money was low or you became broke? Did that ever
Speaker 1: happened after you were successful industry? Because you always hit
Speaker 1: those stories where money is low, and maybe you should.
Speaker 1: We went too much, too many private jets, too many
Speaker 1: Louis Baton sunglasses. Who knows, bloody chicks, you're buying tweet bad?
Speaker 1: You know, you never know there a point like that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's a point where you don't make as much as
Speaker 1: you used to make, and so you got to keep
Speaker 1: that in mind. Um, and then you then you were
Speaker 1: a hard to keep to make more. I always whenever
Speaker 1: um someone asked that question, I say, well, you just
Speaker 1: got to start writing more hits, you know, and and
Speaker 1: uh put in the time that happener, and be smarter
Speaker 1: and what you put your money into. But I think
Speaker 1: initially it always changes and people should always look at
Speaker 1: the money doesn't always keep coming. At some point people
Speaker 1: don't play the songs as much as they do, so
Speaker 1: you don't get the same performance. You know, the same
Speaker 1: money doesn't come at it. So you have to always
Speaker 1: consider that. And that is a forever thing. And there
Speaker 1: are some kids that when they come out, they come
Speaker 1: out hitting it so hard they don't realize that one
Speaker 1: day it slows down. It might not stop altogether, but
Speaker 1: it slows down, so you should you should be careful.
Speaker 1: And I wanted to know too, like how much time
Speaker 1: do you spend in the studio. Did you ever get
Speaker 1: to a point where you're feeling yourself so much right
Speaker 1: everything's coming in be like, oh I'm taking a month
Speaker 1: off of the studio. I'm gonna do I'm gonna enjoy
Speaker 1: the fruits of my labor. Has that ever happened or
Speaker 1: you always were like a studio rap. I've always I've
Speaker 1: always worked, and always because I didn't look at it
Speaker 1: like work, so it was always a joy to be
Speaker 1: in the student on right, And it's not always. You
Speaker 1: don't always have to be in the studio to write,
Speaker 1: so you can always do that, but there's never a
Speaker 1: point where, um, you feel like you can just take
Speaker 1: off off. So if you're not in studio, then you're
Speaker 1: actually you're out on the road or doing other things.
Speaker 1: But always something musical, something attached. It's it's just part
Speaker 1: of as a musician. It's kind of one of the
Speaker 1: things you want to do. You know, how big are you? One?
Speaker 1: Always writing for yourself? Do other artists write for you
Speaker 1: when you put out your own projects? Sometimes people write
Speaker 1: for me. I don't. Usually I'll write together, but when
Speaker 1: somebody hands me a song, I don't usually do that.
Speaker 1: Have you ever done a song that someone just handed you?
Speaker 1: Teddy calls you up and I got the song for you,
Speaker 1: or you know Quincy or Andrew Harrels. Yeah, it's so
Speaker 1: hard for me to just do that. Wow, that's and
Speaker 1: that's hard. Now. I usually have to collaborate because because
Speaker 1: people they'll they'll think they know exactly what it is
Speaker 1: that I'm supposed to do and and and I don't
Speaker 1: feel the same. So that's the one place it's weird
Speaker 1: for me to be behind the mic and if someone's
Speaker 1: trying to produce me and it's hard for me too.
Speaker 1: That's a rough one. I did that with a couple
Speaker 1: of people, and um, I got through it. Has anybody
Speaker 1: ever have you ever felt like you wanted to experiment
Speaker 1: and like, let me try this different you know sound
Speaker 1: and yeah, you know, through the years, I've done different
Speaker 1: things that It was different when I worked with Pharrells
Speaker 1: when we did um, uh, what what song did we do?
Speaker 1: Lost my song? We did a song I'm spacing all together?
Speaker 1: What was the song within that time? Oh yeah, see,
Speaker 1: y'all know it either, um, there she goes um. That
Speaker 1: was that was a different experience for me to work
Speaker 1: with Pharrell. I enjoyed it because I was able to
Speaker 1: see how Pharrell worked and how he and I was
Speaker 1: surprised because he was doing everything all this one little
Speaker 1: keyboardisty you created all this with that. It was amazing
Speaker 1: just to kind of see everybody's work work ethic and
Speaker 1: how they put things together. And I knew at that
Speaker 1: particular point that was way back in the day, and
Speaker 1: I knew at the point that Pharrell was going to
Speaker 1: just be you know, usually gonna blow up. He's gonna
Speaker 1: be amazing. I think about it. Steve Lacy, when he
Speaker 1: was doing music earlier, he was doing everything on his iPhone, Yeah,
Speaker 1: and with plugins and everything. Have you done things like
Speaker 1: that with technology or are you more like I got
Speaker 1: to be in the studio or no. No. I believe
Speaker 1: in that. I believe that you know, whatever inspires you
Speaker 1: and how you get it done, that's it. So I
Speaker 1: think it can come from anywhere, anything, and that that's
Speaker 1: inspiring to me to know that he could do that.
Speaker 1: But for you personally, me personally, have I do I
Speaker 1: mess around with Yeah, like, have you tried some of
Speaker 1: those I phone? I would. I'm not saying I wouldn't,
Speaker 1: but you know I'm not. I haven't yet, Okay, because
Speaker 1: I can act like that endorsed by a baby face
Speaker 1: that you really use, that could go crazy. I'm just saying,
Speaker 1: it's like, come me in check and then we could
Speaker 1: talk about it. I was thinking about it all right, Well,
Speaker 1: you do have the guitar hair, you do have a guitar. Here,
Speaker 1: it's Monday morning. People would you know, people are driving
Speaker 1: to work it stuck in. I think it's only right
Speaker 1: we should give him a little so we don't want
Speaker 1: you to have this here. You know, I was excited.
Speaker 1: I thought I was like, I don't know why, you know,
Speaker 1: give it something. I was gonna play it. But you know,
Speaker 1: I don't think you want me to play at all.
Speaker 1: I know it's O mcdonnald had a phone. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't know that. I got um, what am I doing?
Speaker 1: And what time in the seven? It's about seven? If
Speaker 1: this is not you know, warning voice, it's not the
Speaker 1: easy one. Win? Can my heart beat again? When does
Speaker 1: the pain never? When do the tear star running over?
Speaker 1: When does you get over? Ray again? You seem safeyving
Speaker 1: If it's not mebe saying, so? When can I see
Speaker 1: you lugging? Wing? Gain? I see you ugging the winding
Speaker 1: back car beat again, wing gain, I see you again
Speaker 1: wing gad I breathe won't stare Yeah and win gain again.
Speaker 1: Thank you? That's it. Yeah, that was amazing. That usually
Speaker 1: costs millions of dollars to get something like that. That's
Speaker 1: what that is to all of our listeners. That was
Speaker 1: definitely amazing. I know I know this might be a stretch, Norn,
Speaker 1: but me and you will help you with this one. No,
Speaker 1: can we just do? Can we talk? Just one good time?
Speaker 1: We're helping. See, we're helping me singing. I can remember.
Speaker 1: I usually play on the keyboard. It's really high. Why too,
Speaker 1: can little talk to? You want me to do? Yeah? Yeah,
Speaker 1: you should be saying I want to go too. I'm
Speaker 1: your true. Okay, we're gonna have to work a little
Speaker 1: bit by dream come true. I just want to say
Speaker 1: we can fix that. We can fix that and let congratulations.
Speaker 1: That happen to one single from off the album Lmake
Speaker 1: video star An Tiffany had it. It looks like a
Speaker 1: Bridgetin theme. Oh yeah, that's a situation. What do you
Speaker 1: want to play from the album? Hold on, hold on,
Speaker 1: let's think about this again. Let's see what could what
Speaker 1: would you heard it? What would you like to play?
Speaker 1: Oh man, let's see what song? You know what we
Speaker 1: talked about the song with baby take. Yeah, so let's
Speaker 1: do that. One can think about it, don't even think.
Speaker 1: Let's do it all right. It's baby Face, the icon legend,
Speaker 1: It's the Breakfast Club. Thank you for joining us, Thank you,
Speaker 1: good morning. Let me try. It's so hard to be
Speaker 1: on that boys right out albums. He wouldn't be on
Speaker 1: the Answer because where We're going, Where we going? His
Speaker 1: voice blight in