Episode 416 w/ Steve Rifkind and DJ Cassidy

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
He is drink Champs, motherfucking podcast man. He's a legendary
queens rapper. He's agreed as your boy in O R E.
He's a Miami hip hop pyoneer. What up his DJ
E f N? Together they drink it up with some
of the biggest players you know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
And the most professional, unprofessional podcast.

Speaker 1 (00:29):
And your number one source for drunk drink chans.

Speaker 3 (00:32):
Moy day is New Year's CST.

Speaker 4 (00:35):
It's time for drink Champions. Drink up mother mother.

Speaker 3 (00:43):
Would a good be hoping he would be this your
boy in O R What if it's d J e
f N, this drink Champs? We have We have today
one of the best execs of all time, one of
the most respect acted executives of all time.

Speaker 1 (01:02):
His head still monkey foot in the game.

Speaker 3 (01:04):
He's promoting shows and doing tours and doing all types
of things that's going on. He's been rewinding time as well.
In case you don't know who we're talking about, We
sure about my friend the one to know that.

Speaker 5 (01:22):
Let's see that.

Speaker 3 (01:22):
Let me ask you, because you had one of the
craziest runs with with Loud, right, but let's suppose we
had a chance to reverse that and you as an
artist rewind and you as an artist knowing all you
know now, what was? What would we be a label
you would sign to? That's a good question.

Speaker 1 (01:45):
I do.

Speaker 6 (01:45):
I do the vodka labels that are right now, either
either back then or both.

Speaker 7 (01:52):
Back then, back then.

Speaker 8 (01:53):
I would sign to Loud because the artist always came up.

Speaker 7 (01:56):
Big up yourself, I respect and then I love what
topped us t D?

Speaker 1 (02:05):
Yeah, Okay, did you go when Kitting Drink and Drake
was battling? Did you? Who'd you go for?

Speaker 6 (02:13):
I mean I didn't really go for anybody, you did know.
I was just I thought it was just good for
hip hop?

Speaker 9 (02:18):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (02:19):
What? What was? What? Did you? Was you excited by it?

Speaker 6 (02:23):
I was in Vegas right well, this whole thing was
going on, and I was just like I was entertained
right because.

Speaker 3 (02:32):
You you uh was that with Mob Deep and Mob Deep?
I was going into Pog and that was like a
little bit more serious.

Speaker 8 (02:40):
So I don't know if you know this park was
my roommate.

Speaker 7 (02:44):
What the fuck?

Speaker 1 (02:47):
Wait? Okay, hell hold holdly gonna describe kidding? Okay? You ahead?

Speaker 6 (02:52):
So on his first album, okay in It sco Pie
and he wasn't on Death Throw. He was on a
label called that It was Adrian Gregory's label.

Speaker 7 (03:03):
Okay, this is after Digital Underground.

Speaker 6 (03:05):
Yeah, after the Digital Underground and then the Scope just
started and they hired me, wow to do all the
street team and all the marketing. So we set up
a promotion tal oh, I don't want to down Thursday Sunday. Yeah,
so we get back out of late Sunday night or
first thing Monday morning. So he would stay with me,

(03:26):
and I was living like a townhouse in Studio City,
and I mean and he worked. He would come to
you officely. He would pack records with me and it
would be me, this kid Fade Dubinet and it would
be and our assistant Lisa, and it would be this
us on the floor shipping packing records. I mean, he
was a worker like he worked his ass off. Wow.

Speaker 7 (03:47):
Wow, that's It's just to be clear for the audience.
This is you before LOUD. Before I just know.

Speaker 6 (03:53):
It was SRC, but the market was the Stephen Riffing Company,
not SRC Records, and Loud just started.

Speaker 7 (04:00):
Just started, yeah, but they hadn't taken off yet now,
so you're within the scope and this is him after
Digit Underground, he's about to get or he got his
deal with.

Speaker 6 (04:08):
In Brendan got a baby trapped.

Speaker 7 (04:11):
Right, Wow, that's amazing thinking what were those conversations like
with him?

Speaker 6 (04:18):
They would he just wanted to work and win, like
I mean literally he would you know. He we would
sit on the floor, we would pack records, we would
we typed the letter, he would sign the name, he
would put the letter in the envelope and boom.

Speaker 8 (04:31):
He would smoke cigarettes, weed, you know whatever it was.

Speaker 6 (04:34):
We were, right, we were our officers on Melrose and
there was a fast food There's a restaurant called Johnny
Rockets right across the.

Speaker 1 (04:41):
Street, right, so we would go back.

Speaker 6 (04:47):
I mean we would stay that until ten eleven o'clock
at night, then go to the crib. Right, That's incredible.

Speaker 7 (04:51):
Tuesday was was radio day, and then we'd be on
the road on Wednesday. Did you did you guys maintain
a relationship after those times?

Speaker 8 (05:00):
So this is what I was going to say.

Speaker 6 (05:01):
So I went to see uh Tony rich from at
the House of Blues one night with Open Artists. Right,
I don't know if he was okay, I know he
was signed him with a face. Yeah, And I'm walking
through and I get smack in the back of my head.
So I got a ball tad, So I don't know
if it's a love tap or if it's a real right,
and it's him, And I'm looking at me because you

(05:22):
don't say low, and I'm like, man, I don't know
where I stand with you?

Speaker 1 (05:26):
Oh talking about yeah? Okay?

Speaker 6 (05:28):
And he goes, are you talking about them? He goes, man,
I'm just messing with them so I could be relevant.

Speaker 3 (05:34):
Whoa so Tupac saying that about Mom's Yeah he loved them. Wow,
I can see that too. I can actually think that.
Actually that's crazy. Has there ever been an artist that
you had an opportunity to sign and you didn't sign
and you regret it?

Speaker 8 (05:48):
Yeah?

Speaker 7 (05:48):
Who Jay? No?

Speaker 1 (05:52):
I think you mentioned this. M okay, m.

Speaker 7 (05:57):
But Jay by himself was an original flavor with him
down the original flavor.

Speaker 6 (06:00):
No original flavor was on Atlantic. Jay was was Rockefeller,
So it was okay. Dame came to the office. We
wanted to do the deal and b MG wouldn't let
us do the deal because they were trying to build
their stuff up like it's not gonna happen, and they.

Speaker 8 (06:17):
Wanted a JV. I was like, give him a JV
and just give us an over. Who don't know JB
is a joint vent.

Speaker 1 (06:25):
Holy ship imagine.

Speaker 7 (06:27):
Let's let's imagine Rockefeller flourishing under loud.

Speaker 6 (06:30):
But I also had Gotti before, okay.

Speaker 7 (06:36):
Before before Leo and Russell got him.

Speaker 8 (06:39):
And he'll tell you that too.

Speaker 1 (06:42):
Was that after he was with?

Speaker 8 (06:44):
That was it was? It was Mike Gronamo.

Speaker 1 (06:46):
So wow.

Speaker 6 (06:47):
So we were get to sign Mike. We couldn't get
the sample click right, holy man. So they say timing
is everything, right, So.

Speaker 7 (06:56):
You're gonna say Mike Drohn before Blunt Records, Yeah, wait
before and brought him to you.

Speaker 8 (07:01):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (07:03):
Wow, that's amazing.

Speaker 3 (07:05):
So we were in Paris, yes, and I got to
see one of the amazing, the most amazing shows period.
I don't want to say hip hop shows. I'm talking
about amazing show period. Like I watched you know, I
always picked this up, but I watched Wu Tang and
nas like no opening the act, just these guys sell

(07:26):
out the whole arena.

Speaker 1 (07:29):
But it looked like it.

Speaker 3 (07:31):
Look like a documentary. It looked like they weren't there.
That's how good it was. And I remember one part
of the show, Rizard stops the show and he goes
Steve Rifkin. He stops and he bigs you up, And
I start to think what other artists grew with their CEOs, Like,
how y'all grew together.

Speaker 1 (07:51):
I don't think there's too many people that exist.

Speaker 8 (07:54):
Me, Me and Joe.

Speaker 3 (07:55):
Yeah, okay, I'm talking about other than you, motherfucker.

Speaker 7 (08:02):
Yeah, I mean Russell and ll.

Speaker 1 (08:06):
Russell, l Leon and a little bit.

Speaker 8 (08:10):
You know, and you gotta go Jimmy and Dre. Yeah,
every because a dude.

Speaker 3 (08:15):
Look at Dre, even though he's a phenomenal producer, phenomenal artist,
I do look at his business mind more with with
with jim I mean that's beautiful.

Speaker 7 (08:24):
Man, right and then oh yeah, you know, and then
maybe Stout and Nas.

Speaker 3 (08:34):
They don't really work together still, I think they do deals,
but I don't think they work, but they're still close. Yes, yes, yes,
I think that's beautiful, like to grow with with the
artists and growing time, you know what I mean. You
get to know each other's kids, you get to know
each other's wives and things like that. But I was
so blown away how he was so articulate and so
like like like I believed him, you know how somebody

(08:56):
like you knows say something that like about it. And
I looked at his face and I was like wow.
But it wasn't just him, It was Unable that was sitting.

Speaker 1 (09:05):
There, and it was like, we're like, you know what
I mean? I thought that was special? Do you do
realize how special that?

Speaker 10 (09:10):
In this stuff?

Speaker 6 (09:10):
I mean, we all, I mean risus family right, the
way I considered Joe family, the way I consider you family.

Speaker 2 (09:17):
Right.

Speaker 6 (09:21):
We all grew up together. It's like they changed my life.
I changed their life. And it was just you know,
and like you know, and the one thing is, you know,
we never fought over money, and I won't fight over money. Wow, right,
iized that, so like we could have a disagreement about
a marketing, but not even about how much we was spending.

Speaker 7 (09:40):
You know, let's do this, let's do that.

Speaker 6 (09:42):
You know, when I got them on the Rage Against
the Machine tour right right, if we finished that tour,
to me, that would have been the biggest selling hip
hop album of all time, right, I mean it was
a double album we debut. That was that when they
owned that was Wu Tang forever?

Speaker 1 (09:57):
Okay? Was that when they got bafed for ninety.

Speaker 6 (09:59):
Seven yeah, cool, so, and then we had the Rage
Against Machine tour, and you know, unfortunately for us, the
tours started in all the cities that we already had
on lock Wow right, and we had that you know,
first hip hop million dollar video right with Triumph and.

Speaker 1 (10:15):
Then Obamatoma Lee Bad. So I'm getting a class back.

Speaker 6 (10:22):
So what happened was, you know, we scanned, which means
records sold in those days, we sold I think six
hundred and something thousand first week debuted and it was
a double album, so it really is a.

Speaker 7 (10:35):
Million two right, so ninety four percent.

Speaker 6 (10:39):
Around the world, number one every country, and then the
tours without radio too.

Speaker 8 (10:46):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (10:46):
Right, the hot ninety seventh thing came right, we got
hit right, But now I was like, all right, don't
worry about the tour, it's going to start and the
videos dropping.

Speaker 8 (10:53):
So you know, we.

Speaker 6 (10:55):
Debuted at six hundred, you go down, and now the
record starts coming up again and we're averaging around three
hundred thousand a week. And the tour now we're going
into the Midwest. Like when I'm saying the Midwest, like Nebraska, Cleveland, Indiana,
like Marcus that we've never been in marks that we
haven't sold, and we're talking about thirty forty thousand seeds,

(11:19):
and if we finished that tour, we would just in
fifteen to twenty million hours easy.

Speaker 1 (11:26):
And that's just that was just in America. Was that
all we were.

Speaker 8 (11:30):
Starting, were going to naturally.

Speaker 3 (11:32):
But I'm just talking about the message because because then
because you know me and you've been overseas a couple
of times together. But I wish the fans could understand
how sometimes overseas more kind of appreciates it, like.

Speaker 6 (11:48):
You know, they know it better than we know it.
They appreciate it because they can't touch it.

Speaker 3 (11:55):
So I want to know the first time you met Woo,
because it was it was it you met Rizza first.

Speaker 6 (12:04):
I met Rizza thirty ministry for the rest of their guys.
So I met him on my birthday March second, nineteen
ninety three. Okay, wow, and Rizzi just I've been trying
to reach him since the beginning of the year. And
I'm in New York for my thirty first birthday and
I'm working out of the RCAA building and I think
it was on sixth Avenue at the time, in like

(12:25):
forty third Street, and they said there's a Prince Rakeeen.

Speaker 1 (12:29):
I'm like, and I'm like, you're kidding me. What you
didn't know Prince Rackeen was VISI.

Speaker 8 (12:33):
No, there was no Riza yet.

Speaker 7 (12:35):
It was just Prince knew him already, yes, because he
was already an artist that was out.

Speaker 6 (12:38):
Yeah, but I didn't know him personally. I knew who
he was, right right. But I say, you were looking
for him already. I've been trying to reach him. He
didn't have financering machine like I mean, like all that.
You know if you saw the show, like you really?

Speaker 8 (12:50):
So he shows up.

Speaker 6 (12:52):
I'm with East Swist from the Alcoholics chelt East right.
So the office is no bigger than this table right right,
And he comes and he goes the guys who downstairs
you might if they come up.

Speaker 8 (13:03):
I'm like, yeah, no problem.

Speaker 6 (13:05):
So you know it was not of them, no, right,
So I can picture this, right. So they come up
to say, we got a video, right, yeah, protect your next.
So they put the video in and they start performing.
So some guy comes in a jumpsuit, so I don't
know if he's in the metal, I don't know who
he is.

Speaker 7 (13:23):
He comes and slams the doors.

Speaker 1 (13:25):
That's that ship comes in.

Speaker 6 (13:28):
It goes out. I've never seen him again. I still
got a million dollar check waiting and I signed him
just I don't know if they set me up and
they hired this guy to come in as an actor,
if he.

Speaker 1 (13:36):
Really never asked them, if they didn't see I mean.

Speaker 6 (13:39):
Beings like you know, Rizza is like, he gives me
a smile, and.

Speaker 1 (13:46):
We signed him.

Speaker 7 (13:47):
You know, the deal was done with in like two weeks.

Speaker 1 (13:49):
Wow. Wow?

Speaker 3 (13:51):
And I noticed this is a cliche kind of question, right,
but some people could just see talent off the top,
and sometimes the tallet has.

Speaker 1 (13:59):
To be proven. Did you no off top by looking
at I mean the energy, like, how do you not?

Speaker 6 (14:07):
I mean dirty doing his verse to protect your neck
like standing on the desk. I mean I meant, I mean, wow,
did I know thirty five years later that that yeah,
because we take it for granted now.

Speaker 7 (14:21):
But even the name Wu Tang clans sound crazy?

Speaker 6 (14:24):
Well, I mean you know that W to me is
in the top five brands in music, right. You have
the Rolling Stones tongue, you have the Grateful Dead Skull,
you know, and then the wou w you know, And
I know, so.

Speaker 3 (14:42):
That's what's a fucking amazing, man, this is hip hop music.
Hip Hop was predominantly at this time was not known
to cross over, and when it did cross over, it
was looked like, oh, it's almost frowned upond Wu Tang

(15:03):
was one of these groups that cross over that no
one that they never compromised their music. It always stood
the same, always down the street. Was there ever a
time where they try to change that? Like now I'm
talking about not the group I'm talking about who signed
with BMG and all these other like.

Speaker 6 (15:19):
If they did, I would tell them to go fuck them, right,
because I never considered myself an A and R guy.
To this day, I don't consider myself an R G.
I consider myself a marketing and a promotion guy. Right,
So you know I own the name Street Team, right,
and that's all fire.

Speaker 8 (15:37):
I knew how to do.

Speaker 6 (15:38):
Like you know, when I left from Loud to start
SRC Records, you know, I thought I was gonna build
Loud Point too, right, but Universal didn't understand Street Records, right,
you know. And God blessed me with a kon, God
blessed me with David Banner right with that, you know,
and then it was like I found something. We just

(15:58):
moved and I just found some thing where you know,
Akon had the number one and number two pop record
in the country at the same time. And who was
it clapped at? It was smacked that, sack that and
I want to fuck you.

Speaker 1 (16:10):
And I want to fuck to every Voga records.

Speaker 6 (16:14):
One was with them and then you know the other
one was with Snoop right and like, and the universe
was saying, you got to move one of the records
and I was like, you laughed in my face and
I said, this will be the biggest shot outs in
my career.

Speaker 8 (16:25):
I was like, nah, you guys are gonna lose your
bonus on this one.

Speaker 1 (16:28):
Do you think Akon created afrobeats?

Speaker 6 (16:31):
I don't know if you created afrobeats, but he has
a big he has a big saying.

Speaker 1 (16:36):
You know, he was promoting going to Africa first.

Speaker 8 (16:39):
I mean, he's from Africa.

Speaker 3 (16:41):
I'm walking around, joking around, joking around. What's what's your
favorite era of music?

Speaker 8 (16:47):
Nineties nineties?

Speaker 3 (16:49):
You remember early nineties or late nineties, middle nineties or
just in the nineties period.

Speaker 7 (16:54):
I'm going to say, like from ninety two to you know.

Speaker 1 (16:56):
Okay, ninety two, Okay, that's where who dropped.

Speaker 6 (16:59):
Right, Well, who dropped ninety three? When the Digital Underground drop.
That's late eighties, late eighties, eighty ninety nine, ninety.

Speaker 1 (17:05):
Yeah, okay, what is that? That's when did you do underground?

Speaker 7 (17:14):
And so when you're starting your label and you're saying
you to go back because it's a big deal, you
said you trademark Street Team.

Speaker 6 (17:22):
Yeah, I trade trade. I trademark Street Team after the label.
But yeah, I didn't even want a label.

Speaker 8 (17:27):
Man.

Speaker 6 (17:28):
I was like, I was, you know, my late twenties.
I was making six figures, you know, and I thought
I was rich. You know, I was cool. I would
leave the office every day. I mean, if you were,
but you know, at that time, for sure, I was
leaving the office every day at three o'clock, go to
the park, play ballf for two hours, come back to

(17:49):
your office, do my reports. And and somebody said you
got to have a label. I was like, nah, I'm cool.
And they ended up calling my father.

Speaker 8 (17:59):
So I'm in this.

Speaker 6 (18:00):
I'm staying at the hotel on fifty fourth Street, and
he said I need to talk to you, and no,
actually I was just saying at I was staying at
my partner at rich Isacson's apartment, yeah. He goes, I
need to talk to you. And I'm like, all right,
I'll have a bunch of you tomorrow. He goes, no,

(18:21):
come to the house.

Speaker 10 (18:22):
Now.

Speaker 6 (18:22):
My dad lived in Long Island, which was forty five minutes.
I'm like, Dad at ten o'clock, he goes, I don't
give a fucket over here.

Speaker 7 (18:27):
Now he put out the first hip hop record.

Speaker 6 (18:33):
Yes, and you know when he when my dad talks
like that, I really you know, it's not smart to
say no to anybody. So I take the Long hon
rail row take the train, and he said, Paul Marshall
called me. I'm like okay, and he goes, you turned

(18:54):
down a label. I'm like yeah, he goes, you're a
fucking idiot. He goes, you know why. I was like,
you know, it's not the first time you've called me
an idiot, and just like why, dad, He goes. With
the company that you have, now, you're doing extremely well,

(19:15):
but you're only as good as your last contract. M
you want a brothers, you can get fired and then
you're left with your dick in your hand. With this
having a record company, you own something, you're making money
while you're sleeping right right, And I couldn't disagree with

(19:35):
him on that.

Speaker 7 (19:41):
But before you get into that part, what I wanted
to find out is how did you get into the
street team and marketing side and things like what drove
you there?

Speaker 6 (19:49):
So I was major lea dyslexic as a kid. I
don't know how to read it right till I was
fourteen fifteen years old, Wow, And I was in Jeuviie
and just I was getting in a lot of trouble
and my grandfather was living down here. And my grandfather

(20:09):
was a I don't know what he was, but he
was a tough motherfucker right. And he called me and
he says, you got to change I was eighteen, nineteen
years old. He says, you got to change your life.
I'm like, what do you mean. He goes, I want
to be like you. He goes, this is why I'm
living down here now, don't I don't want to be
that what I was. He goes, you could end up
dead or in jail. And he goes going to the

(20:34):
music business. I said, my father wants nothing to do
with me. He goes, I'll take care of that. And
two weeks later he calls me. He goes, pick me
up Eastern Airlines at JFK.

Speaker 1 (20:47):
Your father's signed James.

Speaker 8 (20:50):
Yeah, my dad's timed James Brownton.

Speaker 6 (20:56):
And we went into the city and we sat down
with my father and uncle and they said, we're gonna
put you on the road, so you'll you'll fly back
to Florida with Grandpa and then from there and they
gave me around. You know, I drove from Fort Lauderdale

(21:17):
to make in Georgia, then to Atlanta, Alabama. Don't get
there's no GPS, no matter, right, I'm just learning how
to read like so remember, you know, so it's like
I would call the stations. So if I'm making Georgia,
I would call the station in Atlanta say how do
I and literally write directions?

Speaker 1 (21:35):
Then, right, I.

Speaker 8 (21:38):
Didn't I didn't even know. I didn't even know how
to read the map.

Speaker 6 (21:40):
I mean, I was so but I'm eighteen years old
hanging out with forty fifty year olds, and I was like,
let me go to the colleges.

Speaker 7 (21:48):
Right, what are we going to talk. We're going to
talk music, We're to talk sports, we're gonna talk girls.

Speaker 1 (21:52):
All right.

Speaker 8 (21:52):
That was never really about money, right, So.

Speaker 6 (21:57):
That was only supposed to be three months and it
lasted three and a half years.

Speaker 8 (22:04):
So when I was.

Speaker 6 (22:06):
Done, I actually got really good at it, and I
just kept in touch with a lot of the college DJs.

Speaker 7 (22:14):
And when I moved out to LA, I was managing.

Speaker 6 (22:20):
I moved out to LA to start managing New Addition
and then after that ran its course, I needed to
do something, so I started calling the record labels.

Speaker 1 (22:28):
I said, hey, I'll help promote your hip hop records.

Speaker 7 (22:31):
And that's when I put the whole TLD to.

Speaker 3 (22:33):
Hip hop record help promote, Oh promote, Okay, okay, but
you went to manage New Addition.

Speaker 1 (22:38):
Yeah, al must pushed as you get at that time.
So this is a great story.

Speaker 8 (22:45):
Did a good story.

Speaker 6 (22:47):
So we're in Saint Thomas, h they're performing at Hal Jackson.
Remember how Jackson from wbls OOP. I'm sorry, not that old,
all right, So how jack he was the one of
the owners of blis Hal Jackson's Talented Team contest. And
we're flying back from St. Thomas to LA and they're

(23:08):
talking about how many they went through. I thought they
were talking about for the weekends.

Speaker 1 (23:14):
Oh yeah, okay.

Speaker 6 (23:15):
They're talking about per day day right. So when it
came up to mind, I thought I did good, right,
They said, you were doing that per day and I
was like, no, I did that for the weekend. They said,
now we're talking about per day.

Speaker 3 (23:32):
I gotta smell the ass. And because for urs of
R and B different there are different times too.

Speaker 1 (23:40):
But there was a different times where they had to
come see you.

Speaker 3 (23:42):
There was no Instagram, there was the count in fantasize.

Speaker 7 (23:47):
They had to go and see you. It was a
little different things, but.

Speaker 6 (23:52):
That was that was after the new edition was new
audition was like eighty six.

Speaker 1 (23:58):
How many people in his room? Mighty took your mom's down.

Speaker 6 (24:01):
This is fact, but but but this was a great
thing with new addition. The reason why I let Wu
Tang do all their solo records because to.

Speaker 7 (24:12):
Me, the group was always bigger, bigger than the whole.

Speaker 6 (24:17):
So when Ralph wanted to do a solo record, that's
why we put Johnny in the group and everything else. Ralph, Treasurent,
we all said, the group will still be bigger than
the solo.

Speaker 1 (24:29):
So that's how I lay until Bobby Brown started. That
makes a lot of sense to.

Speaker 6 (24:35):
Bobby sold more records, but touring Michael sold more records
than the Jackson five. But Michael could have toil the
way that right when Michael went back with the Jackson
five for that victory tour that you know, and that
day that was that was the biggest tour in the
world ever.

Speaker 7 (24:50):
Now, but this is crazy because it makes sense how
you would have had that foresight to make that type
of deal with Wu Tang because based on that what
you went through with new addition total sense.

Speaker 3 (25:00):
But at that time, uh, because I believe Wu Tang
was on Loud, but you actually let Math go to
Depth Jam.

Speaker 1 (25:07):
You had to give per mission for that or that
was that's what he's saying. He got that. That's where
I got.

Speaker 8 (25:11):
Because a new edition.

Speaker 6 (25:12):
So when I signed and they gave me, I wasn't
gonna say no no matter what, because it was about
survival of the fitish right, So I was like, go ahead,
if we can match it. I didn't have the money
to match it, and it wasn't even crazy money match
match Steph.

Speaker 7 (25:28):
Jams the oar.

Speaker 1 (25:29):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (25:30):
Yeah, but then you had Genius some believe was one
Geffen Dirty was on Electra and and we ended up
having Right and Deck.

Speaker 7 (25:39):
So when they already had those deals before, no, no, no,
that was after Jesse had math had dirty?

Speaker 6 (25:46):
Was that Electra Then when protection Neck and the teacher
d Man came, def Jam came and got mad.

Speaker 3 (25:51):
Right, Okay, Now did Leo had to actually have a
mission for that or well under yes, But but it
was really that said, you know, this is what we.

Speaker 7 (26:01):
Wanted because that's how you did the deal that it
would allow those things.

Speaker 3 (26:04):
But but what was the agreement as long as Wu
Tank get back together, that you'll.

Speaker 1 (26:08):
Be with that. That's fucking genius.

Speaker 3 (26:11):
It sounds so simple nowadays because we've seen so many
examples of it, but prior to that we have noticeas
on examples of it. And I never even put two
and two together with the new additions, right, and we
take into just.

Speaker 7 (26:21):
Now we could take for granted the fact that had
you not experienced what you a new addition, you might
not have done that type of deal. We might not
have had the Wu tang on the way we have
them today.

Speaker 1 (26:30):
That's amazing.

Speaker 7 (26:31):
And shut out the new addition though for being a
part and shout out to Hiram Hicks too.

Speaker 3 (26:37):
It's genius because in a certain way, when you have
artists that's making these albums where all the artists is
on the group. It's like they're actually helping these other
labels to help them promote not only the group, but
other artists like you know what I mean, Like like
for instance, ghost Face album, I remember him, I remember him?

Speaker 1 (26:56):
What is the Supreme Client Cells is.

Speaker 3 (26:58):
The other one where Ray Raycorn is right there. So
it's like, you know it is in your best interest as.

Speaker 6 (27:03):
Yeah, the bigger they are the bigger, right And no,
forget they would pay us, not Rizzo, but Sony would
pay us, Elector would pays, would pay us for the
clear samples of the artists to market the record.

Speaker 1 (27:14):
What the fuck did they about they're playing?

Speaker 7 (27:17):
Yeah, I had expertise and I had the blue plane.

Speaker 3 (27:21):
Yeah you know how to promote him? You already sold
millions of records with them as the.

Speaker 7 (27:25):
Crew, and the branding ultimately helps the group because they're
all screaming Wutan at the end of the day and
exactly Wu Tang is on left.

Speaker 3 (27:31):
Did you ever did you ever see streaming? Like did
you see this coming?

Speaker 1 (27:35):
So?

Speaker 6 (27:36):
Man, let me right before I got the Florida Okay,
you know in twenty thirteen, I had my heart attack, right,
and I stopped working from twenty thirteen to today. My
Catalog has done twenty three billion streams.

Speaker 1 (27:55):
I called my lawyer. Yeah, on my way, here.

Speaker 6 (28:00):
Me some fucking money, right, Because the truth is I
sold the company and I think it generated.

Speaker 1 (28:06):
I don't really know.

Speaker 6 (28:07):
The math, but my son said it was like one
hundred and forty million dollars and this is Catalog, right.
I'm like, you sold the catalog I sold. I got sick.
I didn't think I was going to lift, so I sold.
I think Akon's like fourteen billion at them out of it, right,
But I am sorry.

Speaker 8 (28:27):
Right, And then you have Joe with lean back.

Speaker 6 (28:30):
That's I think two right, And I was like, somebody
should throw me something right.

Speaker 1 (28:36):
Very true. I agree with you. Who would it be?

Speaker 8 (28:39):
The universal?

Speaker 1 (28:40):
Universal?

Speaker 3 (28:41):
Universal motherfuckers, get your life together, make sure you break Steve.

Speaker 1 (28:48):
But that's Jamie. I got another one, Jamie.

Speaker 3 (28:51):
Yeah, Well, I wanted to pick quick Thomas line, but
I guess we got to wait for if you could.

Speaker 1 (28:59):
Do it twice. If so, Cassidy, Casside will be here soon,
explain explain this relationship. So we wait for him. No,
he let me say it first, and then.

Speaker 7 (29:15):
I haven't called.

Speaker 1 (29:18):
Bro.

Speaker 6 (29:19):
So Cassie's like a son to me right. I gave
him his first record deal with O Neil McKnight. But
when I had sr C, we threw probably the best
party in the history of parties two thousand and seven
at my house. Right after the beat et or so
during COVID he calls me. He goes, I need you

(29:41):
to see something immediately, and like please, it's gonna take
thirty minutes. So he sent him talking to me and
he sends me this video of a show called Pastor Mic.
So I watch it and I said, this is going
to change your life. This is going to change my life.
I'm gonna make a deal for you on tv.

Speaker 2 (30:04):
M.

Speaker 6 (30:05):
And we made a deal with b ET and then
we discussed. I got a call that somebody said that
they want to make this a tour.

Speaker 1 (30:15):
Oh wow.

Speaker 6 (30:16):
So Shelby Joyner, who has Black Promoters Coalition called. We
did a deal with Shelby for like eight nine cities
and and did extremely, extremely well.

Speaker 8 (30:32):
And now we have this residency in Vegas with Live Nation.

Speaker 1 (30:36):
And now who who is we know?

Speaker 6 (30:39):
Uh By Joe and Dougie Fresh, doug Dougy Fresh, sick
Rick and then we have Ray and Goals coming one
night public Enemy Coming, one Night, Akon Coming for a weekend,
Jermaine and the Bratt one night, laurrange In Too Short,
one night. That's gonna be for the month of July

(30:59):
and Vegas. Yeah, we're gonna start off just one month.

Speaker 1 (31:03):
Do you think, what do you Is residency something that's good?

Speaker 8 (31:09):
I think so.

Speaker 7 (31:10):
I mean, look how it restarted Ush's career. Yeah, and
it's it seems like, I mean, depending on the caliber
of artists. But the money that, at least in Vegas
they're giving up for these residencies is crazy.

Speaker 6 (31:23):
That's why we need that. That's why we need to
do this residency with you guys. You'll make more money
than you'll love them make in your life.

Speaker 3 (31:28):
You didn't have a residency, But I don't know if
you remember after all your Becando hit number one, I
got highed for the like all the Wednesdays of one month,
you don't remember, Like I kept going out just one place,
same exact place, did the same exact show. Can't Coo
in Mexico? Yes, yes, So, I don't know if that
was considered.

Speaker 7 (31:46):
The rest of that was because these deals in Vegas
are totally.

Speaker 8 (31:50):
Yeah, so Vegas again, like if you have merged, right,
And why.

Speaker 1 (31:53):
Is residency so so popular in Vegas?

Speaker 6 (31:56):
Because everybody's in Vegas for the weekend for in those hotels.

Speaker 7 (31:59):
They need to attract the people to get him in
the casino, and this is what's attracting them. Show no, No,
it could be weekly, it could be relaxed, buddy, one
time to make a republic.

Speaker 2 (32:12):
Yeah, you can do it.

Speaker 1 (32:14):
You can do it. We can do it.

Speaker 7 (32:17):
There's people that do it every day.

Speaker 8 (32:21):
All right, Cassidy, ten minutes out?

Speaker 7 (32:22):
Okay, your your your residency once a year.

Speaker 3 (32:30):
You got like because I remember like the residency when
I first heard of something like that, it was like
the rat pack type of thing.

Speaker 7 (32:42):
It was like, that's that's the original residenced.

Speaker 1 (32:44):
Okay, I'm my bugget no, that's.

Speaker 6 (32:46):
The originally that was Frank Sammy at the beginning of
Jean Lewis, Sammy, Well you said Sammy, Frank, Dean Lewis,
Jerry Lewis, and then then there's you know some you know,
they had their own beefs.

Speaker 3 (33:01):
So so I also remember you had something to do
with Mary's residency.

Speaker 1 (33:05):
Was that the truth or would you would manage her
at the time?

Speaker 8 (33:08):
Yeah, it was a it was a quick stint. What
it was quick?

Speaker 6 (33:12):
You know?

Speaker 8 (33:14):
Yeah, they wanted her to replace Usher.

Speaker 1 (33:18):
Wow, and she didn't take it, or she did.

Speaker 6 (33:21):
She had to deal with Live Nation to do this tour.
So she's gonna do the tour first.

Speaker 3 (33:25):
Okay, and you're I heard you say this a couple
of times. You're down with Live Nation now yeah?

Speaker 1 (33:31):
What what?

Speaker 2 (33:32):
What?

Speaker 1 (33:32):
What?

Speaker 8 (33:32):
I'm round the FID who manages Usher.

Speaker 6 (33:37):
Is probably the biggest management company in Live Nation, and
he's a good friend. Then he said, come in giving
you know, an empty whiteboard to do whatever the hell
you want to do.

Speaker 3 (33:50):
So and so, so what does that mean that you're
you're more on the concert side. I could do whatever
I want a lot.

Speaker 1 (33:57):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (33:57):
So if it's Cassidy, if it's Mary, if it's like
if we could get the residency with you guys, I'm
starting out.

Speaker 7 (34:04):
Doesn't mean you have to live there, no, no, no,
It just means you're gonna be there.

Speaker 1 (34:08):
Consecution.

Speaker 7 (34:15):
It probably originated like those guys used to have penthouses
in the in the hotels back in the day, So it.

Speaker 1 (34:24):
Probably started with that.

Speaker 7 (34:24):
That's probably where the name probably, I mean, at least
he's using a word understanding.

Speaker 3 (34:32):
What it means, so I guess I guess that's the
point that if it is trying to say, is it
has to be because you don't want to fly back
and forth.

Speaker 1 (34:39):
You live in New York. You might want to stay
there the whole month.

Speaker 6 (34:41):
Yeah, you know what I mean, like because now we're
gonna have a good time. You know, my uncle has
his restaurant down there, so it's like, what's the name
of the restaurant picking up Piero's. Piero's sounds good.

Speaker 3 (34:50):
One thing I know about Steve, he knows how to eat,
so you know, I mean, the best, best, the best.

Speaker 5 (34:59):
You got some good eat with Steve Nobles.

Speaker 1 (35:03):
That's right, that's right. Remember you ain't got to blow
it up, damn.

Speaker 3 (35:10):
Because other people listening, Sonny, Yeah, oh yeah, Oh that
wasn't no, that wasn't Noble. That was the original one,
the first None of us knew how to order.

Speaker 7 (35:20):
That what.

Speaker 3 (35:29):
Little things like I don't know if I don't know
if it was like this the whole time, but it
was only raw and we couldn't like, we couldn't like,
we couldn't defrigerate.

Speaker 6 (35:38):
What what was what was what was good? I mean,
but we were in Paris. Yes, he was eating at
the final stress. I was like what me.

Speaker 3 (35:48):
And Sonny was I think we were texting each other
like which one.

Speaker 1 (35:51):
Is what we could We couldn't. We couldn't get the savon.

Speaker 5 (35:56):
Right, guys, don't worry anything. You guys want I got
that said, I want to stop something that looked like
fire fresh from.

Speaker 3 (36:14):
By the way, but by the way, that's that's the crazy.
That's crazy because that.

Speaker 1 (36:20):
Night walking we walked to see Steve. I don't know
if you remember.

Speaker 3 (36:24):
Sonny and Diego where where are die Go at? We
walked to see Steve and we saw NICs right before
we walked and see it was like a legendary nights
were like who the point just walks into l A
and you see fucking nas basketball sitting down there. So
we're sticking to thee naves. We take a picture and
then I tell Nas the name of the restaurant. Was
the name of the restaurant about I came to pronounce it,

(36:46):
you know my dislexias, and.

Speaker 1 (36:50):
I was like you could get in it.

Speaker 3 (36:52):
And I was like, yeah, Steve, and then like apparently
come other people called me and I was saying that
that's where I'm at and it's like you can get
did you get in there?

Speaker 7 (37:01):
Like no one could get a reservation.

Speaker 1 (37:02):
And that's that.

Speaker 3 (37:03):
From that moment on, I knew Steve was a rest
of guarda.

Speaker 1 (37:14):
You know, they looked at Steve.

Speaker 3 (37:15):
They was like, you know, I tell you this, and
you tell me if there's this works works out for you.
One of my favorite CEOs that I got to work with,
you know me and you are friends. We never actually
got to work right, but one of my favorite CEOs
is Leo Combs, and Leo Comes would show me how

(37:37):
he would walk in a restaurant and he knew everybody.

Speaker 1 (37:41):
When I tell you everybody.

Speaker 3 (37:43):
He knew the guy mopping, he knew the person wiping
the tables, he knew the owner, he knew the matre d,
he knew the person that walk you and give you
the menus.

Speaker 1 (37:57):
He knew everybody.

Speaker 3 (37:58):
So it was a strategy for him because when you
walk into a place and everybody knows you, it's hard.

Speaker 1 (38:04):
For me for you to say no to that person.

Speaker 3 (38:07):
Like I knew he was tricking me this whole time,
but then I started to do it.

Speaker 11 (38:12):
I started when you eat it the same at every
at every time. Look so.

Speaker 5 (38:31):
And a half hours.

Speaker 1 (38:34):
We know.

Speaker 3 (38:34):
So I mean that is a skill though, right, because
I mean even like even like something.

Speaker 1 (38:40):
Simple like here.

Speaker 3 (38:43):
Back from here, Okay, even when you think of something
like simple like Cheers. Cheers told us sometimes you want
to go where everybody knows your name. It was something
something simple like that. And I remember me always doing that,
me frequent into the same restaurant. But I did during COVID.
During COVID, nobody could get a carbo on reservation.

Speaker 1 (39:04):
Oh well, it's not destroying.

Speaker 3 (39:10):
Every like posting it people were like people people would
hate it so much.

Speaker 1 (39:15):
But I learned that.

Speaker 3 (39:16):
I learned it from the York But I also do
so is that something you do with your artists too,
like you bring them to these restaurants and put them
on or.

Speaker 1 (39:23):
I mean, if it's a good restaurant, like it's not.

Speaker 6 (39:28):
I'm not that way where you know, I'm not really flashy,
so I'm not I'm not trying to show up.

Speaker 8 (39:34):
So when I started going to my Tahisa, yeah that.

Speaker 6 (39:37):
Was really after my heart I mean I was I've
been going since ninety healthy, healthy, so when I had
my heart attack, No Boos truly a real friend, so
he would I would come and he would say, this
is what you have in tonight.

Speaker 7 (39:51):
He would charge me, but he was like your dietician.

Speaker 1 (39:54):
Yeah, that's fucking that's fucking fly. He knew you. Oh
that's kind of ill.

Speaker 3 (40:02):
I think I thought I was special about getting chicken
pomeago on the cupbo got no movie telling Let me
just what you're eating. That's that's fucking fire. What is
your favorite restaurant in the.

Speaker 1 (40:13):
World, in the world, in the world.

Speaker 6 (40:17):
There's an old school Italian restaurant in New York on
forty third between second and third called Piero's Pueros, that's
what Pietro's Pietro's Pietro. And then my uncle's restaurant in
Vegas is called Piero's. Yeah yeah, Piero's in Vegas and
Pietro's in the city.

Speaker 3 (40:36):
So so it's safe to say your favorite food is Italian.

Speaker 6 (40:40):
Yeah, yeah, okay, there what the chicken pot at Pietro's,
you had it?

Speaker 1 (40:47):
No shit? And my uncle's.

Speaker 5 (40:51):
Restaurant massive, the one because we go.

Speaker 1 (40:56):
The one on forty third is.

Speaker 5 (40:59):
Crazy.

Speaker 1 (41:01):
Compare it to Raos, Well you like better? I see
you want you want? Tommy Ma told up in Rails.
I see y'all.

Speaker 8 (41:09):
I like, I like Beatrix.

Speaker 6 (41:11):
Rails is more of a vibe like yeah, I mean
you got your reserve table, you have everything, but okay,
food wise.

Speaker 1 (41:19):
So let me ask you an old wives tale.

Speaker 3 (41:22):
They always said that Raos it was five tables, right,
they said, no, excuse me, they said it's five five
on mafia families right, But in Rails they have six tables.

Speaker 7 (41:36):
So you said they had a table for every family.
That is what you're saying. Yeah, that's no, I don't
know that's one. I don't even think that's a room.

Speaker 3 (41:41):
That's one hundred percent like how they sell rals, Like yo,
five Italian families bought these tables and then so it's
like you like, yeah, so it's like you got this
experienced where in Rails it's six tables. And I always
wanted to ask, like, somebody who's close to that world,
is there.

Speaker 1 (41:56):
A secret family that we don't know about?

Speaker 8 (41:58):
No, I think that.

Speaker 7 (42:00):
Security I have no The Canadians, they would say, the Canadian, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (42:05):
There's a there's a Drake.

Speaker 7 (42:08):
You remember we went to Vancouver.

Speaker 1 (42:11):
No you don't remember. No, man, I'm not gonna say that.

Speaker 7 (42:17):
Homie was putting us that.

Speaker 1 (42:20):
I always want to.

Speaker 7 (42:21):
Hell, yeah, yes, yes, yes, So.

Speaker 8 (42:26):
I'm gonna make one call.

Speaker 1 (42:27):
Okay, go ahead, Yeah yeah.

Speaker 2 (42:34):
I left the hotel two hours and forty five minutes ago.
But but I don't know how you all got here.
You must have been coming from a different direction. I'm
flattered you guys came. I called Steve. I said, I'm
guessing no one's coming. He said, I'm almost there.

Speaker 1 (42:49):
We'll see.

Speaker 4 (42:50):
He called me and said, you guys are all here.

Speaker 2 (42:52):
I was parked on one street, bumper to bumper, four
feet of water.

Speaker 1 (42:57):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (42:58):
Wow, I don't even know how we got past it.
But I can't believe you guys all made it.

Speaker 1 (43:02):
Yeah, yeah, we don't play some games we don't play.

Speaker 2 (43:04):
We're very serious to be here and flattered that you
guys made it here. I thought this for sure was
a cancellation, but I'm so happy we made it through.

Speaker 3 (43:13):
The You're one of the you're one of the biggest
DJs on the planet, right, you got to You got to.

Speaker 2 (43:23):
That's a very big statement. I don't know if I
accept it, but I'm flattered that you say that. But
I don't know if that.

Speaker 1 (43:27):
You are true.

Speaker 3 (43:30):
I love the fact that so many people have great
relationships with you. Is how did how did you develop that?
Is that something that that you do? You did on purpose?

Speaker 1 (43:38):
So that's something that you developed a long time.

Speaker 2 (43:42):
Well, I've been djaying since I was ten years old. Wow,
so hm, it's been three decades of relationships. And I
think at the foundation of every career and every life,
not to sound over you know, poetic, but his relationships.

(44:03):
And you know, as a ten year old kid, I
never dreamt of doing any of the things I've done
as a DJ. My only dream as a ten year
old DJ was for my favorite rappers to know my name.
If you'd have told me when I was ten years
old that Trench would know my name, I would I
could have died a happy kid.

Speaker 4 (44:24):
So that was really the only dream I ever had.

Speaker 2 (44:27):
And in celebrating my heroes, I developed relationships with nearly
all of them. And I think the greatest gift of
my career thus far, by far, has been developing friendships
with those who I idolized as a child. By far,

(44:49):
the greatest gift of not only my career, of my life.

Speaker 3 (44:52):
I like that let me ask me, let me ask
you to hi, let me ask you a low. Has
there ever been somebody that you looked up to that
you was as a ten year old kid and you
met them and he was like, because I've met plenty
that disappointed me.

Speaker 4 (45:09):
You know.

Speaker 2 (45:09):
The one person that comes to mind, and I don't
know if this is going to sound cliche if you've
heard this before, is actually no one in the music
business or hip hop. Everyone in music and hip hop
always actually really treated me as their fans with kindness,
And to this day, when I meet someone new, I
couldn't even think of a negative encounter. But I had

(45:31):
one negative encounter with Michael Jordan once as a child.

Speaker 1 (45:35):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (45:36):
So I wasn't a sports fan. I was never a
sports fan. I only cared about Michael. You was a
DJ when this encounter happened, or I was?

Speaker 1 (45:45):
I was?

Speaker 4 (45:46):
I was a child.

Speaker 1 (45:47):
Okay, turns hele Okay, cool.

Speaker 6 (45:49):
Cool.

Speaker 2 (45:49):
So the answer is yes, But he would have never
known I was a kid. I was twelve thirty.

Speaker 1 (45:53):
I didn't understand where's going good.

Speaker 2 (45:56):
Michael I DJ, Michael Jordan's you know, birth Since then, So.

Speaker 4 (46:07):
I'm on a family vacation.

Speaker 2 (46:11):
And someone tells us that Michael Jordan is in the
lobby lounge, and I think I was wearing the elevens,
but not the padd of leather elevens, you know, the
low ones with the net, the gray concrete.

Speaker 4 (46:25):
And then they had the net in them.

Speaker 2 (46:27):
They were like the summer elevens, but they looked nothing
like the pedal leather. So someone tells me Michael Jordan
is in the is in the lobby lounge, and I
go down there and he's in a meeting.

Speaker 4 (46:39):
He's having a drink with a guy.

Speaker 2 (46:41):
And I walk up to him very politely, and I
thought I thought I could get away with it because
I was a child. I don't think I would have
walked up to him as a twenty year old.

Speaker 4 (46:50):
And I said, could you sign my shoe?

Speaker 2 (46:52):
And he said something like I'm having a drink right now,
so and that was it and I walked away.

Speaker 4 (46:58):
It was the no. It was the only disappointing moment.

Speaker 2 (47:01):
But as as an adult, I can appreciate why Michael
Jordan doesn't sign every shoe he's asked to sign, so
I wasn't left. If I was left a little salty,
then I was not. As an adult, especially when your
signature is worth however much money, I can only imagine
you're not just going to be.

Speaker 4 (47:21):
Signing every sneaker that comes your way.

Speaker 2 (47:24):
But that really is the only negative encounter that I
can even imagine. I've been really blessed. I have found
that all my heroes, especially in music, have have really
proven to me why they're legends. And I mean I
could give you, you know, example after example, but so.

Speaker 4 (47:48):
I think run in DMC.

Speaker 3 (47:50):
I think that's why we always have one like a
hat like that, you're paying homage to Run DMC to.

Speaker 2 (47:56):
So when I was a kid, I idolized run DMC
and I idolized Michael Jackson, and.

Speaker 1 (48:01):
I can see them both. Yeah, see both.

Speaker 2 (48:03):
And you know I always thought as a kid that
everyone I looked up to looked like a superhero. You know,
as I was saying a minute ago, I was never
into sports. I was into Michael Jordan for the clothes
and the speakers. I was never into sports. I was
into hip hop, right, So hip hoppers were my superheroes.
They were my Michael Jordan, they were my Superman and

(48:27):
Spider Man. Well, and so I looked up to grand
Master Flash Cool Heirk in Africa, Bambada, and not because
I knew much about them as a young kid.

Speaker 4 (48:36):
I knew later on as a teenager.

Speaker 2 (48:38):
I researched them as a young teen, But eight nine ten,
I don't think I knew much about them, but I
knew what they looked like, and they looked like superheroes.
Cool heirk in the convertible with the speakers. I know
you guys know that image and flash with the outfits.

Speaker 4 (48:54):
They literally looked like superheroes and.

Speaker 1 (49:00):
Alone on that one, I.

Speaker 2 (49:05):
Was enamored by that, and they later influenced my career
and how I dj'. But initially I didn't know about
all that, but I just knew what they looked like,
and they look like superheroes.

Speaker 4 (49:17):
And then you cut to run DMC.

Speaker 2 (49:21):
Three superheroes times a thousand. You know, if an alien
came from outer space to this day and said what
is hip hop? And you could only show them one thing?
You couldn't show them ten examples, you could only show
them one thing. I think I still might show them
run DMC and jam aster J. And if I could
only play them one thing, I think I might play

(49:42):
them Sucker MC, because that looks and sounds like hip
hop to me, and I know that's different with everyone
that's not fact. But so they were my superheroes, and
I always wanted as my career grew to to not

(50:02):
necessarily look like them, but to have a look like them.
And so I think I started experimenting with hats because
of Run DMCGM, Master J and Michael Jackson.

Speaker 4 (50:17):
I think I were.

Speaker 7 (50:18):
How early were you starting to experiment with the look?

Speaker 2 (50:21):
It gets started in my late teens, early twenties, but
by my late twenties became really solidified. I don't think
the boter hat became my signature to my late twenties,
but I mean every kind of bit of my style
I could trace back to someone in something where my
pants really short, that's Michael Jackson. Every little bit is

(50:41):
some kind of influence in a blender.

Speaker 4 (50:45):
As a kid, I idolized Bobby Brown.

Speaker 2 (50:48):
He's also become a friend, and he just looked like
the coolest person on earth.

Speaker 4 (50:52):
The leather outfits. I got that from him.

Speaker 2 (50:54):
So you know, I've been idolizing people for a long time,
and of those people are my friends today, but they're
still my idols. And I say to my idols that
have become my friends, I'll say to them, I'll say
I'll say to Run, I'll say Joey.

Speaker 4 (51:11):
No matter how close we grow, Joey I get, I get.

Speaker 2 (51:14):
To call jo you don't call him Joey.

Speaker 1 (51:18):
I don't quote nobody.

Speaker 3 (51:20):
I call all my hip hop heroes by the hip
hop names.

Speaker 4 (51:22):
So he has three names, right, Joey Rev.

Speaker 2 (51:25):
Yes, okay, So, but but i'd say Joey or Run.
I do call him Run. I don't call him Rev.
I'll say Joey or Run. I'll say, no matter how
close we go, I'll say, no matter how close we
grow as friends, you will never stop being Run to me.

(51:47):
And I think those two things can coexist. I think
you can idolize your friend. I think you can look
up to your friends. I think you can admire your friend.

Speaker 1 (51:58):
I'll tell that to all the time, so it doesn't
dumb down my fanness, the fact that we're friends.

Speaker 2 (52:03):
I was at a birthday dinner in La two nights ago,
and it was for one of my best friends, Mark Burnbaum,
who's owner of Catch, the restaurant Catch.

Speaker 7 (52:13):
I love the flow continue.

Speaker 2 (52:15):
So I walked into the to the restaurant that maybe
fifty people there a cocktail hour, ready to sit, and
I run right into nas in ll So they were
walking to sit. I walked with them, and for the
next three hours, the three of us sat and had
the greatest conversation.

Speaker 4 (52:32):
This was literally three nights ago.

Speaker 1 (52:34):
You nas, yeah, make some noise for you and.

Speaker 4 (52:38):
Let's and I don't.

Speaker 1 (52:40):
I don't.

Speaker 2 (52:41):
I don't think that's normal. No, I didn't. I didn't
look in my phone for three hours. As we all know,
at a dinner that you know that never happened. You're
constantly checking your text, you're on Instagram, you're posting the
birthday nothing.

Speaker 7 (52:51):
It looks on his phone right now.

Speaker 2 (52:53):
And every time, every time someone from the dinner came
over to me to say, hello, oh a.

Speaker 4 (53:01):
Long time, don't see I kept can we talk later?

Speaker 2 (53:04):
I'm right, I'm listening to Ellen nods and I wanted
to get rid of everyone, because how often do you
get to spend realities with Ellen NOAs.

Speaker 4 (53:13):
But here's the point I wanted to make.

Speaker 2 (53:17):
Watching the two of them together, these giants, right, giants
from Queens Giants was such a beautiful thing. I don't
even know that three days later, I know yet how
to put in words. I tried to tell them at
the end of the dinner and I hope I articulated
myself so that they understood.

Speaker 4 (53:37):
I think they did.

Speaker 2 (53:37):
First of all, watching Nas talk to one of his
heroes was first of all obvious that it was one
of his heroes. You could have come in and know
nothing about hip hop and you would have known something
was going on.

Speaker 4 (53:51):
It was a beautiful thing. It was beautiful.

Speaker 2 (53:53):
I told them, I said, this has been the most
touching experience and watching the respect ELLLL had for Nas,
and you know, I chimed in here and there, but
I really just wanted to let them go because I
don't know how many times they've done that.

Speaker 4 (54:09):
And Nas started quoting.

Speaker 2 (54:11):
Songs off of ELL's first album and talking about their
favorite songs of each other, and you know, it was
a beautiful moment. But I'm only bringing this up because
we were talking about being a fan and a friend,
and you look at those two who are megastars way
beyond hip hop culture, just global superstars in so many ways, and.

Speaker 4 (54:36):
You forget sometimes that stars are fans.

Speaker 2 (54:38):
Yeah, And watching them together and watching them together was
so beautiful. And I also think that it speaks to
a camaraderie and a fraternity like environment in hip hop
that's truly special.

Speaker 1 (54:55):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (54:55):
Maybe basketball has it, maybe baseball, maybe sports has it.
I wouldn't know, not my terrorists, but I don't know
how many businesses in this world that exists in And
it's clearly more than a business. It's a culture. But
there's such a fraternity and a camaraderie amongst I think

(55:17):
people in hip hop, and it was a beautiful thing
to watch.

Speaker 7 (55:21):
Specific you were witnessing a full circle moment between these
two artists.

Speaker 3 (55:26):
You know, you're known for DJ and some of the
biggest parties, right not as hip hops in gentlemen, Have
you e a DJ for Michael Jackson?

Speaker 10 (55:35):
No?

Speaker 2 (55:35):
So, Michael Jackson when he died was one. He was
the only person that I had never met that I
wanted to.

Speaker 1 (55:41):
You about to say, DJ is a funeral.

Speaker 2 (55:49):
You met Prince, I've met me so so Prince and
I performed at the White House together.

Speaker 1 (55:58):
I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

Speaker 2 (55:59):
Talking about so Prince and I performed at the White House.
It was one of the many times I DJ at
the White House years of the Obama administration.

Speaker 1 (56:08):
I need to ask, Okay, did Prince invite you?

Speaker 10 (56:11):
All?

Speaker 1 (56:12):
This was Obama administration.

Speaker 2 (56:14):
So I got a call but I guess I have
to give some context. Please, over the eight years of
Obama's administration.

Speaker 1 (56:21):
I've never been invited to the White House.

Speaker 4 (56:23):
Well, it was a special time.

Speaker 2 (56:25):
I don't know that now you can feel exactly like
what that felt.

Speaker 7 (56:29):
A lot of hip hop'st were going on at the time.

Speaker 2 (56:32):
I just think for so many reasons, I think that's
that was a time that just.

Speaker 4 (56:37):
It was. Yeah, it was a special moment in time.

Speaker 1 (56:40):
And so did you smell weed at the White House?

Speaker 9 (56:42):
No?

Speaker 1 (56:42):
I didn't, No, No, I didn't. They'll tell me if
you did.

Speaker 2 (56:45):
Anyway, So I was the first DJ to ever play
a presidential inauguration, and I was the first DJ to
ever DJ the White House. So you know, there's this
guy I forgot his name, and I don't know if
he's still there.

Speaker 3 (57:06):
But okay, can I be fair though, because he didn't
in w a perform there. So when the interview performed,
the performed the way he went to a Republican party thing.

Speaker 1 (57:15):
But don't.

Speaker 4 (57:17):
I don't know, but a group might have had a DJ.

Speaker 1 (57:20):
Okay, yeah, yeah, but you DJ is you did the
party there? Right?

Speaker 2 (57:23):
So the first time I was at the White House
was actually not the first, the first presidential inauguration that
Obama had.

Speaker 4 (57:32):
The first, the first inauguration, his.

Speaker 2 (57:34):
Parties were not at the house, Okay, they were at
a convention center, and I performed live at one of
those parties. He didn't have access to the house yet.
In the first inauguration, you get inaugurated January twenty.

Speaker 4 (57:46):
No, I think you move in that day.

Speaker 2 (57:48):
So you could have, but perhaps that was the reason.
But anyway, it's a big convention hall and there's like
eight different parties going on, so I was like the
curator of the music for all the rooms, and I
played live in one of the rooms. But it was
fairly impersonal, right. So a year or two later, the
President is turning fifty and I get a call that

(58:11):
the President would like you to play his fiftieth.

Speaker 1 (58:14):
Birthday at the White House. That big man.

Speaker 2 (58:18):
So I show up at the White House for soundcheck,
and it was a moment I'll never forget. There's moments
in your career. I don't even want to say career,
there's moments in your life life, yes, where you just
say how.

Speaker 4 (58:34):
Did I get here?

Speaker 2 (58:35):
You know that song by Talking Heads once in a lifetime,
And I asked myself how did I get here? As
the days go right right, so I walk in, I
go how did I get here? And at that at
that point, I think I left that night saying this
was the greatest night of my life because I felt

(58:55):
that what I did had a little meaning. I mean,
I wasn't the leader of the free world, but I
just thought that I left with a little more meaning
than I had gone in.

Speaker 1 (59:06):
Let me ask you something, does the president pay?

Speaker 4 (59:10):
I did not accept money from the president.

Speaker 3 (59:12):
But did he say you want the bag or you
just the first one would have been the DNC. I
can't second one.

Speaker 2 (59:19):
I can't speak for others, but I never accepted money
from the president.

Speaker 4 (59:24):
For me, it was an honor they had that the
thing that you got in.

Speaker 3 (59:27):
Friends as funny as that.

Speaker 5 (59:33):
I want to know that.

Speaker 7 (59:35):
So did it take care of travel at least?

Speaker 1 (59:37):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (59:37):
Of course travel and equipment.

Speaker 2 (59:39):
And the crazy thing is is my sound guy at
the time he fully outfitted the White House. So years
later when the party with prints happened, it's my sound
guy outfitt this out.

Speaker 1 (59:49):
Like these were.

Speaker 2 (59:49):
Full on parties, full on parties. So what unfolded that
night after I walked in? I was not even prepared
for Okay, I'm.

Speaker 4 (01:00:02):
About to go on.

Speaker 2 (01:00:03):
And when I say go on, if you're looking at
the White House, if you can picture the pillars right,
there's windows.

Speaker 4 (01:00:10):
I don't know what the room's called.

Speaker 2 (01:00:12):
I did it ten times, but this is the last
room on the left, the last window on the.

Speaker 7 (01:00:16):
Left, Lincoln Room.

Speaker 1 (01:00:19):
I don't know.

Speaker 4 (01:00:19):
We're not so we're not.

Speaker 2 (01:00:26):
So we're not talking about a tent or in a
dndum event area.

Speaker 4 (01:00:31):
We're talking about the White House.

Speaker 7 (01:00:34):
That's crazy.

Speaker 2 (01:00:35):
Eleanor Roosevelt designed rooms in the White House, the Blue Room,
Green Room, Yellow Room, in Red room years ago and
now they're where the tourists go to see. You see
the Red room, the Blue room, and next to all
these rooms is the party room. Coincidentally, the red room
was the green room, meaning the dressing room.

Speaker 4 (01:00:52):
So I'm in this red room and.

Speaker 2 (01:00:55):
I call my grandmother at that time, eighty years old Holocaust,
you know, survivor came to America with nothing, and I say.

Speaker 1 (01:01:03):
Mama, guess where I am.

Speaker 4 (01:01:06):
And she knows, obviously, she says where And I.

Speaker 2 (01:01:09):
Said, I'm in the Red Room at.

Speaker 4 (01:01:12):
The White House.

Speaker 2 (01:01:14):
And you could just hear her having chills down her spine,
and at that moment I knew that this night, if
I never did it again, if I never came here again,
this moment was special. So I get a tap on
the shoulder and someone says, hi, DJ Cassidy, Stevie Wonder
would like to talk to you. So I immediately say,

(01:01:35):
why is anyone asking my permission for Stevie Wonder to
come say hello to me?

Speaker 5 (01:01:40):
Like?

Speaker 4 (01:01:40):
Yes, can he please? Where is he? I'll go, hello, Steve.

Speaker 1 (01:01:52):
He saw you on his way in.

Speaker 2 (01:01:54):
So already this is starting off bizarre, like overly polite,
like you know, strange, like.

Speaker 4 (01:02:01):
Why are you asking it?

Speaker 2 (01:02:02):
Stevie Wonder, of course come interrupt my phone call. I
literally said, Mama, I'll call you back. I got to
talk to Stevie Wonder. So Stevie comes up. So let
me paint this picture. I'm in the Red Room. It's
a famous room, you can google it, very Louis the
sixteenth or.

Speaker 4 (01:02:20):
Nate Versailles, like all gold, red.

Speaker 2 (01:02:24):
And the party people are in this room right to
my left, five hundred people and the president is on
stage thinking Janelle mone for performing, about to bring me on,
but very casual. This is not a black tie event.
This was like Sunday afternoon vibes. So Stevie comes up
to me and goes DJ Cassidy. So I was thinking

(01:02:45):
we could do some I've done things with him at
this point before.

Speaker 4 (01:02:50):
So he goes Cassidy.

Speaker 2 (01:02:52):
I was thinking, maybe we could collaborate and I'll come
on and sit at the keyboard and surprise the President.
I said, I'd love that. So he goes, maybe I'll
just do sign Sealed Delivered? Could you drop a beat
to that? So I'm thinking I have a solid fifteen
minutes to prepare. What beat I'm gonna loop in serato

(01:03:13):
for him to play sign Sealed Delivered.

Speaker 4 (01:03:15):
That fifteen minutes was fifteen seconds.

Speaker 2 (01:03:18):
Stevie walks on stage with the guy you know that
holds his hand, and the next thing you know, the
President goes, oh, looks like we have a guest unexpected
Stevie Wonder. And Stevie Wonder sits at the keyboard and
I follow him. I don't know what I'm about to do,
so I have about thirty seconds to say to myself,

(01:03:41):
what beat?

Speaker 1 (01:03:42):
I just caught that he followed Stevie or stage.

Speaker 2 (01:03:45):
I followed Stevie on stage because he.

Speaker 4 (01:03:46):
Wanted me to jam with him.

Speaker 1 (01:03:48):
Literally stee moddy, so.

Speaker 5 (01:03:56):
Very independent.

Speaker 2 (01:03:58):
Yes, So Stevie was being got it, and I knew
that if I wasn't there, he wouldn't realize I wasn't there.
He thought I was ready to rock with him. So
in thirty seconds, I'm thinking, what the hell am I going.

Speaker 1 (01:04:13):
To do with sign Sealed Delivered?

Speaker 2 (01:04:16):
So the President still talking, The President now announces Stevie
Wonder and DJ Cassidy and he plays the first chords
to sign Sealed Delivered Dan and I pull up Billy
Squire Big Beat, praying that I have those first four
bars looped on serato, not looped so I'm sure you

(01:04:39):
guys know, but for those listening, Billy Squire Big Beat
is a song from the seventies, a rock song that
was first made famous when run DMC used it.

Speaker 4 (01:04:49):
For here we Go, Here we Go, Here we Go,
Here we Go, Here Here, Here we Go and.

Speaker 2 (01:04:55):
Run DMC's performance of here we Go was never recorded
in a studio, was recorded live at the Fund and
you can hear Jim Master j going back and forth
every four bars, and I think there's one or two
times he kind of messes it up, but he catches
it r Wow, and then Rick Rubin used it for
ninety nine problems, so I know it's about the same
tempo as sign Seal Delivered.

Speaker 12 (01:05:17):
Right, So Stevie starts singing as that is pretty so long.
That is still wrong. Baby here here, I am sign
sealed delivered. I'm yours pool boo boo boo boo boo
boo boo, poo boo boo.

Speaker 2 (01:05:37):
And I do that for the next five minutes while
he not only performs sign Sealed Delivered, but an extended,
improvised version of sign seals so I can picture it
like it was yesterday. He's right here, everyone's right here,
and I'm kind of tilted. They were gonna move me

(01:05:59):
out straight. I was on wheels, but because he was there,
now I'm tilted and I'm cutting up this song, praying
that I just stay on, you know, on beat. Every
four bars. Stevie's rocking, and I kind of turned to
my right. I didn't wear glasses then, so it's probably easier.
And I see Jay Z and Chris rock the White

(01:06:22):
House still and they're nodding their head. You know that
mean face you make at the studio when you like
a beat. You know that face and the head nod
there boom, and I look at them and they see
me seeing them, and at that moment.

Speaker 4 (01:06:43):
All the pressure went off.

Speaker 2 (01:06:44):
Then I was rocking when I saw that, and it
was one of the greatest moments in my life.

Speaker 1 (01:06:53):
That's okay in there and it wasn't like the street party.
Where are you segueing to that?

Speaker 3 (01:07:06):
He said, this Babo story cot in the way he said,
Stevie dropped.

Speaker 1 (01:07:10):
Steve dropping.

Speaker 4 (01:07:15):
Yo, listen on the way one listen.

Speaker 3 (01:07:18):
You know, you know what's crazy about Stevie wonder we
have so many people who come on the show.

Speaker 1 (01:07:22):
He love Steve.

Speaker 3 (01:07:22):
Be one of the stories if you have so many,
because Shack is still the best that Jack said, that's.

Speaker 1 (01:07:27):
What he was like. He believed like it was believable
the way he said it.

Speaker 3 (01:07:31):
Jack said he got in the elevator with Stevie, wasn't
by himself.

Speaker 1 (01:07:35):
Just must say. He pressed the butt. He said, what's up,
Shack up? Yeah, and I think he said he present.

Speaker 4 (01:07:42):
But after.

Speaker 3 (01:07:44):
Walking the snow the Rosley said. Roy said he saw
Stevie walking across the street street on the busy street,
and he said he went, they went and got him,
but we right I forget, I forget exactly what he was.

Speaker 2 (01:08:01):
Everyone a Stevie story that transcends logic because he's actually
not a logical person.

Speaker 4 (01:08:08):
But there are really if you think about it.

Speaker 1 (01:08:11):
Just then doctor called him at five am.

Speaker 4 (01:08:15):
Yeah he's he's not.

Speaker 2 (01:08:16):
But that's why there's very few artists that that have
this level of genius. So it makes sense that most
of the stories we hear are beyond you know, daily logic,
because his whole being is is is a superhuman.

Speaker 3 (01:08:33):
Yes, I want to talk about a different super human. Recently,
a friend of mine is just released his trailer to
a movie. Uh, he made me a lego character. His
name is will What is what is your connection with
Harrel Williams.

Speaker 2 (01:08:50):
I've known Pharrell for years and actually Pharrell called on
me to DJ his three three of his closest friend's weddings,
DJ Shay's wedding from N E r D and two
other very close people in his life. So I've known

(01:09:10):
Pharrell throughout the years. He's been a supporter of my
career and on various occasions that were important to him.
I was kind of his gift to the wedding, which
is very flattering, I mean and never. I take that
responsibility very seriously. Get I get nervous to DJ parties
to this day, especially if it's for someone whom I admire.

(01:09:34):
You know, when Pharrell calls you to DJ a party,
Farrell could call any DJ, and any DJ would go,
would jump at the opportunity.

Speaker 1 (01:09:41):
As do I.

Speaker 2 (01:09:43):
And so when anyone of that stature, with critical ears,
with extremely critical ears, who most people on Earth hold
on a very high pedestal, We're not just talking about
your average producer, someone who's commonly thought of as the
ears you want to respect you. So when he calls
me for a wedding of his three best friends, it's

(01:10:06):
something I take very seriously. But I could say that
across the board, whether it's the White House or fell
or anyone of that nature.

Speaker 4 (01:10:15):
Beyonce, Beyonce and Jay.

Speaker 7 (01:10:18):
You worked with them both.

Speaker 4 (01:10:19):
I did their wedding.

Speaker 1 (01:10:20):
That's fucking awesome. What kind of DNA?

Speaker 7 (01:10:24):
What is that?

Speaker 1 (01:10:24):
NDA? You had to sign for that? And DA?

Speaker 2 (01:10:30):
I mean it was a long time agoing now, I'm sure.
I just I'm known for reading things over and over
and not signing them on site. I'm sure I just
signed it. I do remember I didn't bring anyone I
was asked not to bring like a side man or
like a tech. I think I might have been able
to bring my tech to sound check. It was at
their apartment in Tribeca. It was very small, you know,

(01:10:53):
like you got to understand, no matter how big your
apartment is in Manhattan, it's still an apartment, right, It's
still not a house. Okay, So I think I might
have brought someone for sound check, but no one at night,
and I remember it being like a marathon, like I
must have got there and ate. But here's the funny thing.

(01:11:14):
So the only photo of that wedding is me walking
into the lobby. So apparently they sent me a car
to pick me up in my apartment. The car never
showed up, so I took a taxi.

Speaker 1 (01:11:28):
I'm just gonna get this correct. Did you us just
say you took a taxi?

Speaker 2 (01:11:31):
I took a taxi to their weddings because the car
service never showed up and I didn't want to be late.
I didn't want to be late, so I left the
apartment hailed a taxi. This was way before any apps.

Speaker 1 (01:11:42):
Yeah, so.

Speaker 2 (01:11:45):
All the celebrities are directed from the car services on
where to go.

Speaker 4 (01:11:49):
So down the garage.

Speaker 2 (01:11:51):
Right, So all the paparazzi shots or of the celebrities
like through the SUVs. But the one shot they have
of the whole wedding is me walking in the front
door of the main lobby in my like black velvet texto.

Speaker 4 (01:12:05):
I took a tax.

Speaker 1 (01:12:06):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:12:06):
Had I not done that, there would have been you know,
no first song was Was.

Speaker 3 (01:12:10):
There any black class from them? They're like, oh, nah, okay, now,
so okay.

Speaker 2 (01:12:16):
I've done so many events, you know my mouth was
you know, I never had a big mouth at these things.

Speaker 4 (01:12:22):
I mean that was part of why I was there.

Speaker 3 (01:12:24):
It was getting high. Okay, one person around a little bit.
One thing I know is very private people.

Speaker 1 (01:12:30):
So how do you get this call? And then how
do you get the first time you got to work with?

Speaker 2 (01:12:34):
Right? So I think this was anyone could google it.
But I think they got married in two thousand and
seven or was it fourteen?

Speaker 4 (01:12:42):
I don't know why. I'm thinking it was seven. No,
I think it was.

Speaker 2 (01:12:49):
It wasn't fourteen. I think it was seven. I think
it was seven.

Speaker 4 (01:12:53):
It was seven.

Speaker 1 (01:12:56):
Nobody cares about when you got married, sir, And I.

Speaker 4 (01:13:00):
Think it was April fourth.

Speaker 2 (01:13:02):
I think they're two thousand and eight April fourth, and
I think they're lucky. Number is four, so was the fourth. Yeah,
so it's four to four and blue Ivy ivy is
a four.

Speaker 3 (01:13:15):
Oh.

Speaker 2 (01:13:18):
So I had already been djaying Jay's parties for at
least five years. Wow, So I got my first call
from J. I think I was still in school, so
I must have been maybe twenty. And so I would
dj all all his parties, his birthdays, then Beyonce's parties

(01:13:39):
when he threw them the forty forty club opening in
Atlantic City and Vegas and all of those and college. Heah,
I was in college at that point, and so I
had been doing all his parties. So the call to
do his wedding was not at all abnormal.

Speaker 4 (01:13:56):
Yeah it was. It was not abnormal at the time.

Speaker 2 (01:13:58):
But still, as I say, you know about all these things,
I don't want to say the same thing every time. Granted,
look that's the two greatest entertainers of our time. Mind you,
this is now fifteen years later, even more the greatest
entertainers of all times.

Speaker 4 (01:14:11):
Right, Like we knew then, but you know now right,
and you know they could have anyone, you know, anyone.

Speaker 2 (01:14:18):
And also This wasn't a wedding where they bring out
you know, this R and B singer to sing the
first dance and this band to do now it was
it was literally just me, wow and control the entire
party from beginning to end.

Speaker 1 (01:14:31):
How do you approach that playlist? Do they tell you
you too?

Speaker 4 (01:14:35):
So?

Speaker 2 (01:14:38):
No, I don't think there was any talk of music
other than like the first dance and the entrance song,
like those songs you know that the bride and room choose.
I think there was no discussion of music because I
had been doing this with him now for years. Yeah.
I don't think they were coming to me to direct it.
I think they were coming to me for me, you know,

(01:15:00):
to do me right. But i'm you know, still to
this day, and I I mean, I swear to God,
I think about this sometimes, like when I go to
her concerts, right like the Renaissance Store, I think about it.
I sit there thinking about it. I DJ their wedding.
It still feels like a very big deal to me.

(01:15:22):
I don't let those things. I don't allow myself to
become jaded. I actually keep those memories as memories that
continue to inspire me and hype me up because the
two greatest entertainers in the world.

Speaker 4 (01:15:39):
Could really call anyone.

Speaker 2 (01:15:40):
You know, their rolodex doesn't exist because they can get
everyone's number. And so you know, I was as honored
then as I am now. In fact, I think I'm
more honored now by the memory. I think then I
was probably just so in it. But now when I
look back, I say, damn, you know, thirty people at
that party.

Speaker 1 (01:16:02):
Sounds rich to be. Let me. Let me just look.

Speaker 3 (01:16:07):
I've been analyzing all night. I want to see if
I'm correct. Is that the Cardia nail and is that
the Cardia panther?

Speaker 4 (01:16:14):
No, so there's no I'm not wearing one name brand.

Speaker 1 (01:16:16):
Okay, break this down for me.

Speaker 4 (01:16:19):
So the only thing I'm wearing this is very dev
I respect it, thank you.

Speaker 2 (01:16:23):
So the only thing that's name brand that I'm wearing
is my sneakers air Force ones okay, just white air
Force one so so oh, and Polo Polo shirt. But
the suit is custom made. I have all my suits
made on my stage, attire made. Contrary to what many
people think, it's not more expensive than buying fancy name

(01:16:44):
brand clothes.

Speaker 4 (01:16:45):
It's not at all. But it's not a money thing.
It's a fit thing.

Speaker 2 (01:16:48):
It's I never want to walk on stage or walk
into a party and someone else has my suit that
they bought at tom Ford or Gucci. And also the
crazy you know, the crazy ship I wear I could
never even find in a store. You know, I'm tall
and skinny. My body never fit things growing up. You know,
my posture was always bad. I was lanky. I could
never fit a suit or a tuxedo. So over the

(01:17:09):
years I started custom making clothes. So and I buy
all my fabrics. So I literally like, if someone ever
says to me, what do you do besides music, I say,
I make clothes, But I don't make clothes.

Speaker 1 (01:17:19):
To sell them.

Speaker 2 (01:17:20):
I don't go to fashion shows. I know nothing about
the brands on Fifth Avenue. I know very little about
about the fashion industry.

Speaker 1 (01:17:27):
Fashion oval.

Speaker 2 (01:17:31):
I actually would though. You know, the things I do
buy are cheap, too expensive, there's no there's no rhyme
or reason. But really most of what I buy are basics,
the Air Force ones, the polos. But I have fun
going to the fabric store. All the fabrics I choose,
the fabric, I choose the buttons. The jewelry is vintage
that I either bought.

Speaker 5 (01:17:52):
I didn't care.

Speaker 2 (01:17:55):
Okay, so the brooch, so the broke. Oh I should
have said the glasses are name brand, but the the
brooch and the cuffs are straight vintage stores, antique stores,
flea markets, estate sales.

Speaker 1 (01:18:11):
Don't say flee marketers. He's gonna go crazy and but
but that's what I do. That's what I do. I
don't think we give him a bow. He goes to
the bad it's a different free market. He's a.

Speaker 5 (01:18:26):
Different market. I can already tell that we've been in
the same.

Speaker 4 (01:18:36):
I could give you all the spots.

Speaker 7 (01:18:37):
You know, they used to be a show you got
shopping together.

Speaker 1 (01:18:44):
That's so weird that a state sales champion.

Speaker 2 (01:18:52):
State sales is where you find all the heat because
the rich old women die.

Speaker 1 (01:18:56):
That's that's what I'm saying.

Speaker 7 (01:18:57):
People don't know he said when he said, that's people
that passed and they're selling.

Speaker 1 (01:19:01):
Off the estate.

Speaker 4 (01:19:02):
I don't wear a name brand jewelry.

Speaker 2 (01:19:04):
Nothing is expensive, nothing is real gold or diamonds.

Speaker 1 (01:19:08):
It's costume jewelry, right, it's costume jewelry.

Speaker 2 (01:19:11):
I don't walk around with anything expensive, and it's not
it has nothing to do with money. It's just what
I like I like vintage costume jewelry. The hats are
all custom made, and I started wearing Boater hats. It
was I experimented with hats for many years. And so
there was this hat store in New York where I
grew up on thirty second and Fifth called JJ Hat Center.

Speaker 1 (01:19:32):
I used to have a studio on thirty second of Madison.

Speaker 4 (01:19:35):
So you must know that store was there forever small store.
So this store was like the classic men's hat store.

Speaker 2 (01:19:44):
And every time I would go in there, they'd give me,
you know, something that looked like a run DMC or
Michael Jackson felterstr And there was always this straw, stiff, thick.

Speaker 4 (01:19:54):
Boater hat with this brim that was like a it
was like hard, like a.

Speaker 2 (01:19:58):
Fucking, you know, weapon, and it looked very old school
in a stately and I thought maybe I could like
kind of transform that and it would give me this
kind of like classic thing, but I would do it,
you know, in a different way, in a hip hop way,
or just in a different, you know, modern way. So

(01:20:19):
I start experimenting with the boter had it became my signature.

Speaker 1 (01:20:23):
But then as.

Speaker 2 (01:20:23):
Styles evolved, I wanted a larger brim. So the machines
in America can only make the two inch brim, so
the three inch brim has to be customye. But there's
only one machine in the world that can make a
three inch boter hat because of the way the quirk is,
and that's in Florence, Italy, and one old man has

(01:20:44):
that machine, and when he.

Speaker 4 (01:20:45):
Dies it's a rat.

Speaker 1 (01:20:47):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (01:20:48):
So I ordered these hats and you get them when
you get them, and sometimes you never do. And the
man's literally an eighty year old man making them in
this one machine that can make make them he can,
and then the wrong sizes come and they're all padded.
So it's a triple layer. You see one, two, three
layers of cork three inch brim hat, So no one
really has the three inch.

Speaker 4 (01:21:10):
I mean a straw boater hat. It's kind of a unique.
I never knew that's what that was. Cool called the
boter hat.

Speaker 1 (01:21:15):
Yeah, I never knew that. I never knew. So let
me ask you.

Speaker 3 (01:21:19):
You've been all over the world, what is one of
the strangest places you ever performed?

Speaker 4 (01:21:24):
At Kazakhstan?

Speaker 1 (01:21:28):
You ain't performing Borax country.

Speaker 2 (01:21:30):
Yeah, So it's nothing like present, which is why that
country tried to sue him.

Speaker 4 (01:21:39):
I mean with the whole country.

Speaker 7 (01:21:41):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, they were highly offended for.

Speaker 2 (01:21:44):
The whole country. Yeah, the whole country. Okay, But one
interesting thing in Kazakhstan is that they eat horse.

Speaker 7 (01:21:51):
Excuse me, there's not the only country, though, there's other countries.

Speaker 4 (01:21:54):
It was the first one that I had been.

Speaker 2 (01:21:55):
So I go to this country to DJ a black
tie gala like what you would imagine. I'm trying to
think of an American example, but they're all like European
galas that would acquaint to that, you know, like a
gala in can Am Far but in Kazakhstan. And you know,
I'm seated, I'm a guest before I go on stage,

(01:22:17):
and every single portion of the meal was horse meat.
So that was a bizarre experience.

Speaker 1 (01:22:29):
Walked, walked the horse.

Speaker 7 (01:22:30):
This is your office.

Speaker 4 (01:22:31):
Have you ever had kasaks?

Speaker 7 (01:22:33):
Have you had then the horse?

Speaker 3 (01:22:42):
The former US s are No, okay, we had him
speak about it earlier.

Speaker 7 (01:22:48):
I had buffalo, buffalo, buffalo wings.

Speaker 3 (01:22:57):
You were you were going to say something, sir, Oh no, no,
no oh, yeah, So we spoke about Steve. You spoke
about it earlier. But how did you come up with this?
Past of my idea. Was it during the pandemic.

Speaker 2 (01:23:09):
Yeah, so in April twenty twenty, early pandemic, early when
no one really knew what was going on. When I was,
you know, cleaning my groceries with Clorox wipes, that whole era,
I was facetiming one night with my friend and mentor,
Verdeen White of Earth Wind and Fire, whom I mentioned

(01:23:31):
earlier when we started Nice Floors continue, And so Verdeen
has been a hero of mine as far back as
I can remember, and I can tell you the story
about how we met after.

Speaker 4 (01:23:42):
But he and I go to dinner every now and then,
once every couple of months.

Speaker 2 (01:23:46):
So I called him to check in on him in
this crazy time, and we were facetiming. Now, for those
who know Verdeen, everything I say about my clothes and
my fashion, he's times a thousand. I mean, he's the originator.
He's the originator. And so I FaceTime him and he's
sitting on his couch and like red silk pajamas, looking

(01:24:08):
like verdein White should And while I'm facetiming with him,
the Earthwind song That's the Way of the World comes on.

Speaker 4 (01:24:14):
My son no speakers in the bat.

Speaker 2 (01:24:18):
And verdein hears his own song and he begins to
casually sing along. Hearts of Fire Create Love Desire. So
this ballad on a regular day gives me chills. It's
one of those ballads that just touches me. But in
this moment, those chills were multiplied. It's a crazy time

(01:24:41):
in the world. I was literally alone for three months.
I didn't have I didn't have human contact for three months.
But at that point it was still new and he
starts singing along the first three months and he starts
singing along just like nothing, to his own song. And
I didn't take that moment for granted. I said to

(01:25:03):
myself as he's talking, how fortunate am I to have
relationships with so many of my musical heroes, and how
fortunate am I to be able to experience their music
in this intimate way.

Speaker 4 (01:25:17):
It's crazy how we started this conversation.

Speaker 2 (01:25:20):
However many you know now it's you know, an hour maybe,
and it all comes back to the same thing, because
the first things you asked me were about my heroes
and my friendships and relationships, and that's what sparked the
whole thing.

Speaker 4 (01:25:35):
So I said to myself at that moment.

Speaker 2 (01:25:36):
Maybe there's a way for me to give people around
the world during this crazy time the feeling that I
have right now, at this moment, of interacting with their
favorite artists and experiencing their favorite songs in.

Speaker 4 (01:25:51):
A more personal way than ever before. And a light
bulb went off, and I imai. I immediately envisioned what
became past the mic.

Speaker 2 (01:26:03):
I envisioned myself in my living room in front of
the fireplace with the palm trees and the flamingo wallpaper
and the lights dim down low, and I envisioned myself
dropping iconic hip hop and R and B records and
bringing on screen the legendary hip hop and R and

(01:26:24):
B icon who sings that song to sing along.

Speaker 4 (01:26:29):
And I said, Fortina, I got to call you back.
And I called my editor Ian.

Speaker 2 (01:26:34):
And I said Ian, I said, we all know on
zoom and FaceTime, if I trigger a song, no one
can sing along in real time.

Speaker 4 (01:26:39):
They'll be five seconds late.

Speaker 1 (01:26:41):
How can we do it?

Speaker 4 (01:26:43):
And forty eight hours later we.

Speaker 2 (01:26:45):
Concocted a way to break the code and have me
trigger songs and have people sing along in real time.
And I started calling every icon of nineteen seventies and
eighty R and B that I had relationships with. Now
I knew I couldn't call people that I had never
met because the.

Speaker 4 (01:27:06):
Idea was so crazy. No one would do this.

Speaker 1 (01:27:08):
They had to have some level of trust in me.

Speaker 2 (01:27:12):
And so I called back for Dean and his partner
in crime from Earth Win and Fire, Philip Bailey and
Cool from Cool in the Gang and Patrese Russian and
Ray Parker Junior and Chryl Lynn and Howard Hewitt and
Steve Arrington, and I said, guys, I have this idea.
I'm gonna sit in my living room in front of

(01:27:32):
my turntables, and every time I drop one of your records,
You're gonna pop on screen to sing along.

Speaker 1 (01:27:37):
Right now, did verses come out before this or the
d Nice? Is this before that or this just after
the same time.

Speaker 4 (01:27:47):
It's all around the same time.

Speaker 1 (01:27:49):
Come to fish. Yeah, I know.

Speaker 2 (01:27:51):
D Nice started djaying on Instagram Live almost immediately when
the lockdown started, so that probably preceded this phone call
versus I'm forgetting the exact month they started, but I
think it was all around the same few months, March, April, May, June, July.

Speaker 1 (01:28:08):
It was all.

Speaker 4 (01:28:09):
It was all very much happening, and.

Speaker 2 (01:28:13):
I start calling everyone, and shockingly, everyone says yes, except
Philip Bailey of Earth Wind and Fire. So I called
Redeen and I Goverdeen, can you talk to your you know,
best friend of you know, fifty years And he goes,
you know, Philip is very cautious and he likes to
understand what he's doing. So I called Phillip's daughter, Trinity.

(01:28:35):
I said, Trinity, can you help me? And finally I
finished the entire episode.

Speaker 8 (01:28:41):
You never told me that? He said no.

Speaker 6 (01:28:43):
He said no, no, my best friends, you know, at
your birthday party when I wanted to strangle.

Speaker 1 (01:28:49):
Oh god, I wasn't ready. It wasn't ready. I wasn't
ready send a block.

Speaker 7 (01:28:54):
There's a lot of things we got to put a
pin in. That's one we'll yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:28:58):
So I filmed the whole show and edited the whole show.

Speaker 2 (01:29:03):
Now, some things that people don't realize about the show
is the show took me anywhere from four to eight
weeks to create, to conceptualize, to playlists, to reach out
to the artists, to film them all individually, and then
to put everything together.

Speaker 4 (01:29:21):
So it looked like I never got up from the chair.

Speaker 2 (01:29:25):
So the first episode is now assembled, and it's for
Dean White playing bass on the song that inspired the
whole thing, that's the way of the World. Into Sayita
Garrett doing her duet with Michael Jackson. I just can't
stop loving you and to picture He's Russian to and
remind me into Denise Williams, so on and so on,

(01:29:46):
and now there's twenty R.

Speaker 1 (01:29:48):
And B icons.

Speaker 2 (01:29:50):
And I called Philip Bailey's daughter and I say, can
I please speak to your dad? So she puts them
on the phone.

Speaker 1 (01:29:57):
I go film.

Speaker 4 (01:30:00):
The thing I was talking about.

Speaker 1 (01:30:01):
He said yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:30:02):
I said, look, I finished the whole episode. I left
the space for you to sing with Maurice White. Maurice White,
who died I think now about ten years ago, the
founder of the group. He sings half the song. The
song is Maurice White and Philip Bailey. I said, I
want you to sing with Maurice White. So I said, look,

(01:30:22):
I'm going to send you the episode. Okay, let's schedule
a time to do it. I'm going to send it
to you. If you don't love how this turned out,
we never had the call. Good but on everything I've
ever said, on everything we've ever collaborated on, and we
had collaborated on a few things. I said, give me
thirty minutes of your time and you have my word

(01:30:44):
that you'll be proud of the product. So he did it,
and I edited it and I sent it to him,
and five minutes later his daughter texted me in said approved.
And that was the beginning of what became something I
could have never ever imagined. And I finished this episode

(01:31:05):
in late May early June, and I didn't premiere it
till a month later, and I texted it to Steve,
who didn't know anything about it at that point, and
I said, Steve, watch this and call me back.

Speaker 3 (01:31:18):
And you had you had recorded it online on Instagram Live.
I would no, no, no, no, you just pre recorded.

Speaker 2 (01:31:26):
Okay, So Instagram had nothing to do with past the
Mike Evra YouTube. It was premiered on YouTube, and it
was never filmed on Instagram Live or Zoom or any
of the common apps we use.

Speaker 1 (01:31:37):
Okay.

Speaker 4 (01:31:38):
It was a show that I filmed individually, edited.

Speaker 2 (01:31:42):
But when you couldn't go to anyone's house, it was
quite a puzzle to put together on how to teach artists,
some of whom at that time were over the age
of seventy the computers, so I sent it to Steve. Now,
before I sent it to Steve, I had sent this
to every block, every website, every magazine, every network, and said,

(01:32:06):
would you premiere this for me? Now? You know, like
a new single, premiere's, new music video premiere. It's a
little vanity thing. It's not a big deal. Couldn't get
one person's a premiere?

Speaker 7 (01:32:15):
Wow?

Speaker 2 (01:32:15):
Yeah, And my YouTube subscribership was low. I'm not a YouTuber.
I have a basic subscribership. I've had six music videos.
So I send it to Steve Rifkin, who's my dear
friend and mentor for many years, and I say, Steve
watched this.

Speaker 4 (01:32:30):
Now he has no idea what he's about to watch.

Speaker 2 (01:32:34):
So he calls me twenty eight minutes later and says,
this is the greatest thing I've ever seen. And I
said since COVID And he said no. Ever, he said,
this is going to change your life. And it changed
my life really.

Speaker 7 (01:32:56):
Because I feel like we're hearing all the name dropping
that you can, that you're saying, and all the things
that you've done up to this point. But I want
to go further back. How does this ten year old
DJ who starts to get these turntables, starts djaying you're
in Then you go to the high school college. What
is the break that makes you feel that, Okay, there's

(01:33:18):
something here, I could really do this, I could do
a career in this view. What's the break, what's the
what's the thing that starts to get these people to
call you to do these parties, to give you these
these collaborations, connects you with these artists.

Speaker 2 (01:33:32):
There were many moments, and I'll tell you as as
many as you want to hear. But I mean started
when I was ten years old, and I DJed every
single possible opportunity. I had to be in front of people.
I never enjoy DJing in my bedroom. I was never
a real scratch master. I was never that guy. I

(01:33:55):
was never a competition style titles. I was never a
turntable list.

Speaker 4 (01:33:59):
I was a part DJ.

Speaker 2 (01:34:01):
So there's only so much you can do in your room.
Can't practice routines. You need to be in front of.

Speaker 4 (01:34:06):
People because you feet off the crowd.

Speaker 1 (01:34:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:34:09):
So I would DJ every Rinky Dink school carnival.

Speaker 1 (01:34:14):
The first two guests who drink the monster.

Speaker 4 (01:34:16):
Yea, really.

Speaker 1 (01:34:23):
We appreciate Yeah, we appreciate that.

Speaker 4 (01:34:28):
Yeah, so we just raised the value, but guests usually
just go.

Speaker 1 (01:34:34):
Straight with the drinks.

Speaker 3 (01:34:36):
I re appreciate y'all, but ahead can't continue.

Speaker 2 (01:34:38):
So I DJed every possible thing I could, and I
brought my milk rates of records and my turntables to school,
and although it sounds silly, it gave me my first
experiences in front of anyone. Now I didn't value these

(01:35:00):
kids musical opinion. In fact, I kind of had disdain
for it. I wanted to be in real life. But
as a sixth grade, seventh grade, eighth grade kid, and
then into high school, it was a beginning school homecoming parties,
school dances, school proms, and then in this era of

(01:35:22):
New York, there were a lot of underage nightclubs that
were just out in the open, and I don't know,
I don't know how this existed, but there were full
on nightclubs that high school kids.

Speaker 4 (01:35:31):
Went to and everyone knew it and there was no party.

Speaker 5 (01:35:36):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:35:37):
So I started djaying some of these parties, and that
was kind of chapter two because I was out there.
And then one thing led to another, and I met
some party promoters who at the time I thought and
were real deal party promoters in actual New York City nightclubs,

(01:35:58):
and I went from doing these kind of high school
underage parties to actual New York hotspots to some degree.
No no, no, by this I'm now seventeen, eighteen nineteen.
That would have been crazy if he was sad. Yeah, well,
I had to learn how to use the turntable first,

(01:36:22):
and those clubs were really the first exposure to real.

Speaker 4 (01:36:27):
People.

Speaker 2 (01:36:30):
You know, in the nineties, everyone wanted to be an
intern for a hip hop label, and if I was
old enough at the time, I would have wanted to
intern for Steve at Loud Records. That was you know,
there were a few labels you would have interned at,
you know as a Dream Loud Records, Deaf Jam Records.

Speaker 7 (01:36:50):
I remember when he was thirteen years old, he would
be at the office and would give him.

Speaker 2 (01:36:55):
Records because you know, back in the day there was
aviously no Internet and the only way to get the
newest hot record was to get it from the record label.
To be in the record pools. Being in the record
on their list that.

Speaker 1 (01:37:11):
Was years old, you already had a name in the industry.

Speaker 2 (01:37:14):
I had no name, but I was meeting everyone I could,
and when somehow gets a Loud Records.

Speaker 7 (01:37:19):
You know, the babysitter was dating somebody that worked for me.

Speaker 4 (01:37:22):
Oh ship, that was So that's what was one in.
That was one in.

Speaker 1 (01:37:28):
That was was fucking everything.

Speaker 6 (01:37:31):
And the babysitter, wait, his baby baby sitter, bab was
fucking comb who controlled every beautiful woman in New York City.

Speaker 2 (01:37:47):
And the babysitter was also very good friends with Stretched Armstrong.
Shut babysitter baby had two babysitters and Diane. I'm sure
they might hear this. That's why I just shouted them out.
And and they were friends, were Stretched Armstrong. They were

(01:38:11):
friends with someone who worked for lab Rec't.

Speaker 4 (01:38:15):
So yeah it was. And so that wasn't the moment
that changed the game.

Speaker 2 (01:38:18):
But I had my antennas out right, and so what
I was saying was, you know, you wanted to intern.
So so one of the places I interned as a
high schooler was actually not for someone in the music business,
but in the fashion business. But in this era, djaning
for this person was as good as djang at a
record label. Can anyone guess what that might be? Andy

(01:38:42):
Hill figure? So I so I interned for Tommy Hill
Figure's brother Andy now Tommy Hill Figure in the mid
to late nineties was a revolving door of hip hop artists.
So being an intern for Andy Hill Figure met you

(01:39:04):
folded rugbies and polos for q Tit and for Ray Kwan,
and for Snoop and and so that was another kind
of path that led me out into the world. I
remember Andy Hill Figure took me to Andre Herrel's white
party at Tavern on the Green in nineteen ninety five.

(01:39:26):
I was fourteen, so Andre Herrel became a very dear
friend and mentor to me. When he passed, I was
filming past the mic and I always wished he could
have seen it because so much of what I do
on the microphone comes from Andre Herrel. But that's I

(01:39:48):
want to get to that, because that's a whole important.

Speaker 4 (01:39:49):
Piece of the puzzle.

Speaker 2 (01:39:50):
But so the Hill Figures bring me to Tavern on
the Green in Central Park for Andre Heral's fa aimed
white party, and I remember watching Kid Capri m tear
down that party. Now you have to remember I've only

(01:40:12):
maybe been to three parties. It wasn't like I had
been to thirty of these. I know, Kid Capri killed
that one more than the other twenty nine. I hadn't
been anywhere.

Speaker 4 (01:40:21):
I just heard about it.

Speaker 2 (01:40:23):
So I'm watching Kid Capri, He's a master, the master,
and I'm watching Andre Herrel MC the party, and I
can picture myself where I was standing a tavern on
the green and I looked at Andre and I looked
at Kid Capri and I said, I want to do that,

(01:40:45):
and that became one of my goals.

Speaker 1 (01:40:48):
God damn, it makes a noise for that.

Speaker 4 (01:40:52):
So I want to tell you something else.

Speaker 2 (01:40:53):
So the years, I think two thousand and two, I
interned for def Jam as well in those years. And
now I'm just making a name for myself. So I'm
finally getting the records from the labels without having to
beg And it's two thousand and two and the hottest

(01:41:15):
record in the clubs is a song called nothing Oh
Goddamn by Noriega. And maybe I went to and excuse
my voice to damn a little horse, but good, you
need some more water even no, I'm.

Speaker 4 (01:41:31):
Good, but that's why I'm drinking a lot. So I
am a little horse.

Speaker 2 (01:41:36):
So I hear Flex playing this record, you know, over
and over and over, and I'm now knee deep in
the club, so I know this is the hottest record.
I'm I'm DJing at Cheetah on twenty first Street.

Speaker 3 (01:41:50):
Twenty first threet of Justice is right down the blot, Yeah,
across the Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:41:55):
How old?

Speaker 4 (01:41:57):
I was twenty one?

Speaker 1 (01:41:57):
Okay, So I.

Speaker 4 (01:41:59):
Don't have to record?

Speaker 1 (01:42:01):
Oh wow.

Speaker 2 (01:42:02):
So I go to Fat Beats. They don't have the record.
I go to Rock and Soul they have a bootleg.
I don't want a butleg. So I was always like
a sonic, you know. So I go to def Jam
and I say, I need two copies of nothing.

Speaker 4 (01:42:24):
What I tell you. They didn't want to give me
two copies.

Speaker 6 (01:42:27):
It was so.

Speaker 2 (01:42:29):
It was so on fire. It's like the scene and
Crush Groove when they're printing. It's like that or King
of Rock in the movie, and they can't keep them
on the ses. I couldn't get a copy. So they
finally give me two copies. And I go home and
I put on the turntable to practice a few things
and it skips.

Speaker 4 (01:42:49):
So I take it off and I put on the
double and it skips.

Speaker 1 (01:42:56):
I worked the record out here.

Speaker 4 (01:42:58):
Oh so, don't kill my punchline.

Speaker 2 (01:43:02):
So I go to def Jam back the next day,
and I wish I remembered who was doing the streets team.

Speaker 1 (01:43:09):
Well, he was ahead of it.

Speaker 2 (01:43:10):
It definitely could have been Rob Love. All right, let's
make it Rob up. So I go into Rob Love's office.
It's definitely and I say I need too, And so
I say I need two more. He says, said, no,
he just gave you two. You begged for them yesterday.
I said, they're skipping at an integral part of the song.
It's not even the third verse, it's like at the beginning.

(01:43:31):
So I said, he goes, well, those are your two.
I said, the whole batch is fucked up.

Speaker 4 (01:43:36):
I'm telling you.

Speaker 2 (01:43:38):
He goes, you're crazy to get out of here. So
I say, you have a turntable here? He says yeah.
I said, who whose office is the turntable in? So
whose ever office that was? And we take the vinyl
and I say to him, take two vinyl from anywhere
in this stack top middle bottom. I'm like David Blaine

(01:43:59):
with the cards. Just pick a vinyl. So he puts
them on same spot, same spot, same pot. I said,
I just discovered a flaw in you're pressing.

Speaker 7 (01:44:11):
I did.

Speaker 1 (01:44:14):
I did hear it, but I didn't remember it, Like
how he just described.

Speaker 4 (01:44:18):
The whole pressing was fucked up.

Speaker 1 (01:44:22):
But this is what's ill.

Speaker 7 (01:44:23):
This is how big the record was. People were still
playing the fucking record. You can't stop a hit record,
and you can't stop wearing the mouth right.

Speaker 2 (01:44:32):
So, at the end of the day, and in my
early days of djaying, when I felt I don't want
to say when I was getting hot, When I felt
I was getting hot, I'm not. I'm in no place
to say I was getting hot. That's for other people
to say. But when I felt I was getting a
little hot.

Speaker 4 (01:44:49):
There were there were four hip hop.

Speaker 2 (01:44:54):
Records of that era that were the biggest and greatest
club records ever at that time, and they have also
had to test the time and remain songs that kids
in their twenties now it's in every word too, and
those songs are jay Z, give it to Me, gnoring

(01:45:17):
nothing for else, fifty in the club, and lean back.

Speaker 10 (01:45:24):
Now you.

Speaker 2 (01:45:27):
There's no way to explain what those songs did if
you aren't there. You can try some things.

Speaker 4 (01:45:32):
You just have to feel.

Speaker 2 (01:45:34):
You can't explain what it was. We could play the
song four times in a row and it was a
magical moment in New York. And you know, I always
tell people there's a lot of things that allow your stars.

Speaker 4 (01:45:50):
To align in life. It's not just talent, it's not
just luck.

Speaker 2 (01:45:54):
There's so many stars that have to align, and one
of them is being a New Yorker who rose to
prominence in the era of that music.

Speaker 1 (01:46:02):
That's luck.

Speaker 2 (01:46:05):
Because if I was coming of age now in New York,
I don't think my life would have taken the same
course because the music is different.

Speaker 1 (01:46:13):
It's still disposable now.

Speaker 4 (01:46:14):
It's kind of like, yeah, and hip hop is different.

Speaker 1 (01:46:17):
DJ culture is different, is different now.

Speaker 4 (01:46:19):
Yeah, but I was.

Speaker 2 (01:46:21):
I was coming of age. I don't even want to
say rise to prominence. I was coming of age in
an era of New York hip hop that was magical.

Speaker 1 (01:46:30):
Yeah, and.

Speaker 2 (01:46:33):
I agree, And it gave me a platform because those parties,
as you talk about the hot parties, the exclusive parties,
you can't DJ them if they're not happening, and they
were happening, and they were happening in my backyard. And
all the music you played at those parties was being
recorded in my backyard from people who grew up in
New York.

Speaker 4 (01:46:54):
And that's the stars aligning.

Speaker 2 (01:46:56):
You could have been born anywhere else, so you could
have you could have been brought up anywhere else.

Speaker 3 (01:47:00):
Well, I want to stop for a second. I want
to let you know that our show is about giving
people their flowers. You know why they alive, you know,
you know what I mean, why they could smell them. Man,
we wanted to give y'all both even though.

Speaker 7 (01:47:25):
Okay, yeah, so before you start, quick time, I'm gonna
take a quick piss.

Speaker 4 (01:47:32):
Well I was gonna thank you on air, but I'll wait.

Speaker 1 (01:47:34):
Yeah, oh ship, look soone me flooded.

Speaker 7 (01:47:40):
Yeah, because to stop we're sleeping here tonight.

Speaker 3 (01:47:45):
Yes, I can't. I couldn't believe it though, but we did.
Didn't make it right there you go, we we.

Speaker 10 (01:47:54):
We are.

Speaker 1 (01:47:55):
We almost crashed, by the way. I'm just let you know.

Speaker 5 (01:47:57):
I don't know what was that.

Speaker 3 (01:47:59):
That's honey, Did you just take a shot of honey?
That this was the dangerous on the way to work
is the most dangerous has ever been. We were swerving.
We couldn't get here.

Speaker 4 (01:48:14):
We could uh, but uh, I can't believe you came.

Speaker 2 (01:48:19):
I kept thinking Steve was gonna call and say everyone's
not coming or left.

Speaker 4 (01:48:22):
I mean it was not water.

Speaker 3 (01:48:24):
Because once, yeah, once I hit Steve and I was
like you know, and he was like, let's let's let's
make it happen.

Speaker 1 (01:48:29):
I was just like, you know what, let's just let's
just let's just do it. Let's just make it. But
I'm not gonna lie.

Speaker 3 (01:48:35):
I regredit on the way here because I was so scared,
Like like at first it was it was it was like,
was that the not exciting?

Speaker 1 (01:48:42):
I didn't want to I want to limits? Yeah, right, I.

Speaker 5 (01:48:48):
Saw cars on the water and then we got to
the highway and.

Speaker 1 (01:48:59):
Yeah, it was not a good idea. It was not
a good idea. I was scared of. Yeah, that was us,
so hold on, Yeah, I was scared.

Speaker 3 (01:49:10):
So look, literally, let me ask, because you said you
did a whole bunch of past mics, what made you
pick for your residency right one of us in Vegas?

Speaker 7 (01:49:22):
What made you pick these artists?

Speaker 10 (01:49:25):
You know?

Speaker 1 (01:49:25):
Actually both? You know what I mean? Which whoever want
to go first? How did you make the decision.

Speaker 8 (01:49:32):
Before you go?

Speaker 6 (01:49:33):
Yeah, when it comes to curating music, I feel he's
probably the best DJ in the world I respect when
it when it comes to somebody curating the show.

Speaker 7 (01:49:45):
So he's always going to come with the mural, right,
And then I'll say you know what, maybe.

Speaker 8 (01:49:51):
Had this color ad that color. But to me, he's
one of the best DJs in the RW.

Speaker 6 (01:49:56):
I'm not going to question his th Sometimes I'll say,
you're out of your fucking mind on this, but I mean,
he puts us face, he puts this together, so.

Speaker 3 (01:50:10):
I'm really time. I'm not going to question his curation. Okay,
So before you say this, how does this work? Does
the Vegas registery reach out to you and then you
say to Steve, Yo, listen, listen, how does this work?

Speaker 2 (01:50:26):
So first of all, thank you, Steve, because those are
very very big, very big words to say the greatest
of anything. And I just want to I want to
answer your question. But can I take sixty seconds just
to say that I'm a product of so many people,
I'm a product of Dougie Fresh. Without watching him over
the years, I would have no idea how to unite

(01:50:47):
artists on stage. He's the godfather of that and in
many ways has I don't want to say past me
the torch allowed me to hold the torch, and he's
another hero that has become a dear friend. And and
I studied of course Flash HRK and Bambada, but also
Kid Capri and SNS and Funk Master, Flex Legend, And

(01:51:08):
without all of those people I just named, and Andre
Herrell as a Master of the microphone, there would be
no DJ Cassidy and certainly no Past the Mic. I mean,
everything I say on the Mic is all of those
guys in a blender, right. So there were chapters to
this journey. You know, I told you the story of
the first episode. After the first episode, I knew I

(01:51:33):
wanted to celebrate my hip hop heroes. And whereas the
first episode started with earth Wind and Fire, the second
episode started with Run DMC. And when from Run DMC
to Elo cool J, you got DMC two Run and yep,
and they did Sucker mcs together, and then LL did
Radio and then Chuck d did Rebel without a Pause,

(01:51:54):
and then Rock Him did Eric be as President, and
then Dougie Fresh did the show and Big Daddy Kane
did Warm it Up. And you know, over twenty five
artists were on that show, most of which who then
joined us at my Radio City Past the Mic show
last summer, which was a full circle moment. But and
then after volume two, there was a volume three where
I wanted to pay homage to my R and B

(01:52:15):
heroes of the nineties the New Jack Swing era, and
that show featured Keith, Sweat and Boyce to Men and
TLC and SWV and all six members of New Edition
and then in a very long story short, the show
went from Steve Rifkin to Jesse Collins, renowned television producer
of every award show known to man, to Connie Orlando

(01:52:37):
at BET. Volume one that I did completely on my own,
premiered in July, Volume two, August, Volume three, October Volume four,
a television special November twenty nine, five weeks later that
over two million TVs watched.

Speaker 4 (01:52:56):
And I don't want to speak free, I'm curious or
your opinion.

Speaker 2 (01:53:00):
I could have never, in my wildest imagination thought that
that would become a full on television special in a
matter of five weeks, with millions of TVs tuned into
in on its first airing.

Speaker 6 (01:53:18):
I told you your life was going to change. So
at the end of the day, I mean, I knew
what this was and I knew how he curated. Let
me ask something.

Speaker 7 (01:53:30):
The first one that you did was everybody involved in it,
strictly off of all the relationships you've been like it
wasn't It wasn't about like you're hiring these people to
do this.

Speaker 1 (01:53:42):
It was all.

Speaker 2 (01:53:42):
Relither people that were in my phone or people those
people knew and conference in right.

Speaker 7 (01:53:48):
Right, but really because it's important for people to understand
like the power of relationships.

Speaker 4 (01:53:53):
Yeah, so let's go through it.

Speaker 2 (01:53:54):
If I can remember so Berdein and Philip, I've told
you that story, Sayita Garrett, who wrote and Man in
the Mirror from Michael Jackson and saying on I just
can't stop love.

Speaker 4 (01:54:04):
Ain't you is a dear friend?

Speaker 2 (01:54:08):
But Terrees Russian who sings Remind Me, which has been
sampled and hip hop a thousand times and Forget Me nots,
which became men in Black. I called her directly, she
was a friend. Howard Hewett of Shalamar called him directly.

Speaker 1 (01:54:25):
Who else?

Speaker 2 (01:54:25):
Ray Parker Junior called him directly. I said, Ray, you
played on to be Real by Sherylynn right?

Speaker 4 (01:54:29):
He said yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:54:30):
I said, do you keep in contact with her? He said,
of course, now she's on the phone. And the list
goes on. When I called Big Daddy Kane to take
part in volume two, I looked at my text. I
hadn't spoken to Big Daddy Kane in six years. I
don't call Big Daddy Kane, but I do have his number,

(01:54:51):
and I called him in July of twenty twenty, so
almost four years ago, and he picks up the phone
and goes, hey, Ca, if you're calling me about that
past the mic thing I'm in. And those were the
kind of answers I was getting strictly based on Volume one,
and so Volume one, two and three were just a snowball.

(01:55:14):
And by the time it went from Steve to Jesse
Collins to Kanye Orlando, it's now a series of bet specials.
And it went from twenty five thousand people watching on
YouTube Live to one hundred on YouTube Live to maybe
quarter a million to literally Nielsen ratings like two point
one million televisions on the first airing, and long story

(01:55:38):
short after seven television specials and ten episodes all together,
I had passed the mic to two hundred and twenty legends.
And those two hundred and twenty legends spanned forty years
of hip hop and R and B, earth Wind and Fire,
Gladys Knight, Patti LaBelle, Charlie Wilson, Hall and Oates, New Edition, TLC,

(01:56:01):
S w V, and Vogue, He sweat Teddy Reiley and
that was just the first three, and then Missy Elliott,
Y Cleve, Jean, Buster Rhymes, Wu Tang Clan, Ice Cube,
Sean Paul, Shaggy, super Cat, Maxy Priest. I mean, we

(01:56:26):
did a whole we do anything you guys, super Cat
so and we did, and we did a whole episode
of reggae music. And I want to thank this amazing woman,
Sharon Burke. Sharon Burke is kind of like the mayor
of reggae music. And I met Sharon because she helped

(01:56:49):
me get Shaggy. No, I'm sorry, she helped me get
show me get Beanie Man on a previous episode, and
we hit it off and I called and I said,
I told b Et, I want to do the next
episode all reggae.

Speaker 4 (01:57:04):
I said, will you co produce it with me?

Speaker 1 (01:57:06):
And she did and we.

Speaker 2 (01:57:07):
Produced this episode that featured Shaka de mis Imploied Terror,
Fabulous sister Nancy doing bumb Bomb. And you know, her
story is incredible. She deserves her flowers because that song
has been used.

Speaker 7 (01:57:22):
I think she got a documentary right now. They've got
a documentary about it right now.

Speaker 4 (01:57:25):
Right So it all just came full circle.

Speaker 2 (01:57:28):
She never made a sense from this track or the
top line or the song for years, and so she
was on the show. And so Sharon calls me and says,
you have to come to Kingston for the premiere. So
I'm used to watching the show in my living room
with a couple of friends. I never did anything, She says,

(01:57:49):
you know, just after COVID we're just flying again. She
said you have to come to Kingston. And so I've
never been to Jamaica, let alone Kingston. And so Sharon
throws this event for me and all the artists who
were on the show, the mass majority of live in Kingston,
so they all came.

Speaker 4 (01:58:07):
Junior Reid who did want Blood on the show.

Speaker 2 (01:58:11):
And words can't really explain what I felt on that trip,
you know, for me past the mic was and in
some sense it still feels like my living room show,
in which I'm surprised if anyone who I don't know
has ever heard of it. So when I walk into
Kingston and everyone knows that the show's happened, it hasn't

(01:58:34):
even aired yet, and everyone knows it's airing, and there's
a whole show dedicated to reggae. It was really it
was quite a feeling, and honestly, in many senses, I
have favorite episodes for different reasons, but that's my favorite
episode because I think we stepped out of the comfort
of hip hop and arm beat to some respect. But
as a kid, dance hall music was hip hop. Yea,
you know, I learned dance hall music through funk Master Flex.

(01:58:56):
That was my in to knowing Super Cat Records. I
learned it through hip hop, just like I learned soul
music from hip hop. So after ten episodes, two hundred
and twenty icon spanning forty years, and then Steve gets
an email from the Black Promoter's Collective, who's an independent

(01:59:19):
concert promoter who was very hot that year with the
New Edition tour and the Mary Tour and the Maxwell Tour,
and they said, have you thought about taking the show
on the road, And of course we had, but they
saw the vision. And over the past year we've been
putting on past the Mic live concerts across the country

(01:59:43):
and I've been walking out in front of arenas.

Speaker 4 (01:59:47):
That are sold out with ten to fifteen thousand people.

Speaker 2 (01:59:51):
And there's no feeling like this because at the end
of the day, this whole thing started with this little
idea of calling artists and convincing them to do this
crazy concept to bring celebration to people at a crazy time,
and it turned into a celebration of the soundtrack of
our lives. It turned into a celebration of our favorite

(02:00:14):
songs and our favorite artists, a celebration of our heroes.

Speaker 4 (02:00:18):
And so I have this incredible.

Speaker 2 (02:00:24):
Over the past year, I've had this incredible opportunity every
month to walk on stage and experience that celebration in
front of ten to fifteen thousand people with my heroes
on stage, and every one of those shows has been
a unique show. The show in North Carolina was different
than the show in New Jersey. It was different from
the show at Radio City. So every show is like

(02:00:45):
a special event curated specifically for that time and place.
And the show at Radio City was the greatest night
of my life. Sugarhill Gang, Curtis, Blow, Cool Mo, D, Busy,
b krs one mc shan. But listen to what I

(02:01:08):
just said though on one stage, Cool Mo, D, Busy,
B mc shan, krs one, Infamous Beefs, and Naughty My
Nature and Rock came in, Big Daddy Kane and Karras
one and Dougie Fresh and Slick Rick and Lords of
the Underground and the Fushnickens and EPMD and.

Speaker 4 (02:01:34):
I will never forget every minute of that night. I don't.
I don't think it can be topped. It's it's my
thriller now.

Speaker 2 (02:01:40):
It's like in its own I just I can't touch
that in my own in my own heart and soul.
It was everything that I ever dreamt of. And I
felt I don't feel it often, but I felt that
night that I had made some contribution, that I did
something for the music and the culture that gave me life,
life and identity. And you know, I remember some artists

(02:02:06):
saying that night that they had never been to Radio City.
And I got a call from Roxanne Chante the next
morning telling me just that, and so it's it's it's
you know, we talked about a lot of memories early on.
I think in one of the stories I said at
that time, that was the greatest night. This was the
greatest night of my life. So all this led to Vegas.

(02:02:28):
And and you know you asked about the artist and
how did you pick those artist? It's always been I
just want to say about the artists, right, I'm really
just the messenger. I'm just really I have the fortunate
position of being a bridge, right and if I'm nothing

(02:02:51):
else in my life but that bridge, I'm happy with that.

Speaker 4 (02:02:55):
And I really feel.

Speaker 2 (02:03:01):
Again, sorry for this voice, but I really feel that
this is going to sound very poetic. But I feel
in all episodes and shows that passed the mic, the
artists have chosen themselves. I think it It was always
just clear, you know when when when Steven live Nation

(02:03:26):
first started talking about Vegas, I was immediately inspired by
the shows that we think of as the iconic Vegas shows.

Speaker 1 (02:03:38):
The rat Pack, That's what I said earlier. Yeah, I
said that we were talking about that earlier.

Speaker 4 (02:03:46):
Elvis Presley, Liberaci. Steve always calls me Liberaci, so.

Speaker 1 (02:03:51):
He definitely did.

Speaker 4 (02:03:54):
So I can't wait to hear what was said before
I got here.

Speaker 2 (02:04:01):
So, the rat Pack, Elvis, Presley, Liberachi, Wayne Newton.

Speaker 1 (02:04:07):
And these are the first people with residencies.

Speaker 2 (02:04:10):
They were the first ones to have a long term,
the most definitive residencies.

Speaker 4 (02:04:14):
There were people in between.

Speaker 1 (02:04:16):
H I'm sorry for cutting it.

Speaker 8 (02:04:18):
I did forget.

Speaker 1 (02:04:20):
My father did bring Elvis to Vegas. He brought him
to Elvis. He brought Elvis to Vegas.

Speaker 4 (02:04:25):
Yeah, the International Hotel, and he's told me that before.

Speaker 1 (02:04:28):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (02:04:29):
So so that's that's the DNA of this conception. And
when this started, I didn't know that. As the esthetic
and vibe started to form, he told me that. So
I've always been fascinated with old world Las Vegas, with
Freemont Street, the old hotels, the gangster stories, the neon signed,

(02:04:53):
the lights, the glamour.

Speaker 7 (02:04:55):
The black and white of it all, the mob exactly
black and white of it.

Speaker 6 (02:04:58):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:04:58):
Yeah, the black and white of it all, even though
it was actually very bright, very bright. So I thought
about the rat Pack, and I thought about.

Speaker 4 (02:05:11):
Who are they? Were they unknowns? Now they were five stars?

Speaker 1 (02:05:19):
Is that we saw a flyer? When you see the
basket of min it's like almost like the rat Pack.
I didn't even I didn't even think of that exactly.

Speaker 2 (02:05:25):
So the rat Pack is five stars Frank Sinatra, Sammy
Davis Junior, Dean Martin, Joey Bishop, and Peter Lawford.

Speaker 1 (02:05:39):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:05:40):
So these guys were singers, actors, comedians. They didn't need
each other. They were stars.

Speaker 4 (02:05:47):
But what did they do?

Speaker 2 (02:05:49):
They came together and formed an ensemble that the world
had never seen. That you could only see in one.

Speaker 1 (02:05:59):
Place, and that place was Las Vegas.

Speaker 2 (02:06:02):
And remember how we started, And I said, if an
alien came from outer space and said, what is hip hop?
I would show him a picture run the MCGM massage
and playing this is the Sucker. If an alien came
from out of space and said what is Las Vegas?
I would show them rap back. So I thought there

(02:06:24):
was an opportunity to create something groundbreaking and something trailblazing.
There is very little hip hop in the concerts space
in Las Vegas. There is almost no hip hop in
the residency space. Yeah, and they have new September and

(02:06:44):
that's brand new so and drink chams were coming soon.

Speaker 4 (02:06:49):
Yeah, there you go, we need you.

Speaker 3 (02:06:51):
In July, Usha and Ussher and Ushia even though marriage
considered a hip hop overall, they don't polyse.

Speaker 2 (02:07:00):
Because Usher and There's been a bunch of R and
B for sure, okay, but virtually, with maybe one or
two exceptions, there's been no hip hop in the residency space,
very little in the concert space. And certainly DJs have
always existed in Vegas in the world of nightlife, but
not in the world of concerts. So I saw a

(02:07:24):
tremendous opportunity to take inspiration from those that made Vegas
what it is and to redefine it through a hip
hop lens, through a New York lens largely, and to
create an ensemble cast of five artists that all have
their global careers, that don't need to come together, but

(02:07:45):
choose to come together to create a once in a
lifetime experience that you can only see in Vegas and
all roads led to Job Rule, Fat Joe Slick Rick,
and Dougie Fresh and myself as the core five.

Speaker 13 (02:08:00):
Our Rule has coined us the rap pack Mmm looks
and you know, every night, so it's every night this goes.

Speaker 4 (02:08:15):
So it's it's, it's.

Speaker 7 (02:08:16):
It's because it's just as long as there's every week
every night.

Speaker 8 (02:08:21):
This is every weekend for the month of July, every weekend.

Speaker 4 (02:08:26):
Yes, Friday Saturday. So on night one.

Speaker 2 (02:08:32):
We have Ray Kwan and ghost Face as our special
guests every night one, No just on night one of
the residency, every first night of the weekend. On on
night two of the Residency, we have Public Enemy joining
us on stage.

Speaker 4 (02:08:49):
Now, I just want to talk about this for a second.

Speaker 2 (02:08:51):
Public Enemy, first of all, has only performed once in
America in seven years wow, meaning seven years ago right right.
Out of all the people involved in the residency, for
some reason, Chuck has been the person who has hosted

(02:09:12):
the ad for the show.

Speaker 4 (02:09:13):
More than anyone. I cannot tell you what that means.

Speaker 2 (02:09:18):
There's really no words to explain how I feel when
I see Past the Mic live on Chuck the Instagram
the Ultimate Truth like capital t r U t H,
there's no more truth. Night three and four we are

(02:09:40):
welcoming a global icon a Steve Rifkin label mates and
Discovery Akon and Night five we are welcoming Jermaine dupri
and De Brat together doing something.

Speaker 4 (02:09:58):
Very special that we're Carl curated.

Speaker 2 (02:10:02):
And Night six we're welcoming too Short and War and
g and it's going to be very special night. Obviously
Vegas is in the West Coast, so that's going to
be a particularly.

Speaker 7 (02:10:12):
And just to be clear for the people watching listening,
when you say welcoming to the addition to fact, Joe.

Speaker 1 (02:10:21):
In addition, right, and the.

Speaker 6 (02:10:23):
Great thing about the month of Live for this year
is you have the NBA Summer League in Vegas, but
you also have the Olympic team practicing. Oh so pretty
much eighty five percent of the NBA. It's going to
be in Vegas, So this will literally be the number
one residency for the month of Joe.

Speaker 2 (02:10:44):
The hotels is that Seasons Seasons, okay, plan in Hollywood,
owned by Caesars so and and when this all started,
Steve was very adamant about July. You know, I'm not
a sports guy. As I've said several times, Steve is
and so Steve goes No, I go to Vegas every July.

Speaker 4 (02:11:03):
It's you can feel the energy, the culture. We have
to do it in July.

Speaker 1 (02:11:07):
And he was right.

Speaker 2 (02:11:08):
And you know, Jaw and Joe and Rick and Doug
and myself are designing inexperience like you've never seen before.
If you've been to a past to my concert over
the past year, you've seen a three hour continuous show
with no intermission and no breaks and no moments of

(02:11:31):
silence and no opening acts and no headliners. It's straight
one hundred miles per hour from eight pm to eleven pm.
But in Vegas, we're taking that and multiplying it times ten.

Speaker 8 (02:11:45):
So what does that mean?

Speaker 2 (02:11:47):
We are creating a show that is more interweaved and
collaborative than ever before.

Speaker 6 (02:11:54):
If I didn't believe in this, I was supposed to
do Allow thirty on July fifth, and knowing what he does,
I said, Cassidy, I'm gonna shut my show down. And
I was doing the big theater T Mobile which hold
twenty two thousand people, and I had WU three six,
I had everybody, and I debit it for this. That's

(02:12:18):
how much I believed in this. Because even though it's
a month, this is going to be you know when
he mentioned Wayne Newton or you know, this is going
to be, this is gonna last. Because what they're doing
is it's an experience. It's just not a typical hip
hop show. This is really going to be a real
fucking experience and take it to a whole different place.

Speaker 1 (02:12:43):
I respect that. I think I'm giving you a contact. Huh,
he's not. I keep looking. I'm like he said, Aye, man, I.

Speaker 2 (02:12:51):
Was losing my voice before I got it. I was
losing the voice already, but now it's taken to a
different level.

Speaker 1 (02:13:00):
You want to explain him the rules with quick Thomas Live.

Speaker 7 (02:13:04):
Oh yeah, actually just hitting me back, and I was
just time you got you play quick time already with us.
Once you're you're new to quick time. So this is
what we canna give you two, two different.

Speaker 1 (02:13:17):
I lost my choices. Choices.

Speaker 7 (02:13:19):
You get to pick one, and we don't drink. If
you say both are neither. We all drink, but you're not.
You guys aren't drinking. So you get to pick.

Speaker 1 (02:13:28):
He could be your designated drinker. This I got some drinking.
Shout to us to drink.

Speaker 2 (02:13:41):
Yeah, right here they drink, right, Yeah, you're my drinker.

Speaker 1 (02:13:51):
You drink. Who's drinking?

Speaker 7 (02:13:52):
You're my driver?

Speaker 8 (02:13:53):
Hey, come.

Speaker 7 (02:13:57):
He's not going to be I can bring it.

Speaker 8 (02:14:00):
He drinks, right, Come on, you're my teammate.

Speaker 5 (02:14:04):
You gotta drink.

Speaker 7 (02:14:06):
You got one hair?

Speaker 1 (02:14:09):
You got I got with the hoodie? What you want?

Speaker 10 (02:14:11):
You want?

Speaker 4 (02:14:13):
I can't have the driver.

Speaker 1 (02:14:15):
Driver.

Speaker 7 (02:14:16):
I mean, let's go away. I'm funked up right now.
You got Sonny, Sonny, listen, we.

Speaker 1 (02:14:25):
Got Yeah, you got the fleet market show. You gotta relax.

Speaker 4 (02:14:28):
I don't think you're gonna have to drink at all.

Speaker 7 (02:14:31):
What we call I don't know, because now it's too
free to contest. If he State sales Champs, the state champs,
this is yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:14:42):
Bring up? Come on, who's producing the.

Speaker 4 (02:14:47):
Hold on?

Speaker 1 (02:14:47):
Bring up? Bringing back I take the first two. I'm
give the let's get his drinker up there.

Speaker 7 (02:14:57):
But where's this drinker?

Speaker 2 (02:15:05):
Then?

Speaker 5 (02:15:05):
Happened to me?

Speaker 1 (02:15:05):
Man, I can't even talk anybody.

Speaker 7 (02:15:08):
Hey, yeah, let me do the first two. I'm giving
them both to Steve.

Speaker 1 (02:15:14):
Let care, I want his man Go ahead, man, you
can sit next to it.

Speaker 5 (02:15:21):
Doesn't We got to stay right here for you?

Speaker 4 (02:15:26):
What what if I just answer everything and no one
has to drink.

Speaker 1 (02:15:31):
Both for y'all going bounce back and forth. So because
you explained of that, if you say both, yeah.

Speaker 7 (02:15:37):
We're giving you to let me say it because I
don't know why the fuck I can't even talk. But
you get two choices.

Speaker 1 (02:15:42):
You say this or that.

Speaker 7 (02:15:43):
If you pick one, nobody drinks. If you say both
or neither.

Speaker 1 (02:15:48):
Correct, I got it. We all drink. That's it.

Speaker 4 (02:15:50):
I get it right.

Speaker 3 (02:15:51):
So I'm gonna start with you, Steve Tupac or d
m X both, but when they're not drinking.

Speaker 1 (02:16:07):
Silo Hello, sollo.

Speaker 7 (02:16:09):
Drinking cheers cheers, cheers.

Speaker 3 (02:16:11):
Yeah, okay, Also to you against my life this moment,
wanted this one. Yeah, I think you're gonna I think
you're gonna let me not, let me not leave the
witness yeah, don't lead the winnows m O P or
mob D Come on, no hear?

Speaker 8 (02:16:28):
I mean, what the fuck?

Speaker 6 (02:16:31):
It should be sense? And I mean they're both loud.
I mean, how can I Oh yeah, I'm thinking.

Speaker 3 (02:16:36):
About people's first Yeah, no, this is not this. There's
a guy who white questions over there. I wouldn't say both,
but I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (02:16:45):
I mean the witness.

Speaker 6 (02:16:46):
Now I'm gonna you know, I had more records with
Mob Deep, okay, than I did with m O P.
So you're saying, but Annie Up might be one of
my favorite records of all time.

Speaker 9 (02:17:05):
Christmas cop out Rift, damn you all right, man, let's go,
all right, let's go Cassidy NOAs or Kiss Jada Kiss.

Speaker 1 (02:17:18):
To be exactly, m hmm.

Speaker 4 (02:17:23):
I would like to answer elaborate.

Speaker 7 (02:17:26):
You can say why your criteria, why you would say
one or the other or both?

Speaker 1 (02:17:30):
Nos.

Speaker 2 (02:17:32):
My my favorite album of all time is Illmatic, and
it holds a very special place in my heart, and
so anything that includes NAS might go to NAS because
of that.

Speaker 7 (02:17:44):
Okay, that's fair, all right, Steve Pete rock and you
gotta he did he did it masterfully. So I mean
I'm not as smart as she is.

Speaker 1 (02:18:00):
You are you have to be.

Speaker 14 (02:18:08):
Wow, man, Let's let's just say, oh, they are both louder.
I mean you can say, bo I ain't mad at
both goth Steve. Let them give me a real question,

(02:18:28):
all right, let me do this one.

Speaker 1 (02:18:32):
You can do that.

Speaker 7 (02:18:34):
I'm not talking to anymore. Let's go Wu Tang or
n w A Wu Tang. Hello fast, I'm from New York.
You know, it's just it's a good I experienced it.

Speaker 1 (02:18:47):
I'm not talking.

Speaker 2 (02:18:48):
It's not music versus music for me, It's just memories
versus memories. I experienced it in a different way as
a New Yorker. I experienced n w A in the
moment more secondhand. So I don't I don't have the
same kind of memories with that music. Although I love
it and I know every word, I didn't I didn't
experience it the same way.

Speaker 1 (02:19:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (02:19:08):
I think that's one of my favorite arguments on drinking
chances with you and Tony yo yo the same. But
I feel like that he just broke it down, No, bro,
because that's right, he broke it down.

Speaker 1 (02:19:21):
When he broke it down, the experience, Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (02:19:24):
That's what I meant by it, Like I'm not bringing,
but still no, I still Tony ye Hill completely missco
screwed the whole thing.

Speaker 4 (02:19:34):
I told him who it was.

Speaker 7 (02:19:36):
He did not like it, and an engage in argument.

Speaker 1 (02:19:39):
I love it beautiful.

Speaker 15 (02:19:40):
Ye asked you top five rappers of all times? Yeah,
and I've always been the biggest ice Cube fan. I
said ice Cream was my in my top five. He
was my number one, and he didn't like to hantswer
ice Cube did past the mic. Yeah, ice Cube did
do past the mike. He was the two hundred and
twentieth artist.

Speaker 3 (02:19:57):
God damn big of ice Cube. Wherever you at, needs
you back on drink chaps. Okay, jay Z a big
daddy king.

Speaker 1 (02:20:04):
I'm gonna go with jay Z.

Speaker 7 (02:20:06):
Look at you answering that.

Speaker 3 (02:20:09):
I'm going with you, and then I'm coming something even
on this one. And you can say it at the
same time. If you want Big Pun or Biggie Smalls.

Speaker 1 (02:20:22):
M Stee, you go first. I'm going.

Speaker 8 (02:20:26):
I just have to say he's my heart Pun.

Speaker 1 (02:20:29):
I'll say Biggie.

Speaker 8 (02:20:31):
Okay, who do you need to say that?

Speaker 1 (02:20:33):
Technically you do?

Speaker 8 (02:20:34):
I mean to say, we're not gonna be Yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:20:37):
I'm taking a shot.

Speaker 2 (02:20:39):
I mean, if you seems questions are really fair. I mean,
you're making between I.

Speaker 7 (02:20:44):
Think you've got to be on there good. I think no, no, no, Look,
I mean I obviously I can't for you in your mind,
you can't. But when we're telling our guests to have
their criteria, was very close to you.

Speaker 3 (02:20:54):
So by that, that's why I wouldn't I wouldn't let that.
I wouldn't let that change my decision. I kind of
think that they both lived a short career, like they
both had so much more to go, So I would
say both, we're not really.

Speaker 7 (02:21:08):
Talking about careers because remember we're telling the guests it's
whatever your criteria, that's my.

Speaker 1 (02:21:21):
I just not.

Speaker 2 (02:21:23):
But don't we don't we expect Steve to favor those
artists his careers that he absolutely guided.

Speaker 7 (02:21:30):
That's why he's been so great guiding those careers.

Speaker 2 (02:21:33):
Yeah, I think the only hard questions for Steve are
not a loud artist for someone else's when it's too
loud artists.

Speaker 1 (02:21:39):
Yeah, So that's why we're gonna go to this wo
project Pat Flip. It's just not fair.

Speaker 4 (02:21:49):
You're killing him project Pat?

Speaker 1 (02:21:51):
Wow? You big?

Speaker 6 (02:21:53):
There a reason in there that you big? Yeah, I mean,
Flip was the last artist. I signed the lad before
they kicked me out, so I had the record with him,
but with Project Pat and Hypnotized Minds and three six.
I don't think you guys realized it.

Speaker 7 (02:22:14):
Was Project Pat first before Unfield three three six came first.

Speaker 1 (02:22:19):
And then then you know, you know Pat was Pat
and Juicy are brothers, right, brothers like that?

Speaker 6 (02:22:26):
Blood blood brother I'm almost positive blood brothers.

Speaker 1 (02:22:29):
Wow, Google, you said another? He said, I'm gonna go somewhere.

Speaker 3 (02:22:38):
They were like, he didn't know, We're gonna google this motherfucker.

Speaker 16 (02:22:41):
You got technology, you know, but we had you know,
we had two monster records with Pat and the Chicken
and then and then he got in trouble and what else?

Speaker 8 (02:22:54):
And then he got no. Then he got in trouble.

Speaker 1 (02:22:56):
Yes, right, so.

Speaker 5 (02:22:59):
Well, wow, I never knew that.

Speaker 1 (02:23:02):
He said, what I listen, take a shot for no reason.
I'm taking I'm gonna tak a shot. I don't know why.

Speaker 7 (02:23:12):
I don't want I'm like, no, no, stas man.

Speaker 3 (02:23:14):
I just always love to see Project God name Project Past.

Speaker 5 (02:23:19):
He's telling you where he's coming from, and he definitely don't.

Speaker 10 (02:23:28):
So what should call you?

Speaker 7 (02:23:29):
Fleet Market, Sunny.

Speaker 1 (02:23:33):
State, s Sunday State, sales.

Speaker 4 (02:23:41):
I'm not taking anything away from clip.

Speaker 7 (02:23:46):
Artist dude w B T. I mean.

Speaker 8 (02:23:51):
A few a few years ago, Flip Kane.

Speaker 7 (02:23:54):
Flippers, we would yeah you know, Flip yeah, yeah, that's
what we want.

Speaker 1 (02:23:57):
That's what you want.

Speaker 6 (02:23:58):
Yeah yeah, Pat can't packed came, three to six came,
So now Flippers don't know.

Speaker 8 (02:24:02):
So I'm just saying, I mean, he's.

Speaker 1 (02:24:05):
A drink Chambala la, Okay, we'll move on.

Speaker 4 (02:24:10):
You got it from Motana Ross, French Montana, you.

Speaker 7 (02:24:17):
Don't have bunny style.

Speaker 4 (02:24:20):
I don't know, maybe it's a cop out.

Speaker 2 (02:24:21):
I have a personal relationship with him, so I just
I just connect him in a different way. I love
Rick Ross, but you know, I've seen French in the studio.
I kind of been there. I just have different experiences
for me. You know, these questions aren't just like who's
a better lyricist.

Speaker 7 (02:24:40):
We actually respect both people.

Speaker 1 (02:24:41):
We always mention. Yeah, it's about it's.

Speaker 2 (02:24:44):
About just having these conversations everything conversation Who you know,
who do I connect with on some kind of level.
You know, Nas to me is cheating because that album,
to me, just is the greatest. So most questions will
be him. You know, French, I know is a person
I hung out seen him records. I just feel it
in a different way.

Speaker 1 (02:25:02):
You look, you go to the same karate class with some.

Speaker 3 (02:25:05):
Fresh ones rap Smockfield, I got the next one. Okay,
go ahead, my bad all right, Steve u g K.
Out casts. No excuse me, You're getting much harder questions
than me. I'm gonna say, out casts, okay, any reason why?

Speaker 6 (02:25:25):
I mean they want album of the Year was a
double album? Oh yeah, I forgot and you know l
A and you know Face like brothers to me. So
I was just closer to them. That's La eating baby Face.
I like how you like seldomly say like some of.

Speaker 7 (02:25:46):
The through the executive reason why.

Speaker 1 (02:25:50):
Artist?

Speaker 3 (02:26:00):
I'm going to ask y'all both, but I'm gonna start
with you, so I think I know your answer.

Speaker 1 (02:26:04):
Ready illmatic or ready to die.

Speaker 8 (02:26:09):
Ill madic?

Speaker 1 (02:26:10):
No madic.

Speaker 2 (02:26:13):
Illmatic too, but ill madic ready to die in reasonable
doubt is always a fun and difficult conversation because there's like.

Speaker 4 (02:26:18):
No wrong answer.

Speaker 1 (02:26:19):
It's I don't think it is no wrong as.

Speaker 2 (02:26:24):
I said, NOAs, but I mean all all three and
I threw in a third wait, didn't, didn't, didn't. Kendrick
just post something about reasonable doubt and allmatic. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:26:36):
I saw.

Speaker 2 (02:26:37):
I don't know if because he said reasonable talk amongst yourselves.

Speaker 7 (02:26:40):
Yeah, yeah, he put reasonable doubt over ellmatic. I saw
something he was like following me. I don't know where
that came from. I think it was a Twitter post
or something.

Speaker 17 (02:26:48):
I think, you know, my Street team, my New York
Street Team would have fights in the office about reasonable
doubt and maadic like you know, but in the Arab
when Buddha was was in this, it was Buddha, Goby
and oh j I mean it was was it was

(02:27:09):
all of them and definitely, I mean they literally would
go at.

Speaker 1 (02:27:14):
Each other.

Speaker 8 (02:27:17):
And you know when reasonable that came up, they did
that independently. So you really but that wasn't the question though, right, No.

Speaker 1 (02:27:27):
Great conversation regardless.

Speaker 4 (02:27:28):
Yeah, reasonable I just feel like it's the third.

Speaker 7 (02:27:31):
But but but at the end of the day, you know,
Bigs Jay and Dane they did that ship themselves.

Speaker 6 (02:27:37):
You know, they didn't have a Sony muscle. They didn't
have That was what freezing priority originally. Yeah, it was
freeze and was a priority.

Speaker 7 (02:27:46):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:27:48):
It's it's crazy that you think that like three masterpieces
that really just kind of changed everything. Like I agree,
all came out in a consolid the amount of time.
I mean because when the two of them were ninety four, right,
and when it was ninety six.

Speaker 1 (02:28:06):
And because reasonable doubt was ninety six.

Speaker 2 (02:28:08):
Yeah, yeah, so ninety four, ninety four, ninety six. But
it's just to me crazy when these conversations happened. I
think all the answers are the right answers because when
you talk about to these three, there's no wrong It's
like off the wall and thriller, like, there's no wrong
answer there me.

Speaker 1 (02:28:23):
Personally, let me just reiterate kind of what you were
saying earlier.

Speaker 3 (02:28:26):
Atmatic changed my life like personally, but so did the others,
but in a different way. But Ellmatic was the first
time I identified with rap music when I actually I
knew where this guy was talking about without me having
to even be there, Like just listening to that, I
was like, what the fuck? Like the way he was
describing certain things, I was just like, go into it.

Speaker 1 (02:28:46):
Yeah, I was so there. I was so there, Got
you want to go to the next one.

Speaker 2 (02:28:54):
I haven't made one person drink, by the way, I
haven't you drink, but not because of me.

Speaker 4 (02:29:00):
I haven't said I haven't said both once.

Speaker 1 (02:29:02):
Hold on, hold on, hold you so, let me ask
this one. Now, you're gonna make him drink Fat Joe
or j.

Speaker 4 (02:29:15):
Yeah, let him drink.

Speaker 5 (02:29:19):
They're gonna take it versatile.

Speaker 1 (02:29:21):
You're gonna have to take a shot of that, Honey,
don't cancel your register, said drink.

Speaker 2 (02:29:26):
I'm trying to sell tickets, ladies and gentlemen. Drink away.

Speaker 7 (02:29:32):
Cheers.

Speaker 3 (02:29:35):
Great answer, because you know they just did verses too,
you know, remember back then?

Speaker 1 (02:29:39):
So yeah, and they had together.

Speaker 4 (02:29:41):
That's you knew you were getting me there.

Speaker 1 (02:29:43):
Yeah, yeah, yes, yes.

Speaker 4 (02:29:44):
If you come with Slick.

Speaker 2 (02:29:45):
Record Zugie Fresh, you're getting the same answer.

Speaker 1 (02:29:48):
Let's go with that.

Speaker 4 (02:29:52):
Drink, right, Slick Rick and Zugie Fresh, Let's drink.

Speaker 1 (02:29:55):
Let's drink. Okay.

Speaker 7 (02:29:56):
I'm not giving this question to Steve because I feel
like I know we all go with it.

Speaker 1 (02:30:00):
Okay.

Speaker 7 (02:30:00):
Cassidy beating nuts with alcoholics, yes.

Speaker 4 (02:30:04):
Yes, oh shit, I would say be nuts. Okay, because
as a DJ, you stay in New York.

Speaker 1 (02:30:14):
Let's just be honest. You you very New York.

Speaker 2 (02:30:17):
They had two songs off the Books and Watch Out Now,
which were big DJ records. They were big club party
songs be Nuts at two Big Big and they started
as a very hardcore group. Yeah, and they had some
big Was that Pun's first published verse? Yeah, yeah, I
think that's what his big big hit first hit, you know.

Speaker 6 (02:30:36):
But the great thing about both both groups, you know,
even though I really talked basketball, I have to go
baseball here, like the Alcoholics, you know, the number two
hit it and the number six hitter are so fucking important, yes, right,
And to me, like I knew what I was going
to get with both groups. I knew I was going
to sell three hundred and something thousand records. What was

(02:30:59):
your group with the Licks and the beat Nuts. I
knew they would be just going to get on base
exactly what they were just going to get on base
and somebody else was first for you.

Speaker 8 (02:31:10):
Yeah, I inherited the beat.

Speaker 7 (02:31:11):
Right and all them.

Speaker 6 (02:31:14):
But at the end of the day, I knew what
I had. It was like putting like the Yankees together, right,
so they lab were they on first?

Speaker 4 (02:31:23):
Relativity?

Speaker 7 (02:31:24):
Relativity?

Speaker 1 (02:31:25):
Relativity beating us relatives? Yeah, that's just saying I inherited
Joe relative as well.

Speaker 7 (02:31:31):
Right, Both amazing legendary groups.

Speaker 5 (02:31:36):
I always thought a baseball roster one do not.

Speaker 2 (02:31:40):
Yeah, that's I always loved when a hip hop group
that wasn't known for making party records made one just
by chance, of course, because it was so natural and yeah,
it's organic. You got the sense no one was trying
to make a club record or a party record or
anything that it crossed over in any way. But those
two records, it was just like this organic. Well, the

(02:32:03):
females were dope producers themselves.

Speaker 6 (02:32:05):
Yeah, they were exactly. They were one like they were twins.
One's East coast, one's West coast, you know, as I felt.

Speaker 7 (02:32:12):
The same way alcoholic No, no, but literally twins, he said.

Speaker 5 (02:32:17):
One from one place to one.

Speaker 1 (02:32:19):
But they would have seen it.

Speaker 5 (02:32:20):
They were just from the East coast, once from the west.

Speaker 1 (02:32:22):
And the no that they have, yeah, I mean they
were both.

Speaker 6 (02:32:29):
They were both contained. But the but the licks on
the West coast, you mean make room only when I'm dropped.
The next level were tremendous, tremendous, tremendous club records.

Speaker 7 (02:32:39):
Yea, and coming from King t Yeah, like that whole
lineage was crazy.

Speaker 1 (02:32:45):
Okay, so I'm sending this to you, Cassidy Timberland or
Swiss Beats, Swiss.

Speaker 7 (02:32:53):
Going.

Speaker 1 (02:32:54):
He's not trying to get you all.

Speaker 7 (02:32:57):
I mean, I'm right, I don't know. We were waiting
for seventeen hours today.

Speaker 3 (02:33:02):
By the way, I wanted to announce that to you.
We they rappers. We have so much of a bad
name coming late today. We had one of the famous
DJs in the world and one of the biggest executives
in the world, and they were both late.

Speaker 4 (02:33:14):
But it was rappers.

Speaker 1 (02:33:15):
We all stop this getting for.

Speaker 4 (02:33:19):
The record for the five feet of water.

Speaker 1 (02:33:23):
Just take it. Just take it, Cassidy. But we were
all here though.

Speaker 2 (02:33:30):
I know that it's very true, and I still don't
understand how you guys a marine flood with five ft away.

Speaker 7 (02:33:37):
The sneakers are still fucking spotless.

Speaker 1 (02:33:39):
Did you see that? That's the difference. We are literally
in the trenches. The next one, let me see, Barker,
what is the next one?

Speaker 7 (02:33:55):
Artifacts of Cela Dwellers because they were online. Yeah, I mean,
I mean, they're both dope, but I would have said
advanced the boardwalk funk flex or DJ clue funk flex.

Speaker 1 (02:34:11):
I like that.

Speaker 2 (02:34:14):
Let me explain answers, but I haven't explained the past few,
but record.

Speaker 1 (02:34:18):
Explain the answers. What flex and clue I will love that.

Speaker 2 (02:34:21):
What was the last one I wanted to explain? I
guess it's past the point. Swiss and Tim never mind,
but I'll explain Flex and.

Speaker 7 (02:34:27):
Okay, you can explain both. It's okay. We waited for
you all.

Speaker 1 (02:34:33):
Yeah, we got seventeen hours. I got three hours.

Speaker 2 (02:34:41):
He told you one White House story. There's many many
more to go. One involving the song fight the Power.
We can come back to that later. So what's that
Flex and clue? Yeah, so both are friends of mine
and mentors of mine. Came before me, looked up to both.
Flex just symbolizes something that is, you know, to me

(02:35:01):
growing up, it was like Hulk Hogan and funk Master Flex.

Speaker 4 (02:35:05):
I always compare Flex to Holk Hogan.

Speaker 2 (02:35:07):
You know how in the WWF they kept on taking
the belt away, like they kept trying to take the
belt away from Hulk, And whoever they made champion couldn't
be Champion Ultimate Warrior. He just wasn't Hulk. Macho man,
he just wasn't Hulk Rick Flair, he just wasn't Hulk. Yeah,

(02:35:27):
ro limos woo, Yes, no one is funk Master Flex.
It's why since I was in the sixth grade, I
still hear the same voice on the radio. How uncanny
is that? Think of how how hip hop music has
changed from nineteen ninety three to twenty twenty four, and
yet the person at the helm of it in New

(02:35:49):
York City is the same voice.

Speaker 4 (02:35:53):
How insane is that?

Speaker 2 (02:35:55):
And he defies everything that everyone always thinks about hip
Hop's a young man's game, you know, there's you know,
there's a revolving door. You know, everything that's everyone said
over the years. It's not really true in every sense
at all.

Speaker 1 (02:36:07):
True.

Speaker 2 (02:36:07):
It's not but people say it. But isn't he like
one of the greatest examples of how that's not true. Absolutely,
And so for me, there's you know, hard to get
a ticket, hard to get a ticket.

Speaker 1 (02:36:20):
Yeah, you know what, you know, it's crazy.

Speaker 3 (02:36:23):
We still went to New York twice, like just you know,
since you know, we work out here, and I literally
sometimes can't enjoy my city unless I listen to Flex
on the radio and I see him tear it down. Absolutely.
I love if there's a hit record that he's playing
he tells people.

Speaker 1 (02:36:43):
To pull over. I love it.

Speaker 3 (02:36:44):
When he told people go on the cash register, I
was like, wait a minute, this might be too far.
But yeah, I love that. That makes me feel like
I'm back home.

Speaker 8 (02:36:55):
Yeah, passionate.

Speaker 4 (02:36:55):
I mean he's home. I love Clue too, don't get
it too love.

Speaker 1 (02:36:58):
I love Clue too.

Speaker 2 (02:36:59):
I love and Clude changed the game in many ways,
and no one else did. THET albums of course too.
But you know what you just said is so it's
so Surreally, he's like the voice of home.

Speaker 1 (02:37:15):
Like like like when he.

Speaker 3 (02:37:16):
Says pull over, sometimes I pull over, Like I literally
listened pull over New York City.

Speaker 1 (02:37:22):
I'm like he'll say something crazy like.

Speaker 7 (02:37:30):
Don't rock up your window.

Speaker 1 (02:37:34):
I listened to it.

Speaker 3 (02:37:34):
It's like, so I remember, I remember where it was.
Drake and Meek was battling right, and this was like
this was like the first King Drink and you know
Ken Drinck and Drake is now the biggest battle. That
is the biggest battle ever. But at this point, Meek

(02:37:56):
and Drake was the biggest. And I remember Flex saying
I got this record. I literally missed my flight. I
was like, I can't get on the this is before
like I was on a plane. It's like that I
could I could have still caught my flight. Like an idiot.

Speaker 1 (02:38:10):
I'm at the airport. I'm damn there down the block.
This is when you flew commercial listen.

Speaker 3 (02:38:17):
I was like, Yo, I said, hold up, I can't
get on this flight knowing how you know, hip hop
just fails without I got to hit listen to both
both of these ships going on.

Speaker 1 (02:38:32):
Come to find down they have no record. Yo.

Speaker 3 (02:38:34):
Oh my god, I missed the flight. It was everything,
but it was It meant so much. Even if I
probably would have been offered, YO, just listen to the
Apple on the flight.

Speaker 1 (02:38:45):
You know you have Wi Fi.

Speaker 3 (02:38:46):
Even if I even offered that, I probably wouldn't have
wanted to do it, because you know why, I wanted
to be in the city listening to it.

Speaker 1 (02:38:53):
Yeah, it's a different feeling. And Flex has always gave.

Speaker 4 (02:38:58):
Me that, like it's a different film Christmas Eve.

Speaker 2 (02:39:00):
He plays classics, and he uses only vinyl, and he
brings viral up to the station. He's done it for overtime,
and I really know that, and I rarely miss the
Christmas Eve and that for someone reason. Hearing him play
hip hop from the seventies and eighties and soul music
from the seventies and eighties, now it feels like Christmas
Eve to me because it's really that music is really

(02:39:22):
the sound of celebration. It's probably why I would imagine
he he he chose that night to play that music.
And you know, I moved to LA six years ago
and I've listened to that on so notes. And to
compliment what you just said, it's not the same. You
gotta be there.

Speaker 1 (02:39:39):
You gotta be there. You gotta be out of the city.

Speaker 3 (02:39:41):
You gotta like, look at the guy with the frank stand,
you know what I mean. You gotta look at the
guy you know that's walking by selling peanuts, you know
what I mean? Like that shit is like it like
like I immediately get mad when I go back to
New York City.

Speaker 1 (02:39:56):
You have to.

Speaker 3 (02:39:57):
We have a certain type of anger that comes with
the city. And if you don't, you know, if you've
got to be a little bit mad when you land back.
You gotta just look at somebody, look at you know, well,
because if not, the city will hit you up.

Speaker 2 (02:40:12):
Man.

Speaker 3 (02:40:13):
It's it's it's it's a beautiful, negative, most beautifulest place
on the earth.

Speaker 1 (02:40:19):
But that energy you have to match it that.

Speaker 7 (02:40:21):
You cannot not be a lion in the lion's cage.

Speaker 1 (02:40:26):
Well setting even if you're not a lion. You Why
are you in that lion's cage?

Speaker 3 (02:40:31):
You better act like it, get your get your ass
out of there because you that.

Speaker 7 (02:40:38):
But all right, cool, let's go to the next one.
Let's see what we got. Definitely you take this podcast
of radio.

Speaker 1 (02:40:50):
I'm with you guys podcast radio.

Speaker 3 (02:40:54):
By the way, you just want to be let me
just point out that you're the first person that I
ever see honey.

Speaker 1 (02:41:01):
Like, like, like, did you plan this out? That shot
takes two hours to get done.

Speaker 2 (02:41:05):
I'm losing my voice, so I asked the hotel for
these little jars of honey.

Speaker 1 (02:41:08):
Oh, so you knew this was happening. So it's not
my weed. It's not like that.

Speaker 3 (02:41:13):
Cool Now I'm thinking. I'm thinking, I'm like, yo, man,
this is not right. The fans gonna look at this and.

Speaker 10 (02:41:20):
Like what is.

Speaker 2 (02:41:23):
Man?

Speaker 1 (02:41:23):
Like? Cool? So I he's so everyone knows. Nor did
I try to out trying to smoke him the fuck out?

Speaker 3 (02:41:33):
No, he already knew his voice was cracking. Here he
had pre honey. I never seen somebody with pre honey.
That ship is fucking fantastic. I ain't gonna lie. I'm like,
still your still your idea? Get you publishing on it though. Okay,

(02:41:53):
I'm gonna give it to Okay, three six Mafia or a.

Speaker 1 (02:41:59):
Boy m J.

Speaker 4 (02:42:02):
You're giving him very tough, loud affiliated.

Speaker 3 (02:42:04):
Questions six and I'm going to you too, three six Okay, Okay,
this is definitely you brand Nubian or tribecal.

Speaker 2 (02:42:19):
Quest tribe called quest you just RAPI fire. I'm very
definitive in my hip hop emotions.

Speaker 1 (02:42:26):
Do you would you like to explain it? Because I
know you've you didn't like that.

Speaker 4 (02:42:29):
Could explain that you could?

Speaker 1 (02:42:31):
Can you please? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (02:42:32):
My other favorite album of all time is Midnight Marauders. Okay, Wow,
so they're not going to lose too many questions.

Speaker 1 (02:42:40):
Okay, where was you at when you first heard mid
Right MARDs?

Speaker 2 (02:42:45):
That was twelve, about the same age as Elmatic, maybe
a year younger.

Speaker 4 (02:42:54):
I think you can tell like.

Speaker 2 (02:42:58):
Kind of the era people grew up in in many
cases by what their favorite hip hop albums are, because
my three came out in like a three year time span,
the thirdest Cuban links.

Speaker 1 (02:43:07):
Wow. Yeah, they definitely been setting you up all night.

Speaker 3 (02:43:18):
By the way, it's your friend mister Lee who fucking
writes these questions, So don't don't look at me, mister
Lee and Hazard a sound.

Speaker 1 (02:43:31):
Exhibit or Rascal.

Speaker 4 (02:43:32):
You're really doing this? This this guys, that's not good.

Speaker 6 (02:43:36):
I mean they're best friends, they're extremely close, but don't
you know you go with the ex Yeah.

Speaker 8 (02:43:42):
Do you remember when me and next had an argument? No,
and me and you, you would come by the office
to say.

Speaker 1 (02:43:49):
Oh, okay, okay, you back town. Recently, I'm like, damn,
you had an argument yesterday. What happened?

Speaker 2 (02:43:54):
No, Jesus Jesus you you really haven't given Steve the
hardest one of this category.

Speaker 4 (02:44:01):
Okay, es if you don't go there, I kind of
want to. I kind of want to throw it out there,
throw it out you want to take.

Speaker 1 (02:44:08):
Let's go.

Speaker 2 (02:44:09):
Okay, So I'm gonna ask the three of you. Okay, yeah,
and rak Onon or ghost Face.

Speaker 1 (02:44:16):
Both? Okay, shot crowd. I'm proud because is really both wall.

Speaker 4 (02:44:23):
Wait, we're getting there. Okay, give up your answer yet.
We're waiting for you.

Speaker 2 (02:44:27):
This is opening act, right, Okay, Yeah, this is the
same question, the same question, Nori.

Speaker 4 (02:44:32):
Yeah, rak One the chef or ghost Face killer.

Speaker 3 (02:44:36):
I just said both. You said both of ye What
that means the shot took it. Yeah, yeah, I said both.

Speaker 4 (02:44:41):
Steve Rifkins, I'm saying both, so we we I mean,
you dank a hard question.

Speaker 1 (02:44:49):
That's like saying which kid you like better? Okay, that's fair.

Speaker 9 (02:44:55):
For me.

Speaker 1 (02:44:55):
It's like saying which foot you like better? I like? Okay, Yeah,
go ahead, ask no, Yes, Premiere or Pete Rock? Okay?
Got me? And I'm taking it back. Can you one more?

(02:45:19):
And taking it back? Okay?

Speaker 2 (02:45:21):
And so we asked the same question to others. You
a different one ahead, but I'm gonna ask the same
to you. I'm curious what you he took a shot already.

Speaker 1 (02:45:29):
No, no, I didn't, but I would take a shot
and say.

Speaker 4 (02:45:31):
Both, say both, Steve, DJ, Premier, Pete.

Speaker 1 (02:45:35):
Rock both definitely got the next one? All right? I
can't do one more?

Speaker 7 (02:45:39):
Yeah, please go on more around for you?

Speaker 1 (02:45:41):
Yes, three three is my lucky numbers. Three and holding
on to that rock him where big Daddy came? Okay,
got me gain, Yeah that's what the game was. I'm

(02:46:01):
not gonna fight you. I'm not gonna fight what was it?
What was it? A yein rock came my big Daddy game. Okay,
now it's back to me.

Speaker 7 (02:46:11):
I passed the mic back digital analog.

Speaker 4 (02:46:16):
Is it DJ or a listener?

Speaker 1 (02:46:19):
It's your criteria game all night.

Speaker 4 (02:46:23):
Digital?

Speaker 1 (02:46:24):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (02:46:26):
I just like having more songs with me. There's so
much I like about Vinyl better. But having a million
songs is better than having a thousand.

Speaker 1 (02:46:34):
Like, you couldn't have win just the crack.

Speaker 4 (02:46:35):
I missed a lot.

Speaker 1 (02:46:36):
You couldn't have went to jay Z and Beyonce's wedding
with Vinyl.

Speaker 4 (02:46:39):
Oh, no I did. I went all over the world
with Vinyl.

Speaker 1 (02:46:42):
Because they use only one guest invited, right, he was only.

Speaker 2 (02:46:45):
You, and I would have had to carry my own crates.
You to carry your own I did that for many years.

Speaker 5 (02:46:49):
God damn it.

Speaker 1 (02:46:50):
That's made some noise for that.

Speaker 2 (02:46:54):
Any DJ that was worth anything to carry their own
creates for a while. Eight crates in the trunk of
a New York time. See one in the front, one
in the back. You could bring eight crates in a cab, but.

Speaker 7 (02:47:08):
I ain't doing the cab though.

Speaker 5 (02:47:10):
That's horrible.

Speaker 1 (02:47:12):
Damn, I don't even like that's that's so yeah, because
I'm trying to stick to the trunk.

Speaker 2 (02:47:16):
One in the front, one in the back. But it
took five cabs to get one that let you do that.

Speaker 1 (02:47:20):
Diego couldn't even put up pizza in here today.

Speaker 5 (02:47:23):
He smell.

Speaker 1 (02:47:23):
He said, you carry the person.

Speaker 2 (02:47:34):
So listen to this.

Speaker 1 (02:47:35):
One night we were talking.

Speaker 3 (02:47:37):
Is the strongest guy on the strongest guy with the
pizza pizza one of the strongest guys strong carry crates
in the New York City taxi cab?

Speaker 1 (02:47:50):
Can you look at my front? Untell? What the hell
is going on?

Speaker 2 (02:47:54):
In many In many instances in New York, you know,
they would block the street off. So we talked about
Cheetah for instance, right, I love so Cheetah was on
twenty first Street between fifth and sixth Avenues, so if
the club was extra popping, they would barricade the whole
street on Fifth Avenue and sixth Avenue, and Cheetah was

(02:48:14):
smacked in between fifth and sixth. So I would walk
out of there a four point thirty and no cars
could get through the club. So I was carrying a
crate out of time to Fifth Avenue and had someone
watch them while I went back and got the rest.

Speaker 8 (02:48:28):
So before Cheetah, it was a club called Privatize.

Speaker 6 (02:48:32):
Oh sound sound forty fifth Street, twenty first Street Privatized, right,
It was just I.

Speaker 1 (02:48:38):
Got too excited.

Speaker 7 (02:48:39):
Strip club, Yeah, vip down the road, let me.

Speaker 1 (02:48:42):
Call myself down Yeah yeah, but okay, Private Eye privatized
and it was the first video club. What does that mean?

Speaker 6 (02:48:52):
The club was full all videos. They would But what
he did, like with past the mic it was the
recorded is the DJ would play.

Speaker 1 (02:49:03):
The eighty three.

Speaker 7 (02:49:07):
Yes in sync with the DJ the videos playing Yeah,
like it was.

Speaker 8 (02:49:12):
I mean it was, it was.

Speaker 1 (02:49:14):
It was amazing and the most beautiful woman in the
world with it.

Speaker 2 (02:49:17):
A crazy, a crazy thing about Steve is, you know,
much of the public associates Steve with Loud Records and
hip hop New York hip hop.

Speaker 1 (02:49:27):
That's awesome, O.

Speaker 2 (02:49:30):
But Steve could tell you a place in time, in
a story for every classic R and B record. You know,
I do fancy myself somewhat of an encyclopedia. There's of
course people who could you know, taught me. But every
record I ever play or love or mentioned, there was
an you know on the show pass to my Steve

(02:49:50):
worked the record as a twenty year old, or Steve
brought the record Frankie Crocker, or some crazy story that
Steve was involved.

Speaker 4 (02:49:59):
He's like the far risk gump of like R and
B promotion of the early eighties.

Speaker 7 (02:50:03):
We kind of already found out with this new addition
added story.

Speaker 5 (02:50:06):
With you, it's always so new.

Speaker 1 (02:50:09):
Boom alight we moving on to the next one. Yes,
oh god, I got, I got, I got hold up?

Speaker 7 (02:50:17):
Will be in her trap called quick. We said that
I was in the bathroom. You didn't exhibit too?

Speaker 1 (02:50:23):
Yeah?

Speaker 7 (02:50:23):
Yes, yeah, you you said Kanye too?

Speaker 3 (02:50:30):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (02:50:33):
Kanye or Pharrell? I'm going with you Pharrell, Like, do
we take a shot because they're not on the same level.

Speaker 7 (02:50:50):
Your connection with Yate? How did that form so so strongly?

Speaker 18 (02:51:00):
I didn't know him, Like when like his first few albums,
he was at Matahisa at the restaurant, at the restaurant
and I was there and Noboo comes up to me
and says, you know Kanye.

Speaker 7 (02:51:16):
I said, actually no, I said, can you go back
to him and see if it's okay.

Speaker 1 (02:51:23):
To say hello?

Speaker 7 (02:51:24):
So do you remember when you guys did to drink
champs in my office in La Yeah?

Speaker 1 (02:51:29):
Yeah, so I was.

Speaker 6 (02:51:32):
I had a concept to do an album where I
took nine of the most relevant rappers in like twenty seventeen,
twenty eighteen, and Redo thirty six Chambers.

Speaker 1 (02:51:44):
And I wanted, wait, wait, okay, you going keep going? Wait?
Wait wait?

Speaker 7 (02:51:47):
What was resil?

Speaker 8 (02:51:48):
And honest yeah, me and ris were partner really.

Speaker 7 (02:51:50):
Yeah and that was like every song that redo the
whole album.

Speaker 1 (02:51:55):
Wow.

Speaker 8 (02:51:56):
And I wanted Yay to be Risen.

Speaker 1 (02:51:59):
Mm wow.

Speaker 8 (02:52:01):
We didn't.

Speaker 6 (02:52:02):
I could have called Scooter, but I knew Scooter as
a manager. No matter, even though I raised Scooter, I
would be he would.

Speaker 1 (02:52:09):
Have blocked it.

Speaker 6 (02:52:10):
And he just happened to be there. I said, is
it all right if I come by tomorrow or whatever?
He says please, And he's a huge basketball fan and
he had a game every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and he says,
you play ball. I said, yeah, but I just had
heart surgery, so I didn't know how. I said, okay,
if I bring my son, and I don't like to

(02:52:32):
lose it. So you know, my son played college ball,
so so I brought my son, and.

Speaker 1 (02:52:43):
You know, he was on my team.

Speaker 8 (02:52:44):
And with my son on the team, you know, we
didn't lose a game. So it was cool and we
you know, and we just started talking.

Speaker 6 (02:52:51):
And then I saw what type of sneakers though it
He goes, they're gonna be the easy basketball shop. And
I said, that's another big dollars for you right there.
And I said, you know, I consulted Nike, you know,
for Alicia. I was feel nice personal consultant, and he
literally pretty much hied me on the spot.

Speaker 1 (02:53:09):
Wow mhm.

Speaker 7 (02:53:13):
And that relationship has been tested, yeah.

Speaker 6 (02:53:16):
I mean there's times when he hates my guts, like
you know, and there are times that he loves me
to death.

Speaker 1 (02:53:23):
But I'll always be that from right, even when I
just even when I disagree with him.

Speaker 3 (02:53:28):
You guys saw it that one time when yeah, yeah,
don't man, he felt like you wanted to address that.

Speaker 1 (02:53:36):
Huh, I said, we felt like you wanted to address that?
But then or now? Uh right?

Speaker 6 (02:53:42):
Now?

Speaker 19 (02:53:43):
Yeah, no, I mean finally make sense. I mean, yeah,
I know he has a heart of goals, right, and
you know what he means basically. And if you remember
when I hugged him that I was a true it
wasn't a fake, you know hug and I was like,

(02:54:06):
whoever is wherever it came from?

Speaker 1 (02:54:10):
He just said it wrong, right, and and that's what
it it was.

Speaker 19 (02:54:21):
You know, if I said, hey, you know what, I
need to borrow five million dollars just you know, he
was happy to see.

Speaker 8 (02:54:28):
He would he would give me the money.

Speaker 7 (02:54:29):
That's without that's what That's not what we're talking about, though. No,
so I I just think he has a hard time
communicating really what he wants to say.

Speaker 1 (02:54:37):
And and then that's all and that's all it is, right,
Kendrick or Drake.

Speaker 2 (02:54:45):
Huh No, got what he's Jesus, No, it's not really
got him. It's not a both or the ear. I
just have different Well you have to answer one. Steve
got him. Okay, Kendrick, you're not like us. I gotta

(02:55:15):
be honest with you. It has nothing to do with
the with the Beef records, no, but but I'm just
saying I am.

Speaker 1 (02:55:21):
But they're not like Uh.

Speaker 4 (02:55:24):
I just feel musically the songs.

Speaker 2 (02:55:27):
That I'm going to listen to forever there there there
are songs in Kendrick's catalog.

Speaker 4 (02:55:34):
Musically that to me are just deep, just on another level.

Speaker 2 (02:55:40):
And so for one word answer Kendrick, but you know
it's obviously way more complex. But having nothing to do
with it. That wasn't a who won the beef question.
We're just having fun with it. How about you, Kendrick,
Steve hesitate. He said, they're not like us not.

Speaker 1 (02:55:58):
Like, but but if you if you look at my
heritage of music, right, who who? Who is Kendricks?

Speaker 8 (02:56:06):
I don't know for sure.

Speaker 1 (02:56:08):
It's Prodigy.

Speaker 8 (02:56:11):
Yeah, the reason why he started rapping.

Speaker 7 (02:56:13):
He says, Prodigy.

Speaker 1 (02:56:15):
Google it again, he's gonna save Please. Hey, Google, I
like how Steve knows the room. What you said? He said?
He said, google us under the influence.

Speaker 7 (02:56:37):
That's a horridful.

Speaker 1 (02:56:39):
Jesus, Jesus. All right, yeah, but you tell us when
they when Hey, hey, Google's not that slow, bro, It's
called high speed internet. Bro, don't blame it on the
rain neither. Why do you both have just say Kendrick
and Prodigy?

Speaker 10 (02:56:58):
M hm.

Speaker 1 (02:57:02):
A little okay? Well yeah, all right, he's on you
let us know when you find it. He's on dialogue. Yeah,
what kind of Yeah you you on.

Speaker 5 (02:57:14):
On analog?

Speaker 1 (02:57:15):
That's present? Yeah? What happened?

Speaker 7 (02:57:21):
And Prodigy?

Speaker 1 (02:57:23):
Yeah? You that's all you got?

Speaker 3 (02:57:25):
All that?

Speaker 1 (02:57:33):
Holy? We better, bro? Better?

Speaker 7 (02:57:40):
What's worry? Don't talking to sese?

Speaker 1 (02:57:45):
What's will? I am ship that?

Speaker 2 (02:57:48):
Hey?

Speaker 1 (02:57:49):
I well?

Speaker 2 (02:57:49):
I am right?

Speaker 1 (02:57:50):
No, you know you're a law bro. You're ce Iah
the next one.

Speaker 5 (02:57:57):
You got a name?

Speaker 1 (02:57:58):
She got what Kenner said?

Speaker 7 (02:58:01):
Kendrick noted Prodigy's influence on his early style and development
as its writer, and an MC describing the original recording setup.

Speaker 5 (02:58:13):
It's weird.

Speaker 8 (02:58:19):
Right there.

Speaker 5 (02:58:20):
Yeah, well, not all of us went to school. That's
why you gotta read it.

Speaker 7 (02:58:25):
You school, Google, bro, You know you can spell it
roll and Google says, no, this is what you mean.

Speaker 3 (02:58:34):
At the next one, We're fucked in the future.

Speaker 4 (02:58:37):
I heard the next one.

Speaker 1 (02:58:38):
You heard it, right, I know Steve's answer.

Speaker 7 (02:58:40):
Dead Present Clips was that to me?

Speaker 8 (02:58:42):
It's a.

Speaker 1 (02:58:44):
Both.

Speaker 6 (02:58:46):
I mean, as much as I love Pusher, I mean
I'm going with Dead Press.

Speaker 1 (02:58:51):
Now you too. And hip Hop is.

Speaker 8 (02:58:54):
One of my top five records of all time.

Speaker 7 (02:58:55):
I love that record, A pivotal record.

Speaker 1 (02:59:00):
You may between y'all, and I mean, I think that record.

Speaker 7 (02:59:02):
Means a lot to hip hop.

Speaker 2 (02:59:03):
Clips, his first album is one of my favorite hip
hop albums in the past twenty years. Well now it's
twenty years. God willing will and I love the Clips
really really, I'm not telling you what I mean.

Speaker 6 (02:59:15):
But the Dead Press, I mean, at the end of
the day, I mean that record to this day will
still be played everywhere.

Speaker 2 (02:59:26):
Is that?

Speaker 3 (02:59:29):
Yeah, this is the last question for the interview, But
this is the last question for a quick time with live.

Speaker 1 (02:59:34):
Okay, I'm not going to lead the witness. Don't lead
the witness. Both for y' all you can answer at
the same time. Just to look way.

Speaker 7 (02:59:43):
One of the questions the whiz.

Speaker 1 (02:59:46):
Loyalty or respect loyalty same? Please we need both explanations.
Why for for me? I grew up.

Speaker 7 (02:59:57):
If you aren't loyal, You'll be swimming somewhere. Man, You've
been swimming with the fishes. And listen, not for nothing, Steve,
but you've been giving Martlasky vibes the whole time.

Speaker 3 (03:00:15):
We've been always so we know, we know, Bro, you
got it shut out to your family.

Speaker 2 (03:00:29):
I think loyalty precedes respect if you're not loyal to
people who are going to respect you both.

Speaker 1 (03:00:34):
This is the thing.

Speaker 7 (03:00:36):
You can't pick both, right, But it's the thing the
game was to not to not say both.

Speaker 2 (03:00:42):
It's not the goal to make decisive decisions.

Speaker 7 (03:00:45):
It's decisive for you. Whatever is decisive. What is your
decisive right?

Speaker 1 (03:00:49):
Right?

Speaker 4 (03:00:49):
So I'm saying it's not both.

Speaker 1 (03:00:51):
Okay, No, no, I get it, I get it.

Speaker 7 (03:00:52):
But wouldn't both in this situation be the ideal situation?

Speaker 2 (03:00:56):
This is why I'm always getting I thought, you have
to choose one of the other you could only have,
but you've you've been choosing too well, not you going
crazy with got a second?

Speaker 4 (03:01:06):
Hold on a second.

Speaker 2 (03:01:07):
With every every single pair you've mentioned, not one of
us have disliked the other.

Speaker 4 (03:01:11):
It was always which.

Speaker 1 (03:01:14):
Right, right?

Speaker 4 (03:01:15):
So respect loyalty, it's which one if you could only
have one.

Speaker 7 (03:01:17):
But there's two different things, to be honest with you,
But if you had the idea, if you could ideally
have both, you would have people say to both of
all the questions on everything they have. They have a
hard time saying one. Well, because you, guys, I think.

Speaker 5 (03:01:40):
Two different things.

Speaker 1 (03:01:42):
I don't want to hear you right now. There are
there are, there are two different blocks.

Speaker 8 (03:01:48):
At the end of the day.

Speaker 6 (03:01:52):
You can respect somebody and not be loyal to them, right,
And you could be loyal to somebody and that and
not respect them.

Speaker 7 (03:02:00):
But if you look in a great world where you
could say, hey, I want you to but it's loyal
and respect me, yeah, I mean yeah that I would.

Speaker 6 (03:02:09):
I would love for the whole world to be loyal
to me, to respect me, to do But at the
at the end of the day, how I grew up.
It's about loyalty. You always got you always got to
go into somebody's house.

Speaker 7 (03:02:23):
Well, now is we often get respect more than loyalty, right,
That's what we often get.

Speaker 3 (03:02:30):
Anything else I would say, like a fifty five not
I'd say more.

Speaker 7 (03:02:33):
People say I would prefer they respect me because they
say loyalty.

Speaker 1 (03:02:37):
People because it's limits.

Speaker 7 (03:02:38):
They say, rights.

Speaker 4 (03:02:40):
Comes from quality. I mean, people.

Speaker 1 (03:02:42):
Respect you if you if you if you look at
Rock Nation.

Speaker 6 (03:02:47):
Or any you know, if it's Kevin Hart's company, Jay's company,
they're all so loyal to each other. It's a it's
a beautiful thing to watch. I mean, it really is
the reason why Loud one we were a team, you
know from the art. I mean thirty years ago. Like
I still have a relationship with Joe. I mean when

(03:03:08):
I was gone for thirty five minutes, I was on
the phone with Rizza.

Speaker 9 (03:03:13):
I have.

Speaker 7 (03:03:14):
I was like that, but no, no, no, but you're
taking a ship talking to Rise at the same time.

Speaker 1 (03:03:18):
I get it. Yeah, I get it.

Speaker 4 (03:03:20):
No, No, let me say something.

Speaker 2 (03:03:21):
After the BT Hip Hop Awards that you are part
of two years ago, Loud was honored, right, Yeah, and
you guys were there.

Speaker 1 (03:03:32):
Yeah, they won.

Speaker 2 (03:03:33):
Maybe, So after after the awards we went to dinner.
I think, yeah, I was gonna ask if you were there.
You were there, okay, So Fat Joe made a little
speech and he says something about Steve that was so
dead on that he't capitalizes Steve to me, he said,

(03:03:54):
first of all, who gets ten or more of their
four more artists artists to show up for a tribute.
Then he said who gets them to rehearse? Then he
said who gets them to rehearse the day before and

(03:04:14):
the day of? And then he said who gets them
to rehearse the day before and the day of and
say nothing but nice things?

Speaker 1 (03:04:27):
It's fantastic. We was there to witness at hold and
he used the.

Speaker 7 (03:04:30):
Back We were definitely there, so we so we we
finalized this this love and loyalty, love and loyalty, loyalty respect.

Speaker 1 (03:04:39):
Well.

Speaker 2 (03:04:40):
See, I think the entire game I was under the
impression was to pick because if you're supposed to say
both and I would like to renag on my Swiss
and Timberland and my.

Speaker 4 (03:04:51):
And I thought you had to choose a favorite.

Speaker 1 (03:04:55):
You didn't have to.

Speaker 7 (03:04:56):
It was preferably to your criteria. You could pick one
or the other or.

Speaker 2 (03:05:00):
Both, right, But I thought the cop out is saying
both the cop right, it's the cop out.

Speaker 7 (03:05:05):
Okay, so all right, but you're actually the way you're
saying it, you're right, man, that you're fucking right, And
it sucks because.

Speaker 1 (03:05:14):
You're saying.

Speaker 2 (03:05:16):
No, no way.

Speaker 12 (03:05:18):
Steve says to me every day, you can't debate the
guy right, because the way I'm trying to argue it
is like, if I had the choice, these are the two,
I would want both of those things.

Speaker 7 (03:05:27):
But then you're saying the way we put the game
up is the cop.

Speaker 8 (03:05:31):
So let me tell you a funny story.

Speaker 1 (03:05:32):
So this is passing.

Speaker 6 (03:05:34):
Mic is really it's his baby, like I'm an uncle
or a grandfather. Right, So when I really disagree with
them on something, my fiance, she she knows how to communicate. Right,
it takes me two weeks. I'll streaming him for two weeks,
something about himself, hang up the phone. I mean, I
won't talk to him, Mike. I I gotta get I

(03:05:56):
gotta get myself ready, knowing I got to get myself
two weeks because I know how he's gonna come back
with the fucking thing. No when he has a vision
there's no fucking way you could change his mind. So
I got to come with every fucking fact, possible reason.
And Aliyah, she really knows how to communicate. Well, so

(03:06:20):
your wife, that's your wife fiance. Yeah, so I'm like
rehearsing every fucking day for two weeks, pacing back and
forth in my bedroom to go at this motherfucker.

Speaker 7 (03:06:39):
So it's very rarely that you're gonna win a debate
with him.

Speaker 1 (03:06:42):
You have to go a different way around.

Speaker 4 (03:06:46):
So again, I haven't found the way.

Speaker 8 (03:06:49):
I just said, there's no fucking way.

Speaker 7 (03:06:51):
Listen, I don't think you really answered when I told
when I asked you like that moment, those things that
that moment that really I know you said, there's many right,
it's hard they got you down, but no, no, but
there has to be this pivotal thing that happened between
a moment that you're just this DJ kid and then

(03:07:12):
you become this other thing.

Speaker 4 (03:07:17):
Again. I think I know it sounds it's not a
copy out of an answer. There were there was like
a five year.

Speaker 2 (03:07:24):
Span from age an era, Yeah, age seventeen to twenty
three or eighteen to to you know, seventeen to twenty
two or eighteen to twenty three, maybe a five year
span where every opportunity really snowballed into the next and
all those things, from the school parties to the internships.

Speaker 1 (03:07:50):
To the first celebrity.

Speaker 2 (03:07:53):
Seeing me DJ all led to what came next, and
everyone heard me at someone else's party and ended up
calling me.

Speaker 4 (03:08:03):
And by the time I was in my low twenties,
I became known.

Speaker 2 (03:08:09):
For playing not only celebrities parties, but hip hop celebrities parties.
And I think over the years when I get asked
most like, what why do you think that happened? Why
did you end up the guy at that time in
your life playing for the heavyweights of hip hop? And

(03:08:32):
I always I hate answering that question because I don't
like speaking for the people who called on me.

Speaker 4 (03:08:38):
The truth is only they know.

Speaker 2 (03:08:40):
But I think the real answer is why I was
the DJ that all these hip hop heavyweights was calling
was because of soul music. I don't think any of
them were necessarily like a jay Z, attracted to me
because of the way I played hip hop. Now, I'd

(03:09:00):
like to think I played hip hop just greatly, yes, immaculately,
But I think what that one special draw was was
how I played the soul music of the seventies and eighties,
and that music wasn't how I started. I was a
hip hop kid, I thought very early on in life.

(03:09:22):
I thought that to fully embrace hip hop, you had
to hate everything else. I thought that to really be
a part of hip hop, you had to hate.

Speaker 7 (03:09:29):
Rock and roll and everything else when hip hop is
sampling all of this.

Speaker 2 (03:09:34):
And so we talked about Cool Hark, Africa, Bimbad, and
Grandmaster Flash earlier. And remember when I said, I knew
what they looked like, but I didn't know about them.
So once I was a little older in twelve thirteen, fourteen,
and I learned about them. I learned that they weren't
playing hip hop music because there was no hip hop music.

(03:09:55):
They were creating what became hip hop music through playing
R and B, soul, funk, disco, rock and roll, Latin music,
and all kinds of music. And that fascinated me and
made me want to be this encyclopedia of music. And
that journey led me to the sole music of the
seventies and eighties, which in many ways became not what

(03:10:17):
I played everywhere for everyone, but in many ways became
my signature sound.

Speaker 8 (03:10:20):
Can I say something. I threw a party at my
house after the B E. T.

Speaker 20 (03:10:25):
Walls Is it two thousand and seven around and I
must have had five hundred of my closest friends at
my house. Well and and I mean name some of
these closest friends.

Speaker 6 (03:10:37):
I mean I'm joking the famous people and the most
the most famous people in the world, like the Who's
not the B List? Not to C List that AA
from Barba streisand on down Jesus at the house right.

Speaker 7 (03:10:51):
So.

Speaker 1 (03:10:53):
He was the DJ.

Speaker 6 (03:10:55):
So then no, he it was two thousand, it was
two thousand and seven, it was it was the beat.
He was an after party. The party started at two
o'clock in the morning and it went to ten o'clock
in the morning.

Speaker 7 (03:11:06):
Quincy Jones came up to me, who was like a
father to me. He says, where's Barbara. I'm like, Barbara who?
And he goes Barbara Streis and I goes, she's here.
He goes, yeah, she was just over there.

Speaker 2 (03:11:19):
Let you go.

Speaker 1 (03:11:21):
No, I mean, it was the craziest thing.

Speaker 6 (03:11:24):
And again when before he got here, when I talked
about how he just curates, he had those five hundred people.

Speaker 8 (03:11:32):
When I'm saying a.

Speaker 1 (03:11:35):
Lil Wayne.

Speaker 8 (03:11:36):
That was the day his album came away.

Speaker 6 (03:11:38):
He scanned over a million units from Lil Wayne on
down to every major basketball player. I mean, and it
was he had when I'm saying, that whole fucking house
in the palm of his hands.

Speaker 8 (03:11:51):
But I did get him one time.

Speaker 7 (03:11:53):
Not at two thousand and seven, he says he has
never been punk before.

Speaker 8 (03:11:58):
Again, right and again. It took me a month to
set this up.

Speaker 2 (03:12:02):
They know the background of your pranks. No, I mean,
you got to give otherwise it makes this.

Speaker 6 (03:12:08):
I mean, I'll go into death to get somebody like
like he's famous for this prank, big expansion, original punk.

Speaker 4 (03:12:19):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (03:12:19):
So remember I before he was here, I said, I
gave him a record, Dearly Head On Neil McKnight signed
to his label, and we do this record, and we
were talking about something where he goes, I'll never be pumped.

Speaker 1 (03:12:30):
It's like all right.

Speaker 6 (03:12:31):
So a month later I invite him out to later
have dinner at my house. I hired ten stompmen to
come through the glass windows and to kidnap.

Speaker 4 (03:12:44):
Us, like they were gonna tie us up.

Speaker 3 (03:12:48):
Right.

Speaker 6 (03:12:48):
I was gonna spend seventy five thousand dollars to get
his ass, so I don't, so, you know.

Speaker 4 (03:12:57):
So we go over to the house, we have some drinks,
it down for dinner as a chef, and.

Speaker 6 (03:13:02):
For whatever reason, my head of security and we're literally
I'm here, he's right there, comes and he goes, I'm
doing a walk and he dropped a gun right, which
wasn't part of the prank.

Speaker 8 (03:13:16):
And he just puts his gun right on the table.
He passed out.

Speaker 1 (03:13:27):
I wasn't. He saved me seventy five grand I didn't
have to.

Speaker 4 (03:13:30):
Like, never happened.

Speaker 1 (03:13:36):
Never happened. That was the prank.

Speaker 8 (03:13:39):
Holy, No, they were literally gonna.

Speaker 4 (03:13:42):
Was out laughing.

Speaker 2 (03:13:43):
He couldn't even tell the story for for for a
half an hour. And he said, I have ten people
outside for hey to tie us up and kidnapped.

Speaker 1 (03:13:51):
And this is going to be on the real No,
this is this.

Speaker 5 (03:14:01):
No, no, no, not that.

Speaker 1 (03:14:04):
Holy taking a shot of that.

Speaker 5 (03:14:09):
Shot.

Speaker 8 (03:14:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (03:14:10):
Yeah, by the way, pick up these new monster cups they.

Speaker 5 (03:14:17):
Monster bro. Definitely.

Speaker 1 (03:14:21):
I think we did it all right, we did it.

Speaker 2 (03:14:23):
Yeah, So.

Speaker 3 (03:14:33):
Let's let's let's let's let's let's talk to the people
one more time.

Speaker 1 (03:14:37):
When is the resident start?

Speaker 2 (03:14:40):
So? D J.

Speaker 4 (03:14:41):
Cassidy is an excuse this voice. It won't be like
this In July.

Speaker 2 (03:14:45):
DJ Cassidy's Past the Mic Live the Iconic Las Vegas
Residency starring Nightly.

Speaker 10 (03:14:54):
Hold On starring Nightly Job, Rule That Joke, Slick, Ring
Doggie Fresh, with special guests, Rape Won, the Chef, Goat's
Face Killer, Public Enemy Had, Jermaine Duprie, Dabron Too Short,

(03:15:22):
Warren g.

Speaker 4 (03:15:24):
And special surprise guests.

Speaker 1 (03:15:30):
This July.

Speaker 4 (03:15:32):
This July at the Back Theater at Planet Hollywood.

Speaker 2 (03:15:36):
Tickets on sale right now on Ticketmaster and every night
really is going to be a groundbreaking, trailblazing musical experience
that we honestly think is going to redefine the Las
Vegas Residency.

Speaker 6 (03:15:50):
If you trust my taste in the artist that I
signed and no, no, but I'm just saying in general
this show, this show is just as special as every
artist that I signed. I would not have I would
not have stick my neck out to Live Nation and
trond La Feet to say we got to get this

(03:16:11):
thing done and shout out to sit at Live Nation.

Speaker 1 (03:16:18):
By the way, tell them they are to us. We
risked our life coming out tonight.

Speaker 3 (03:16:25):
Around swimming an alligator my calmost diggle foul.

Speaker 5 (03:16:33):
All still let's still still.

Speaker 1 (03:16:38):
Damn And they said tomorrow even me work, I get me.
Oh there there, there you go.

Speaker 5 (03:17:01):
The pictures.

Speaker 1 (03:17:04):
Why are we taking pictures?

Speaker 5 (03:17:06):
Sign I come on? The audio might come on. The
picture your out your mic picture?

Speaker 1 (03:17:18):
You know norm we get it today. We take youre film.

Speaker 5 (03:17:24):
By the labious. Let me guess something.

Speaker 1 (03:17:31):
Oh yeah, I've committed. Once I commit.

Speaker 5 (03:17:37):
Don't see you.

Speaker 1 (03:17:38):
I could have a pachuca got the army mine.

Speaker 5 (03:17:41):
Yeah, they just get some pictures with you.

Speaker 3 (03:17:43):
Yeah, and then you're gonna have to do dry hands.

Speaker 5 (03:17:49):
I can't believe that.

Speaker 10 (03:17:49):
The work.

Speaker 5 (03:17:55):
I thought we're going into the sun break. You want
your hard up the legacy. Let me take some pictures.

Speaker 1 (03:18:07):
Drink yeah.

Speaker 5 (03:18:09):
Right here, Yeah, gonna stop. It's not sound.

Speaker 1 (03:18:19):
The ring so when it got dar it's boldy.

Speaker 5 (03:18:27):
That That's why I'm going to the gun draw No.

Speaker 1 (03:18:37):
Yo yo cha, I got a rock.

Speaker 10 (03:18:44):
You guys.

Speaker 7 (03:18:50):
Drink Champs is a Drink Champs ll C production hosts
and executive producers N O.

Speaker 1 (03:18:55):
R E and d J. E.

Speaker 10 (03:18:56):
F N.

Speaker 7 (03:18:58):
Listen to Drink Champs on Apple, pot, podcast, Amazon Music, Spotify,
or wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks for joining us
for another episode of Drink Champs, hosted by Yours Truly,
dj e FN and n O r E. Please make
sure to follow us on all our socials That's at
drink Champs across all platforms, at the Real Noriagon, ig

(03:19:18):
at Noriega on Twitter, mine is at Who's Crazy on
ig at dj e f N on Twitter, and most importantly,
stay up to date with the latest releases, news and
merch by going to drink champs dot com

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Episode 416 w/ Steve Rifkind and DJ Cassidy