André 3000

André 3000 and Questlove meet in Venice, California for a special QLS episode. This discussion veers from the curious — questions about hidden talents, breakfast cereals, and morning routines, to deeper dives into creative callings, conversations with Prince, and those amazing guest verses.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. All Right,
ladies and gentlemen, do not attempt to adjust your dial.

(00:22):
I'm so old school, of course, I would say a
dial as if it was a radio. We learned on
a previous episode of Quest Love Supreme you gotta file
the light. And so we're doing something rather different. This
is going to be a one on one interview, and

(00:45):
you know, oftentimes we just have to you know what, Okay.
Normally I would do my normal jargon of you know,
we have greatness in the room and da da da da,
But I feel that's a lot of pressure. Sometimes, oh,
I will just simply say that there is an episode

(01:07):
of two friends, two colleagues having a conversation with each other,
and uh, I don't know it's happening, Ladies and gentlemen,
there's a conversation with the one and only. How do
I describe Andre Lauren Benjamin aka three stacks shit, he's

(01:32):
so enlightened he might be four stacks right about now
aka Johnny Vulture, Sunny Bridges.

Speaker 2 (01:40):
I forgot about.

Speaker 1 (01:43):
Just chipped out the nicest Gemini I know, like he's
the acceptance of my new Gemini's rule.

Speaker 2 (01:51):
Sorry, about that. Come on, now, you're man.

Speaker 1 (01:58):
You're made Gemini though, So you know, I like to
think you're more tarist adjacent than Junie Geminis.

Speaker 3 (02:03):
I don't know, I don't. I don't get along with
many June Geminis.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
So Gemini is crazy, man, like exactly.

Speaker 4 (02:10):
Yes, you are all crazy, but so crazy that you
just into it. Like whatever we're into, we're crazy about it.

Speaker 2 (02:17):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:17):
No, you guys are bold. I mean, look, dude, our
hero Prince is a Gemini. Yeah, so many Geminis out there. Yeah.
So yeah, I want to do something a bit different
because I know you're on a press run and I
know when an artist does a press run where you're
just doing an interview at the interview, at the interview
to interview, the muscle memory kicks in. You're answering the

(02:39):
same exact questions over and over again. And I kind
of want to use this as an opportunity to actually
to get to know you as a human.

Speaker 2 (02:48):
All right, let's stretch Dan.

Speaker 1 (02:50):
Yeah, And so I'm yeah, I'll say that I'm taking
a three thousand approach in quest love Supreme Land, and
I'm gonna throw out questions that I wouldn't typically ask
on AQLS episode.

Speaker 2 (03:05):
And no, no, no, this is gonna get fun.

Speaker 1 (03:09):
Yeah, I assure you, I assure you it's that. So
my first question to you is what time do you
wake up in the morning, just automatically, not like on
the clock that I got to get to the airport,
but what's your body clock?

Speaker 2 (03:23):
When do you wake up?

Speaker 4 (03:25):
About about eight eight am? Maybe like naturally about eight am?

Speaker 1 (03:31):
Naturally eight am? Okay, do you have a morning routine?
What do you do in the first half hour of
your day?

Speaker 4 (03:39):
Like, I've never used social media, so I've never had
a Twitter account. I only have an Instagram account now
to preserve my name, but I've never ever posted anything
in my life. So it's funny that when I see
most people in the world and they're constantly checking their Instagram,
like you know, kind of going through these little things.
So when I get up in the morning, I have

(04:00):
my TV set up to like I'm a YouTube person, man,
Like YouTube is my university. So I just watch a
whole bunch of shorts, just random, random shorts. I guess
the same thing someone would do scrolling through Instagram. But yeah,
I kind of get thrown stuff from the youtubel.

Speaker 2 (04:20):
Alga, Okay, where do you live?

Speaker 4 (04:24):
I live in Venice Beach. I live a few blocks
up from here. I live in Venice Beach, California. How
long have you lived out in Venice?

Speaker 2 (04:31):
About four? Four or five years now? Maybe?

Speaker 3 (04:34):
So was there every time you lived in New York?

Speaker 2 (04:36):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (04:36):
I lived in New York for four years before I
came here. So I lived in Atlanta, lived in Dallas
for two years. Then I moved to New York for
about three years maybe, and then then moved here.

Speaker 3 (04:49):
I heard a crazy room. Are you a fishing a fishonado?

Speaker 2 (04:54):
No?

Speaker 4 (04:55):
I started going deep sea fishing, like my family took
me dee deep sea fishing, and I enjoyed. And I
invited a big boy on a on a couple of them,
and big boy like he's been running with it, Like
big boy goes out in deep sea fishes all the time.

Speaker 2 (05:09):
So I think you may be confusing me with big boy.

Speaker 1 (05:12):
Well, I heard that someone told me like in Long
Island once that you like I saw one hundred and
three thousand like going fishing in Long Island.

Speaker 2 (05:21):
I was like, Long Island, he's not from New York.
And it's like, yeah, he's from New York.

Speaker 4 (05:24):
So now what do young people say? That's cal Okay,
that's a good room. I mean, fishing is awesome, you know, now,
just I've never done it in Long Island.

Speaker 2 (05:37):
Though, okay.

Speaker 3 (05:39):
And these are also non sequitur and random questions.

Speaker 4 (05:42):
No, I love these kind of questions, like you're interviewing me, like, like, well,
when we go to Europe, they asked different questions.

Speaker 2 (05:51):
Exactly, you know what I mean. I like figure you're
just tired of asking the same thing. Where have you been?
You know? How many instruments do you play or can
you play?

Speaker 4 (06:02):
I can mess around with maybe four or five to
get a sound out of them. But I don't even
consider myself a musician in that way, Like I can't
even claim that.

Speaker 2 (06:12):
I know real musicians, you know. But I can write.

Speaker 4 (06:15):
I use them as kind of like writing to sometimes
I can record myself doing it, but I'm not proficient.
I'm probably more proficient on flute than I am on
any of them.

Speaker 2 (06:26):
So in a world full of instruments, why.

Speaker 4 (06:29):
The flute natural? How I got there? How I discovered it?
With instruments, you kind of you pick them up and
you mess around with them, and you start to see
where am I spending most of my time, and it
ended up being the flute. But then I go through
phases too, because I I did it with guitar for
a little bit, then I did it with bass for
a little bit, and then flute just happened to be

(06:52):
the thing that I think stuck. And because I think
the mobileness of a flute too, because I mean, right
now I'm holding the flut. I cared it kind of everywhere,
So any inspiration I get, I just pick it up
and start messing around.

Speaker 2 (07:05):
I can't do that with a bass guitar. I can't
do that with a piano.

Speaker 4 (07:08):
You can do it with a guitar acoustic maybe, but
this is so unassuming and you just kind of carry
it like you know. So I think that the portability
of a flute probably made it my favorite. How many
do you own about thirty thirty flutes?

Speaker 2 (07:23):
Maybe?

Speaker 4 (07:24):
So you have thirty versions of that, No, and they're
all from different makers. But this style of flute I
probably owned more vse and my double flutes than any
other style because it's kind of the flute that I
really fell in love with the first which is based
in like meso American culture, you know Mayan and Nastec flutes,

(07:45):
and now this is the Native American version of them,
made by Gearmore. They were made of clay originally, but
I own a lot of these. But I think once
I started to go on the flute path, I started
to get schooled by uber drivers because I play all
the time, So I play in ubers, I play, I
play in the back word yeah. And so if I'm

(08:07):
playing and it's a Chinese driver, he'll turn around like, oh, man,
that reminds me of my country. Or if it's Japanese,
oh that reminds me.

Speaker 2 (08:14):
Oh, it reminds me.

Speaker 4 (08:15):
So everybody I'm playing the same flute, but every nationality
of driver will turn around and tell me it reminds
them of their country. So that let me know that culturally,
every culture has a flute and a and a dram
of course. But yeah, but I started to get schooled
on the street and by uber drivers while people asking
me about things like I was in Philly shooting the film,

(08:37):
and I spent a lot of time in Philly and
I would just walk and play, and this dude comes
up to me and he's like, oh, you're doing that
Japanese thing, and I was like, what Japanese thing are
you talking about? And then he schools me and tell
me that there was a whole shakahachi culture where you know,
these Japanese players will walk around with baskets on their
head to have no identity and no ego and just
play for people.

Speaker 2 (08:57):
That was the thing.

Speaker 4 (08:58):
End. I would just walk around in public and play.
So he was asking me was I doing that? Which
I had no idea what that was, and went to
research that and learned about that.

Speaker 1 (09:07):
I was going to say, there's a show that came
on h in the seventies called Kung Fu Yes, and
of which David Carodine's character is sort of and he
Tarantinas sort of alluded to that and Kill Bill in
which he played the same exact flute, like just walking
around and start playing and okay, so yeah, I was wondering, like, wow,

(09:28):
I wonder if he's in his kung fu face.

Speaker 2 (09:30):
It's it's just I'm being taught.

Speaker 4 (09:32):
I'm learning, and I see now that anything that I
can blow when through and manipulate the notes with my fingers,
I want to play it. So if I'm turned onto
Persian nay flute or Indian bun story flute or like
a gore a Chinese go Like, I just like discovering
things that I can blow, you know, and it's and

(09:52):
it's fun, you know, paulse.

Speaker 3 (09:54):
How long did it How long did it take?

Speaker 1 (09:57):
How long did it take you for muscle memory to
I get the feeling you're going to say, I have
yet to master the flute, but oh yeah, man, I mean,
but you do know, Like and right now when you're playing,
are your hands telling you what to do?

Speaker 2 (10:13):
Or do you.

Speaker 1 (10:13):
Know that this particular position will yield this note and
that note?

Speaker 4 (10:18):
And no, that's the fun and scary part about how
I play, like when people hear the record, like we
made it up as it was going So I'm discovering
that melody as is going along, but I don't know
what I'm doing until I do it. So like I
couldn't like if you played a note for me right
now on a keyboard, I cannot tell you what that
note was. If you played a chord, I couldn't tell you. See,

(10:41):
I understand when musicians talk about a key center or
you know the bottom of this chord, but I don't
know what that is.

Speaker 2 (10:49):
None of that.

Speaker 4 (10:50):
So for me it's all physical and it's all shapes.
So I do know if I take one finger and spread,
I can't say it on the microphone or how to
say it, but do these et kind of fingers. I
know that gives me an odd note. That's all I know.
I know it's odd, which may be of I don't

(11:10):
know a flat or something. And I know if I
put all my fingers down, I get a certain thing.
So when I'm playing, I'm actually responding to what note
I just played before, not knowing what that note is.
So everything is on a tight rope. See, you take
one step at a time, purely one step at a time,
but it is it is very physical. It is very
physical because I'm trying to wheel something out because I

(11:32):
know I never trained, so I have to find another way,
another route to get to it.

Speaker 2 (11:36):
How often do you practice to day?

Speaker 4 (11:39):
I wouldn't even call it practice, which I'm now getting
into practice, like because I started playing flute, Like I'm
actually meeting like kick ass flute players, Like someone introduced
me to shabaka and so Shebacca will show me exercise like,
but I've never done that before, and so I'm learning
how to practice. I never went to college or anything,
so I don't even have like the I just never

(12:02):
had to study, so I don't have that. Emmy, It's
all for me. It's always playing. I just try to
play as much as possible, which ends up being studied.
So even before I'm just always out playing. But I
don't know, I don't have a regimen really, you know.

Speaker 1 (12:17):
Fun fact that's you're speaking for at least seventy percent
of all musicians out there, Like I play by ear, yeah,
I mean I've just recently, maybe in the last twenty years,
and only because like some of the more intellectual roots
will eye roll because I don't know. I didn't know
previously how to say, like play a C sharp sus.

Speaker 4 (12:39):
I know those words, but that's so that's foreign to me, right.
But for the majority of creatives there there's.

Speaker 1 (12:47):
Two types of musicians, technical musicians and musicians that feel
I'm a field musician. Totally feel like if you were
to put notaate notes in front of me, I wouldn't
know what the hell is in front of me.

Speaker 4 (12:58):
So I got to go feel Yeah, that's all I have, man,
That's all I kind of and and the thing about
hip hop too, hip hop forces you.

Speaker 2 (13:05):
To do the immediate thing. I don't know, it's just
a certain energy that Yeah, I don't know.

Speaker 4 (13:11):
We just kind of have this kind of flying by
the seat.

Speaker 2 (13:15):
Of our parents kind of thing.

Speaker 4 (13:16):
And so when I put it towards an instrument, I'm
kind of transferring in that way of like we just
try stuff, like we pick up something that's not supposed
to be for a thing and make it for something else,
you know.

Speaker 2 (13:28):
So I'm using a lot of that.

Speaker 1 (13:31):
How did you assemble the musicians for New Blue Son?
How did it come together?

Speaker 4 (13:38):
It naturally came about by me meeting Carlos. Carlos Nino.

Speaker 2 (13:43):
We met. It's such a Venice Venus story. We met
in airwine no joke, no joke, we met it. We
met like.

Speaker 4 (13:53):
And actually, uh, Mike d from Beastie Boys was there
at the meeting because I saw him in line checking
out and I went up.

Speaker 2 (14:00):
To him something man, you know, and then Carlos comes up.

Speaker 4 (14:02):
So there's three of us standing right here at the
cash register, right and Carlos invites us out to an
event that he's doing at night, and yeah, we kind
of started hanging out since then he had heard that
I was in town in Venice, and people were like,
I think y'all need to meet, you know, and some
people would say that to Carlos, and Carlos was like, yeah,
I'm gonna meet him, you know at some point, you know.

(14:24):
And we finally ended up meeting and he invited me
over to his house. We recorded in his garage, and
that was kind of like our first kind of getting
into it. And I knew I wanted to work on
this Wind project, and I knew a lot of the
sounds that I was looking for.

Speaker 2 (14:42):
Uh that's what That's what Carlos does.

Speaker 4 (14:43):
And so when he was brought him to the Fold,
He's like, man, I know a lot of people I
could bring, you know, to help.

Speaker 2 (14:50):
And so we tried out a lot.

Speaker 4 (14:51):
Of different outfits, you know, different situations, and the core
four of us ended up kind of ended up being Yes,
Aihen Nate, and but that ended up being the core,
and then we would invite just anybody in to come
and you know, hang out. But yeah, this album definitely,
it couldn't have been made without Carlos Nino, like Nino is.

(15:13):
What I love about Nino is he reminds me of
when I was producing earlier on for outcasts, Like there's
a certain excitement, like he's more concerned with what's the
most interesting thing?

Speaker 2 (15:24):
Okay, you know, and I love that. It's like kind
of kid spirit, you know. So okay.

Speaker 1 (15:31):
In the credits of the album, under Carlos's title, there's
also play like It's listed as gongs, various instruments, and
then there's plants. How are plants a part of the
instrumentation of this album?

Speaker 2 (15:47):
I mean, you will see when we when we play live.

Speaker 4 (15:49):
But sounds are everywhere, man, like anything is anything is
a sound. You know, We've only settled on certain instruments
because we're used to them. But like Colos may just
grab a palm leaf off the side of the road
and shake it.

Speaker 2 (16:07):
Oh okay, I see, you know what I mean?

Speaker 4 (16:10):
So I get anything like it could be a beanstalk
or drive anything, you know, just whatever makes a cool
noise that you like.

Speaker 2 (16:17):
And Colos has, like.

Speaker 4 (16:19):
Man and a myriad of sounds of stuff anything like yeah,
and plants happen to be one of them.

Speaker 1 (16:26):
So what's the division of labor as far as the
technical aspect. I'm only asking this because when I read
the credits to your album, there's a name. There a
legendary Philadelphia name, gentleman named Andy Kravitz.

Speaker 2 (16:42):
Andy mastered this album.

Speaker 1 (16:44):
Yes, Now, Andy Kravitz to me is a very legendary
Philadelphia native.

Speaker 2 (16:53):
Trauma.

Speaker 1 (16:53):
We got our record deal in nineteen ninety three. I
used to intern at Ropoul's Records, and so Andy Kravitz
was sort of like a house producer at Studio fifty four.
So I'm there like when he's working with ten Dog,
He's played on Steady be stuff and so I you know,
he was like really the first hip hop drummer I've

(17:14):
seen with my own eyes. Nothing sorry Bobby Simmons of
steps to signing forgive me, but yeah, Andy Kravits like
and then he just disappeared off the radar for like
twenty and I always wondered what happened to him.

Speaker 3 (17:26):
So he's mastering.

Speaker 4 (17:28):
Yeah, it's so cool that the relationship, Like Carlos has
worked with him before, and so his mastering studio is
in Venice, so it was all in the neighborhood. So
like his mastering studio is right by the beach, and
we just kind of go to his house and he
got like crazy equipment like knee.

Speaker 2 (17:47):
Boards and a little bit of ass apartment. It's awesome.

Speaker 1 (17:50):
Like so basically I have to move to Venice. Why Venice?

Speaker 4 (17:54):
I have no idea, man, like I got here havingstance,
like I wasn't even supposed to be living in Ventage.
And then this real estate agent lady and she was like, hey,
check out this little house I got in Venice. I mean,
it's just check it out. And all my friends in
LA they were like, please, man, don't move to Venice.
Like all right, LA people be like, man, we'll never
see you because that's on the west side.

Speaker 2 (18:12):
That's way. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (18:13):
I was gonna say it's beautiful, but then I was
like a man so much on sunset and all my
favorite restaurants I would never know.

Speaker 4 (18:20):
But I never get back on that side though, Like
everything I need is pretty much over here. And I
think all of that, like me moving to Venice, catapulted
me in the direction I needed to go. And I
will say that because I met I went to a
breathwork class in Venice. That's when I first heard this
certain kind of flute.

Speaker 2 (18:40):
That I love. And it was all because of Venice.

Speaker 4 (18:44):
So I have to say, sometimes them certain breadcrumbs.

Speaker 2 (18:49):
Or wherever you're wherever you are.

Speaker 4 (18:51):
Are for a reason and you may not even know
it at the time. But if I didn't move to Venice,
this album probably wouldn't have been made.

Speaker 2 (18:59):
Okay, not in this way.

Speaker 1 (19:06):
What was the batter year or the starting year of
your flute curiosity?

Speaker 2 (19:13):
I don't know.

Speaker 4 (19:14):
The actual starting year, but I will say because it's
me and college was just talking about it the other day.
Since the love below, I've been interested in wind instruments,
like I've messed around with saxophone, even though like and
she lives in my life at the end, the horrible saxophone,
that's me messing around on saxophone.

Speaker 2 (19:34):
Oh, I thought you had a free jazz saxophone player.
That's me, That was you. Yeah, that's me playing. I
have to listen to that. Okay, it's horrible.

Speaker 4 (19:42):
It's horrible, but it was like, I don't believe in
wrong notes and I love Now.

Speaker 3 (19:49):
I got to go back and listen again.

Speaker 2 (19:51):
You're here, you're here. The thing is if you do
with a straight face and confidence.

Speaker 4 (19:55):
Oh yeah, yeah, Oh, it's always for real. Now it's serious,
even if it's horrible, you don't believe.

Speaker 1 (19:59):
It, Okay, I just thought you had some free jazz. Okay,
now I have to revisit that.

Speaker 4 (20:04):
So yeah, I started wanting to play saxophone first tenor
saxophone because of John Coltrane. I mean because I was
a fan of John Coltrane, and me reading bios of
John Coltrane, I learned that he played clarinet in school
first before he switched over to so I was.

Speaker 2 (20:21):
Like, well, let me give me a clarinet.

Speaker 4 (20:23):
So I bought a clarinet straight B flat, the straight
one be flat clarinet, and I played around with for
a few months. And then we were on tour and
I went to a pawn shop in New York and
there was this Selmer bass clarinet. I don't know why
I was there, and I was like, this, it looked
cool A lot of time. I'm gonna track it to

(20:43):
an instrument because the way it looked. And so I
saw it and it was in its case, it was open,
and it happened to be like a nineteen sixty seven
Selmer bass clarinet. Bought it and as soon as I
started playing it, like and the thing is with wind players,
it's a thing called armbiture. It's kind of like how
your mouth fits over the tip of the the read

(21:04):
and all that kind of stuff. It's weird, but I
was just blessed to immediately have an amatry. Like my
first time picking it up and putting my mouth on,
it was like, I'm getting a good tone, like a
good sound. So it motivated me to even want to
play more, you know. So from there, once I hit
the bass claerinet, I noticed that I love the deeper

(21:25):
tones and I love wind on wood compared to metal,
which is you know, soprano or but you I tried
a little soprano too, okay.

Speaker 2 (21:34):
So from there it's just.

Speaker 4 (21:37):
Me loving what I could get out of wind instruments.
So I even got into Obo, which is the hardest
one to play, like I love the Obo sound, got
into Obo, went into Obo Day, Obo Day, which yeah,
Obo Day. At the new School, they have like Obow Day. Okay,
see what I'm saying, like dre D but Obo Day

(21:57):
all right?

Speaker 2 (21:57):
Okay.

Speaker 3 (21:57):
I was like, is that a pun or no?

Speaker 2 (22:01):
Get it?

Speaker 4 (22:01):
So yeah, when I moved to New York, I would
just kind of look at the school schedule of whatever
performances were at the New School because I always like
to go where the youth is performing.

Speaker 2 (22:12):
New music. I don't care.

Speaker 4 (22:14):
Like there's something about that college age where you're dumb
enough to try new things but you're developed enough to
do them well, and that it's about that that period,
And so I would just go to the new school
and see whatever recital as a plan. I don't care
if piano one night, it could be the soon it's
another night, or whole orchestra, and I just sit there
and listen and.

Speaker 1 (22:34):
Side question, are you freaking people out as you're like
just wandering into their school?

Speaker 4 (22:39):
Not really, because we're no. I just you know, talk
to the students. You know, they'd be like, oh, he
came to the show, but it would be maybe fifteen
people in there, like ten people just sitting, So it
was it was not like a big production or anything,
so I could easily just slip in and slip out.
But just my interest and when instruments just kept growing,
and so I would just collect different wind instruments, and

(23:00):
then I discovered the Guiermo the Maya double flute, which
is kind of what really pushed me into wanting to
play it all the time.

Speaker 2 (23:11):
And maybe like.

Speaker 4 (23:12):
Even with the bass claierinet, you have to it's like
a gun you have to construct it, put it together,
put it back in the case, clean it. You know,
with these it was so instant. I can just carry
it around, So it was very instant. I think because
I could carry it, I kept it with me longer
than any other instrument. So yeah, I've been interested in

(23:33):
win for a long time.

Speaker 1 (23:34):
But okay, yeah, so this album Marks have returned to
the spotlight for you for the first time and as
of this recording, seventeen years basically meaning you haven't released
product with your name on it since two thousand and six,
my own product yet, your own product yet, even though
you've done things here and there. Could you describe if

(23:58):
you can go back that far two thousand and seven,
like a year after two thousand and seven, well, a
year after two thousand and six where you know you're
starting your I'm sure then you didn't think of it
as I'm gonna start my exile or my rest from
my day job that people know me from. But like

(24:20):
a year or two after it, when you're not in
daily motion of gotta have an amount, got to figure
out a tour, got it? Like, yeah, what was two
thousand and seven like for you, you were thirty two
years old.

Speaker 4 (24:38):
I don't remember, but that's cool too, Yeah, because it's
harked me to place the dates, like I you have
to give me kind of like a like a marker,
like that was a year after the leve Blow came
out or a year before Idlewow, or like I kind
of have to mark I think a year after Idawoa
came out in two thousand and six, So I say

(24:59):
a year after Idlewold, then.

Speaker 2 (25:02):
Uh, you have to Idlewow.

Speaker 4 (25:03):
I'm at home, and I was blessed to start getting
asked to be on remixes, okay, and that was a
blessing for me because it gave me a chance to rap,
you know, after all that had, So you see it
as a blessing now because it feel good to wrap.
So whenever you get to like the opportunity to do

(25:24):
it and you in it, I know.

Speaker 1 (25:25):
But like, okay, So I remember once when you appeared
on the remix of Walk It Out, Walk It Out Right?

Speaker 2 (25:31):
Yeah yeah, and the so I.

Speaker 3 (25:34):
Know you're not on social media, so.

Speaker 1 (25:38):
To see the social media reaction to you even being
on that remix one was a shocker, Like wait, one
hundred and three thousands on a walk it out song
and with Jim Jones whatever. So but it was such
a mind blowing thing. But in my mind I was like, wow,
I wonder if he notices like.

Speaker 2 (25:57):
That.

Speaker 1 (25:57):
And again, I mean, this was no pressure, new intent
of pressure, like you're kind of holding the world's oxygen supply,
you know, hostage, because you can spit a verse and
it's guarantee that at least three things that you say
in that verse will be like holy shit, here are
a couple of those words together, like it's it's an
event I've seen people like, for instance, the verse on

(26:20):
the Rick Ross thing, like I didn't think i'd ever experience.

Speaker 3 (26:25):
Coming from a place where we.

Speaker 2 (26:27):
Would have daily meetings about wait, what about this.

Speaker 3 (26:31):
Start doing your PowerPoint thing?

Speaker 2 (26:33):
And the way he does supposed these words together.

Speaker 1 (26:36):
But man, so it's just weird to hear you say like, oh,
I'm just so blessed to be able to get the
opportunity to.

Speaker 4 (26:41):
Do that, And I'm like no, and when you are
the opportunity, no, But when I say blessing, you got
to understand too, this is a town, a town creating
a new sound too. So dj unk like that actually
came through another DJ friend of mine. That no unt
just saying, Hey, asked Andrea here you to get on
this beat, and it came that way. It was no,
it was nothing, no big production, Like I don't even

(27:04):
know if I got paid for the song, like I
think I think the trade off was, hey, can you
do a couple of beats that we scratched between in
the background of my cartoon, That'll be the payment class
for class of three thousand. So I think it was
set up that way. But the beat was so jamming
that you just want to get on it. So I
say the blessing because any rapid just want to be

(27:26):
on a good beat and beat in the city, you know, you.

Speaker 2 (27:29):
Just want to be out. You want to be heard.

Speaker 4 (27:31):
So if producers are making new sounds or even like
even later like new artists. So even if a Frank
Ocean says, hey, get on my song. Frank Ocean a
new artist, I don't know him, like, get on my song.
But when I say a blessing, that reintroduced me to
a whole nother generation too, you know what I mean?
That were following that, you know, so I do look

(27:52):
at it as blessings. Am I say blessing because we
had just come off of Speakerbox Cluve Below Idle Wow,
which was a musical, more focused, melodic kind of thing,
And so I didn't rap a lot, okay, and those
offerings a little bit. So when I say a blessing,
it gave me another opportunity to do what I enjoyed doing.

Speaker 1 (28:16):
Yeah, what five albums can you not live without? What
five albums can you not live without? That's a hard pressure.

Speaker 4 (28:28):
Yeah, you should have gave me some time before we
got on the microphone.

Speaker 2 (28:33):
Man.

Speaker 1 (28:34):
Well, the thing is, I think oftentimes when you when
people are in this high pressure situation of like, I
gotta give the most intellectual answer, Like sometimes I listen.

Speaker 2 (28:44):
To boring as shit, you know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (28:47):
I'm on an Elvis kick right now because i just
saw the Lisa Marie biopic and I'm interested in that
sixty eight comeback Black Leather, so i'm and plus you
know the recond Crew were playing on that record. So
right now I'm on an Elvis kicking okay for some
strange reason, but it doesn't have to be five.

Speaker 4 (29:09):
I've gone through that Elvis kick too, really, yeah, man,
like E was a bad motherfucker man?

Speaker 3 (29:14):
Or what five albums would you not expect us.

Speaker 2 (29:17):
To think that you're into hmm, not think that I'm into.

Speaker 4 (29:24):
That's another thing because when you say your five albums,
it's almost like I'm trying not to give you the
ones that everybody's going to say too.

Speaker 2 (29:31):
So I'm double thinking.

Speaker 4 (29:33):
Like if I say, you know, you know Love Supreme,
you know what I mean, that's everybody's you know what
I mean.

Speaker 2 (29:41):
So I'm trying to figure out that's a good question.

Speaker 1 (29:43):
What okay, So everyone has a go to song that
they put on to just.

Speaker 3 (29:51):
Calm them down.

Speaker 1 (29:52):
And you know, when the album came out, I hit
you with twelve paragraphs. I'm certain the whole world was
hitting you with paragraphs. But you know, okay, I won't
say an album because what's an album in twenty twenty three?

Speaker 2 (30:05):
What music? What's your go to music that you escape to.

Speaker 4 (30:11):
It's different phases, man, And just like you're saying right now,
you're into Elvis phase right now, I'm into like a
kind of classical Steve reikish.

Speaker 2 (30:25):
Kind of Oh okay.

Speaker 4 (30:27):
It's very repetitive, calming and meditative at the same time,
but at the same time like very complex and moving.

Speaker 2 (30:34):
It's like.

Speaker 4 (30:36):
And it's rhythmic, you know, it's tight, you know, so
I guess I'm into that.

Speaker 2 (30:43):
And I listened to.

Speaker 4 (30:47):
Like a lot of native drum circle music like Cree
Indian cre Nation kind of drumming the way they sing. Man, Yeah,
that just that just blows my mind some very powerful
okay about that?

Speaker 1 (31:01):
Is there any lyric that is ever stuck in your head?
A stanza or a lyric of any song or I've
been I've been working on a slide documentaries for so
long that I think almost every day here the last
line of Family Fair like you can't cry because you

(31:24):
look broke down, but you're cry anyway because you're all
broke down.

Speaker 2 (31:26):
So that's that's stuck in my head?

Speaker 1 (31:29):
Like are there lyrics that are often just stuck in
your head even if it's dumb?

Speaker 3 (31:34):
I met her in a hotel lobby, like anything like the.

Speaker 4 (31:37):
Song fast Card by Tracy Chapman, Like it's one of
those songs that I wish you know how people ask you, man,
what song.

Speaker 2 (31:42):
Do you wish you wish you wrote? Yeah?

Speaker 4 (31:45):
Like, as a child hearing that song, it introduced me to, oh,
you can you can actually hit people in the heart
with words you know and when she when she said
the line, uh, something like the body is too young
for bodies too old for working, but bodies too old,
too young to look like his. My mama went off
and left him. She wanted more than he could give.

(32:07):
Somebody's got to take care of him. So I quit school.
I was like, yeah, you wish she wrote that. Yeah,
it was like we were like we were we were
listening and watching a real life Like it's almost like
the black, the black kind of trailer park story, you

(32:30):
know what I mean, Like you and you were on
the ride the whole time, like these big dreams of
hurting this dude.

Speaker 3 (32:36):
And someone running away from a past life.

Speaker 4 (32:40):
And it went full circle like she had these big
dreams just like a mama did. Then at the end
she got to keep moving like WHOA right hard?

Speaker 2 (32:50):
Okay? Yeah.

Speaker 1 (32:51):
Anyone that has ever asked me like what song that
I wish I wrote or a part of I will
never hesitate to say.

Speaker 3 (33:00):
I think will ever.

Speaker 1 (33:01):
Beat the moment in which we were in our tour bus.
We had one week to finish our Things Fallow Apart album.
We were coming back from Pittsburgh.

Speaker 2 (33:17):
And this is.

Speaker 1 (33:20):
August of ninety eight, and you know back in the day,
of course your album had to be done like three
months ahead of.

Speaker 2 (33:28):
Oh yeah, man. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (33:29):
So somehow my publicist was connected to Drew Dixon at
Arista and had a copy of Equimini and The Feeling
of Fear. When Spotioli Doplicious came on, I was like, fuck,
they sound like a better band than we do, like

(33:53):
and instantly I knew, like every black university marching ben like,
this was gonna be something I heard like forever. And
I was like, damn, how come ideas don't come to
me like that? Man, Like, what the fuck you know?
And plus it's very rare. It's it's it's rare in
what you hear stream of conscious thinking, black people thinking.

(34:20):
And man, that paralyzed me so goddamn much, man like
I wish I don't know if I should say thank
you or sorry? You know, made it made me try harder,
man like, and I've yet to still create that, so
like in my mind, that's that's what I'm doing. What's

(34:41):
the best piece of advice you've ever been given?

Speaker 2 (34:45):
It?

Speaker 4 (34:45):
Actually the best piece of advice I would say came
from Erica's grandmother. Erica would all Erica's grandmama would always
say anything, any problem in the issue that come up,
she'd be like, keep on living.

Speaker 2 (34:59):
It happened to you. That was it.

Speaker 3 (35:03):
Did you know what you meant?

Speaker 2 (35:04):
Yes? Okay, Yeah, keep on living. It'll happen to you. Yeah, okay.

Speaker 4 (35:10):
And it's as simple as that, it's going to happen.
Keep on living. It'll happen to you.

Speaker 1 (35:15):
If you can astro travel. If you can astro travel
back to nineteen ninety two, and you were allowed you today,
were allowed a twenty second window to disrupt the timeline
and talk to yourself. And I believe you were seventeen
in nineteen ninety two. What would you tell yourself in

(35:36):
those twenty seconds? This is like before first album ninety two.

Speaker 4 (35:41):
I consider that at the beginning of the podcast, what
would I tell myself? Get ready for the ride, man,
get ready for a ride that you don't even know
how to hold on because you can't even fathom what's
going to happen, you know. So I don't know if
there's any any more advice than that, just to get

(36:03):
ready for the ride and just yeah, yeah, because there's
nothing to prepare you for. Because we can have plans
like as humans, we you know, you just want to
wrap okay, but those are kind of on the ground,
you know, goals. But then there's a higher force that
takes you further that things that I couldn't even imagine,

(36:25):
that I couldn't even think about. So really, just get
ready for the rode.

Speaker 1 (36:29):
Most people, when they dream, they often have themes that
occur all the time. Yep, trains are always in my dream.
For the least, the last thirty year of trains are
always in my dream. What is the prevalent theme of
all of your dreams?

Speaker 2 (36:43):
Flying?

Speaker 1 (36:44):
You're always on a plane? No, I'm always flying no plane.
Do you have a fear of flying?

Speaker 2 (36:50):
No?

Speaker 3 (36:51):
Besides trains.

Speaker 2 (36:53):
And this is weird.

Speaker 3 (36:54):
I live.

Speaker 1 (36:55):
I live in an apartment in New York and I'm
on the seventy third floor and people always.

Speaker 2 (37:00):
Ask all the time, wait, aren't you a free to
be up here?

Speaker 3 (37:02):
You know that that sort of thing.

Speaker 1 (37:04):
But yet when I sleep, because I often believe that
times your brain can't register a fantasy in real life.
So I tried an exercise where, you know, I was
watching somebody on YouTube and they said, like, imagine yourself flying,
and when I close my eyes to mat like to
stand on a ledge to make that leap. I get

(37:28):
that I can't imagine myself even in my dreams. I
can't imagine myself flying over like it's it's the same
fear as if I were on the ledge and want
to hang on to deer life. M So in your dreams,
you have the ability to just transport and fly.

Speaker 4 (37:44):
Yes, And it was from wherever I am, like not
a I have to be on the top of a
building like I can be on the ground. And I
start to do this type it's almost like a a
hover like it's like a floating kind of thing, and
you're kind of like it's not like it's not like
direct control. It's almost like you're drifted and you're able

(38:07):
to manipulate the drift a little bit, but not fast.

Speaker 2 (38:11):
So if I want to make a turn, I got
to start drifting a little.

Speaker 4 (38:13):
But yeah, like I'm always flying, I'm looking down on
the world like I'm looking down on mountains, I'm looking
down on things. But here's the craziest thing. Whenever I
try to show my friends, like I remember when one
of dream I was trying to trying to show sea
law like see look man check this out and I
tried to do it for him. It didn't work, you

(38:37):
know what I mean, Like it's almost like you wanted
to share and you were planning it, you couldn't do it.
But it's when I was by myself and it was happening,
I was like, whoa, look at this flying thing. And
now at this point I want to show people. You're
almost like I almost want to show off the trick, like, oh,
check this out, and whenever I try, it just doesn't work,
which is which is weird, you know. But I have

(38:59):
that dream a lot and it's the same flying style,
which is and it's kind of like it's a really
awesome style because it's.

Speaker 2 (39:09):
Because even in your dreams, you're cool shit.

Speaker 4 (39:14):
Because it because it's so it's so floaty. It's so floaty.
It's not like a plain ship. Well I'm able to
make quick rights or anything. So it's almost like it's hard. Okay,
I guess how to describe dreams on a microphone.

Speaker 2 (39:29):
It's hard. It's hard.

Speaker 1 (39:32):
Who are three of the most in your career? Who
are three of the most important people that you've met?

Speaker 2 (39:37):
La Reid who signed this.

Speaker 4 (39:42):
Big Boy and I just I say third, I'd have
to say collectively, the Dungeon, those are the most important, okay,
you know, because because and for for different reasons, but well,
la read. Of course, he gave us our first opportunity,
you know, so he he saw enough in us to
sign us, to give us an opportunity to do something.

(40:05):
Big Boy, because he's my high school friend that started
this whole thing with me that oh we can do this,
you know, and not only not only that just contributing
and like a music form, but in a motivational form too,
because Big Boy knows me more than anybody, and he knows,
you know, when I'm not feeling a certain thing or

(40:27):
you know, when I've given up in a way. And
Big Boy's always been kind of like the Chileader. Like
I remember before we even first our first album came out,
our first showcase, people didn't like us, you know, and
we got the feedback from that showcase when all labels
were coming you would do your acting.

Speaker 2 (40:45):
You know, it's kind of funny thing about it now,
but we.

Speaker 4 (40:49):
Got word that, you know, some feedback was they're okay,
they're not stars, you know. That's that was the feedback.
And so at that point, I remember we were kind
of sad. We were at the Dungeon and I was like, oh, well,
well shit, man, I'm gonna go ahead and do this
art thing like I always like, I thought i'd be
drawing and paint like that's why I started doing so
I was the plan was like, all right, well we're

(41:11):
just going to our school now. You know, this rap
thing is not working so big boys kind of a
person like, no, man, we don't came this far.

Speaker 2 (41:17):
Let's do it.

Speaker 4 (41:18):
So that value importance in my life and career the
Dungeon because they created an environment to show me to well,
to make me feel comfortable enough to do all the
things that y'all are seeing now, Like you have to

(41:39):
have a good ground to to feel comfortable enough to
try stuff, you know. If yeah, I mean you've seen
a year, your producer, you've been in the studio, Like
you've gotten certain things out of artists when they're opening
and you know, freer than if they're you know, nervous
or you know they're scared to fuck up, you know,

(42:01):
or scared.

Speaker 2 (42:01):
To not be great.

Speaker 4 (42:02):
You know, you got to create that environment, and I
think the Dungeon created that environment for me to yeah,
for me to know how to dream like they taught me, Like, yeah,
they taught me how to get out.

Speaker 1 (42:15):
You know, what's the hidden talent that you possess that
the world doesn't know about drawing paint? You're still actively
paint right now?

Speaker 4 (42:27):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (42:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (42:29):
Are you into selling your work?

Speaker 2 (42:31):
Yes, very soon, stay tuned, very soon.

Speaker 1 (42:33):
Yeah, I want to be for because that's I collect
works from different artists.

Speaker 2 (42:37):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (42:37):
Man, So finally George Clinton gave an official piece.

Speaker 4 (42:40):
And yeah, man, I can't wait to share it because
it's a whole nother thing. And I've been I've been
sharing it a little bit, but only like on outcast CDs.

Speaker 2 (42:49):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (42:49):
Yeah, although our sketches a little quick. And that's that's
another thing that was. That was a big boy thing,
like I did it one time for the first album
and then big boys like you're gonna do another one
for the next one.

Speaker 2 (42:59):
I was like, yeah, sure, why not? So it became
a thing because he you've done all that artwork of
on the AC Yeah, that's your work. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (43:09):
And I'm I'm I call myself more of a like
a classroom drawer more than anything. I wouldn't say I'm
you know, full fledged, I'm learning how to paint now.
But yeah, I've been doing it for a while now
and I'm loving that I'm finding what. I am loving
that I'm finding my style and can't wait to share it.
But that I cook how good I have to cook it?

(43:31):
You have to tell me, Like, but people that have
had food, they enjoy it. And I really be doing
the same thing that my mom and my daddy showed me,
just recipes they showed me. So it's like Jim Salmon
Patti's and cheese grits or fried fish. My dad had
a fish shop on Riverdale Road, Okay, and my mom

(43:51):
taught me, you know, recipes. I'm only child, so I
cooked for myself a lot, so I had that skill
to do it. So okay, other talents. I can make
water noises with my mouth. Okay, you want to hear them?

Speaker 2 (44:09):
Hit me. What's the greatest cereal of all time?

Speaker 4 (44:23):
I would have to say, you gotta eat it quick
with them fruit the pebbles though.

Speaker 2 (44:29):
Like oh before yeah super sivvy.

Speaker 4 (44:32):
Yeah yeah, them fruity pebbles. Man, they something else.

Speaker 1 (44:37):
The story that you told me before we started taping
about Coachella at night one, Yeah, yeah, man, could you
share that story.

Speaker 4 (44:45):
Yeah, for sure, and it's funny for a long time.
I wouldn't sure if you know, when people pass away,
you just want to kind of respect. But I think
I think Prince would. I think he would enjoy it.
So yeah, like I don't, I don't. I've met Prince
in passing. Like when I was finishing up The Love Below.
I lived in LA and I remember being a homie

(45:06):
going out to a club on sunset, normal night, and
I go, I say, hey, I'm going to use the
bathroom and walking away use the bathroom and this big,
huge bodyguard dude comes and grabbed me, and you say, hey,
Prince is in the corner.

Speaker 2 (45:21):
He wants to meet you. And so that was my
first time meeting Prince when I got a pee.

Speaker 4 (45:27):
Man, this was making Love Below. So no, actually this
was Hey, y'all was already out. Hey, y'all was out. Yeah,
and that's the only like the whole album.

Speaker 2 (45:35):
You were just meeting him.

Speaker 4 (45:36):
No, the album had just come out. Yeah I hadn't
met him before.

Speaker 2 (45:40):
Crap.

Speaker 4 (45:41):
Yeah okay, yeah, all my friends had met him, you know,
Erica told me stories. You know, I never met him,
but so his bodyguard, I never mind you I still
got a pee, right, So I go over to this
booth and this prince and he's sitting and uh, I'm
very nervous, and he, you know, motions his hand like

(46:01):
sit down, sit down, man, you know. So I go
and sit down and I just I didn't know what
to say, and he could he could tell that I
didn't know what to say, right, so he was like,
it's all good.

Speaker 2 (46:10):
Man.

Speaker 4 (46:11):
He didn't say all good, but he was like it's
okay or something like that. He's like, it's okay. He's like,
we don't have to talk about everything now. That's what
we said. We don't have to say everything now. It's like,
you can come out to Paisley Park, you know. He
invite it in, which I've never been to Paisley Park.
But and so I'm sitting there and I didn't So
he starts talking about hey, y'all, and I didn't.

Speaker 2 (46:30):
Know if it was did that freak you out? It?
Did that?

Speaker 3 (46:33):
He knew you were alive, that.

Speaker 4 (46:35):
You existed, yes, But what he said I didn't know
how to take it. I didn't know if he was
taking a dig at.

Speaker 2 (46:40):
Me or what. Because he said, yeah, I liked that song. Hey, y'all. Man.

Speaker 4 (46:45):
He was like, I thought I was the only person
that did songs in those tempos. That's what he said
to me. And I didn't know if he was like,
take that, nigga, you know what I mean?

Speaker 2 (46:55):
You know what I mean? I didn't know how to
take it. You know, this is my hero.

Speaker 3 (46:58):
I think he considered, did you appear like I don't know?

Speaker 2 (47:02):
I don't know.

Speaker 4 (47:03):
And so naturally, the album had just come out and
we were trying to figure out what's the next single,
and so I didn't know what to say to him,
and I just said, hey, have you heard the album?
He's like, yeah, I've heard it. Then and I said, well,
what do you think the next single should be? Then
he said another Prince thing. He said in my day,
we only had one shot. So basically he was saying,

(47:27):
it don't matter now, whatever you do, it don't matter, right,
And I know how to take that either, you know,
It's like okay, okay, cool. The next time I saw Prince,
I'm I'm and it's always random. So I'm walking down
the street like close to Rodeo by myself and a
limo pulls up close to me.

Speaker 2 (47:49):
I'm not I swear to all the gods.

Speaker 4 (47:51):
Man. No, dude, every Prince story is this rand Yes,
I know because I've heard him too.

Speaker 2 (47:54):
Yes.

Speaker 4 (47:55):
And so he so this window rolls down and his
little head pops out and his prince and.

Speaker 2 (48:01):
He said, what's up man? I was like, what's up man?
You know?

Speaker 4 (48:04):
And then he was like, you heard about this something.
I can't say I remember which magazine, but they were
they opposed the thing, or we want to put you
in prints on the cover of a magazine together.

Speaker 2 (48:16):
And Prince said, you heard about that. Uh.

Speaker 4 (48:19):
I don't know if a rap paid, I don't know
what complex. I have no idea which magazine was, but
I was like, yeah, I heard about it. And I
was asking him like what do you what do you think?
And he said don't let them do you like that?

Speaker 2 (48:32):
Yeah? And I still.

Speaker 4 (48:36):
Like, I don't know, but but now, like in retrospect,
I think what he meant was don't let them boil
you down to being next to me, right, you know
what I mean. That's that's what I got from it, Like,
you know, you know what I mean, and people will
try to put you in them boxes, you know what

(48:56):
I mean? And I respected that from him. You know
what I mean, he was like, you're more than whatever
people are saying, you know what I mean, And that's
what I that's what I took. So so fast forward.
I hadn't talked to him and seen him that whole time.
Big Boy done toured ten years, So we have this
Coachella opportunities outcast twenty years.

Speaker 1 (49:16):
Wait, you must really be off the radar because Prince
is super like I will see him in the most
random situations.

Speaker 2 (49:24):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (49:24):
So you're saying ten years went by before you saw
him again.

Speaker 2 (49:27):
Yeah, I think it was seven to ten years. Damn.

Speaker 4 (49:30):
Okay. I'd moved from LA too, so I only saw
him in LA. I think he was hanging out right
here a lot. So the Coachella opportunity comes up, I
was kind of like whatever about it, Like you know,
I was there were certain times I didn't even remember
my raps, you know, I was kind of all right, whatever,
let's go.

Speaker 2 (49:48):
I hadn't do it.

Speaker 4 (49:50):
So the first night of the first weekend of Coachella,
nerves like I hadn't been on stage, you know what
I mean, Like, that's not my normal every day anymore.
Big Boy does it every night, so this is normal
to him. So I'm coming out the dressing room. They
start the show. I'm walking to the stage and I
see Paul McCartney. Wow, no, walk to the left side

(50:14):
of the stage and sit. I saw Prince walk to
the right side of the stage, and.

Speaker 5 (50:21):
Oh god, I'm sorry. And you see what I'm saying.
Tyler the creator just met us backstage. Tyler is new,
He's sorry. We were talking. He came backstage. We tripping.
I'm nervous as fuck. I'm walking to the stage and

(50:42):
I see these gods standing on both sides of the stage.

Speaker 2 (50:47):
Mind you.

Speaker 4 (50:48):
My whole career, I've never used in ears. You know,
the monitors. We always just worked out for whatever speaker
was on stage. My first time ever using in the ears,
and they're acting up, so they're clipping out. I'm him
people voices I don't even know talking in my ear.
I'm like, what the fuck? So it was a disaster
to me, Like I was trying to get through it.
I didn't know how to do it anymore, Like it

(51:10):
was just a new awakening for an old thing that
I used to do.

Speaker 2 (51:14):
So halfway through the show.

Speaker 4 (51:17):
I'm checked out, Like I'm already just trying to get
through it.

Speaker 2 (51:20):
I'm just trying to get through the night. You know,
I'm already in my bed.

Speaker 4 (51:25):
So as soon as I walked off stage, I went
home and went straight to sleep. When you crash, you
go straight to sleep, like it's like a bad night.
So you just let me go to sleep and you know,
wake up in the morning. So when I woke up
and I'm driving back to LA, my manager called and said, hey,
Prince wants to talk to you. So he calls. I

(51:46):
don't know where he got the number from. Yeah, he
should work for like the secret Service, right exactly. But
he calls and it's Prince on the phone. I'm like, hey, man,
I'm like, you know, I don't even know, like I
got prints on the fucking phone, right. First thing he says,
he says, you know what your problem is? He digs,

(52:09):
he goes in straight like that. He said, you don't
understand how big y'all are. And of course I'm telling
him my sob story, like, yeah, man, you know, I
ain't really been wanting to do it anymore, like I
don't like doing old.

Speaker 2 (52:23):
So he was like, and this is him.

Speaker 4 (52:26):
He's saying, I've been there, man, like I know exactly
what you mean, I've been there where I don't want
to do those songs.

Speaker 2 (52:31):
Blah blah blah. But he said, but you're a grown man.

Speaker 4 (52:37):
You signed up to do these shows, so do them.

Speaker 2 (52:42):
Just like that.

Speaker 4 (52:43):
And so that conversation made me have to re figure
out how can I make these shows exciting to me?
You know, how can I be in it? And that's
when the idea to try to put messages on my
uniform every night where That's what got me excited.

Speaker 3 (52:58):
Where are those uniforms.

Speaker 2 (53:00):
We have them in storage, all of them, all of them.

Speaker 4 (53:03):
So my biggest excitement of that tour was figuring out
what I was going to say that night, because I
was trying to say something new, like I love I mean,
here's my thing. I love the blessing of the songs
that we've been given. I don't like performing old songs, really,
I just I just don't because I'm in a whole
nother space and I have to kind of get back
and remember what that felt like to do that, and

(53:24):
I don't necessarily like doing that. It's almost like playing
dress up to an eighth grade picture that you saw
and now you're trying to rebe that person again. And
so I was trying to figure out how do I
make this exciting this tour, and so the messages on
the suits were just fun to me. It was just hilarious.

(53:46):
What can I do to make it fun? That's that's
how I got through it. And that gave me something,
an entry way to make this exciting and that's.

Speaker 2 (53:57):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (53:57):
Oh oh.

Speaker 2 (53:58):
But but back to back to Prince another thing.

Speaker 4 (54:00):
So when I was telling him about, you know, how
I felt, and he was like, yeah, I've been there.

Speaker 2 (54:07):
I've been there. He's like, but you got to do
these shows.

Speaker 4 (54:09):
You're grown man. And then he said, oh oh, so
back when he was like, you got to remind people
who you are. It's like when you've been gone for
a long time, you have to remind people who you
are every time. He's like, you got to do that first.
This is him telling me, like, you got to do
that first, and then you can do whatever. He actually said,

(54:30):
if you remind people what you do first, you can
shave off all your hair and tell them to do
it and they will do it. This is what this is.
These are his words, and he said, I learned that
from Mary J.

Speaker 2 (54:39):
Blige.

Speaker 4 (54:40):
This is Prince telling me I toured I did a
couple of shows with her, and I'm trying to do
all this new stuff and she's doing what people know.
And he said, I learned that from Mary, to give
the people what they want first, then you can do
whatever you want after that. And him trying to, I guess,
plead his case about reminding people who y'all are. He

(55:02):
started naming artists and I won't name the names because
I don't think it's about these names. But he was like,
this person, this person, this person. None of these people
would be here if it wasn't for y'all. And you
have to remember that, and you have to remind people
of that all the time. So and then he said,

(55:22):
and this is I guess the musician. And he was like,
and why you didn't play your guitar on hey y'all
on stage? Why you didn't do it? I was like,
I'm not like a great guitarist or anything.

Speaker 2 (55:31):
You know. It's like, I know how to play a
couple of chords. He's like, but you're good enough. You
should have played it. So, you know, he digging it.

Speaker 4 (55:37):
And then I didn't tell everybody at the time because
I wanted to keep the momentum together. But he totally
dissed our band. Right, Yeah, He's like, and what's up
with that fucking band? This is Prince saying, what's up
with that fucking band? And at that point I was like, ah, man,
you know, I really didn't want a band, you know,
I was trying to find a new way to be
modern looking on stage or something like that. Anyway, I said,

(55:59):
but you know, I'm in a group, and you know,
we have to be fair about decisions, and I'm telling
Prince about my inner you know, right, and a decision
with me and Big, you know, Big like I want
the band, the band, you know, shit, that's you know,
these are folks who support our band, which I'm with
on that, but I wanted to do something new. But
we are together in this thing, so we had we

(56:21):
made decisions to do the band, and it was our
first night, so we're trying to get as tight as
we can be. But anyway, he was like, what's up
with that band? They sound horrible?

Speaker 2 (56:30):
Yeah that's all I remember from that conversation.

Speaker 1 (56:32):
But yeah, brother, you know, I just want to say
that I've been a long time, long, long, long.

Speaker 2 (56:40):
Time fan of yours.

Speaker 1 (56:42):
One of my prime career regrets in the in the
early start is that we never got to shop it
up or or like work together.

Speaker 2 (56:52):
Then in the.

Speaker 1 (56:55):
What I call the fossil years, we started our careers
thirty years ago, folks. But man, you know, but you're
an inspiration in terms of like pushing boundaries because you
know a lot of us are walking out here sort
of mired and self doubt, you know, thinking of survival first.

(57:16):
All right, I gotta get I gotta bring this money
in so I can, you know, help my mom out,
and obligations and stuff like that. And we never allow
ourselves to like break free and dream and take risks
and do these things. And you know, you've proven time
and time again that there is a payoff when you

(57:36):
do listen to your heart.

Speaker 3 (57:38):
And I'm a brain person.

Speaker 1 (57:40):
I used to be a brain person where I'm always
thinking of fight or flight survival first, that sort of thing,
and not what.

Speaker 2 (57:46):
Do I really feel? And yeah, man, with New Blue Man.

Speaker 1 (57:49):
Dude, it couldn't have come at a better time in
my life because that's the type of music I always
listen to just to calm down. Just a twenty four
to seven, that's all I listened to. It listen like
tones and all those things.

Speaker 2 (58:03):
Man. So no, man, thank you man.

Speaker 4 (58:05):
I'm glad that it's useful for you. Man, Like I'm
just happy to be a part of that this time.

Speaker 2 (58:13):
You know what I mean?

Speaker 4 (58:13):
You said an attention and you never know where it's
gonna land. Like my idea of what people are calling
the Flute album, which I think it's I think it
belittles it to call it a flute album, you know
what I mean, It's not just a flute. I do
play flute on it a bit. I play electronic flute
on it. But it's it's just it's just music, man,
It's just music.

Speaker 1 (58:33):
But can I ask you something, Have you heard from
Stevie Wonder yet? Because no, I haven't. To me, this
reminds me so my father and I, our bond was
always been shopping records. I grew up in a household
like three thousand records. So once a month we just
go been chopping everything. And one day in nineteen seventy nine,

(58:58):
he comes home with Stevie Wonder's Journey through the Secret
Life of Plants album, which is like a three year
follow up to Songs in the Key of Life. Songs
in the Key of life was like one of those
events like Thriller. You know, everyone had to have it
in the household, and we're listening to it together as
a family.

Speaker 3 (59:15):
Brought the family together, and so.

Speaker 1 (59:17):
We're waiting three years for this follow up record and
the look of utter disappointment on my dad's face where
he's like Stevie Wonder doesn't even sing until like the
fourth song and he couldn't get it. Now, I'm eight
years old and seventy nine, so I've never had a

(59:38):
Dark Side of the Moon psychedelic experience. So for me,
I'm putting my headphones on and I'm like imagine in
space and all these things. So I totally took that
record different. I think that for a new generation that
this is going to be that for them. Like for me,
I use it for meditative and sleeping purposes.

Speaker 2 (01:00:00):
Because I've heard a lot of that. Man, Like I.

Speaker 1 (01:00:02):
Used to sleep to the news, especially with the past administration,
and it's just unhealthy to have that.

Speaker 3 (01:00:12):
On like twenty four to seven and all that bad news.

Speaker 1 (01:00:14):
So then I started sleeping to that and when you're soundtrack,
oh man, that to me, that was everything.

Speaker 2 (01:00:21):
So I thank you for that. Man.

Speaker 4 (01:00:22):
Man, I'm so happy that you're finding use and people
are finding use in it, like it's it's become a
thing that people are actually using, like it's a tool,
like I have.

Speaker 2 (01:00:33):
To be in traffic.

Speaker 4 (01:00:33):
So I put this album on, and I'm not mad anymore,
you know, Like, so I'm happy that I'm a part
of something that can contribute positively.

Speaker 2 (01:00:43):
To somebody's life, you know what I mean.

Speaker 4 (01:00:45):
Like, and the sleep thing is really important because I've
read like a lot of people like man, I don't
really sleep, and I've gotten the best sleep in the
last three days after listening to the album. So to me,
I'm just happy that it's it's working in that in
that way too, and not just on a you know,
Oh this is a moment and he's a rapper and
he made this flute thing, you know, like beyond that,

(01:01:07):
you know, And I'm kind of I'm upset that people
are upset, but I understand because if you've been waiting
for a thing for seventeen years, which I haven't been
waiting for a thing, that's the that's the difference. I've
never said, hey, I'm about to put the solo albm ount,
Hey I'm about to put this solo albm ount, But
I didn't do that for seventeen years, so I didn't

(01:01:28):
see it the same as like when I put it out,
I forgot, oh it has been seventeen years, so I
didn't see it as hey, fuck y'all listen to this.

Speaker 2 (01:01:36):
I just saw this. This is where I am right now.

Speaker 4 (01:01:38):
You know, put it out, I didn't think that it
would have as wide of wings as it's had.

Speaker 2 (01:01:48):
Are I'm happy for it?

Speaker 1 (01:01:49):
Are you planning on the visual aspect of it now?
Are you trying to figure out how to present this live?
Either by film or some sort like what salons used
to do take over museums and.

Speaker 4 (01:02:02):
Both both both We we did shoot a film to
it that's going to be playing mid December, very simple
kind of thing. It's gonna be an IMAX theaters, so
you'll have a visual to it. But live, man like,
that's what I'm really looking forward to, because that's honestly,
that's the kind of jew and the magic in it.

(01:02:22):
It's kind of like the feeding off of each other
and making that thing, you know, it's kind of like
watching a formation like and we don't know, especially I'm
not a trained musician, so it's even more surprising to
me when a note comes out or something falls a
certain way, you're like when right, and you don't and
you don't know it, Like I don't know like music

(01:02:45):
theory wise to make something land. I only know how
to land because I jumped up before it, you know
what I mean. So that's that's the only way that
I know. So doing it live and actually doing music
with these brothers, like that's the fun and out and
I can't wait for people to experience in a room
watching us do it do it, you know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (01:03:06):
So that's yeah, that's what I'm looking forward to.

Speaker 1 (01:03:09):
Well, let's have it, ladies and gentlemen on behalf of
my fellow Quest Love Supremes Layah and Fonteglo and Humpey
Bill and it's your birthday to day as we do this.

Speaker 5 (01:03:19):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (01:03:19):
Shout to Brian and cousin Jake.

Speaker 3 (01:03:21):
And Brittany as well on the home front.

Speaker 2 (01:03:23):
Uh. Once again the Great Andre three thousand on Quest
Love Supreme.

Speaker 3 (01:03:28):
Uh and we'll see you in the next go round.
Thank you, brother.

Speaker 2 (01:03:30):
Apreate now, thank you man, appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (01:03:34):
Thank you for listening to Quest Love Supreme hosted by
Amir Quest Love, Thompson, Why You Saying, Claire Fonte, Coleman, Sugar,
Steve Mandell, and unpaid Bill Sherman. The executive producers are
a mere Quest, Loved Thompson, Sean che.

Speaker 2 (01:03:54):
And Brian Calhoun.

Speaker 1 (01:03:56):
Produced by Brittany Benjamin Cousin, Jake Payne, Liiah Saint Clair,
edited by Alex Conroy. Produced by iHeart by Noel Brown
and Mike Johnson.

Speaker 2 (01:04:11):
This episode was engineered by Trevor Young. What's Love Supreme
is a production of iHeart Radio.

Speaker 1 (01:04:25):
For more podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.