Monica Lynch Pt. 1

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Quest Love Supreme is a production of I Heart Radio.
Up Ladies and Gentlemen. Another episode of Quest Love Supreme
is upon us very happy day to day here with
my family, my team supremus. How you guys doing? What up?

(00:21):
What up? The way that we are progressing? Uh in
the world. It's only a matter of time before we
can act take our theme song back something I I
think to the tonight would have been a good night
for tales from the lad quarter. And uh think tonight
see our our guest, you'll she just had some some

(00:44):
we we just might have to encircles things. I'm here
with Team Supreme. Uh, here with almighty unpaid Bill making
me oh hey when I'm wait, I'm paid Bill? Are
you part of in conto at all? Like? Is that
any of your music? No? No, I'm friends, that's not

(01:04):
hitting Bruno. No, I wish I was, honestly, my my, my,
my bank wishes that I was know something about Bruno.
But I don't talk about him or anyone I have. No.
I have nothing to do with Bruno. I wish I did, though,
man like ten weeks at number one or some shi
it like, I wish it's still number one, right, Yeah,
like you know Lin Manuell is gonna mess around and

(01:27):
and might beat boys. Demn m marai carry. Is that
still the longest number one? Number one? Okay? I mean
I'm from the old school sound scan so you know,
or whatever method they use now to Yeah, this new
math don't count like we come from an Arab motherfucker's

(01:47):
at the lead a house to buy it exactly exactly,
That's an exact that was the way we did. Okay,
I'm sorry because is you know she's uh, she's and
how are you doing? Like I'm doing amazing for this,
uh man, this whole gas situation. But I'm good. I'm good.

(02:07):
I'm good. I'm good. I'm good. I'm good. I'm good.
What's what's gas looking like in in l A right now? Well,
it's funny you asked that my rich friend. Uh currently
gas in Los Angeles is six dollars. We are at
about five nineties something. Yeah, weird, like it was like
four dollars out here, y'all got I am legend gas
prices out there. Wait a minute, this is something fante.

(02:30):
Do you drive? Oh? Yeah, this is the question we
never I spent five years, but I just don't I
can't see kind of like, what what kind of car
do you have? Um? I had a Lexus um r
X three fifty. Um, that sounds swanky, Okay, it's yeah.
I mean, hey, it's paid for. I ain't buying another car,

(02:52):
So you can write it out all right. I want
I want FaceTime Fante while he was in his car
outside of the chicken shop. I believe it is what happened?
Do you have like a cigarette hanging out of his
mouth with just one hand on the wheel. No, I
just have to do it like Dame Dash and painting
for Yeah, I have my black father. You know, just
get something, You get home, and you pull up in

(03:14):
the driveway and you just sit there for about an
indeterminate amount of time. Am I the only I don't know?
This's a t of my moment? Am I the only
one that sometimes this has to sit in the car
for ten minutes just so you could brace itself for
whatever is waiting for you. You're not alone. So that's
universal talk. Oh yeah, straight up, Okay, I'm still happy

(03:37):
with my relationship. Yea, I was just asking for a friend, Steve.
How are you doing? I'm good a man? Any anything
interesting happened in the network or you know, oh gosh,
I mean you know, Um, I didn't anticipate you ask
me that question. So okay, well let me just start again.
How are you doing, Steve? I didn't anticipate you ask

(03:58):
me that either, so I don't know what ladies and
gentlemen all right, So and uh I'm I'm I'm winging this.
So I'm trying to keep it real sistinct because I
realized that our guests hasn't spoken a word yet because
I didn't address her or all right, I know, I know.
So look when when cats, when when dudes my age
um start reminiscing about you know, quote unquote the good

(04:21):
old days or real hip hop or true school or
whatever we say, um, our guest name should ring familiar.
I think that the thing about well, the thing is
is that even though I've never read an interview or
seeing a television interview, heard it a radio interview on

(04:42):
the radio, or even exchange any sort of casual banter
with our guests or even d M crept my way
into a friendship or relationship. Um, which is I know
that made I made that sound weird, but you know,
d M creeping you're way into free friendships is kind
of real. Like I can actually say that I'm genuine

(05:03):
friends with like Henry Winkler and Morgan Fairchild just from
dem Creeping, which kind of weird. I'm also friends with
Tasty Cake Steve wait wait wait wait, like friends with
with with non human entities on Twitter. But Morgan Fairchild, dude,
it's so random. She started like it, like she started

(05:25):
liking a whole bunch of my tweets and then we're
we're actually BFFs, like like, hey, when you're in town,
let's go to dinner. I mean, I haven't done it yet,
but I think I'm down with Morgan Fairchild. You Oh
my gosh, I know, like the eight year old news
kind of like happy right now? Right, I'm thrilled. I know,

(05:46):
I know, manor because like, how is this gonna relate
to me? All right? My whole point is that, um,
you know, I don't exactly have a relationship with our
guest on the show, having grown up in the age
of hip hop, where you know, transition from twelve inch
uh and singles to LPs and I'm part of the

(06:09):
generation that lived for liner notes and seeing who did what? Um,
Our next guest name should ring familiar to hip hop
heads because she was literally president of one of the
most powerful labels of the genre. And I don't even
want to limit it to hip hop because you know,
I mean, Tommy Boy had hits from club hits to

(06:32):
pop music to freestyle too. I could name him a
delas Soul Coolio Digital Underground Force and DS House of
Paying Club, Nouveaux K seven LFO Information Society, and already
by nature the Rizza back when he was Prince rockin
uh Rue, Paul Queen Latifa, the original hip hop bands.

(06:55):
That's a sonic. Um, y'all, y'all really have to understand that,
uh the muscle that this label operated with probably the
the only other rival label that can even say that
they held that same space was probably def Jam. So,
ladies and gentlemen, the very legendary president or former president,

(07:16):
Tommy Boy, the one and only Monica Lynch, thank you.
I'm doing great, And I really appreciated the conversation about
gas prices because now that I'm sixty five, gas price
means a whole different thing. Um, I've never driven, I

(07:39):
don't drive. I just gotta match yer, say, what's the
gas situation. I'm like, let me look at my medicine
cabinet gas. Wait, you're you're telling me you never had
your license or you never owned a car. I off

(08:00):
my license, but I only use it for I D
And the only car I ever drove was a gold
Cadillac with power windows at my father owned back in
like the early seventies. So the die was cast at
a young age. So this is definitely going to lead
to my first question, warp part. Well, I don't know,

(08:20):
were you a natural born New Yorker or Chicago from Yeah, Chicago.
I'm sixty five, I'm from Chicago. I grew up there. Yeah, well,
you know, I grew up there and I was, you know,
really weaned on Top forty radio when it was still
a hugely amazing thing in the late sixties. Heard all

(08:44):
the great great pop songs from that era, and back then,
you know, blues was definitely still a big thing in Chicago,
but it was mostly I would say a lot of
white guys. They were checking the blues back in that scene.
You know, Paul Butterfiel Blues Band, the Electric Blues, Yeah right,
yeah exactly. And then I started got into the disco scene.

(09:08):
It was a big disco dancer, hustle contests. Was a
dancer at the big gay bar in Chicago, which was
sort of like a it was the Studio fifty four
of Chicago. Then I was in a punk band and
we worked at a punk club and did all sorts
of things before I came to New York in night, so, um,
you got history. What was your first musical memory? My

(09:32):
first musical memory was listening to my parents records, uh
in the basement. Um. And they of course had the
sort of records that you would find in the sixties
and a lot of collections. It was everything from Nicholson
May to My Fair Lady Soundtrack to uh, you know,
her Balbert and the Tijuana Brass, that sort of thing.

(09:54):
I had a big crush on her Balbert back then.
And I got my first record player the same year
that Rubber Soult came out. That was the first record
I ever owned, was Rubber Soul. That would be no,
I think it was a little earlier. I think, well, yeah,
maybe sixty four sixty five was Rubber sol I think, yeah, wow,
that's cool. So would you like, did you have any

(10:18):
ambitions or goals to be in the music industry or
did it sort of find you as you became an adult.
I had no ambitions, no goals. Um, I just loved music.
I was like I used to buy forty fives all
the time. I don't know if you remember that there
was something called the Phonologue, this huge like yellow paperback

(10:43):
compendium that you could go and do special orders of
forty five record stores back then. Do you remember that? Well? Yeah,
when I shot at specialty stores. Now they it looks
like the Yellow Pages, like it's just a masterless So, uh,
what was the spot we used to stop at in Philly?
Steve valve v. Yeah, so like you go to val

(11:09):
Shively and you know, next to Jerry's Rest in peace
to Jerry's who just passed away like a month ago whatever.
Like those specialty record stores, like record stores that have
over one hundred thousand records in stock, they still have
those books there. So you didn't work at a record store.
So how would you get access to those records or

(11:31):
how would you get access to that book? Well, I
was always listening to the top forty stations in Chicago,
w l S and w CFL, and I would go
down to the Marina City, those two buildings that look
like corn cobs in Chicago, and that's where w l
S was and I was a kid. I would just
take the L train down there and you could stand

(11:52):
in the lobby and watch the DJ on the air,
and they would have these little surveys that they would
give you a the top forty records for the week.
I know this is really kind of going back like
a rocker, but I figure you probably know, literally the
show is based on long winded rabbit hole. The whole

(12:12):
point is to get me to not talk so good. Well, so, anyway,
so I started, you know, really saying, oh, I want
a special order these records because I can't find them
at E J. Corvettes or Montgomery Rewards or something. And
so back then, as you know, there were always like
these great independently owned records stores and you could go

(12:33):
there and if you struck up a good relationship with
the owner or a clerk, it was a tremendous source
of knowledge that was passed along and you could special
order these things and just basically loiter in the store
and learn a lot. And that in fact, you know,
we could talk about that in the hip hop era

(12:54):
is being a big thing here in New York and
other places. But no, I came here, you know, I
always I came here with you know, on a dollar
and a dream, no plans except to go to Studio
fifty four. And I landed in New York during the
time when it was sort of like the uh, the
perfect nexus of punk and disco and no wave was

(13:16):
happening and sort of the downtown arts scene and all
that stuff that people lionized so much. But it was
a great time to be in New York because it
really was cheap and um. I lived on St. Mark's
Place between Second and Third, which was basically like the
main runway for you know, people would get up at

(13:38):
two three in the afternoon and then sit out on
the stoop to watch so and so, uh, you know,
Richard Hell come down the street to cop is Dope
or whatever you know it was. And I wouldn't say
except it's ginger like now it's expensive property, but back
then it was she was something to behold. And yeah,

(14:00):
and there was this woman named Anya Phillips who was
sort of the one of the co founders of the
Mud Club, and she was really sort of a downtown Doyenne.
She was a girlfriend of James White or James Chance,
you know, contortions, and she uh sat me down one day.
She's very stern, serving a dominatrix sort the way. He said,

(14:22):
you're gonna be a topless dancer and I'm gonna make
g strings for you. Because I had no money, and
as I said, okay, sounds like a plan. And I
went to this place called the Go Go Agency. And
I've recounted this tale many times, but there was a
guy there named Johnny and it was like a scene
out of Broadway Danny Rose. And you walk up the

(14:43):
stairs in this Midtown building and there's these big boards
and it lists all the topless bars and all five boroughs.
And he would assign you, you know, he was an agent. Yeah,
and so he would send me out to places and
queens like the Carousel, or this place up in the
Bronx called the Slice, or there was a place over

(15:07):
in the meatpacking district when it was still a meat
packing district that you work, you do these and a
lot of stuff in Midtown because you got a lot
of had a lot of customers in Midtown back then.
But but yeah, it was I gotta ask, so I
you know my my era of I say, I'm part

(15:28):
of the deaf leopard generation where there's no time where
I'm not entered a strip club where they forced you
to listen to pour some sugar on me, except for Atlanta,
except for Atlanta. But back then, like would you have
to feed the forty five jukebox? Or was there or
was it like it is now, like welcome to the stage.

(15:52):
I wish I had an m C. Welcoming to the stage.
It wasn't quite that grand. I was gonna ask if
you had a number, a number plume? Did you? Did
you have a yes? What's your name? It was Mr
Smanique And this was all served in the late seventies,

(16:14):
you know. So the type of records that you were hearing,
I mean, if I hear you know, ring my bell
one more time, it's that was sort of like that
was your per me. It was like it was the
poursome sugar of me of v totally um, you know.
But if it was disco, you know, because it was
sorta it was sort of like when disco it kind

(16:36):
of peaked and it was much more like these mechanical
type of records, which not that I'm mad at that,
but it was those type of records. Ring my Bell
seems to be the one that always comes back to
me in my dreams. But I worked at had what
I call extended residencies at show World, which you might

(16:58):
be might remember that, uh and peep Land, which was
also a big player on the on the Deuce back then. Um,
but yeah, it was steady money, um, good money. I
made cleared fift dollars a week at the peak. Okay,
I gotta ask the question, so is this all right?
You remember how it wasn't Papa, don't preach like open

(17:21):
your heart. Was it like you sat in a booth
and you inserted a coin and the thing went up
and you yeah, does that type of strip clubs still
exist or is that like a thing of the past.
Now it's called only fans. No, we need somewhere like

(17:42):
oh man, No, it was Hey, these only fans chicks.
I think they were pretty smart. They're much more entrepreneurial.
I mean back then I got hired and well, like
to say, for example, the show World, my boss's name
was a woman named Thunder and she had huge red hair.
She was like Bensonhurst type of gal and the place

(18:03):
was owned by a guy who died recently, but it
was a lot mob owned. It was who was there
was one of the big mob characters that Frankie the horse,
I n Ello, there was the guy who ran the
whole is named after an animal. Then you know that's bad.
That's right, that's right. So you know they paid you
a flat feet but you made your money. You really

(18:25):
made your money by getting these guys to keep putting
the coins in and keep the window going up. So
I would sit on one side and then there'd be
the curtain, the metal curtain, and the guys will be
on the other side, and a lot of we had
a lot of Hasidic customers. Um, then that whole thing

(18:45):
is let's get into it, let's talk about about But
you know it's because it's such a repressed, sexually repressed culture.
I think you'd get a lot uh in in the
peep shows. All right, I'm gonna go there, I'm gonna
go there, go there. What happens on the eyes side
of the booth though, Like, well, is there a clean
up afterwards? Like? Oh yes, there is? Mob Patrol's first,

(19:13):
that's right. If when you walk into the place, you
give them cash, and they give you these tokens, and
the tokens are what allows you to go to the
Boost or to watch a Peep movie or things like that. Um,
they were. They also had live sex shows at show World.
I didn't do that there, but they had. Um. But yeah,

(19:34):
the idea was to keep on putting the money in.
So these were these were skills I was able to
apply to the music industry not too long afterwards. Yeah,
you said you didn't do the lives you're there? Did
you do it somewhere else? Leave it alone? You have to.
You'll have to ask me back. As I guess theory.

(19:54):
To answer the second part of the question, I hear
a longtime New York residents like begging for the time
when Old new York returns. Is this what they're talking about? Uh? Yeah,
I mean there's a lot of romanticizing about dirty New
York of the seventies. I mean literally, the summer I

(20:18):
got there is when they let out a lot of
people with mental health issues onto the street. They just
dumped them on the street. There was a huge garbage strike.
There had been a big blackout in seven as the
Tramps told us about, and there was Uh, you know
it was. It was definitely grungy and dirty. And people

(20:40):
like to say, oh, wasn't it great back then because
it attracted all these you know, creative people and blah
blah blah. Uh, but I don't really get all. I mean,
I like to recount the stories about that, but I
wouldn't want it to go back to that, uh necessarily,
so you like Post or Disney Giuliani era a little better.

(21:07):
I think I've shared this on the show once before,
like the first day that we arrived in New York,
when the roots like really first came to New York
to start mixing. Do you want more? I believe like
in December of ninety three was pretty much like I
think the day that whatever. I Okay, maybe I've been

(21:27):
on forty two Street once or twice in my life,
Like I know we went to go see The Whiz,
but I don't remember that much at the age of seven,
but you know, I do remember us going on forty
two Street near our hotel and like Rich like my
manager whatnot, being really disappointed that streets disnified and not

(21:49):
the CD you know, New York that he remembers. And
I remember like people telling us like that week is
when the transformation started and everybody was pissed at it.
So hey, it's nice to be able to be old
enough to to look back at it and to remember
it as it was back then. But I'm not getting

(22:10):
all tears in my beer over you know. Hey, that's perfect.
I wish it was bad, you know, so club wise,
you know, I've been trying to get another downtown New
York diva that made a billion dollar career for yourself
on this show, but that hasn't happened yet. So I
guess you are really our first witness to that era,

(22:35):
can you assuming that by this time you're watching hip
hop culture creep into downtown? First of all, like, did
you go north of the Bronx to any of the
what was known as the classic eras of hip hop,
like whatever, the Fever or any of those clubs way north? Uh? Yeah,
I mean I've been to the Fever course, no sal

(22:59):
from back then? Um t Connection Um. Actually, you know
a funny thing was I ended up bringing Martin Scoresse
to the Tea Connection one night to hear Bambat to
play um. And there was sort of an odd set
of circumstances but you know, yeah, he knew he describe it.

(23:21):
We were they wait, what era of Raging Bull King
of Comedy? What era do you This would have been
circa eight two eighty three, so you tell me all. Yeah,
and um, he was friends with this guy named Jay Cox,
who was the film at film critic at Time magazine,
who was related to Tom Silverman, and somehow there was

(23:45):
a conversation, Oh, Marty would really love to go up
and check out this hip hop thing, and blah blah blah,
and and you know, I was like, hey, be happy
to show him and you know, take him up there.
And so there's a car service, which back that, you know,
it was a rare thing for maybe have any car
service every thing. But we went up to a tea connection.

(24:06):
He was pretty quiet, you know, I think he was
just checking it out, observing, and you know, the Time
magazine ended up doing a big story about sort of
the emerging hip hop scene back then. But but yeah,
I used to go to, uh, some of the places uptown,
but more frequently I would go to every Friday night

(24:27):
I was I We went to the Grille when that
was having been cool. Lady Blue, you know, had started
doing her nights at the Grille, and then I would
always go to UM the Roxy on Friday night, and
then following the Rocks, he would head up a few
blocks and go to UM the Fun House. I was

(24:48):
very friendly with jelly Bean and would hang out with
him a lot. Yes, so those and then the Dance
of course, Dance Materia was a really great play uh
to hang out in. And and you know before that,
it was like Studio fifty four and the Mud Club.
We're staples for me, but you know, but yeah, Union

(25:09):
Squares was a place I went to a lot and
uh Amazon Hotel that was a big place. Um Patrick
Moxy had pay Day. I don't know, that was a
big one day. Lis Soul did a big premiere uh
performance there and Um, I didn't really hang out at

(25:31):
Latin Quarters that much. I left that to Dante and
but but yeah, those were the those were the big
clubs that were sort of happening back then. Yeah, the
lure of or the uh yeah, the foclore of Studio
fifty four, like assuming that it really started to rise
in seventy seven, when when did it peak? Even though

(25:53):
I've heard Studio fifty four stories like in four like
in the half first half of the eighties, like when
did the allure of Studio fifty four died down? And
when did it become Was it ever uncol to go there? Yes,
it was uncool to go there after it closed and
then it reopened. Um, I would say it peaked in

(26:16):
seventy nine. It burned fast and hard, and it's extinguished
pretty quickly, I think that. But you know, just i'd
say by eighty you know, were you have you ever
went there at its peak? When oh yeah, yeah, even
she couldn't get in even though they had like the
number one song on the charts, Like oh yeah, no,
I literally, you know, laughed that I you know that

(26:37):
that I landed at Laguardi Airport and proceeded straight to
Studio fifty four. But then it's not it's an exaggeration,
but literally I was like a homing pigeon. I have
to go to my spiritual home of Studio fifty four.
And you know, back then, so this is in April
of seventy eight, and back then, you know, you had

(26:58):
all the you know, Han von Furisenberg and war Hall
and lies in, all these people you know as Razzle Dazzle,
But there was always this, Uh, they always let in
a group of young kids that if you were dressed
interestingly enough and added youthful flavor to the crowd, you'd

(27:18):
stand outside for a little while and Mark Bannicky, who
was the doorman, who would stand on this perch in
a huge Normacamali red cocoon coat, would you know, sort
of look around and act like, you know, he saw
us out the crowd. I've always had a strategy, though.

(27:38):
My strategy was to take the subway up to as
close as a possible to eight and then take a
cab from the corner to directly in front of Studio
fifty four, which could take anywhere from thirty to forty
five minutes because the street was already always packed. But
the trick was that split second when the cab door opens.

(28:00):
Mark Bennicky is always looking to see who's getting out
of cars because it could be Truman cabode, you know,
but he would at least register you, so you know,
I spend whatever cents on the subway another maybe four blocks,
just going half a block and a tactually to make
sure to get in. See now, Roger should have learned that, listen. Yes,

(28:25):
he had also been white but you know, oh yeah,
well listen, there is there's no question about that. But yeah, no,
it was not a democracy. It was far from it.
So yeah, the peak. So once that peaks are you

(28:45):
would you say that Paradise Garage replaced it? Or then
what was your like what replaced Studio fifty four? As okay,
that's not cool, no more, let's go to this spot,
you know what, it wasn't an either or I mean
there's a lot of stuff going on the Simultaneously. There
was a place called ras that was very popular. There

(29:06):
was a place called the Continental Bath, I mean not
the Continental Bands. That's another place, the Continental Club. There
was dance Interia, there was a mud club, there's a
a cv GPS was still you know, it was very
big still back then. And then there was of course
places like Xenon, which was sort of like the poor
relation to Studio fifty four. You know, you couldn't get

(29:28):
into Studio fifty four you would go to Zenan. And
then there was also um, what's that sex club? What's it?
Sex club that everyone went to, the Swingers Club. I
forget the name of it. It was very poper hey son.
But you know what in my mind right now. So

(29:50):
it eluded him. This is why we have guests on
the show. I'm trying to you know, I was going
up there, but at this rate I was doing old duops.
Was like, I didn't see this part of New York. Well,
you know, I mean, you know you certainly have Vinceletti's
uh Disco Files. Yes, I think the Disco Files book

(30:12):
is a really great lay of the land. Okay, the
clubs that were happening and when they were happening, because
it didn't just like jump from Studio fifty four to say,
Paradise Crash and Paradise Garrash was such a different There
might have been some overlap, but it was a very
different vibe, very different crowd. I was not a member
of Paradise Squash. I did go there on many occasions,

(30:35):
but you had to it was he had to reach
out to the guy. Um it was at Richard Brody
I think was the name of the guy that owned
the club and get get on the guest list for
the night and all. It was too hard to get it. Okay,
well you have to be a you know, as a
membership club. Question before your record label days, were you

(30:57):
seeing any bands or artists like forming clubs or were
you strictly just like a club kid listening to DJs?
You know, I was actually more interested in the DJ's
to tell you the UM and I still am um
the I mean, yeah, I see these shows and everything,

(31:18):
but I didn't have I never had the same fervor
about seeing live concerts except for Roxy Music and I'm
a rock total Roxy music geek fan. Love Brian Ferry,
like going back to mid seventies, but so that was
oh and I was also loved to go see Bowie
and LaBelle. LaBelle was a definitely appointment, you know. That

(31:43):
was like a big deal to go to LaBelle shows
back in the seventies. Were you there for their infamous
where I think they did something at the Lincoln Center
where everyone had to wear something silver? Oh yeah, no, no, no, yes,
that was the Chameleon Tour, I believe, yes, and with

(32:05):
all the costumes that were by Larry Legaspi, the late
Larry Legaspi, who's being um, there's a big book that
um uh Rick Owens is doing a tribute to Larry Legaspi.
But this was in I believe seventies six, because I
think after the Chameleon tour, they kind of broke up
if I'm yeah, But I was in Chicago and me

(32:29):
and all my friends, I was hanging out with this huge, gay,
glammy crowd and we all dressed as reptiles to go
to the LaBelle concert. And I dressed in this green
sequined lizard outfit that I put together, and actually and

(32:50):
all my friends did. I still have photos of it.
And I was invited to go up on stage and
dance with Nona and Sarah and I have the photos
of it too. I have the receipts. But it was
it was incredible. I mean, this is this is when
the audience was really at one with LaBelle and and

(33:12):
you know people felt that way too about going to
Bowie and and and Roxy music. Everyone wanted to dress
as glamorously as Brian Ferry. You know. So um, but
I'm not going to be that. I'm not that person
to say, oh, yeah, I was at such and such
you know concert or anything like that. Okay, So for you,

(33:33):
did you know an immediate sonic difference when you were
frequenting clubs that were more hip hop based, and I
mean way before there were rap labels, or even before
your time at your tenure at at at a Tommy
Boy like if you're seeing like, do you remember your
first rap club experience pre your record label days? Hmmm, No,

(34:01):
I don't because I think that I started. I think
probably the first club that I recall going to was
probably in the Grill. So it's not like I was,
oh yeah, I was at Harlem World in nine blah blah. No,
it wasn't like that. I was. Is this that the
grill that's on the Grill? I think was down on

(34:26):
like Second Avenue around maybe four sixth Street. Lady Blue Uh.
Freddie was very involved in sort of helping, you know,
coalesced the uptown downtown scenes together. Um, you know, Bam
was deejaying there and I think I think Rex Steady

(34:48):
performed There's it was like a small sort of cramped
basement space. It was really you know, um not yeah, Okay,
I get it now when people mentioned the Grill, of course,
me being an entry in the nineties, I'm thinking of
the upscale jamaking restaurant. Yeah, thinking that maybe it was

(35:10):
once a hip hop club like in the eighties or whatever.
But I'm realizing that I got fooled. So can you
tell me how you got pulled into the record industry. Uh, well,
I was waiting. I left my my thriving career at
show World and people and and uh, you know, I
made this, you know, incredibly brilliant determination that the people

(35:34):
who I was, the people I was working with, the
people I was working for and the customers were all
pretty much a dead end. Um and and I wasn't
and I wasn't getting any younger. So I started waiting tables,
ended up working graveyard at a place called the Empire Diner. Um.

(35:54):
I was living in the Chelsea Hotel. So there's like
all the bona fee days for like, yeah, she checks
all the box or so like seventies early eighties um
and Uh. But because I had always been such a
music fan and I was, I was like, what's that
you're playing? What's that you're playing? You know? But you know,
I loved it. I just I decided to go to this.

(36:18):
I heard about something called the New Music Seminar, and
it was the first conference that Tom Silverman put together
with his two partners, Mark Josephson and uh, I'm not
even sure Joel Webber was part of it at that point,
but it was in a small It was in recording
studio up in Yorkville. And this is probably UH or

(36:43):
one so and I, you know, met Tom at a
pizza place during a break. I said, Hey, I'm Monica,
you know, okay whatever, And then UH guy named Bob
Pittman was speaking at this conference and he started. He
announced they there was a new new thing that they
were about to launch called MTV. And I approached him afterwards.

(37:06):
I said, oh man, this sounds great. I would love
to work for you. He you know, completely ignored me.
And about a year so I just kept waiting tables.
And then about a year later I saw an ad
for a guy Gal Friday and the Village Voice. This
is back when people whether or no, there was no
LinkedIn UH. You had to buy a Village Voice to

(37:27):
get a job. You had to buy the Village Voice
or the New York Times, you know, and you on
the Sunday New York Times, you know, and go through
all these little, you know, mouse type listenings. And I
saw an ad for a guy Gal Friday for a
UM dance Music I think he said Dance Music Publication,
Slash record Company. I still have the ad. I still

(37:49):
have it on Oh yeah, a little yellow piece of
paper that I cut out. I have it in an
envelope and and I called the number and it was
tom and he didn't remember me, but um I remembered him.
And he told me, yeah, you know dance music. I
have dance music report. I just started this label called
Tommy Boy. And you know this would be to be

(38:12):
like my right hand person. Blah blah blah, and uh
they were. At this point, I was actually living in
servants quarters up on the Upper West Side. I was
bouncing around a lot of places. That's always the top
floor of a that's right. I was second. I was second.

(38:32):
I was seconds away from buying a five story house
in Harlem in the heights before after Hamilton's. Then the
prices really jacked up. It was like Hamilton's Row, and
it looked as large as like the Huxtables crib in Brooklyn.
But you know, the basement was tricked out. The first floor,

(38:53):
then they had the second, fourth, third, fourth, fourth floor,
and then on the fifth floor that's usually where the
maid or the nanny. You know, this house is also
hundreds of years old. You imagine that's where the help.
So that kept your legs that at least kept your
legs in in safe because you'd have to go up
five flights of stairs. Yes, for these tiny little rooms.

(39:17):
It wasn't you know, shared bathrooms. Whatever. It was fine.
It was like maybe fifty seventy five bucks a week
or something. But I had these numerous phone calls with
Tom trying to convince some way he should hire me
because I didn't have a college education. He did. He's like, well,
where you know, what have you done before? And like, well,
you know, I worked at peep Land and uh, this

(39:37):
was you know, you know, and he wasn't thoroughly convinced.
But then once he said, well, okay, listen, tomorrow, I'm
going out to pick up the twelve inches of the
new Tommy Boy release and you can come. You can
ride along with me. So I'm like, okay, cool, this
is my shot. And uh so I meet up with him.

(39:59):
He lives in the uh two bedroom apartment over in Yorkville,
let's face it, the heart of exactly, uh, the upper
east side on the fire he said, you know where
the Mayor's home is? Where, yes, York Avenue right exactly,

(40:19):
you know. So we drive out to Long Island City
and his hatchback. I don't know if that's a thing,
if they even make hatchbacks anymore, but it was. We
drove out there in his hatchback to this uh pressing
plant called a Pexton and it was owned by these
two Polish brothers. And and so what they do is

(40:41):
when you know, when Tom had ordered a pressing, if
I don't know a thousand or whatever of this record,
they will him out to the curb in fifty count boxes.
And you know, Tom opens up the back of the
hatchback and I started slinging in these fifty count boxes.
And I'm a girl from Chicago. Man, It's like, I'm

(41:02):
I'm a big girl from Chicago. I have no problem
lifting up heavy ship and slinging it. So he was like, oh,
she got some muscle on her, all right, you got
the job. So that's how I started. But I had
to keep waiting on tables when I started because I
couldn't afford you know, the pay wasn't a whole lot.
So I was working on tables at night and working

(41:23):
for Tom during the day. So what year was this
or is this after Planet Rock or like what you no?
No before December of eighty one. I was the first employee.
Your memory is incredible, Monica Lynch. I can't even your memories,
but I love this. This tells me that you didn't
do much drugs in the eighties, because oh no, that's

(41:44):
not truly. Usually our guests are like a man, I
don't remember selective membery what you know it is? You
have selective memory about certain things. If you asked me
other things, I say, I can't remember, but this stuff
I do remember. So was this the jazzy jay like
funky sensation era of Yes? In fact, it was. That's right,

(42:09):
That's what it was like exactly. That was when I
started in in December of Tommy actually, about a week
after I started, went away for a couple of weeks
to Jamaica for uh an extended vacation with his girlfriend,
and UM, Jazz Sensation had just come out, and so

(42:31):
you know, my duties were split between Tommy Boy, the
sledgling label, Tommy Boy, and Dance Music Report, which was
which was a disco DJ tip sheet, UM, which I
don't know if you remember that, but it was an
important publication in its time. So he went on vacation
and left me with you know, my sort of semi

(42:55):
defined duties, and one of them was, you know, to
make sure to you know, take the orders for Jazzy
Sensation and you know, make sure the pressing planned has
got the records going and all this other stuff. Well,
sure enough, I took an order from a one stop
I don't know if you know what a one stop is. Okay, yes,

(43:18):
service sub category of an independent distributor, so um. And
it was an account that we didn't weren't open with,
and so I took an order and then come to
find out that it was some guy who was a
ghan If and wasn't going to be paying us. And
Tom totally like reamed me about that. But when you

(43:42):
mean like some friends of ours, some friends of ours, well,
I just bought a hardcover copy of The Joys of
Yiddish for a friend of mine today. Because when you
say because I said, I said there, I said, oh,
you know this person, blah blah, they're great, but they
have no rookmanis and she's what's roknis? I'm like, you've
never worked in the music industry. You don't know what

(44:03):
ghan if or Ramon is or you know, oh yeah,
so yeah, I mean it basically meant the guy wasn't
who served a thief, wasn't planning on paying us. In
my mind, the difference between Tommy Boy and well, I'm
saying the hip hop labels that came before, because really
we're talking sugar Hill is what I feel is notable

(44:23):
about those two labels is that, you know, within Joy
and sugar Hill, I definitely know that, you know, Mars
Levy had his hands or quote Mars Leavey types more
gangster run era of the music industry. How is one
able to start a label, an independent label in the

(44:47):
early eighties without someone trying to muscle you for a piece? Now,
even though okay, so Jazzy Sensation wasn't exactly Planet Rock,
but for our listeners that are people, Jazzy Sensation is
a hip hop rendition of Gwen McCrae's uh sort of time,
Can you feel it? Can you feel it? Sensation? Sensation? Yeah? Right, So, like,

(45:14):
are you aware of the strong arm of the connected
folks that sugar Hill and Enjoy Records definitely were, Uh,
you know, that's a good question. Um, sugar Hill was
definitely you know, Joe and Sylvia and um, there was
a guy named Malden, who was sort of the other

(45:36):
co founder of Cigarretto. No, no, not Michael. I was like, okay,
now this guy was Yugoslavian. He was started put in
nearby Morris Levy to you know, make sure the money
situation was whatever it was going to be. And but
but I would say that there it was a very

(46:00):
much a entrepreneurial cottage industry at that point, you know.
And I think in Joy Records, Bobby Robinson's label is
more in that vein. But you what you also had.
And I just have to give a shout out to
Corey Robbins because um Corey, Yes, co founder of of
of Profile Records. Corey actually came to the office when

(46:24):
Tom was away and he just knocked down the door
and said, Hey, I'm Corey. You know I have Profile Records.
If any if you need anything, if anything goes wrong,
you have any questions, please feel free to get in
touch with me. It's like, wow, thank you. I appreciate
it because I didn't have a lot of questions. But
there was this There were labels that were really the

(46:44):
the you know dance, the post disco dance labels like
west End and Prelude, who there. It wasn't so much
about some sort of cultural bubbling up. It was more
about what was selling, Okay, seal cells over your peaked
or whatever. So maybe it's you know, Tanya Gardner or uh,

(47:09):
you know something right exactly things that are bubbling up
that are more from the street and including hip hop.
But it was more of a commercial imperative, I think,
than an artistic decision or cultural reflection so much. And
I think the same thing is absolutely true with sugar

(47:30):
Hill and Enjoy. I mean, you've got you know, Bobby
Robinson and Joe and Sylvia. I mean, look at their
histories with the labels that they had, so I think
that they were all these were independent labels were owned
by people who were looking around the landscape and saying
where can I make money next? Okay, So if you're

(47:54):
doing jazzy sensation, assuming that you were there for its
very first order, how many pieces are you ordering and
how many like just walk me through? How does one
spread it? So? How many go to DJs so they
can get played? Are you hoping that Frankie Crocker plays
it so that it might go national? And then if

(48:16):
it does well? In other words, the problem that was
presented in Crushed Groove, which I forget what single it
was like they had a single so successful that they
didn't have enough money to print it. Then yes, the yeah,
the worst thing that could happen to you as a hit,
like the producers you know, Um, okay, so let's even

(48:38):
though I want you to lead up the Planet Rock,
I'm certain that that was a problem for you guys
because that was a worldwide smash. So how do you
operate and service the world? And how do you know
what the world wants? How do you know what a
local record store in Germany wants? How do you know
if Dr Dre or Uncle Jam is playing it in

(48:58):
l a Like? How how do you spread the word?
Like who's the person that you're trying to get this
record to hoping that it will become a thing. Well, listen,
back then, it was a very small network and um,
and when Jazz Sensation was out, I mean I would
always tell people, you know, Jazz Sensation really was what

(49:19):
I would call a regional record. Um, it was popular
in the mid Atlantic area. Um, Tommy Boys certainly didn't
have the We had not set up sort of a
national network, which may or may not have even been
uh you know, might have made a difference. I don't know.
But the thing is is that back then there was

(49:39):
such a small number of people to even go to.
You know, we uh were dealing directly with Magic when
he was still on HBI, Um, you know, Islam Head,
Zulu Beats, Supreme Team, there was, I mean this is
before Red was on Kiss. I mean there was you know,

(49:59):
a lot of this was through club DJ's and uh
and to some degree these sort of specialty mix shows
that were starting to merge, some of them on college,
college and university stations. But at that point, you know,
you were talking Nino. It was it's a short window

(50:19):
really between Jazzy Sensation and Planet Rock. As Planet Rock
came out, I think it was April of eighty two. Um,
so it's a really big difference. The so you had, uh,
the independent record stores who by the way, you know,
I have had a recent conversation with someone about this
that if if there was ever a documentary that someone

(50:42):
was gonna consider doing, I think the history of independent
record stores, Black independent record stores and their role in
hip hop and dance music as as an untold story.
But I would say the record stores played a big
role in spreading the word and playing the records. The
club DJs were more important at that point servicing record pools.

(51:06):
I mean we I still, yes, I still have lists
of the record pools and the record pool directors and
we would keep a running or you know, running list
of how many members do you have and who do
you service and blah blah blah. So how many counts
do you have to service? How many counts do you
have to service for a record pool? You know, some

(51:32):
of these record pools might have like the Shore record
pool that was run by a guy named Bobby Davis
up in the bronx Um. He said, ah, you know,
hundred fifty members, two hundred members, or you know, you'd
have maybe a Rickets Records out in New Jersey and
they might have seventy five members, or some record pool
out on Long Island or you know whatever it was.

(51:53):
But you know the thing with the record fool directors
is that they were they sort of were had more
of more power than that they did in the in
the years to come, and then well you have to
give us full service or nothing, even though happen, Yeah,
a lot of their members would never touch a rap record, okay,

(52:15):
so they would just sell it, so they would sell
it or you know, or it would just be like,
you know, go into the uh you know, the vinyl
dump or whatever. But it was you know, so go ahead.
Is that why sometimes when I get records then they
have that little uh cut open hole on the top

(52:36):
left corner. Is that to differentiate a promotional record? Yeah?
I always wanted to know what that was for. Yeah,
that's yeah. They were. They were so notched, like a
neutered cat, you know. You know, it was a promo,
you know, but that didn't necessarily prevent something being resold.
But you know, it only would resell if it was

(52:57):
a hit. Who fucking cares if it's not a hit record,
you out? Um, so you know anyway, but it was
a small world, you know in New York. Uh you know, yeah,
you'd want to make sure Chef Petty Bone or Sergio
Munzubai or the Latin Rascals on w K to You
or dj Um Jose Animal DZ. You know, you had

(53:20):
Carlos Jejeseus on w K to You Rest in Peace.
You had uh, Barry Mayo and Tony Humphries over kiss
Berry Mayo still friend, really fantastic guy. All these guys
were DJs first before I got to know them as
remixers and editors, because you're mentioning Tony Humphries and the

(53:42):
Latin Rascals and they were actual DJs first before. Oh yeah, Tony, Yeah,
and uh, Chef Petty Bone was very important the master
mix on Kiss FM, you know. So and yeah, of
course Frankie was always at the top of the you know,
the top of the food chain, you know, like if

(54:03):
you can get Frankie to play a record, you know. Um.
And Frankie was someone who I mean, I knew him
and counted him as a friend as as many did. Um.
But uh. And he was always very interested in what
was coming up from the street. Here you see all
these photos of him hanging in the booth at Paradise

(54:23):
Garage or whatever. He didn't want to be left behind
on any of this stuff. But it was, uh, you know,
he was the original human sism looking over the shoulders,
trying to copy what was he wanted. He was very
savvy about knowing what was coming up. He that was
he had to do that, and he did it so

(54:43):
successfully for so many years. Um. But you know, Frankie
was Frankie and he was very uh, you know, you
had to deal with Frankie like you know, he was royalty,
knew he was radio royalty. You know. So in order
to are you allowed to speak of the methods of

(55:04):
how you were able to get a record played? I
would like to think, I mean, I would like to
think that a song like Planet Rock was so futuristic
that DJs would naturally be like, yeah, I gotta play
this ship. But for an album like that, did you
have to in sure ways like how we're rap records

(55:25):
broken in markets that were unpennagable, but you managed to
get them more in anyway. Well, that's a that's another
good question. Um. The answer is yes, we had to
take care of business. And uh, I want to mention,
by the way, since Philly looms so large here, that
there was a really great um remembrance of a guy

(55:46):
named Snooky Jones in Philadelphia who passed away recently. He
was a record promoter and there was he there was
a great remembrance of the scene in the h W
d As parking lot where butter Ball Tampoo orrow of
course Reign Supreme and how all the promo guys who
pull up on I forget what record day was there.

(56:08):
I don't know what record day was. Uh, let's say
it was Monday, doesn't matter. They you know, they all
be there in the parking lot jammed up waiting for
Butter to you know, a light from his uh car
and get at him about whatever their releases were. But
the answer, the short answer is yes, it doesn't listen.
If it was a hit, you definitely had to pay,

(56:30):
and if it wasn't a hit, you could waste a
lot of money. But and people are happy to take
your money, but that doesn't mean you're going to get
any airplay. So you mean if it was a hit,
as in, if it sounded good and you felt it
deserved to be on the radio, then you determine this
is going to be a hit. Yeah. Sure, there's the
there's there's things that deserve a lot of things, but

(56:52):
there's um. But you still have to pay to play
if you wanna there's one thing to get play on
a mixed show or even play or as they used
to say, daytime. You know like that it was like, yeah,
but you didn't get daytime, you know. Um, but if
you wanted that official ad that's getting reported to Billboard

(57:12):
and R and R and whatever the other bibles were.
At that point, you had to take care of business
and we did. How Nightmares was the planet experience? Well,
I would say it was less in terms of demand.
In terms of demand, well, it was an immediate hit,

(57:34):
and it was something that you know, of course, we
weren't necessarily prepared for. But you you do everything you can,
and what we would do is essentially, uh, get try
and get advanced payments from distributors in exchange for a
discounted rate on the units. You know what I'm saying.

(57:58):
So somebody said, yeah, we'll pay you uh whatever, say
dollars or you know whatever. You know, if we pay
you up front, can you give us this many units
at this price as opposed to what the regular price was.
So those are the type of things we had to
do to make sure that we kept the pressing plant.

(58:19):
You know, we were able to pay for the pressing
and and all the other you know, jackets, labels and
all the other stuff shipping, you know, all that stuff. Well,
hopefully by this point you guys ramped up to more
than just a two person operation, correct, Yeah, Well that
record allowed Tommy Boy to ramp up to more than
a two person operation. You know, it literally exploded. It

(58:42):
created opportunities and marketplaces that we didn't have at that
point because it was because this record did go national
and went global. Um. And it was the type of record.
It's been recounted many times, of course, but it was
the type of record that really traveled exceptionally. Well it
was a car record, you know, I had that percolating

(59:03):
melodic sound so automatically, you know, California, Florida, Texas, Detroit, Detroit,
you know, all these places that were not necessarily hip
hop markets yet um, that really cracked the code. You

(59:23):
know in a lot of those places that electro sound
Tommy Boys early days, the first wave of success that
Tommy Boy had was definitely with electro records. It was
the Arthur Baker John Roby Productions with Salsonic Force, Planet Patrol,
and then of course we had Johnson Crew with Michael

(59:46):
Johnson and you know, uh they were that had some
uh like was huge like in Houston, that was big
in in l A. When I visited family in Pasadena
and summer of eighty three, they were only playing the
Space Cowboy and it was like, that's when I realized

(01:00:07):
things were regional, because I've never heard it wasn't an
East Coast record. Well, I knew about Pat Jam, but
I definitely didn't know about Space Cowboy. That's right, that's right,
that's right, because we were like, why is it big
in Houston? And it was like, oh, because there's like
a big I guess Nassaurs, you know, whatever was going

(01:00:28):
on down there. There's a huge space thing. So there
were so yeah, and some of these things were like
a slower sound was sort of also, you know, like
in the South and some places. There were just these
different vibes and cultural geographical differences that you know, you

(01:00:49):
could see with some records, but we had um also
Globe and whiz Kid play that beat, and you know,
and with the Double Ski remix, and uh, I'm probably
overlooking some things, but there was it was this brief
window between say late eighty wand into maybe eighty four
where we had this really dominant electro sound and then

(01:01:12):
I think once I you know, it's like, oh ship.
As soon as they're you know, run DMC, I'm like, okay,
C change and you know, Keith Blanc, who I'm sure
you know who he is because it's a fellow drummer.
You know. He told me a story recently about how
as part of the sugar Hill Band he remembered traveling

(01:01:33):
with sugar Hill Gang and you know, working the studio
there on all these records and all this stuff. And
he said, yeah, you know, I remember one day waking
up and hearing Planet Rock and saying, I think there's
a c change going on here, guys, because they did Scorpio.
That's right, Yep, that's all right, you grand mass of

(01:01:54):
flast in the first five. We'll really keep a plank
and uh uh yeah yeah, Doug, Doug Winbush Skip did Scorpio,
I get it. Yeah, So from the live thing into
like this electro thing was a different thing. Yeah. I mean,
obviously you maintained the trust of tom Um. Did you

(01:02:18):
get immediately helm president or were you head of A
and R first, or I mean was the position real
or it was just a title for paper only. Look,
I worked my fucking ass off. I did a lot
of different things. And no, no, no, I don't mean
in a dismissive way, but I mean, like you guys
have a real office and receptionists and oh I know

(01:02:43):
what you know, back then, it was like, um, it
was all these all the labels were just scrappy operations.
I mean, we didn't have like any fanciness or nothing. Really,
why I tell you we worked in the second bedroom
out of Tom's apartment, and then we moved into two
different basement offices in your fell and then we moved
in above the soccer store on First Day Avenue in

(01:03:05):
New Yorkville and sort of built it out there, but
it was never fancy. Foursome DS made their entry in
eighty five, and Foursome d S. I think at the
time it was way different than what you guys were
normally associated with. And I know Tom's love and history
of old school uh doo wop music and you know,

(01:03:25):
so basically, you know what what boys them in really
pulled off successfully in ninety one, I mean Foursome D's
was that in terms of the flue print for that.
You know. The thing is is that the Foursome ds
came to us actually through Mr Magick at the Foursome
D's had been on the scene for some time, which
I didn't even realize that they as the Foursome Yeah,

(01:03:45):
that's the foursom cs and Tom loved doo wop and
he started saw this hip hop doo wop group in
the four S m d S. And the woman who
was his first wife, her was Robin Helping, and she
was very very talented jazz musician and she actually uh

(01:04:07):
co wrote and produced a lot of those early four
SMDs records. You know, let me love, it'sn't for a scratch,
you know, let's not forget. They were in that first
movie was a fat Yeah. They did the record with
the Fat Boys. Um uh here I go again. All

(01:04:28):
these really beautiful records, and but they were the thing
with the four S m d S. They were always
pitted against new addition, and New Addition was the group
at that point that had the more of the female
audience that was really sort of going crazy for them.
It was always the four s m d S a
new edition that were sort of going head to head

(01:04:49):
and that early sort of boy group vocal hip hop
you know ur you know R and B thing. But
the thing, the big turning point for or the four
S m d S, and this is a story that
I was very involved with, was when Crushed Groove was
being made um one of the producers was my boyfriend

(01:05:10):
at the time. His name is Doug McHenry and yes, yes, yes,
and Dog and I was staying with Dog at the
Mayflower Hotel while they were doing the film, him and
his his late partner, UM George Jackson, George Jackson, George W. Slight.
Wait can I can I insert one story only mere style? Um,

(01:05:33):
you remember the boom, the Internet boom of like the
early auts, when everyone thought the Internet was going to
be like this gold mine of a thing, the same
way that bitcoin is now. And we struck a deal
to sell Okay player, and and I believe we broke
her to deal with George Jackson, and the way that

(01:05:56):
I was metaphorically burning cigars with one hundred dollar bills
like all y'all kiss my ass like I'm about to
be rich rich rich and Monday Richard calls me and
says deals off. I'm like, what happened? And he's like,
George Jackson died anyway, I'm sorry, Yes, with George Jackson.
Interjection is obviously the art of the of the game here.

(01:06:19):
So but anyway, So I was so I thought, you know,
here I am, I'm with Doug, I'm dating Doug. It's like,
you know, and he's like telling me, yeah, we're doing
the soundtrack on Warner Brothers for Crush Cove and blah
blah blah. And I'm like, awesome, let me get a
slat on there for the four semt s. You know.
He says, you know, but your audition, Like sorry, you know,

(01:06:46):
you're everything. So I'm like, so, I'm like, really, my secret.
They did my secret in the movie. It so, but
here's what happens. So the Crush Grow sound track, the
movie's getting wrapped up the soundtrack because you know, lead
times were crazy back then. They had to master the

(01:07:07):
soundtrack all this. The deadlines were crazy. And then I
get this call from Doug and he's like, there was
supposed to be this big ballad slot on the album
and it was dedicated to New Addition and Jimmy jam
and Terry Lewis. We're gonna produce a song with New Addition.
I'm like, fucking man. And then he calls me because

(01:07:28):
you're not gonna believe it. New Edition had to pull
out because some sort of crazy legal issues. They had
a lot of problems back that New Edition with their
management and lawsuits. All this ship was going on. He goes,
can you get four s m d S up to
Minneapolis tomorrow? Like, and I'm like, yeah, what do we
gotta do? You know? Blah blah blah blah. Of course
it was not exactly the next day, but it was

(01:07:50):
within a matter of two or three days. And it
was like involved calls with Ron Sweeney and Jimmy and
Terry and all this other stuff. And and of course
the four s m d S in their father and
the father who is a manager of Bob Blundie. They
get up there, they record this record called Tenderlove, and
it goes on the soundtrack at the very last minute,

(01:08:13):
and guess what. It's the first top ten pop hit
for Jimmy and Terry and it was the big lead.
It was the big smash hit of the album. And
it was through that that Warner Brothers got interested in
doing a deal with Tommy Boy at this place. Are

(01:08:36):
you shocked that, even though you know Sylvie Robinson was
running show Gable Records or whatnot, were women in executive
positions really not a thing? And I'm I'm I'm taking
it out of hip hop just general at labels, Like
I know about Sylvia own at least her, you know,
coming up at at at Atlantic and starting East Western,

(01:09:00):
not maybe was more at Casablanca before then. Well okay,
well I knew about Neil Bogart, but who was running?
Who was at Casablanca? Well, I believe Sylvia had started
I did not know. All right, we can fact check it.
This is a great, great subject matter. I'm really happy

(01:09:21):
you brought this up because you know, um, there's a
lot of women from that early eighties period who didn't
necessarily get their shine or necessarily get titles. I was.
I think I was made president in eighty five. I
still have the press release. And why do I have it?
Because I had to write it. The It's like write

(01:09:42):
your own Wikipedia entry. Yeah, it's like, yeah, you're president now,
could you go right this up? Yes? Okay, fine, so
the but yeah, before in that early eighties period, I
would say that the people that really come to my
mind is like women who were doing a lot in
the early hip hop labels would be Anne Carly at

(01:10:03):
Jive Records. You know who I actually knew, and when
she was working in the New York office of E
G Records, I used to harass her for Roxy Music
tour tickets and that um uh. There was Janine Leclair
who was at UM next Plateau Records that worked with
Eddiel Laughlin. There was d. D. Joseph who worked with

(01:10:28):
at um Prism Records, which became you know, which began Jillan.
Of course, there was Sylvia um and there were others.
And I'm really sorry because I should have prepared a
list for this because it is important and there's a
lot of people who you know, it was a bit
later in the eighties when there were more women who

(01:10:51):
were getting into the business, but there were a lot
of women who were in the business then and they
just didn't necessarily get as much recognition. They might have
started as sceptionists and became press or promo. So there's
there's this whole wave of women that were part of
the even like late seventies and early eighties, whose whose
names just don't tend to come up as as much.

(01:11:14):
So much in hip hop has been told and told
again through books and documentaries and everything, but there's still
a lot of terrain that hasn't been touched really, So
what's the difficulty level of you like really as far
as like pounding the desk and demanding that respect, like
do you have to be tough as nails? It was was,

(01:11:36):
what's the old girl from uh who ran book and
Winter right? And we have to come do you have
to run it in a winter style? And you know, no, no,
well I don't. Yeah, no, I know what you're saying.
I know what you're saying. You know a lot I
get asked a lot over the years people said, well,

(01:11:56):
what was it like being a woman in the hip
hop world? Or what was it like being a white
woman in the hip hop world? And I'm like, my
response is usually like, you know what, there were so
many opportunities for women in the fledgling hip hop industry. Again,
it was so small back then. Um, if I had

(01:12:16):
gone to say, oh, you know Columbia Records or Mercury
or PolyGram or whatever Warner Brothers, you know, and said hey,
you know, I'm looking for a job, I would have
been lucky to get, you know, be the coffee runner
for some guy doing mid Atlantic radio promotion. Okay, so

(01:12:37):
in hip hop because it was just a small little
industry and no one was really checking, you know, like
a lot of women were able to sort of get
ahead in this business because there wasn't like a precedent.
It wasn't an old boys network, you know. So it
was still being It was still being the story was
being written and the you know, there was a lot

(01:12:59):
of of opportunities. Although I will say when I went
to the first Jack the Rapper Convention, uh, a lot
of people thought I was hired help for another reason.
So Rapper Convention, that's another documentary somebody should too, boy
Tales from the Rap Convention. So okay, um when when okay,

(01:13:24):
So in eight six, when Club New Vote starts hitting,
you know, lean on me and jealousy and all that
stuff was highly it was unescapable. Like by that point,
you guys are just you know, a force. Was there
ever temptation to say leave Tommy boy? And maybe and

(01:13:44):
I don't want to discredit hip hops, you know, force
or whatnot, but in the mind state of seven, did
you ever have a temptation or did someone from our
c A or Warner Brothers or quote a legit major
label try to hold you away and say come work
for us. Yeah, there was a label A and M.

(01:14:07):
Actually and and and M was a real class operation,
you know, it was. I mean, there was like, uh
and they even bought me a plane ticket and put
me in a hotel. I was like, oh my god,
you know that's pretty great. Um, but I it didn't
didn't happen. I really sort of sense that I was

(01:14:27):
better where it was, and it turned out to be true,
you know, um, because it was towards you know, it
was certain made president I guess eighties six. I can't
remember exactly, but you know, it's towards the end, you know,
towards the late eighties where I really oversaw A and
R and the creative direction for the label. I was
already doing quite a bit already in both of those areas.

(01:14:51):
And um, and also you know, in the early days,
whether it was collecting money from distributors, or putting in
press or with the pressing plant, or getting the label
copy typed off, or sitting with Bambada while he wrote
out of special thanks, or creating a press list and
writing press releases, talking to you name it. It was

(01:15:13):
like you got to do a lot of different things. Uh.
It was, you know in the late eighties where I
sort of really I think that was a really golden
era for Tommy Boy in the late eighties, in the
early nineties in in you know, for me, at least
in my life, one of the greatest paradigm shifts that

(01:15:34):
really affected eight was such a band of year. But
you sign a group that literally changes the course of
my life. And we've we've had various people involved with
Day Last Soul projects, so we you know, you don't
have to go through the every day. But what I
do want to know is who was responsible for the

(01:15:56):
genius marketing of day Last Soul because from the from
the press photos to the fonts to the stickers. You know,
the only time my life I ever got sent to
the principal's office was because I put the Lost Soul
stickers all over my high school. Like, so, who was responsible?
Like what was the brainchild operation of we can make

(01:16:21):
these guys bigger than hip hop? And I read that
hip hop for hippies? Wasn't that your ship? Yeah? Yeah,
I was very involved in all of that, but it
was also um, there's a lot of people at Tommy
Boy that I would credit for being a huge part
of this campaign. I think that it was a very

(01:16:42):
critical decision to have the Gray organization do the all
the you know, all of the daisy, all the image
rate for the for the album cover that was so
that was I would say such a radical move at
that point because they basically sort of threw down a

(01:17:05):
gauntlet to what the prevailing visual aesthetic was of hip hop.
And I think it was the type of thing that
a lot of people were like, what is this? But
you know, but but but the thing is before the album,
before the album, and you saw all those visuals, you know,
plug Tune In was a radical record. And and and

(01:17:31):
I still have I still have the demo tape and
I still have the right up that I did after
my meeting with Daddy O. And I want to make
sure to credit Daddy O because it was Daddy O
from Stetso Sonic who called me and said, Hey, I've
got these groups I'm shopping. Can we set up a meeting?
And I'm like, yeah, da da, And he sat on

(01:17:51):
the phone. There were three groups. Two of them were
like sort of these more mainstream like Nan and ANGELA
type of groups or something, and and he mentioned, uh,
Dla Saul. He said, oh, and there's this group that
Paul's working with called De la Sault. And I do
remember thinking that's a really intriguing name. You know what
is that it didn't sound like a hip hop group,

(01:18:13):
and so I met with him and that's in that
demo tape of plug Tuning and um, the freedom, freedom
of speak I think was the freedom. Yeah, but it
was the two tracks on the on the one cassette
and it was like you immediately knew that it was
either gonna be big or nothing. And that's where I

(01:18:36):
think Tommy Boys legacy largely lies with signings that were
sort of in the category, um, you're gonna love it
or you're not gonna hate it, but it wasn't in
the middle, and um Dla Saul I think personifies that.
And you know, the the demo of Plug Tuning sounds
pretty much. I'm pretty sure. I don't think that it

(01:18:57):
was even even mixed, you know. I think was an
eight track that Paul did and I don't think it
even went beyond that. By the time it was Matter
and I think it was still like this eight trick
demo sounding thing. And we had this we did this
ad campaign where we got all these different people to say,
you know, you know how it is, you know, like
when you know Latifa's mom, she was part of it.

(01:19:20):
Latifa's mom the Lake mead Owens. We did. We did
a campaign that I came in for Dla Soul. I
came in for Patti La Belle. I came out with
Dala Saul. We had this one with like some goofy
you know, sort of straight looking white guy like you know,
I came in for I forget it wasn't steely Dann.

(01:19:40):
We hung that up and seem goodies. I worked the
same Goodies at the time. Oh man, Well then you know,
so this part of that imaging campaign I think was fantastic.
We had a great full page head and billboard. I
said Dala gold when it went gold. But you know,
I think it lot of it sprung from the group itself,

(01:20:03):
because you know, I still have and I shared this
with Pass actually just last week. Um. He sat down
in the office and with this he has he has
a very distinctive style of cursive and he was writing
down the history of Dala Soul on this notebook paper set,

(01:20:24):
describing who each group member was and they were. He
was writing it in day Las speak. And that was
another thing too, because like nobody knew what the funk
they were talking about. They had their own language, like
what do they tell what the what do you mean
plug tune? And what's that you know? And what is
true goy the dove? You know? What is all this stuff? Um?

(01:20:47):
But they but they had a different look, they had
a different sensibility. So there was a lot there to
already work with and to sort of get inspired to
do interesting and creative marketing and per motion. You really
can't do something unless the something that the project and
the recordings and the artists that you're working with are

(01:21:09):
interesting in and of themselves. You can blow it up
and magnify it. But if they're not, if it's not
inherently interesting and great, you can't really do anything. So
so they really they were like, wow, this group is
pretty interesting. There a lot of people played role. I
don't know if you know Rod Houston because he's also
from from from Philadelphia. He's now one of the biggest

(01:21:30):
voice A. Yeah, he's huge. He's huge. And Rod um
I still have the copy that he wrote up because
we did this contest to name the sample and remember
that in Billboard. Yeah did you did you enter? I didn't.
I don't know the Liberati or any Yeah I didn't
know that. Yeah we got I still have a lot

(01:21:54):
of the entries from the contest that I kept, A
lot of people thought it was Bobby Bloom and the
only person who got the who the only person who
got it right was Joel Weber, as I mentioned him
earlier with the Partners in the New Music Seminar, and
he's the guy who put out He was an an
R guy at Fourth and Broadway in Island. He put

(01:22:15):
out The Dominatrix Sleeps Tonight. And he was the only
one who identified the invitations right. It is written on
the wall is the sample record. So they So there
was a lot of really great things that sort of
sprung from the fact that the group themselves were so
different and so interesting. And I think that that whole

(01:22:35):
Daisy age imagery, you know, it was certainly a blessing
and a curse for the group because then they didn't
really like being named the hippies of hip hop, and
you know, pushed back against it, you know. But that
was that album Three Ft High and Rising, you know.
And that was actually the first project I assigned to Dante.

(01:22:56):
I said that Dante, make sure you get to this
Dada to get the clearances for so and so and
so and so. But It was the first project that
he worked on, which was fantastic. He did an amazing job.
And Paul, of course, you know, yeah from one to ten.

(01:23:19):
How much of a headache was the the Flow and
Eddie situation because of course, uh, Flow and Eddie of
the Turtles, um sort of you know, recognizes their sample
and then you know, we're taught that that was the
that was the gauntlet moment of rappers clearing samples for
you know, was it a quick one and done, Oh

(01:23:40):
my bad, here's forty thousand bucks, or were they like
we wanted a billion dollars and you know this is
that's um. Yeah, that's another great topic because the Dayla
saw three PETI and Rising really did become the litmus
test for a lot of sampling issues, and it became
the posterge aild for everything that could go wrong is

(01:24:02):
all here on one album and um and you know,
so it wasn't just flowing Eddie. You know, I have
I still have the letter from m c A Publishing
about Steely Dan by the way, they misspelled Donald Fagin's name,
But it became sort of a blessing and a curse.
It was well, I should say, maybe more of a

(01:24:22):
Chris because look at everything that the group has had
to go through all these years. Yeah, here's problematic now
trying to clear these samples against still yeah. So um.
But it also became it was certainly a news story.
I mean, as you Kurt Loder, you know, and there
was all these like news stories about sampling. It became

(01:24:44):
a big thing, you know. And of course you know,
uh Danny O eustasisnic address this very brilliantly in talking
all that as one of the best records over and um.
But yeah, it was certainly costly. It was a distraction.
And the thing about it is this, this is my

(01:25:06):
takeaway from it, is that at that point in a
lot of these rock guys, we're really of the mindset
of like they're stealing my fucking art. And they weren't
down with the hip hop. They weren't down with the sampling.
They had very closed minds about this. There was not

(01:25:29):
a it had not been established as a path you're like, oh, yeah, okay,
we'll just get the sample clear like today. I mean, now,
you know, I think a lot of people may be
avoid sampling to a large degree for all the problems
and costs associated with it, but um, it's ironic to
me being as those same guys sampled old blues records

(01:25:53):
to create their songs. Oh yeah, who had these guys
who are older rock guys would big You know, they
had egos and they just had they were their mindset
was completely divorced from hip hop being a cool, interesting
thing and oh wow, they're taking something I made and

(01:26:15):
doing something cool and flipping it. A lot of these
guys did not see that that way at all. Well,
I know that George Clinton was extremely He had gratitude
for me, myself and I at least because you know,
he instantly saw that, okay, this is bringing me back
clearly to a new audience. So well yeah, well yeah,

(01:26:38):
and you also had Westbound Records. M Arman Bladian, thank
you very much. Us. Yeah, Bladian was was definitely playing ball.
I mean, you know, he saw that there was money
to be made in doing sample clearances. So you know
what was Digital Underground or Dale or whoever it was,

(01:26:59):
He's you know, he owned a lot of this stuff,
and so he wasn't reluctant in the way that a
lot of the rock guys were about, you know, violating
their art. You know, it was just it was a
different Again. You have commerce on the one side, and

(01:27:19):
you've got these guys who were like, man, that's you know,
don't touch my ship man. You know. So I was
gonna ask Monica, what is your um involvement if any,
with the current day last situation we're trying to get
their catalog onto streaming. Uh, none is my I don't
have any involvement in that except to be supportive of

(01:27:42):
the group and um, you know, uh, you know occasionally
have back and forth with with pass and UM. You know,
I have a lot of love for those guys, and
I hope that you know, they've been through a lot.
They've been through a lot, so but I don't know,
I haven't had any sort of dealings with their business.

(01:28:05):
I believe our good friend Faith Newman is now at
the helm of that project and trying to reclear the
samples and all that stuff. I hope for jay Let's
sake that comes through. Yeah. Well, I mean they have it,
but you know, now it's like they got to do
the work and you know, find somebody to fund. You know,

(01:28:26):
they're they're doing it, but it's just a very slow process,
song by song, and they wanted as they don't, you know,
thank god, I'm so relieved that they're not doing you know,
the sitting now where people like redoing their sits on
the itune and gagging you with like the subpar versions
of of their song records or whatever. I hate that.

(01:28:48):
Um wait, okay wait, I want to give a shout
out to a Dart Adams who a sure fire way
to make him angry is to acknowledge that three Feet
Hoigt and Rising came out March three. Dart Adams, I've
never met a person more angrier when he's like, it

(01:29:09):
wasn't Marks third, it was February seven. Yes, maybe he's
thinking of the promo promo he oh my god, you
just you're about to set Dart using opinions of Monica
Lynch are not like I say, I have a lot

(01:29:29):
of Tommy Boy archival materials. I could probably I'm not
saying you can officially tell us when the release date was,
because I swear to God, he makes this every March third.
He gets mad as ship when pass or any remember
daylas soul gets the date wrong, but he swears the
God that like March third, He's like, like Wikipedia's wrong,

(01:29:51):
everything's wrong, like he knows. Listen, I'll just say this.
At some point, I'll go through all all if I
find anything that UM might have led to his uh
belief scan a photo. The only thing I could possibly
think is that maybe you know, because again, lead times

(01:30:13):
for things like press were significant back then. UM, so
maybe just maybe there was an advanced copy. But I
don't want to you know, that's not official. So I
have one quick question about SESSI Sonic now, the way
that you guys, the way that you guys pushed for
some d s to be you know, the do what

(01:30:38):
you know hip hop thing in Dayla were the hippies
of hip hop? What the exception of a brief rite
up and spin Like, I felt like not enough was
done to really drive home at least the marketing that
this is a hip hop band. Yeah, it wasn't an
easy sell. And I've never seen them. I've never heard

(01:30:59):
stets A son live ever, Like even when you tube, no,
there's no there's no footage of them on YouTube or anything.
Like I'm taking you guys word for it. That's that's
a Sonic live and concert is a band, but there's
there's no I mean you know on and on wax,
you know, besides Bobby Simmons playing drums on stuff, and

(01:31:22):
you know, I know they did live stuff on keys,
but I've just never seen Sets A Sonic on stage,
and there's no footage of them, and they're almost like
the Harlem Cultural Festival, Like I don't believe it. That's
that's pretty interesting. I it had never really thought about that.
I didn't go to look, but I mean I've seen

(01:31:43):
them perform live and they were really, you know, fantastic.
I think the man it was very frustrating because they
you know stets A Sonic as a group, they really
worked hard, and you know, it was frustra rating. I mean,
everyone wants to have big hits, and um they had

(01:32:06):
some hits, but they weren't on the level that is
going to push you into a certain territory. You know.
I think talking all that jazz was like a really
you know, when you look back at the catalog, I
think that one to me is like and they had
you know, Sally was like a record that really well

(01:32:28):
in Florida and other markets. Oh and you know Ghos
stets of Brooklyn go Brooklyn. You can't even so did
you put somebody's told me recently, said, you put that
record at the Union Square and that was a signal
for stick up kids to like get there, get the loop,

(01:32:50):
you know, like, oh, that's why I always stood near
the door at that place. I was like that drum
roll is traumatizing. Ye, yeah, totally. So they always got
huge respect and they had great records, but they they
just you know, and it's it's it's it's a frustration

(01:33:12):
even to this day, you know that we weren't able
to break them out in a Huger way. It happens.
And I was going to ask you, Monica about Shock
g Um. I just hate He's someone that we had
on our list for a long time, but Um, you know,
we you know, sadly didn't get an interview him before
he passed. What was he like just as an artist,

(01:33:34):
as a producer, What was it like working with him?
You know, I've actually just had a long conversation with
his um, his former manager Atron list night. We stayed lunch, Yeah,
and Shock we used to talk on the phone, and
he Shock was he was incredibly intelligent, so smart, so funny,

(01:33:56):
He was very charming. He had an enormous gift as
a visual artist. You know, I had a lot of dealing.
You know, he was We had a great relationship. He
would always be very very specific about artwork. I I
have some like layouts that he would send of these
rough layouts. You know, this needs to go exactly here.

(01:34:19):
This goes exactly here. Because he did all the artwork
for all the digital Underground releases and even starting with
UM the early version of of Underwater Rhymes and Life's
of Cartoon that the twelve ins that they had before
mccolla before they came to Tommy Boy, but the uh

(01:34:39):
well T and T recordings, the But he was someone
who was very deep. I spoke with Latifa recently about
him too well, shortly after he passed. We we spoke
about it because she talked about how she went on
tour with him and they would just go to the
hotel lobby and he would start just noodling on the piano.

(01:35:01):
He was a great jazz musician and she loved jazz
and they had a strong connection there. He was just um.
He was an artist with a capital A, you know,
and and he you know, obviously he brought Tupac you know,
uh it was largely responsible for bringing Tupac into the

(01:35:23):
world as an artist and um, uh yeah, really really
special guy. I've never met any you know, like especially
these days where everything market beefs seem to be a
marketing tool. Um, and there were beefs back then. You know,
you could look at carras one or you know, whatever

(01:35:44):
was going on. There's always some sort of beefs going on.
But no was Shock. He was Everyone loved him. You know.
I was talking to Pete Nice when he was traveled
with the Third Base with them, and he had huge
love for him. I don't know, I don't know what
I can say about Shock G other than he was
just We have late night phone calls with him and

(01:36:07):
he could just expound. I'm just about he was that guy.
He was very cosmic. He was very cosmic. So okay,
ladies and gentlemen, I have to tell you guys that
we will have a part two with Monica Lynch, the
legendary Monica Lynch on Quest Love Supreme. Uh, this incredible conversation. Uh.

(01:36:29):
We will be back in a later episode to talk
about basically the nineties with Coolio, with K seven, LFO,
with the Rizza. You know, there's so much more that
that that will happen on the next episode of quest
Love Supreme. Uh, and you promised to come back with
his Monica. Correct, absolutely, thank you beautiful all right, so

(01:36:51):
on Biavo Sugar Steve and I paid Bo and Fantigelo
and Layah. This is Questo and shout out to cousin
Jake holding us down on the leads and uh, you
know we will see you in the next ground. Thank
you very much. M M. What's Love Supreme is a

(01:37:18):
production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from my
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or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

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