Questlove Supreme: Ne-Yo

Ne-Yo is one of the most accomplished songwriters of the last 20 years. He tells Questlove Supreme about his creative process, working with Beyoncé, and recalls a pivotal moment on Amateur Night At The Apollo.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to Quest Love Supreme. I'm your
host Quest Love. Yo, it's a hot summer. It's hot, man,
that's talking.

Speaker 3 (00:18):
Take I know that. Fonte and why are not in
New York City right now?

Speaker 4 (00:24):
Yo?

Speaker 5 (00:25):
It's hot everywhere, y'all. I just love DC. It's hot.
I'm in LA. It's hot.

Speaker 6 (00:29):
It's just it's just wet, hot, hot hot.

Speaker 3 (00:33):
See.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
I'm on hiatus right now, so you know, if I'm
at work, then it's always sixty seven degrees, so I
always have a sweater on. But you know, this is
one of the rare times in which I'm not under
freezing conditions.

Speaker 3 (00:48):
Sugar Seed? Are you? Are you an uber driver right now?
Sugar Steve, what are you doing?

Speaker 4 (00:54):
I'm in a limousine heading to power lunch.

Speaker 7 (00:58):
Uh time?

Speaker 4 (01:00):
Sure?

Speaker 8 (01:01):
And I was telling Neo and about this earlier before
the interview started.

Speaker 7 (01:06):
I can't dispose.

Speaker 8 (01:09):
It's a very big thing, very big thing happening.

Speaker 3 (01:13):
And so you're basically going to see Elvis scot Stella right, oh, ship,
it's bigger than that.

Speaker 2 (01:21):
Whenever he gets a secret of it, it's always Elvis
Scots Stella, I met I met one of your comrades
on the play this morning.

Speaker 3 (01:27):
He kept waking me up out of my sleep. Who
was that?

Speaker 8 (01:30):
Jeffrey Miller is a great, great trombone player.

Speaker 9 (01:33):
So he's on one of our records on JMI Recordings
dot Com check it out.

Speaker 3 (01:37):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:38):
He he woke me up twice, once to tell me
that he records to you.

Speaker 3 (01:42):
Uh. The second time he woke me up out of
my sleep to share a.

Speaker 2 (01:45):
Joke with me about carrying his uh, his plunger, his
toileble plungers that he uses for his sex for his
uh trom boones. Well, you know you could have You
could have bumped into worse friends of mine.

Speaker 3 (02:02):
Anyway, y'all we're here today.

Speaker 2 (02:06):
I will say that our guests probably doesn't need I
won't say I will say that he doesn't need an introduction.

Speaker 7 (02:14):
But he's one of my favorite bridge writers. Bridges, Yo,
you're now rare bridges and undefeated.

Speaker 2 (02:25):
Our guest is indeed, he's a three time Grammy Award
winning singer, songwriter, producer, actor, collaborated with the best of them,
from Jiga to Beyonce, to Pitbull, to Rihanna and to
Kanye the Fabulous.

Speaker 3 (02:41):
I mean, the list goes on and on and on
and on and on and on and on.

Speaker 2 (02:44):
Uh. He's released seventh albums and his eighth, which is
entitled Self Explanatory, will be out by this recording in July.

Speaker 3 (02:55):
I believe the platforms Yes July fifteenth eight track as well.

Speaker 2 (03:00):
Here three platinum albums. Prolific songwriter and producer and entertainer. Yo,
ladies and gentlemen, please give it up for the one
and only, the one, Neil, the one.

Speaker 3 (03:11):
What's loves to pree? What's up? Brother? How you doing?

Speaker 8 (03:14):
That was a hell of an introduction. I needed done
like that from now on.

Speaker 2 (03:20):
Hey man, every every hero needs is its theme music
and his own fanfare.

Speaker 8 (03:25):
I love it. I love it.

Speaker 7 (03:26):
Greeting brother.

Speaker 2 (03:27):
So for our listeners who can't see you right now, Yes,
you're in a house that looks like it's nothing but
art deco lights.

Speaker 8 (03:37):
Like, yeah, I'm at home currently. This This is my
recording studio that I'm currently And I tell people all
the time that they be like, so what do you
do with your spare time? What do you do when
you're not doing music? I'm like music, That's that's that's
pretty much. I do this because I love it, man.
And with that being said, I couldn't have a house

(03:58):
without a studio and it had to happen, so I
built my own.

Speaker 7 (04:01):
I love it same as I'm in my mind.

Speaker 3 (04:03):
That's dope, man.

Speaker 2 (04:04):
Yeah, I was about to say, fante you you got
your your blue light on as well.

Speaker 7 (04:08):
I feel like I had to keep the vibe going.

Speaker 8 (04:12):
Got to.

Speaker 3 (04:14):
Where where are you from? Where were you born?

Speaker 8 (04:17):
Was born in Camden, Arkansas? Yes, deep deep deep South.
Don't feel bad if you don't know where Camden is.
No one knows where Camden people people from Arkansas don't
know where camp I.

Speaker 5 (04:28):
Always thought it was vague, the Nevada, That's what I
was confused.

Speaker 10 (04:31):
Why did the majority of my growing up in Vegas?

Speaker 8 (04:33):
Like I went to high school in Vegas, whole nine,
Like all of that happened in Vegas. My dad was
a truck drive.

Speaker 5 (04:38):
Oh that's a cool that's a cool job.

Speaker 6 (04:39):
You rode in the back of the camp He had
one of those cats with the beds in the back
and everything like.

Speaker 10 (04:43):
With the reason he wasn't ever because he was driving
trucks and doing other stuff.

Speaker 8 (04:51):
Yeah, yeah, do.

Speaker 2 (04:52):
You have any siblings. Your parents are they musically inclined?

Speaker 4 (04:56):
Uh?

Speaker 8 (04:56):
My, everybody in my family does something in regard to
you music. Did playing an instrument or singing or rapping.

Speaker 7 (05:02):
Or with whatever what happened?

Speaker 8 (05:04):
Everybody does something like my mom used to sing, my
dad plays bas he sings, My sister sings ridiculously. She's
she's a she's an alien.

Speaker 10 (05:13):
Well I have I have two two sisters and a brother.

Speaker 8 (05:16):
One one sister sister and one one half sister and
half brother. You know, Papa was a bit of a
rolling stone.

Speaker 10 (05:23):
We passed no judgments. It is what it is.

Speaker 8 (05:26):
But but yeah, yeah, closest closest to my my main
I don't know if I call it my main sister.
How does that work? The sister that I share a
mother and father with that that system where the where
the we're the closest. You know.

Speaker 3 (05:40):
No, I have that situation too, So.

Speaker 8 (05:43):
You know, I go no disrespect to my to my
other sister and my other brother. You know, they just
they they moved around and did their own thing, and
it is what it is. But but yeah, I grew
up in Las Vegas under a very very musically inclined mother.
She did everything the music, every sing the thing you
can think of being cleaning up the house to watching
TV with the stereo playing type type situation.

Speaker 10 (06:06):
So yeah, it was just always there, right, just all there.

Speaker 3 (06:09):
What was your first musical memory.

Speaker 10 (06:13):
First musical memory sitting in this sitting in the living
room in front of the stereo, crying and not understanding
why as I was listening to Billy Ocean's sudden.

Speaker 3 (06:26):
Steve that is.

Speaker 5 (06:27):
An eighties baby. That is an eighties baby.

Speaker 8 (06:29):
Right though.

Speaker 2 (06:32):
I know I know, Steve, he is hitting your he's
sitting your groove right now.

Speaker 5 (06:37):
Has no meaning to me.

Speaker 4 (06:41):
Suddenly, No life has new meaning.

Speaker 5 (06:44):
Mean, that's what I meant. That's what I said.

Speaker 3 (06:46):
He wasn't suicidal, His life has new meaning.

Speaker 6 (06:49):
You know I always fuck it up a mirror. You're right,
I fed it up.

Speaker 8 (06:53):
Wow, I'm good.

Speaker 2 (06:56):
No, No, that's actually dope to hear it, because oftentimes
I think people were rather shame that. I think that's
the purpose of music is to either document a time period,
like music to me is always like a musical polar
y because it helps me remember what year it was,
or what time it was, or what happened at a party,

(07:16):
like oh yeah, like whenever I hear, you know, ironic
by Lance Marsette, I'm forever gonna remember, like, oh, my
first car accident. You know, I'm just giving an example,
but I'm just saying that music does that. What do
you think it was about that song that touched you?

Speaker 10 (07:34):
You know what?

Speaker 8 (07:35):
To be completely honest with your man, I might have
been maybe maybe five or six or something somewhere in
there when this happened, but even now as a forty
two year old man, it's something about some of the
melodies that just gets you.

Speaker 4 (07:46):
Bro.

Speaker 8 (07:47):
It's just I think it was just I think that
was the first time I realized the power of melody.
You know what I'm saying that hitting a certain chord
on a guitar or a certain note on a piano
could like I put goosebumps on your arm type thing,
you know what I mean. Like I didn't in mind
at the time, I didn't know that's what it was.
But but thinking back now, it's like that's that had

(08:08):
to be what it was because I couldn't have understood
what he was talking about him from five, I don't
know what I'm talking about, but the music, the way
the melodies was hitting me. I think that's what it was.

Speaker 2 (08:17):
Again, And I have to ask in light of what
what I what I lovingly d up as the versus
Comedy Hour.

Speaker 3 (08:28):
Hey, bruh, you going there?

Speaker 5 (08:30):
I didn't know. I'm not.

Speaker 4 (08:33):
I'm not.

Speaker 3 (08:33):
I'm not.

Speaker 2 (08:34):
I'm not about gotcha journalism, not about putting the next
man down?

Speaker 3 (08:37):
But are you rather perplexed? And the thing is, I
don't believe that music is dead.

Speaker 2 (08:45):
I just believe that the particular music I like, I
have to search, like very very far and wide for it,
like I have to search for it. But for you,
are you kind of perplexed at what what passes for
music now?

Speaker 3 (09:00):
The fact that.

Speaker 2 (09:02):
That type of melody might not necessarily be exposed to
a mainstream audience as.

Speaker 3 (09:07):
It once was. Mm hmm uh.

Speaker 7 (09:10):
That that's a beautiful question.

Speaker 8 (09:12):
And I have to say I definitely share in and
where you are with that?

Speaker 3 (09:18):
You know what I mean?

Speaker 8 (09:18):
Now? Mind you, I've I've put myself in a place
where if I'm going to be a part of this industry,
I have to find a way to.

Speaker 10 (09:28):
Like a little bit of everything, you know, maybe not
love it.

Speaker 8 (09:31):
I probably I wouldn't turn around in my car, But
if it's on, I'm not gonna sit here and bad
mouth it or sit here and not have a good time,
because then not playing a kind of music that I
want to hear quote unquote.

Speaker 3 (09:40):
Do you still listen to the radio?

Speaker 8 (09:42):
Not as often as I once did. Uh nah, not really.
Normally I'll go on you know, one of the streaming
streaming joints or whatever and pull up what it is
I'm looking for it. That's that's that's easier for me
than then sitting and trying to tolerate some of the
things that because I mean, I'm I'm I'm from that
place too, I'm from the place where you know it was.

(10:04):
It was the intricacy of that that three part harmony,
like that place and and and that's just you said it.
You said it in my intro bridges Like nobody writes
bridges anymore. It's like people like people ain't got time
for it to be good no more?

Speaker 10 (10:18):
Like which like what are we all rushing towards?

Speaker 8 (10:21):
Songs are like a minute long? Now, Like where are
y'all going so fast?

Speaker 4 (10:26):
No?

Speaker 5 (10:27):
I mean they fast?

Speaker 8 (10:29):
Yeah.

Speaker 9 (10:29):
My son, my son, he has a I don't know
if you're up on her. He has an artist. He
listens to is his girl, Pink Pantherist. I don't know
if you're up on her. She put out an album
I think it was last year, ten songs, eighteen minutes.

Speaker 3 (10:44):
That's like fantastic Volume one.

Speaker 7 (10:45):
And this is the whole album.

Speaker 9 (10:46):
Yeah up, but he this my sixteen year my youngest son.

Speaker 7 (10:51):
But yeah, that's that's kind of where the young is.

Speaker 3 (10:54):
That's what it is.

Speaker 8 (10:55):
I'm really I'm really curious as to why that is, Like,
like because even even when I was even when I
was sixteen, like it was about it was about.

Speaker 10 (11:06):
The story of it, you know what I mean, Like
like I don't know, maybe maybe I was.

Speaker 8 (11:09):
A different little sixteen year old, but like, uh, what's
what's the joint? What's the joint?

Speaker 10 (11:13):
The song is ten minutes long Luther Vandrus.

Speaker 7 (11:16):
Okay long ago as Superstar.

Speaker 8 (11:21):
Yeah, that's a ten minute song, and it feels like
two minutes because you just enjoy that shit so much
that it passes quickly. But that song is ten minutes
long and you wuldn't even you didn't even know it.

Speaker 7 (11:31):
But it's about.

Speaker 8 (11:31):
The beginning, middle, and end of a story. I used
to listen to music for that. Yeah, and I think
you get that no more?

Speaker 9 (11:38):
Yeah, now, bro, I think we got like it's the
tail wagging the dog like in that. You know, people
are making music specifically for streaming services, and so they
know a one minute or one and a half minute
song will naturally be streamed more in five minutes than
a five minute song would be once you know what
I mean.

Speaker 8 (11:55):
You know, from a business and commerce standpoint, that's that's
that's smart at hell. Music art is not supposed to
be inspired by commerce, at least not in my personal opinion.
That's just supposed to come from the heart somewhere. And
if it's coming from the heart, it might take a
little longer than a minute to give my point across,
But that means that my song is played on the radio.
Now damn all right, Well here we are, ladies and gentlemen.

Speaker 3 (12:17):
I learned that lesson with I think really with the
Old Town Road. I spun it at a party once
and thought, you know, okay, I'll put it on.

Speaker 2 (12:25):
Like back when it was red hot, I would that
would be my first record, my stalling record until I
find out what I really want to play.

Speaker 3 (12:34):
And I looked at the thing and.

Speaker 2 (12:36):
It was like two minutes and twenty seven seconds, and
I really whoa like I had to play it twice.
I meant the Billy Ray Cyrus thing stretches it a.

Speaker 7 (12:46):
Little bit to like, yeah, a.

Speaker 2 (12:49):
Seventeen seconds, but yeah, man, it's it's also maybe that
this generation doesn't need a lot of time to express itself.

Speaker 3 (13:02):
I won't say that doesn't much to say.

Speaker 5 (13:04):
They do have the language. They have the words.

Speaker 10 (13:07):
It's like mean culture, yeah, statement, next statement.

Speaker 5 (13:12):
But they also have new words that we didn't have before.

Speaker 6 (13:15):
Where we used to be taken forever to say a
gas like trigger, you used to have to think, come on,
that shit didn't exist. You a whole sentence about what
that ship really was, like like.

Speaker 8 (13:24):
Trump, the lingo is gonna change with the times, as
you know, as long as it's young people, it's alway gonna.

Speaker 7 (13:29):
Be do lingo.

Speaker 8 (13:29):
I ain't mad at that part. Yes, I just wish
that I wish that everybody would just slow the hell down.
I feel like, you know what I felt why music
is suffering is because nobody's taking the time to keep
it good. No more like everybody is, as you said,
everybody trying to get their streaming numbers up. And it's
like listen. We'll worry about quality later. Right now, it's
just let's just get it out there. We can get
these numbers up. That sucks. I just I just hate

(13:53):
that we in this place now.

Speaker 5 (13:54):
Man, I really, it's not all young people.

Speaker 6 (13:56):
That's not that's not everybody understand because there is a
section of young people that are appreciating the nineties right
now that are we discovering neo soul and all of
that and making it new against I mean, you know,
let's just get a baby some love.

Speaker 10 (14:09):
There's always exceptions, you know.

Speaker 8 (14:11):
The mass is the mass situation right now is you know,
a song need to be a minute long because I
got something to do?

Speaker 10 (14:17):
What do you have to do? You ain't got trying
to listen to some good music.

Speaker 8 (14:21):
I don't get it.

Speaker 6 (14:22):
I don't get I used to tell people on the radio, listen,
if you want to find good music, it's not going
to be the ship that easily comes to you.

Speaker 5 (14:28):
You're gonna have to go find it.

Speaker 6 (14:29):
And I'm on the radio telling you that the good
ship is not what you're easy on the radio. Okay,
we had we we we repeating some things, but I'm sorry,
go back there.

Speaker 2 (14:40):
I feel like I feel like this shows now turning
into the corner of do the right thing.

Speaker 8 (14:44):
There's there's one other element of this that I feel
like might play a very very strong factor. Okay, now,
I am not anywhere near good enough to say that
I am a piano player or a guitar player or
a drum player.

Speaker 7 (15:00):
I'm good enough to tap around and find what I need.

Speaker 8 (15:02):
Right, But I recall a time where music was kind
of like a really really exclusive club. You had to
know what you were doing, you had to be good
at you had to be good at what you was doing.

Speaker 10 (15:16):
Like now, anybody can do it.

Speaker 8 (15:19):
Anybody can do it. It's it's the door, it's the
y m c A. Come on in, y'all's that's where.
That's where we're at now. So of course, if you
got just anybody doing whatever, of course things are going
to suffer.

Speaker 7 (15:31):
That the quality is gonna suffer.

Speaker 8 (15:33):
There was a point in time where the quality was
up because the cats that was doing it was quality.
Taking nothing from anybody today, I'm not saying the names.
I'm not doing that for my bashing. I'm just saying
that now I mean to take something to take something
like DJ. You remember when you had to like learn
timing and like like figure out how to mix records

(15:53):
and now.

Speaker 10 (15:55):
You push your button and you got and you're done.
You're done. You push your button.

Speaker 9 (16:00):
Yeah, yeah, I think those tools are just gonna have
to push people to like be creative in a different way,
because I mean even though, like even with DJing, it's like,
if you have the records, you can give me a
mirror's hard drive right now, and I wouldn't know what
to do with it, you know what I'm saying, Like
you still have to know how.

Speaker 7 (16:17):
To play the records. You know, there's just still skills,
a skill set that's evolved.

Speaker 9 (16:21):
But with now, with technology, in many ways good and bad,
it's leveled the plan field so that the barrier of
entry is pretty much non existent.

Speaker 8 (16:29):
Well. No, it's the same thing with with like bro
with with with auto tune for example, Yeah, you got
to know what you're doing with auto tune to make
it do what it do, right, you're gonna be auto
you go and and and so it's the same thing
with DJ.

Speaker 10 (16:42):
I understand it.

Speaker 8 (16:43):
There's a technique to it, but you can't deny that
back day, before the buttons came, you had to be
a little bit better at what you was doing.

Speaker 7 (16:53):
You know what I'm saying. You had to be good.

Speaker 8 (16:54):
You had to be that dude a little bit like
and the same thing came to playing instruments, the same
thing came with singing.

Speaker 7 (17:00):
You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 8 (17:00):
That's that's why we're kind of seeing what we're seeing
right now, is it's not the craft itself. I don't
feel like it's as respected as it once was. Like
nobody's blood sweating heres to get good at this no more?

Speaker 5 (17:12):
You know that means the bottom is going to fall out, right,
y'all know that, right?

Speaker 8 (17:16):
The bottom fell out, or God willing, somebody comes along
and saves us.

Speaker 2 (17:26):
Do you remember the first album that you purchased with
your own money?

Speaker 8 (17:32):
The first album I purchased with my own money, surprisingly
was not an R and B album. It was The
Far Sides Wild Was it the Wild Ride? It was
all right?

Speaker 10 (17:43):
Yes, the first one? Yeah, huge, huge far side fan Yeah.

Speaker 3 (17:48):
Yeah, see you're thirteen, okay.

Speaker 8 (17:51):
Easily something like that.

Speaker 3 (17:53):
Wow, you know what's where? Uh?

Speaker 2 (17:56):
That album was a hard sell for me in the
very big I didn't like Your Mama.

Speaker 3 (18:05):
It was cool, But.

Speaker 5 (18:06):
Was it the remix that turned you around? Or was
it just no?

Speaker 3 (18:09):
When I heard for Better for Worse?

Speaker 6 (18:11):
Ah yeah, oh damn y'all, alright, all right, when I
heard your Mama, I just started corny and I ignored them.

Speaker 2 (18:21):
And well, you know, like when Richard Nichols and AJ
Shine were producers. AJ Shine was like Philadelphia's stretching Barbido,
and he had a copy of the album and I
looked at the album cover and it was just the
craziest thing I ever seen, which is really weird because
when he put for Better for Worse one, I feel
like the album cover, that's the that's the soundtrack to

(18:42):
the album cover Worse. But when I heard those Fender roads,
like that just totally I don't know, it's just it
just opened the whole portal. Literally after I heard for
Better for Worse, I told rich like, we need a
keyboard player, and he was like, I know this, like

(19:04):
this guy living in my house named Scott Storch. And
that's how Scott came into the group. Wait, speaking of which,
I'm just realizing I didn't realize that you were the
third writer of Let Me Love You. I've always thought
that was just Scott and Cam.

Speaker 8 (19:19):
Yeah, shout out to my man, Cam. No, that was me.

Speaker 10 (19:22):
Yes, I was absolutely there for that.

Speaker 5 (19:25):
Ah.

Speaker 2 (19:25):
Man, Yo, man, I've known Cam like I've known Cam
since I k known Scott since they were like yay Hi,
I thought Cam wrote those lyrics.

Speaker 6 (19:34):
Yo.

Speaker 8 (19:34):
I was like no, no, no, no, We definitely we
definitely went back and forth on that. That was.

Speaker 10 (19:38):
That was my first time ever.

Speaker 8 (19:39):
Working with Cam and it was I just remember it
because I remember it being such an easy situation because
I worked with other writers since then, and it's egos
getting away and you know, well I will I'll route
this much, you know, and all of that stuff gets
in a way that was not the case when this
song came to be. I feel like that might be
why the song this so well, because it was just
such a uh it was it was like it was

(20:01):
just love. The whole situation was just love. Nobody was
was tripping off of who got what percentage, Nobody was
was trying to do more than they did. Like it
was just a love situation, you know what I'm saying.
Shout out to them, man, man, Shout out to Camp,
Shout out to Scott Storge. That's to a large degree,
that's where my career started because that was the song

(20:22):
that that finally got me the attention. You know what
I'm saying. For a long time, I was I was
dub the little nigga that wrote the Mario song. That
was that was my name.

Speaker 3 (20:32):
Can you talk about the process of you discovering your voice?

Speaker 8 (20:37):
So, yeah, my sister was born with with just she
she came out to womb High Sea like just in
there easy. It takes her, takes nothing. I'd work for
my a little bit. You know, I knew I could,
I could hold the note. I wasn't tone death, but
I wasn't.

Speaker 7 (20:53):
I wasn't.

Speaker 8 (20:53):
I wasn't my sister, you know what I mean. And
and in our house, you know, the standard became my sister.
So and so you know, I felt a few not
just below that. So it took a little minute for
me to just really really get comfortable with my voice.
A lot of Michael Jackson, a lot of Stevie Wonder,
you know what I'm saying. Moms actually put me on
to both of these gentlemen, uh, and it helped me

(21:14):
get more more comfortable with just how my voice sounded.

Speaker 10 (21:18):
I used to really not like the sound of my voice.

Speaker 8 (21:20):
Because from what I couldn't do what my sister could
do technically she had the ad libs.

Speaker 10 (21:24):
And all of that stuff right.

Speaker 8 (21:27):
And then my mom was like my hero, and she
used to listen to a lot of like, you know,
husky voiced singers, the Ojys and your Teddy P's and
you take them all that, and I didn't have that,
you know what I mean. So I didn't like I
didn't really like singing at first. And then she introduced
me to uh, to Michael Jackson's Off the Wall, not thriller,

(21:49):
Off the Wall.

Speaker 3 (21:51):
Uh.

Speaker 10 (21:51):
She introduced me to songs in the kid life.

Speaker 8 (21:54):
She introduced me to to what they just how they
were doing, what they were doing with their voices, and
they helped me become more comfortable with my own because
there was a similar tambre there, kind of that nasally
high thing, you know what I mean, And it just
helped me get more comfortable with it, but not comfortable
enough to sing for people. It was at the height
of what I was doing. I'm in the tenth grade,

(22:15):
and if ever I'm upset about something, mad at something,
whatever the case may be, I got a little red
notebook under my bed.

Speaker 7 (22:21):
I pull that joint out I'll write a quick.

Speaker 8 (22:23):
Song, sing it to myself, throw a note up back
under the bed, and gone by my business. Like my
friends didn't know for a long long time. I didn't
because it wasn't for them, it was it was for me.
It was therapy for me, you know what I mean.
So I went to a performing arts high school for
visual designers, a drawing paint and whatnot. And every year
this high school, Las Vegas Academy for Theater, Performing and

(22:44):
Visual Arts, every year they would do something called pop Concert.
And this was primarily for the dancers and the choir
majors and you know the.

Speaker 7 (22:52):
Techie guys that do the lights and all of that.

Speaker 8 (22:53):
It was like a like a like a super glorified
talent show. Think you know they got smoke machines and
the biggest thing going on it.

Speaker 3 (23:01):
Yeah.

Speaker 8 (23:02):
Yeah, So of course this is a major deal to
the whole school. Everybody except the art majors. We were
kind of left out of that.

Speaker 10 (23:11):
They ain't really there weren't really nothing for us to do.

Speaker 8 (23:13):
You make your back drop now we find we got
lights the right couls. So we were kind of like
the grassy old kids, like they wasn't wasn't nobody studding
us because the whole the rest of the school is.

Speaker 10 (23:24):
On pop concert pop, console, popcorns.

Speaker 8 (23:26):
These kids crying in the cafeteria over choreography, you this
fucking six.

Speaker 3 (23:31):
Like so it sounds like someone I know.

Speaker 8 (23:35):
So this particularly year, me and me and the grassy
old kids, we decided, you know what, we're gonna do
something to just to just kind of take the piss
out this whole situation, right, so.

Speaker 10 (23:45):
We pulled straws. Of course, I pulled the short straw.

Speaker 8 (23:49):
The plan was to somehow get into the talent show,
because you had audition to get into the talent show.
So that was the hard part, get into the talent show.
And then once you got on stage, turn around moon
the crowd run off like that was that was what
we were gonna do. That was our plan.

Speaker 7 (24:03):
I pulled the.

Speaker 8 (24:03):
Short This is a plan. It was. It was kind
of like just a big fuck you to everything that
y'all making such a big dollar. No one's getting signed
from this, this this this talent show.

Speaker 10 (24:14):
Guys, calm down, And that was always saying that to everybody.

Speaker 6 (24:16):
Okay, so how you gonna get on stage?

Speaker 3 (24:20):
You aren't majors were always assholes.

Speaker 7 (24:22):
Man, I'm sorry, completely on purpose.

Speaker 8 (24:25):
We thrived on being an asshole. We did it on purpose.
But okay. So so I go to the choir the
choir room to audition. I sang boysmen, end of the row. Uh.
The choir major instantly asked me, why are you not
in my class? Because I'm not a singer. He was like,
yes you are whatever, Yeah, you in?

Speaker 7 (24:42):
All right?

Speaker 8 (24:43):
Cool? Bye, gone, all right, I got in. How'd you
get in? Don't worry about I got in? All right, cool,
get there. It's the day of everybody's excited. All my
own boys are sitting in the front. I don't know
how the hell they manage that, because it was just
something that you had to get tickets to. But we
found our way in, damn it. We always the grassy
old kids always find a way. Anyways, it's my turn
to go up. They introduced me, show your love for

(25:05):
Schaeffer Smith that's my real name, Shafford Schmithson. I walk
out on stage to no applause, because, mind you, the
kids at this school know me as the little dude
with the braids that will draw you a picture if
you give them ten dollars. Right, this is who I
was at this. So the music starts and I, I
can't make this up. The music starts and I look

(25:27):
up at the crowd, and all of a sudden, nobody's there.
Everybody's gone. I don't know it just it's just in
my in my head, everybody's gone. The crowd is gone.
All I can hear is the song. So I just
start singing. I sang the whole song, set said to
one place, eyes closed, sang the whole song, A libs

(25:48):
and all all of that, all of that song and
no applause.

Speaker 10 (25:54):
All of a sudden, it was like a I can't it.

Speaker 7 (25:56):
Was slow clap to us, to the roar.

Speaker 10 (26:02):
Because it was it was it was like, where the
hell did this come again?

Speaker 3 (26:05):
They were shock the nigga with the braves.

Speaker 8 (26:07):
That'll draw you a picture for ten dollars. This is
who I was all of a sudden, you know what
I'm saying. So so that at that moment, suddenly, you know,
the following days it's girls saying hi in the hall
and ship that that. I knew all of that. You know,
A buddy of mine, hey, me and some friends, we
had a singing group going up. You want to join
the group. Uh yeah, sure, all right. And then once

(26:31):
I got into the group and met you know, some
like minded gentlemen that wanted to do the same thing.
We sent around creating three four part harmonies and whatnot.
That's when it That's when it was finally like I
could I could do this for a living, like I
could really, Yeah, I could, I could do this.

Speaker 5 (26:44):
So you just left the grass, you old people like
you just rode out on him like.

Speaker 10 (26:47):
Friends and friends.

Speaker 8 (26:49):
And we was always at but you know, it's it's
at the same time I'm in the I'm spending a
little bit more time in the choir room and.

Speaker 2 (26:54):
The little bits ask this question, your class.

Speaker 8 (27:01):
Of ninety eight, nineteen ninety eight.

Speaker 2 (27:04):
So that said, did you go back to your twenty
three reunion in twenty eighteen?

Speaker 8 (27:12):
Say yes, I did? I did.

Speaker 3 (27:16):
Did you stunt on them?

Speaker 8 (27:18):
I don't. I'm not. I'm not a stunter. If that
my flex is real light. It's like, you know what
I'm saying, I'm gonna put this ship on, but not
say I put this shit on. I'm gonna just wait
for you to notice that I got that ship on,
like you know, that's me. That's me, you know, I'm
not gonna draw attention to the diamonds, but should you
see them?

Speaker 7 (27:37):
Goddamn you know what?

Speaker 8 (27:38):
That's me right imply everlyam So you know I went
and mind you the most famous people that was myself.
Apparently the drummer from the group The Killers went to
the same high school as me. Yeah, Vega and.

Speaker 5 (27:56):
Seven o two, right and seven o two.

Speaker 10 (27:58):
Seven o two seven oh two on their way out
as I was on my way here.

Speaker 5 (28:01):
Okay, I just knew, y'all.

Speaker 7 (28:02):
Okay, I just knew.

Speaker 8 (28:03):
Yeah, but uh, she's an actress, beautiful chocolate actress. She
was on the True Blood show Routina. Yes, we went
to we went to school together. Yeah, man, yes, old,
I mean routine.

Speaker 5 (28:21):
You're not old. But you know what I'm saying, Queen Sugar.

Speaker 8 (28:25):
Wow, man, listen, nowadays it is a blessing to ghettols.
I ain't even trip hell yeah you So.

Speaker 2 (28:32):
The thing is you're saying that your gift of journaling
or writing poetry was sort of your your stress reliever.
You're that you let off steam. Did anyone ever hire
your services as like, uh, you know, quasi here no
divergiac as right, write.

Speaker 8 (28:52):
Me something all the time, Yes, all the time. Yeah,
I used to do a lot of that for football players.
That's the football player at our school, because there was
no football at our school, but Rancho was down the street.
And yeah, I know a lot of them guys. Yeah,
I'll write write poems. Then they getting their girlfriends or yeah, listen, but.

Speaker 6 (29:13):
Okay, ten dollars and dollars dollar got you, I'll let
you say, you go for it, ten bucks.

Speaker 7 (29:22):
I'll never went hungry.

Speaker 2 (29:23):
I would like to know what your process was then
as opposed to now, as far as.

Speaker 3 (29:33):
Writing with the song.

Speaker 2 (29:35):
Are you a person that can get an idea of
just words without melody or knowing what type of song
it is, or you know, do you have to sit
and listen to the song or how different is your
songwriting process high school, post high school versus what you

(29:57):
do for a living now.

Speaker 8 (29:59):
I can honestly say that when it was, you know,
back in high school, before before the stakes got high,
you know, so to speak, there was a there was
a freedom to my writing that that dwindled over time,
you know, as as I got into that place where
it's like, all right, you've had success, now you got
to do it again. And so now you're overthinking every
fucking thing you do because it's like, oh, isn't as

(30:21):
good as that thing. Before that, it was kind of
just writing whatever came to mind, and it was no
wrong way, you know. Sometimes it was it was a
cadence that came to me, no melody, just no words,
just a cadence now whatever the case. And then sometimes
it was words I used to so I used to
uh my training, so to speak.

Speaker 10 (30:42):
But if you want to call it that, I would
just go.

Speaker 8 (30:44):
Somewhere and look around the room, find a word, a phrase,
a picture of something, create a story around it, and
then write a song based on that story, just to
just to sharpen, you know, just to sharpen the tube.
So it could be it could be a word, It
could be you know, somebody sitting with guitar and we
sit and create melodies that way, and the words over the melodies.
Like there's no wrong way as long as it got

(31:05):
to that that thing you feel when you know, like, yeah,
that thing, you know what I mean.

Speaker 3 (31:13):
I want to thank you for validating me.

Speaker 7 (31:15):
Oh yeah, thank you for.

Speaker 3 (31:17):
Validating me right now. No, because you know.

Speaker 2 (31:21):
I wrote a book on creativity and I was trying
to give various exercises. Well, the first thing I told
people is that they have to embrace boredom more because
when you're silent, when you're bored, when you're still, that's
when the ideas come to you. And you know, I
was just suggesting games that you could do, like brand exercises,

(31:42):
where you know, I think Carly Simon used to randomly
open a National geographic page and look at one sentence
and then base a whole song on that. And so
to hear you say that, yes, I'm glad that you
validated me, because I don't consider myself a songwriter, but

(32:03):
I figured that for writing, that's a great exercise to do.

Speaker 8 (32:07):
Oh yeah, yeah. I mean it's because if you don't,
your songs tend to become stagnant, you know what I mean,
Like there's there's the okay, there's let's write about love,
Let's write about sex, Let's write about money, let's write
about girls. These four things are always gonna, you know,
flow to the top for the for the younger generation,
that's just kind of is what it is to be young.

Speaker 7 (32:27):
I get it.

Speaker 8 (32:28):
But if you just focus on those four things, then
all of a sudden, your songs kind of start sounding alike.
It's like, all right, well, well you need you need
new ways to say the same ship, if that makes
any sense. And the only way to do that is
to step outside your comfort zone to find a word
that it's actually difficult write a song about graphight what

(32:48):
but how?

Speaker 7 (32:49):
Hold on?

Speaker 8 (32:49):
How? What? What?

Speaker 7 (32:51):
How do you sing?

Speaker 6 (32:53):
Yeah?

Speaker 7 (32:53):
Because because you can rap, but singing something.

Speaker 10 (32:56):
Step away from from I love you, so never let
me go, you know what I mean?

Speaker 8 (33:00):
Like, step away from that and figure out another way
to say to to get that same that same point across,
but with different words and different phrases and different melodies
like I used to I still do.

Speaker 7 (33:11):
I can't lock into one.

Speaker 8 (33:13):
Specific genre of music because you know, if it's if
it's hip hop, is these these three melodies that every
hip hop artist is using, right, So that's a very
small bowl. If it's R and B, you know, it's
these chords, it's the church chords. It's that type of vibe.

Speaker 7 (33:27):
Okay, that's cool.

Speaker 10 (33:29):
Step outside of that.

Speaker 8 (33:30):
Listen to some country music, listen to them melodies over there,
step outside. I listened to some some some Hindi music
or whatever, just melodies that you wouldn't typically go to too,
and it helps just expand your your your library of sound.

Speaker 10 (33:43):
You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 8 (33:44):
When you sit down and do it, you got more
ship to play with as opposed to I love you
so never let me go. And you know the latest
church song made over with R and B lyrics on it.

Speaker 2 (33:54):
Yeah, I want to ask, what are your tabooed no
no in songwriting?

Speaker 3 (34:02):
Like, okay, I hate your on my mind all the time.
Maybe you on my mind. I think about you all
the time, right.

Speaker 10 (34:13):
Yeah, those those hurt those hurts song.

Speaker 8 (34:17):
It's just so come on, man, like you ain't even
tried you you phoned you phoned it in the death
like that's yeah, I hate that. I hate the phone
in lyric, not nothing mind you, the phone in lyric,
not the simple lyric, because you can say it simply
and it's still be clever, it's still have have you know,
a little kick to it.

Speaker 3 (34:35):
Smokey Robinson's the king of.

Speaker 8 (34:36):
That, the king of I'm gonna just say it, but
I'm the.

Speaker 3 (34:40):
King of simplicity.

Speaker 8 (34:42):
Yeah, but it's but but still but still fly, oh
like simple but fly, not just simple for the sake
of simple. Like I used to have an issue with
the whole concept of repeating one word over and over
and over and over and over and over and over.
It used to it used to bug me, cause it's like,
why there's so many words. There's so many words?

Speaker 2 (35:03):
You mean rhyming, rhyming words with words, or you mean
like my my my, my, my my mom, like just
saying one word baby.

Speaker 8 (35:12):
This is why. That is why I have the utmost
respect for the Dream, because the Dream found a way
to do that ship and it don't bug you. I
don't know how, but it don't. But hey, you know
what I'm saying. It works for him. Shout out to
the Dream. How the hell you do that, bro, because
I'll be trying that. It's like, nah, it's crumble, No,
this ain't.

Speaker 10 (35:32):
It, This is not it.

Speaker 2 (35:34):
Of your contemporaries, who are the you know, the people
that you respect the most, and who are your I
guess you could say you're I'm about to say Mount
Saint Helen's uh before president?

Speaker 3 (35:48):
Yeah? Who?

Speaker 8 (35:50):
Who?

Speaker 3 (35:50):
Who's the Mount Rushmore of of songwriters? For you?

Speaker 8 (35:54):
Of songwriters? See, that's that's that's an interesting question. I've
actually never been asked that question before. It's always who's
just your mount rushmore like a favor like so, so
if for that question, the question you didn't answer, you
didn't ask, well.

Speaker 2 (36:08):
Okay, let me let me reask instead of who do
you respect now? Who writes a song today that you're like, Damn,
I wish I wrote that?

Speaker 10 (36:17):
Like?

Speaker 3 (36:17):
Is there a song that's like man, I wish I
had a crack at that?

Speaker 8 (36:20):
Like Damn, I've I've I've heard one or two Drake
records where the lyric was clever enough to where I'm like, oh,
I did not think of that. That was that was good?
That was good? Yeah, that hurt I've heard.

Speaker 10 (36:34):
I've heard one of two records from him. Uh in
that space.

Speaker 7 (36:37):
I don't know.

Speaker 8 (36:38):
I'm gonna be real honest with you. I don't know
a lot of the newer newer generation and I don't
know their names. You know. No no disrespect or anything
like that, but it's just I have to be I
have to be enthralled in the record today and take
it upon myself to go back and be look be
look at who wrote it, who produced it. And if
I don't, if I don't feel like that, then I'm
not I'm not gonna waste the time.

Speaker 10 (36:59):
I'll let it be what it is and keep it moving.

Speaker 3 (37:02):
Are you up up?

Speaker 7 (37:02):
Victoria Money, she's a writer. I really like her.

Speaker 8 (37:06):
Victoria Money, I consider an artist. But yeah, she's a
she's a.

Speaker 9 (37:12):
Oh she's Arianna she but she's an artist, like you know,
like he said.

Speaker 8 (37:16):
But yeah, I love her music.

Speaker 3 (37:18):
Yeah, her music is yeah.

Speaker 8 (37:20):
Yeah, shout out to Victoria Money, shout out to shout
out to the girl her.

Speaker 2 (37:23):
Who's your Mount Rushmore before you as in, that's the
level of the pending game that I would like.

Speaker 8 (37:33):
My Mount Rushmore, ultimate Mount Rushmore, be an artist writer.
Hold on because all of these guys kind of embody
all of that five gentlemen Michael Jackson, Prince Samit Davis Junior,
Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye.

Speaker 5 (37:46):
Said that list like five. Yes, that's a nice.

Speaker 8 (37:50):
Group in Vegas. A group in Vegas. There is the
rat Pack. I was I. I fell in love with
the rat Pack. My mom brought it home and of
course I gravitated. It's the same because he was the
one that looked like me. So yeah, man, that's what
it was.

Speaker 2 (38:09):
If you're in a run, what's the process of you
dealing with it? Do you have other hobbies or other
other things that you get into. Like sometimes if I
I'm a great example is whatever the movie or I
write a book, or I do something else creative, and
that'll make me miss music. So do you have like

(38:30):
another pivot that you go to if you're ever in
a trap of not being able to finish the song?

Speaker 8 (38:37):
I think I think the key word is pivot because
you kind of have to pivot because if you don't,
you sit there and force it until paralysis. Yeah, exactly that. So,
so the thing for me has always been a step
away from it, you know, as hard as that may
be sometimes because you know that that whole defeated thing
starts setting in. It's like damn, I let the song
beat me. No, you're not defeated. It's not done. Relax,

(39:00):
you can come back. I'll step away and not normally
for me, I'll you know, play street fighter. I'm a
I'm an absolute beast that street fighter. Challenge me anyone
who's your people, don't need nobody, your body, nobody me?
Or are you on dragging dragon for you? So I'll

(39:21):
do that or you know, uh, remember the practice I
was telling you about where I just look around the
room and find another word and just just something, something
to get the wheels turning again.

Speaker 7 (39:32):
That's all I really need.

Speaker 8 (39:33):
And that's and that normally helps. That normally helps.

Speaker 3 (39:37):
See, that's that's how I play word.

Speaker 2 (39:39):
So I guess I should sort of channel on to
actually writing lyrics because I actually I treat my word
o game like I'm writing a song. I should have
been writing songs by this point.

Speaker 8 (39:52):
Tell not as hard as people make it.

Speaker 2 (39:55):
What's the average time that you'll spend writing the song?

Speaker 7 (40:00):
Like?

Speaker 3 (40:00):
How fast does it come to you?

Speaker 7 (40:04):
I like that?

Speaker 3 (40:04):
So what song? To get the longest the right? Yeah,
to get the longest the right.

Speaker 8 (40:10):
So when I first started getting attention, so to speak,
I used to prove myself on how fast I could
write a song. That's kind of where my name. That's
kind of where the name Neo came from. Dion Evans,
the Evans main Recipees. He gave me the name because
he like, we'll talk, give me an hour. I could
give you seventeen records. Now, mind seventeen records. I didn't

(40:32):
say seventeen smashes, right, right, say seventeen seventeen records, you know,
other seventeen you might three of them joints might be something,
but seventeen records now, So now it's definitely more of
a quality versus quantity thing. Whereas in that same hour
that where I could get where I gave you seventeen,
I'd take that hour to give you two, but it'd

(40:53):
be two smashes, you know what I mean, two that
I know, two that I know are going to hit
the mark because I've just been there with Yeah, because
I took the time to make sure that I was
doing what is exactly what I what happened up here.
That's always been the hardest part for me, because I
can hear it done up here already.

Speaker 10 (41:08):
I just need to get it out of here and
into the world.

Speaker 8 (41:11):
And somehow through that process of that transition from my
mind to the world, shit changes and things happen, and
all of a sudden, it don't.

Speaker 7 (41:20):
Sound like it sounded in my head no more.

Speaker 8 (41:22):
And now it's like, ah, shit, I felt right, step away,
be somebody on the street fighter, Ah, come back, fix
the problem.

Speaker 5 (41:29):
That sound like fine?

Speaker 4 (41:30):
Tap process now yeah, now you have to walk over.

Speaker 7 (41:33):
That's not straight up for real.

Speaker 9 (41:35):
I want to ask you man specifically about your work
with Stargate because I have like really great chemistry together.
And I remember we've met on a few occasions, but
I remember this was probably like god, this is like
oh seven oh six, but your first album in my
own words, had just dropped and we was in Atlanta
and it was a drama.

Speaker 7 (41:57):
Drama was having a party if I feel like it was.

Speaker 3 (42:00):
It was drama.

Speaker 7 (42:01):
But anyway, some part in Atlanta and I saw you.

Speaker 9 (42:04):
I was like, oh man, it's Neo and you were
like in there. I was surprised that you even there,
you like had to had all you like super chill.
I was like, oh wow, like you were like super
quiet enough, and I just walked Abu. I was like, yo, man,
Sexy loves the join.

Speaker 7 (42:15):
Off new record, And he was like, Yo, appreciate it.

Speaker 9 (42:18):
You know what I mean, but but I love that
song man, and you and Stargate like y'all have chemistry, man,
Like talk about that process of working with them, what
it's like.

Speaker 8 (42:27):
Well, firstly, I was I was so chill that night
because I was I was shipping on myself in my
soul inside because I'm like, oh my god, it's this it's.

Speaker 7 (42:37):
People in here.

Speaker 8 (42:37):
I know that person.

Speaker 7 (42:38):
I know that person too.

Speaker 8 (42:38):
I just calm down, relax, three two four. In my mind,
this is what happened in my mind. Outside it's like, yeah,
I've been there, Oh no I was, I was, I
was losing it. But Stargate, the beauty of Stargate is
how genuinely humble and just kind of I hate to
use the term regular because it's there's nothing regular about

(43:01):
their level of talent. But they're just ordinary people. Like
you'll never see these cats with the big dumb jewelry.
You'll never hear yeah Stargate at the top of the joint.
They don't do that. They let the music speak for itself.
These cats have figured out simplicity. It's like they came
along right on time where it was like, you know, again,
no direspect to anybody, but we got to that place

(43:21):
where the producer is a celebrity to now right. So
you you so enthralled and making sure that everybody know
that this is you, and you do so much to
the track that you ain't leave a room for the song.
Now where does the song fit over all of this beautiful,
amazing shit that you done done on this track? Here
comes Stargate with listen, We're gonna give you a skeleton
and let you put the meat on. We're gonna let

(43:42):
you let the song create the body because that's what
because technically that's kind of what it's supposed to be.
It's a marriage between the two. You know what I'm saying.
It's the foundation that's holding up the structure, that's holding
up the structure.

Speaker 10 (43:55):
And that's what they do to the point where you know,
they'll give me like so sick.

Speaker 8 (44:00):
For example, was that that harp and a drum and
that was it and that's what I wrote to And
then later on they went back and put the chords
and like filded up. You know what I'm saying, sexy love,
same way, doom doom, doom, doom doom that and uh,
that's it. Wrote the song. They go in later and

(44:21):
put into the bells and whistles later on because it
could to make to make the track meld to the song,
you know what I mean. No, it's like it's like
cat's what Cat's ain't doing that. It's like, no, I
got to make sure eybody know this my track. I
did this damn that song. Yeah whatever the song, I
did it, all right.

Speaker 7 (44:37):
They're sweedish if.

Speaker 8 (44:40):
There from Norway brothers from Rueigian Mothers.

Speaker 10 (44:43):
Yes, which kind of again speaks to your point quest.

Speaker 8 (44:46):
It's it's different over there because there's a there's a
different level of respect for the craft over there. Like
these cats that they will sit on that piano, they
will get on that guitar, they will get on their drums,
they playing everything, you know what I'm saying, and and
it's it's it's fun for them. It's like the fringe
benefit of it is that you make money, but that
ain't why you're doing it. You're doing it because, like you,

(45:08):
when we finished So Sick, Bro, we sent the studio
listen to that ship ninety times that night, just on
some yo yo yo, like just just joy, you know
what I'm saying like that, and then comes out and
does well, and it's like, all right, cool. But in
that moment, honestly, even if the song come out and
not done well, just what we felt when we finished

(45:28):
that joint was like that, that was it. That's what
you do it for, not the not the screaming your name,
and not the money of it. Those are those are
all fringe benefit. Those should be fringe benefit based on
the fact that you did something from your soul and
the world agreed with you. That's how that's supposed to work,
not the other way around.

Speaker 2 (45:46):
I would like you to talk about, uh the Left
Eye Show.

Speaker 10 (45:50):
All the cuts. Yeah, so the cut that was that
was me.

Speaker 8 (45:58):
And remember the guys told you right after that that
situation with the with the talent show that a friend
of mine was like, hey, at the singing group. I
won't know if you wanted to say that was the.

Speaker 7 (46:06):
Group that was us.

Speaker 10 (46:08):
Uh we caught ourselves envy.

Speaker 8 (46:10):
Because we were from Nevada. Yeah, yeah, it was.

Speaker 10 (46:13):
I went into it, but but not a lot.

Speaker 8 (46:16):
Yeah. The cut was after Apollo. We did Apollo, Amateur Night,
Apollow and things did not go to plan. I'll say
that what you're saying, uh, well, I mean, well, I
put it this way. Samman didn't come out Okay, he
was double he was double dutchy in the corner though
he was ready.

Speaker 5 (46:35):
What did what did you sing? What did you say?

Speaker 8 (46:38):
We sang? We sang Players in the Hood by Donelle Jones,
And to this day, every time I see Donnelle Jones,
I apologize to that man for murdering his song the
way we did on that stage. It was it was Yeah,
it was not good. It was not good. But we
was young and we was cute and there was a
lot of girls in the audience, so they kept us alive.
But it had not been for that. He was he

(47:01):
was in the corner like, am I going?

Speaker 7 (47:03):
Am I going?

Speaker 8 (47:04):
Man? It was bad?

Speaker 7 (47:05):
It was bad.

Speaker 8 (47:06):
So you after that.

Speaker 3 (47:09):
Walk Wait, you gotta walk me through the process? What
is it to do?

Speaker 2 (47:13):
Like everything, even to the house band, like, what is
the process when you do uh show time?

Speaker 10 (47:21):
So so basically you you you send them at the.

Speaker 8 (47:25):
Time, you send them, You send them a tape of
what you do and they say, yeah, we'd love to
have you. Uh come on down. Mind you. They don't
pay for you to get there. They just if you
can make it, come on follow. So you get down there.
Now what's supposed to happen is you're supposed to come
down a day early so that you can rehearse your
song with rap You and the Cruise who it was
at the time when we was a shout out to

(47:46):
my man, rape you. I do not blame you, bro.
That was us. That was our fault. We didn't do that.
We showed up the day of the show with a
tape because we thought that they was gonna let us
play our music off our tape, and it was like, no,
singers have to use the band. We haven't rehearsed with
the band. Well while were y'all not here yesterday. Anyway,

(48:07):
it turns out Rache and the crew didn't even know
the damn song at the time. They had no idea
what the song was, so they had to learn the
song and then had to learn how we wanted to
come out to the song.

Speaker 10 (48:16):
It was, Yeah, it was. It was completely messed up.

Speaker 2 (48:18):
Oh many lessons learned, so many Lets you've chosen another
song in hindsight, Oh no.

Speaker 8 (48:24):
No, no, that that had to happen. That had to happen.
It had to happen exactly the way it did. We
needed to be knocked down a couple of pigs because
we we had We had done all that could be
done in Vegas. We did every talent show one you
know what I'm saying. We did all that and we
just we went in there like I should didn't think
like we really literally walked into place needed that. Oh yeah, yeah,
oh oh yeah yeah this Vegas.

Speaker 7 (48:45):
Yeah we do that.

Speaker 8 (48:46):
Yeah, No, when ill you after we got off that
stage and got back to the back. We all ran
in the bathroom and just stood around and staired at
each other for like fifteen seconds and all bust out
crying at the same time.

Speaker 5 (49:04):
It was bad.

Speaker 8 (49:06):
Yeah. So after the Apollo, we was like, man, we
gotta redeem ourself. We got so you know, uh, shout
out to my man Corey. Corey was like our manager.
He was a part of the group, but he was
the manager. He was the one that was you know,
he was the one that wasn't afraid to talk to people.
You know, we ran up on Diddy one time. Hey
let us sing for you.

Speaker 7 (49:22):
That's Corey.

Speaker 8 (49:23):
But Corey was also the one that could never be
on time for anything. He was like, hey, did he
told us be there by eight twelve? Oo shower type situation?

Speaker 6 (49:30):
Now?

Speaker 8 (49:30):
Was that was Corey?

Speaker 5 (49:33):
Where is.

Speaker 8 (49:35):
I don't know where Corey is currently still probably shout
that after my man Corey Clark, we got to the
cut uh two days earl right, because he was like,
is there a band we need to rehearse with it?
After that, it was like no, no, no, no, no, no, y'all
got y'all got tape of your music? Yeah, okay, cool?
We can use to take? Why are we used to take?

(49:57):
We went in with an original song that we were
written called pillow Talk.

Speaker 10 (50:00):
I think we did okay. It wasn't terrible.

Speaker 8 (50:03):
It wasn't great by any means, but it wasn't terrible,
and we wound up losing to a girl that got
on stage and got.

Speaker 10 (50:08):
Next to Neked and Icy gave her two more points
than he gave us.

Speaker 5 (50:12):
Yeah, wore to judges other cut. I couldn't remember it.

Speaker 10 (50:16):
No, I think it was it was it was guest judges.

Speaker 8 (50:20):
Everything different every every episode, so I think want to judgesus.
He literally said it on the show. He was like,
he was like, you know what, I wasn't really crazy
about the song, but when she started stripping, I gave
her a nod.

Speaker 4 (50:30):
Damn, Like.

Speaker 5 (50:34):
Damn, But everything happened for a reason.

Speaker 8 (50:36):
Everything happens for a reason. That was one of the
last shows that we did as a group before we
finally decided you know what, let's just.

Speaker 3 (50:44):
Do you remember performing with us out in Vegas.

Speaker 10 (50:48):
When Jay brought me out?

Speaker 8 (50:49):
Was that?

Speaker 3 (50:49):
Yeah? All right?

Speaker 2 (50:51):
So I literally okay, So you know, as president of
def Jam, you know, by that point I felt comfortable
enough with Jada, you.

Speaker 8 (51:02):
Know, to.

Speaker 2 (51:04):
Rib him or you know, joke with him, like you know,
most people just treat him like the King, like the
good version of Ed.

Speaker 3 (51:11):
I mean, like they don't mix words or whatever.

Speaker 2 (51:14):
But you know, I felt like a little comfortable where
I just call him up randomly about something and I
would say that you were one of the artists that
he always he always advocated for. He always fought for it,
like he was basically trying to figure out which one
of you guys that he wanted on the next roots record,

(51:36):
you know prominently, either like Crissette or you or you know,
tr like one of And so when he got word
that you were in town, he's like, all right, keep
your eye on him, because at that point I was
not familiar. You know, I have my head under the
stand when it came to like any music that you know,

(51:59):
wasn't the music already had my record collection and you
came out like someone owed you money, Like I didn't realize.

Speaker 5 (52:08):
Oh you didn't know he had it like that talk.

Speaker 2 (52:10):
And the first I wish there was a videotape because
there's a thing, there's a thing with Jay where he
turns around real slow like and I hate.

Speaker 3 (52:20):
When that's Smuggie.

Speaker 2 (52:21):
I told you so, look he'll give me.

Speaker 3 (52:24):
He's like.

Speaker 6 (52:27):
Yeah, because it's like the cherry on top. You're like,
well wait a minute, now.

Speaker 8 (52:31):
You was killing it.

Speaker 2 (52:32):
I was like, oh my god, he's going for James
Brown Tammy Show levels.

Speaker 8 (52:37):
But I knew the importance of where I was at.
I'm like, let me get this straight. The roots and
jay Z and me, oh, show my ass.

Speaker 2 (52:47):
All right, So you leave Envy and then what's the
process of how do you get the attention of record labels?

Speaker 8 (52:56):
So I left left Envy. But in the while we
were in and me again shout out to my man Corey,
you know, constantly moving around trying to trying to get
things in pop for us. We met this cat who
had a boy band signed to Hollywood Records, you know
at the time that was a Disney's with me. Yeah,
a group by a group called Youngstown. They were they

(53:17):
were never got huge, huge hues, but they did well enough.
So it was like it was a concept where it
was like, write some songs from my group and I'll
try and I'll help y'all get y'all, help y'all get signed.
Type of situation. So you know, we wrote the songs,
was what it was like at this time. I know
nothing of publishing. I know nothing of any of that.
I'm just like, we're.

Speaker 7 (53:34):
Gonna get it.

Speaker 10 (53:35):
We're gonna get a deal. Yeah yeah, write a song.

Speaker 8 (53:36):
Whatever. So after I broke up, after the group broke up,
I basically started being managed by that guy is now
his name, his names Dubbs. Everybody called him Dubbs, Dubbs Wilson,
and he was the one that was kind of moving
moving me around, you know, showing me the different people.
I was living with. This cat by the name of Paul.

(53:56):
Paul the producer. He did uh Teacher Moses' first album.

Speaker 9 (54:01):
Oh yeah, yes.

Speaker 8 (54:04):
Yeah, yeah, I actually met we actually met Teacher. I
met Teacher through that whole situation. I vocal both vocal producing,
and arranged that whole first album.

Speaker 7 (54:13):
I didn't I didn't write.

Speaker 10 (54:14):
I didn't know she wrote. She did all the writing herself.

Speaker 7 (54:17):
I was, I was. I was infatuated with record himself.

Speaker 8 (54:23):
I'll just come in and you know, through harmonies here
and that type.

Speaker 5 (54:26):
Okay, Still, that's dope, That's that's music history.

Speaker 3 (54:28):
Like, what is your patient's level with vocal producing?

Speaker 10 (54:31):
Because I hate it.

Speaker 8 (54:34):
I don't do it anymore. I say that, you see, yeah,
I'm not so, so shout out to my man's sauce
U Curtis Wills, and make a sauce of Fumberly of
the group. Something for the people, you remember, something for
the people. All right?

Speaker 10 (54:50):
Sauce is my vocal producer, ranger. You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 8 (54:54):
And so if I wrote it, he's normally the one
that's gonna take it with the artists and and and
get it, get it recorded properly because he has the
patience for that.

Speaker 10 (55:03):
I do not see that's what you need, don't all right?

Speaker 2 (55:09):
So can I say or I won't ask for specific
specific names, but you know, because it's real, Like there's
certain artists that I hate working with because you got
a Jedi mind trick them.

Speaker 3 (55:22):
You know, they don't want to do another take.

Speaker 2 (55:24):
So are there artists that you've had that situation with
where like they catch an attitude or don't want to
do it the way that you.

Speaker 3 (55:34):
Give you one more take? Yes, your silence is telling
me everything I've been in.

Speaker 8 (55:41):
So I've been in with people that that people that
you know, I've been in with people and it's like
it's either it's either that or they're so antal, like, yo,
did you hear the breath from the beginning of that?
Let me just get that breath one more time? No one,
no one hears, no just the just the on the
very on the very top. Let me get that. Let
me get again one more time, No, one more time,

(56:03):
one more time for the breath. I just gotta get
the breath.

Speaker 2 (56:05):
That sounds like Beyonce Rihanna Manress took an hour and
thirty minutes for the breath.

Speaker 10 (56:10):
It's not a word.

Speaker 8 (56:11):
It's just a breath at the top of the word.
Hour and thirty minutes.

Speaker 3 (56:15):
Wait, I gotta be I gotta ask you. Was it Beyonce?

Speaker 8 (56:19):
It was not?

Speaker 3 (56:19):
Okay, it was not Wait.

Speaker 2 (56:21):
Do you remember do you remember uh uh a bronx
tail when they had that now you can't leave moment.

Speaker 8 (56:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (56:32):
I had that with her once and never again.

Speaker 2 (56:35):
Like it was about figuring out the ending of a song,
and I was like, I said the wrong thing. I said, no, no,
maybe it's too vance. It's cool, we could just do
with the regular ending.

Speaker 8 (56:46):
We're good challenges and be like.

Speaker 2 (56:52):
And she's like, oh, we're gonna get this right and
I said, well, it's lunch break now, so we can
just come back into He says, no, we're gonna do
it right now. I don't care if it takes three hours. Yeah,
it was that now you can't leave moments.

Speaker 8 (57:05):
So yeah, that's the that is, That is the Beyonce
that I'm familiar. But it was but when I when
I worked with her, I wasn't needed, like I wasn't
there for a lot of it like she she had it.
I didn't have to. That was that was one of
the things that made me fall in love with her
even more, like I didn't have to feed her no notes.

Speaker 7 (57:25):
I here's the next note. I got it.

Speaker 8 (57:26):
Okay, all right, She's like, I went and got coffee,
I came back, the song was done. Okay, Well, well
what y'all got doing today? What y'all doing?

Speaker 7 (57:36):
Because I'm.

Speaker 6 (57:38):
If that's the case, then what's your what's your favorite
what's your favorite song of hers that you've done? That
you you come back and heard her finished product and
was like, oh ship.

Speaker 8 (57:47):
Yeah, thinking one that I deal with her, that I
didn't fare that way about everything you did because mind
you so so at this point, at this point, I
know a little bit about how to sell a record, right,
I know that you can't sing the record ridiculously well
because you mess around scared artist offs.

Speaker 7 (58:03):
Right, you have to keep it.

Speaker 8 (58:04):
Kind of middle of the road, just just good enough.

Speaker 7 (58:08):
You know.

Speaker 3 (58:08):
Oh you're talking about making the demo. You're talking about
making the demo.

Speaker 7 (58:11):
Yeah, okay, yeah, I did not know. Oh yeah no.

Speaker 8 (58:17):
So anything that I did for anybody, I sing the
demo and send it to them and they and they
like it, dislike it, whatever it may be. So Beyonce,
and you do it dry, you do it dry. One
you know one takedown. I have melody. I have harmony
ideas here and here and not in stone, but here
would be a good place for a harmony. Here would
be a good place. That's all that's always needed when

(58:39):
I come back. And it's the irreplaceable that you we
all know in love now, so irreplaceable flaws and all.

Speaker 3 (58:48):
You know what.

Speaker 8 (58:49):
I'm very I'm them on and I'm a bit yes,
do do that dry? Every everything, all the all of
that that's heard, that's all heard. I wrote if There's
a Joint on that same album called if If You
Let Him Take Me From You another where she just

(59:10):
went Church on ship, like just yeah, I've never felt
so useless in a session then a session with Beyonce,
like I did not need to be there at all.

Speaker 2 (59:20):
Is there a song of yours that vocally you wish
he could have been there in the room for it,
just because it wasn't the way that you envisioned it.

Speaker 8 (59:31):
Yes, okay, yes, it just didn't do what it was
supposed to do. So I love Luke James. Luke James
is my guy. Luke James has one of the best
voices that I've heard.

Speaker 5 (59:45):
In a long he do.

Speaker 8 (59:48):
I wrote a song for Luke James and what happened
was the original the original kid of the song was
way higher than he was than he sings in his
regular voice, so they had to drop it down to
where he sang. And if anybody knows anything about when
you take a high key song and drop it down,
it kind of takes a little energy and a little

(01:00:09):
energy from the record. So when I heard it back,
it was like, damn near three notes lower. Then I
initially gave it to him, and I wasn't there when
he cut it.

Speaker 7 (01:00:19):
So I'm like, as.

Speaker 8 (01:00:20):
Much as I love Luke, this is not no, this
is not that's not what the song's supposed to be.
But by that time it was too late. The song
came out didn't really do anything.

Speaker 6 (01:00:29):
We didn't.

Speaker 3 (01:00:30):
I'm sorry.

Speaker 10 (01:00:30):
I like the shine I did.

Speaker 7 (01:00:32):
It didn't.

Speaker 8 (01:00:33):
Yeah, it didn't. It didn't do much of anything but
taking nothing from Luke again, an amazing singer, just amazing dude.

Speaker 7 (01:00:39):
Period.

Speaker 8 (01:00:40):
That was just that was just a moment in time
where it's like, Ah, if I knew that they were
gonna drop it down that many, that many keys, I
would have I would have just been like, nah, do
let's something else. Let me let me do something that
makes more sense in the realm of where you like write.

Speaker 10 (01:00:53):
Yeah, because it just it just took. It just took
all the all the energy from the record.

Speaker 8 (01:00:57):
Like, yeah, it happen.

Speaker 3 (01:01:00):
Like when I first heard Champagne Life, man.

Speaker 5 (01:01:03):
I was like, yo, dog, that's the one right there, This's.

Speaker 3 (01:01:06):
Gonna be the one.

Speaker 2 (01:01:07):
I just wish Champagne Life was You're magnum Opus. That
is my all time favorite song of yours, And I
wish that ship would have because I felt it was
like an anthem there ever was a black Excellence anthem.

Speaker 5 (01:01:23):
Yes, yes, I mean.

Speaker 2 (01:01:26):
I've seen it and I wish that song was just
like way way bigger. Are there songs of yours that
are not your your, your out the gate hits that
you you know, wish were bigger singles or that that
jam worked.

Speaker 8 (01:01:47):
I'm not a I'm not a dictator, meaning I'm not
the dude going, you know what, the hell with your opinion?

Speaker 10 (01:01:52):
Hell with your opinion? I like this song that's a single,
Levan Long.

Speaker 8 (01:01:54):
I'm not that dude. Right. There's a small group of
people that we all get together and we pick what
song is gonna make the album, what songs gonna be singles,
you know what I'm saying, And everybody respects everybody's opinion.
My managers Tango. This is one of the oddest creatures
on the face of the planet because Tango don't even
listen to music. Yet Tango can always one that's gonna
go okay, whatever reason.

Speaker 10 (01:02:13):
But that's always knows like no, no, no.

Speaker 8 (01:02:15):
The whole room would be like, hey, he's like, nah,
trust me be and damn it it to b B.

Speaker 10 (01:02:20):
I'm telling you it's It's the most frustrating thing in
the world.

Speaker 8 (01:02:23):
But so him, just just a small group people that
I do this with which means that there's been a
multitude of times wherever songs that I wanted to be
singles that didn't wind up singles. Mirror from the first.

Speaker 7 (01:02:34):
Album I wanted to be a single.

Speaker 5 (01:02:36):
I wanted that to be a single.

Speaker 7 (01:02:38):
This was before depth Jen realized that I could be sexy.

Speaker 8 (01:02:40):
They didn't view me as sexy, so it was like, hey,
it's all good. And you know what, at the time,
I was priding myself on not being that R and
B dude, you know what I mean, Like, Okay, if
I can step on stage you're in a three piece
suit and get the same screens that.

Speaker 7 (01:02:55):
You can with your chest out, who win it?

Speaker 3 (01:02:58):
Yeah?

Speaker 8 (01:02:58):
All right? Cool? Right?

Speaker 10 (01:02:59):
So because of that, I guess they was like, you know,
marror nah nah, when't work?

Speaker 8 (01:03:04):
All right?

Speaker 7 (01:03:04):
Cool U?

Speaker 8 (01:03:06):
Champagne Life, that whole that whole album, the Libra Scale
album was just man, it was just so many things
that went wrong, so many things that went wrong. I
take I take my I take responsibility for the things
that went wrong. So the Libri Scale album, which is
what Champagne Life was on, when we went to when

(01:03:26):
I came back from doing the Red Tales movie, and
then I did another movie called Battle Los Angeles. So
I so in the process of doing these movies, I'm
sticking real close to the writers, real close to the directors,
because like this, I want to I'm learning, Yo, I
want to learn how to do this. I know I
can tell a story in three minutes. I want to
know how to tell a story in two hours. I
do this right, I guess I'm not asking the right question.

(01:03:47):
So I go back to dev Jam and I say
to them, so for my fourth album, I want to
do like a thirty minute maybe forty five minute little
mini movie and let the album be the soundtrack to
the movie. And they're like, okay, that's that's a pretty dope.
I daal, okay, bring us a script. Cool. Notice, I said,
thirty forty five minutes. Right, This is before I learned
that in the world of screen and script writing a

(01:04:08):
page it creates to a minute. I didn't know this.
So whereas I told them thirty forty five minutes, I
brought them a script with one hundred and forty five
pages in it, and they were like, what you what
we're doing? What you want us to do with this?
What did this is not thirty minutes? This this hang.
So I had to then take the one hundred and
forty five pages and bust it down to thirty pages,

(01:04:31):
which took way way long, because again I'm green to this.
I know what I want to do, I just don't
know how to do it. So bust it down to thirty.
By that time, the clock is ticking. We ain't got
time to shoot no movie. All right, you know what,
Let's do this, Let's do four, let's do five long
form music videos. So the video for Champagne Life, video
for UH one million, the video for for Beautiful Monster.

Speaker 7 (01:04:54):
Yeah, I just it.

Speaker 10 (01:04:56):
It didn't It just didn't go the way it was
supposed to go.

Speaker 8 (01:04:59):
Man, it just didn't go. Households go. We got three
videos in de Jen said, we can't give you no
more damn money. To hell with your to be continued,
We're not doing it. Champan like was all supposed to
be the first single, and then we come to Beautiful Monster.
But then all of a sudden, in the ninth inning,
everybody switches up and goes, well, no, we think beautiful
Monster should go first. And I'm like no, because I

(01:05:20):
know what beautiful Monster is. Beautiful monsters chasing closer. I
don't want to do that with the moment. Let that
be that.

Speaker 10 (01:05:27):
Let's let's you hear this record.

Speaker 8 (01:05:28):
Let's go here. Nah nah nah you gotta you got
an international fan base. Now you gotta feed your fan base?

Speaker 5 (01:05:34):
Oh international?

Speaker 3 (01:05:35):
Can I ask? Is this Jay Brown talking?

Speaker 2 (01:05:37):
Is this La Reid? Like, who's the who's at the drive?
Who's the will uh deliver?

Speaker 8 (01:05:44):
All of them?

Speaker 3 (01:05:44):
Is?

Speaker 4 (01:05:44):
Yeah?

Speaker 8 (01:05:45):
Everybody, everybody, everybody got the hand on the wheel, and
this pushing him at this point, at this point, this
is the fourth album, This is after you're the gentleman.
So everybody's hands on at this point, right, so, right,
and you're you're the gentleman there with so so now
it's like all right, all right, he's proving. Let's you know,
let's let's let's pay more attention than we ever had before.
Almost to a fault because I did to go Beautiful

(01:06:07):
Monster first. Michaero managed Beautiful Monster. Did you know what
it did? It did well overseas, which we knew what
was gonna do, because that's what it's for. I didn't
do it over here. And then and then they put
out Champagne Life, trying to pick trying to clean up
behind Beautiful Monster. Because Beautiful Monster. They let it rock
for a little while it wasn't picking up, so they
all right, we're moving on, moving on to Champagne Life.

(01:06:27):
Champagne Life comes out, it's moving, it's moving, it's moving.

Speaker 7 (01:06:32):
We want to drop another single?

Speaker 10 (01:06:33):
Why let it know?

Speaker 8 (01:06:35):
Let Why would you chop the legs off of this
is going? You got a heat rock with this next one. Okay,
if it's a heat rock, now it's gonna be a
heat let it live. They don't want to let it live.
Chop the legs off of Champagne Life with the next single,
which did not do well either. Then we went we
ended ended everything off with one of another, which which

(01:06:56):
kind of you know, at the very least level of
us out, you know, I wouldn't. I wasn't in the
red after Damn Album. One of the million level was out,
but it didn't it didn't do what everyone anticipated. Uh yeah,
I was really really down at them at that period
of time. I just remember being real sad a lot
because it just.

Speaker 7 (01:07:17):
Just so many things went wrong.

Speaker 8 (01:07:18):
I'm like, there's no way that this is just bad
of an idea for all of these things to be
happening like this, and then I'll never forget that year
I got invited to Princess Grammy party. I mean us
always used part of his house, so so you know,
that was silver lining in the dark clouds. So we
went to the party. I remember we're in in the
pool house and there's like a like a plexiglast thing

(01:07:38):
over the pools, literally standing on the pool. I thought
that was cool. So he's on the little stage with
his band rocking out. He sees me, puts his guitar down,
b lines to me and say what comes to my
ear and whispers and says.

Speaker 10 (01:07:51):
Leber Scale was a good album and don't let anybody
tell you different.

Speaker 6 (01:07:54):
Wow, but Emir, this is But did you know what
was with Neo? Did you know what he was whispering
in everybody's ear? Sorry, this reminds me of all the
stories that you told me that night.

Speaker 5 (01:08:04):
That doesn't even do.

Speaker 10 (01:08:05):
That's kind of what he does.

Speaker 5 (01:08:06):
You know.

Speaker 8 (01:08:07):
We had one other encounter where I was I was
drinking Sivaka and he leaned over to me at the
party and said, God's bad for you and the party
that was That was the thing that he did.

Speaker 4 (01:08:22):
Before we before you rap.

Speaker 9 (01:08:24):
I just wanted to I always want to know, uh
the song time look for Sherman Showcase.

Speaker 7 (01:08:31):
About it.

Speaker 5 (01:08:31):
Let's talk about it?

Speaker 4 (01:08:32):
Yeah man, and that's me and my.

Speaker 7 (01:08:36):
Credit the way, do you know?

Speaker 8 (01:08:37):
Take no credit?

Speaker 5 (01:08:39):
You know?

Speaker 3 (01:08:40):
Yeah, we met.

Speaker 9 (01:08:41):
We met on set. I think the day that you
that y'all take. We met because I sang the demo
on that and like right right now yeah that he
was like, he was like, yeah, man, you saunded just
like walk to the Scotty on the joint. But but yeah,
they yeah, we did that man, And I was like, Yo,

(01:09:02):
this is like crazy, how I don't know who the
fuck they gonna get to sing it? And then I
guess maybe like a month later, Diallo shout to Diallo.
He came like, yeah, man, we got Neo to do it.
I was like, fuck, yeah, that's perfect. So what was
it like for you? How did that song like come
to you? Like what did you think?

Speaker 3 (01:09:16):
Like?

Speaker 7 (01:09:16):
What was it like on your side?

Speaker 4 (01:09:18):
Brouh.

Speaker 8 (01:09:19):
Diallo reached out and sent me, told me about the show,
the Sherman Showcase Show and asked me if I wanted
to be a part of it. I'm like, yeah, man,
I've always want to do funny stuff. I don't never
get the funny roles. It just for whatever reason, I
got something funny, all right, I thought I was. I
guess I'm not anybody. You killed that shit man, Well, well.

Speaker 10 (01:09:36):
Thank you tell some man the damn casting directors that
I'm funny.

Speaker 7 (01:09:39):
It's like, it's funny shit. I don't never get it.

Speaker 8 (01:09:42):
I'm always always get the music rolls all right, you're
a starving artist, and then me treating that's what That's
what I get all the time. So he sent me
the record. At first I asked, I was like, I
need to write something. He was like, you can, but
I have an idea, and then he sent it to him.
I'm like, oh, I don't need to do none of this.
That joint like it was a real song, like like

(01:10:03):
that's they'll realized that. Like all of us words that
watched the show. We was like all them songs.

Speaker 6 (01:10:08):
We were like yo, yeah with an album word.

Speaker 4 (01:10:13):
But now I'm down to do more now that I
know you down to do more?

Speaker 8 (01:10:16):
Wow?

Speaker 4 (01:10:16):
Because yeah, now that I know that, oh yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:10:20):
Can we get a Sherman show case to say what's
taking on so long?

Speaker 8 (01:10:24):
Yeah?

Speaker 9 (01:10:24):
But the day that well, it's I mean, you know,
like everything else COVID pushes back, but the new season
I believe is coming in the fall. We did the music,
with all the music and all that has been done,
but you know, we got pushed back from COVID, but
the new season is coming.

Speaker 8 (01:10:39):
This fall though all led me I will happily revived
the character.

Speaker 3 (01:10:43):
Yes, okay, did that's what's up?

Speaker 5 (01:10:45):
Can I ask about self explanatory real quick?

Speaker 6 (01:10:48):
Yes, yes, yes, I just want to know because back
to this conversation that we were having in the beginning
of the show about music and whatnot, I'm curious to
how you continue in the legacy on this album and
while still keeping it fresh.

Speaker 10 (01:11:00):
Okay, So so this album I started decidum in twenty eighteen,
and then you know, of course COVID, pandemic, quarantine and
all of that stuff hit and just threw a monkey
rinch and everybody's situation that happens. So a good half
of this album I had, I wound up having to
kind of do over, you know, because it's like, are
you work with a producer in twenty eighteen you do
a song as all r Yeah, it's for the album.

(01:11:21):
You didn't pay him yet, and then and y'all ain't
spoke and then you call him in twenty twenty two
and he's like.

Speaker 8 (01:11:26):
What, oh, bro, so are you like that happens like that?
So good? So so we had we had to reduce
some stuff. But overall this album is it's definitely me
as me. I mean I called itself explanatory because I
feel like I've been here damn in twenty years. You
really need an explanation to a Neil record at twin

(01:11:46):
Not really, not.

Speaker 10 (01:11:47):
Really, not really you understand what it is.

Speaker 8 (01:11:49):
But on top of that, this is this is me
acknowledging what's going on right now. I can never become it.
I'm forty two, let alone. I can never become it.
But I could acknowledge it, you know, I can acknowledge it.
I can acknowledge the parts of it that I dig,
you know, so so Uh there's one song in particular,
so actually the first song on the on the album,
uh Cat from the Newer Generation.

Speaker 10 (01:12:11):
His name is a France If you ever heard the
name before, look him up.

Speaker 8 (01:12:17):
Yeah he got some. He got some to the point
where I let him feature on the album. The name
of the Join is landlowd is is quality the record,
but it doesn't sound like typical Neo, it's more the song.
The song leans a little bit more towards his generation,
and I'm just kind of you know, uncle on the
side of the thing. But I'm never I'm never the

(01:12:37):
cat that's gonna jump on the record and not be me.

Speaker 10 (01:12:39):
I can that that.

Speaker 8 (01:12:40):
That could never.

Speaker 7 (01:12:40):
I can't do that.

Speaker 8 (01:12:41):
So even if it sounds a little more uh contemporary
than than than normal, it's just me acknowledging the changes
and the evolutions that have happened in R and B. Well,
at the same time, I'm gonna still give my bridges.
I'ma still give my three four five par harmonies where
I I can get him in there. All of that
is going to be on this album as well. It's

(01:13:02):
it's just me celebrating the fact that I get to
do music for a living smoke.

Speaker 10 (01:13:05):
That's That's pretty much what this album is.

Speaker 3 (01:13:07):
That's dope, man.

Speaker 9 (01:13:08):
Oh and I be able to tell you too, man
like good man, I love that. God, yeah, I thought
that was so dope, Like y'all up, how does.

Speaker 3 (01:13:16):
It feel like? That was? Yeah?

Speaker 8 (01:13:18):
That was That was another one that I felt like
should have got way more attention than it did. But
you know, I can't. I can't tell people what to do.

Speaker 6 (01:13:26):
And she's got her own, like you'd be creating anthems
for the fellas and the ladies. It's kind of amazing
and like progressive to think progressively in a way that's
kind of dope.

Speaker 5 (01:13:36):
It's misindependent. I know that. But I like to say
she got her own.

Speaker 8 (01:13:39):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:13:39):
Yeah, black people, I like we.

Speaker 5 (01:13:41):
Say she got her own.

Speaker 4 (01:13:43):
Oh, I want to see you. You're seeing working with her?
We gotta yeah, I gotta her.

Speaker 3 (01:13:49):
Yeah see it.

Speaker 7 (01:13:49):
Man, she's like an amazing writer.

Speaker 4 (01:13:51):
Love to talk about work with her.

Speaker 8 (01:13:53):
Yeahn man. So so she wrote the hook to let
Me Love You and I Love you you learn to
Love Yourself. Funniest thing I was like, because I heard
that lyric, I'm like, yo, where did you come up
with that? And she said, oh my aa meeting, that's
what they said, We're gonna love you to love yourself.
I'm like, y'all for that time. The realest person alive

(01:14:16):
I remember that is actually that session. We were sitting
in the back we said west Lake Studios on Santa
Monica and we were sitting in the back room off
of the A room, and uh, I was looking at
the tattoos on her arm. She has pictures of dogs,
but it looked like a four year old drew a
dog and it's just a bunch of them, like all
over her arm. I'm like, what is anyway? I'm I'm

(01:14:38):
sitting there because I'm I'm in awe of her, because
mind you, I'm I'm zero seven, you know what I'm saying, Like,
I'm from there. I finally to work with her, so
I'm geeking out and I'm like, yo, I'm sorry. You're
just supposed to be way bigger than you are. And
she was like, yeah, but I don't want it. I
want to go to Taco Bell. And I'm like what,

(01:14:58):
She's like, I want to go to Taco Bell. I
want to be able to go to Taco Bell and
get a taco if I feel like, if I get any.

Speaker 7 (01:15:03):
Bigger and people don't know, I can't go to Taco Bell.

Speaker 8 (01:15:05):
I'm like that there's a lot of damn sense. So
I guess we got to figure out a way for
your music to get the recognition in love would you
being able to still go to Taco Bell?

Speaker 7 (01:15:13):
She's like.

Speaker 8 (01:15:15):
Publishing, she said, I'm working on it, and the next thing,
you know, he comes up with the video with little
Maddie dancing, and and half the world don't know what's
see it look like, yet the whole world loves of music.
I'm like, she figured it out, and it's just victory.
Stories like that just just make my heart smile, man,
because because I just remember sitting there with her, like,

(01:15:35):
how are we gonna get you the Taco Bell?

Speaker 10 (01:15:36):
They need to hear this music, but we need we
got to get you to Taco Bell.

Speaker 8 (01:15:40):
How are we gonna do this?

Speaker 5 (01:15:41):
She did it, she figured it out.

Speaker 2 (01:15:42):
Now, Now I have one question, because I was one
day old, I didn't realize that you wrote Mac Wilds's
own it. Yeah, man, I still spend that to this day.

Speaker 3 (01:15:55):
Songs that you wish you would have kept for yourself, not.

Speaker 8 (01:15:59):
When they do well.

Speaker 7 (01:16:00):
You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 8 (01:16:01):
I look at it like if it came out and
it was a hit on it came out clearly that's
where it was supposed to be. Now when it come
out in it don't do well, I'm like, well, damn,
that's all you was gonna do.

Speaker 7 (01:16:11):
I should have kept it.

Speaker 2 (01:16:12):
I could have did better than another Another question, because
you were one of the staff writers of the Empire series.
How much how much pressure was that, Like at the
top of the season or I would imagine even the
summer before, it's like you gotta have like whatever fifteen
songs or whatever, Like what's the division of labor?

Speaker 3 (01:16:33):
Where like how do they assign those songs to get
done for it?

Speaker 2 (01:16:37):
Because every episode of Empire had at least like six
to seven ready made, like real sounding songs, not just
like you know whatever they would just play on the
background of a different world, but like really fully produced
no no, no Gordon gartreel songs. But how much how
much pressure was that? Like was this this stuff inside

(01:17:00):
your your cannon that you had in the back already
or were you like custom making these songs on the spot.

Speaker 8 (01:17:06):
Well, I didn't. I didn't come in until the following season,
the first first season that none of that was me.
I didn't. I didn't none of that second season is
when they when they when they pulled me, And it
was honestly a really painless process.

Speaker 3 (01:17:20):
Bro.

Speaker 8 (01:17:20):
They they and I don't know if it was just
because it was me, but they was basically like, well,
what what you got for us?

Speaker 7 (01:17:27):
What do you need?

Speaker 8 (01:17:28):
What you got? Oh?

Speaker 10 (01:17:29):
Well, damn all right, well, well let me look into
you know.

Speaker 8 (01:17:31):
And then I got to meet Jesse, I got to
meet you know, yeah, and and I got to meet
Surrey and all of them and like kind of really
developed kind of a friendship with them to where it's like,
all right, I know how to write a song for you. Now,
I know what your voice does. Now I know I
know what works. What doesn't you know what I mean?
So they they really rolled out the red carpet for me.
It made it very easy for me to produce anything
that I needed to produce for the show.

Speaker 2 (01:17:52):
Definitely did sweet Well, I want to thank you for
you know, doing the show with us, and you know.

Speaker 5 (01:18:00):
Thank you for thank you for the records, thank you
for the records, thank you.

Speaker 7 (01:18:03):
For thank you for the Bridges.

Speaker 3 (01:18:06):
Put it up, especially the Bridges.

Speaker 6 (01:18:09):
And you should audition, maybe start auditioning for like some
romantic comedies.

Speaker 5 (01:18:13):
I see like a maybe.

Speaker 6 (01:18:14):
Starting out as like a sidekick situation and being the
funny funny if you want to do.

Speaker 5 (01:18:18):
I just I see that. I see that for you.
You're doing it.

Speaker 8 (01:18:22):
No no no no no no no no. I feel
I don't want to do I won't say I don't
want to do a romantic comedy because if the rag
will come on, I'm gonna do it. But I want
to be I'm gonna play a paraplegic white man who
just realized.

Speaker 5 (01:18:37):
Kind of going there just the MoMA is black.

Speaker 10 (01:18:43):
I want to do something that's so not me.

Speaker 8 (01:18:45):
You want to, Lieutenant, then come on, man, I'm trying
to tell you I want to be something that's so
not me that when people learn this meeting.

Speaker 7 (01:18:53):
Oh what damn?

Speaker 8 (01:18:54):
I said, Okay, that's what I want to do.

Speaker 5 (01:18:57):
I understand that what I want to do. I understand
you went real far to the left left.

Speaker 8 (01:19:00):
I need that. I need a German chef, got shipwrecked
in Africa, have to learn how to make.

Speaker 3 (01:19:10):
A Sherman Showcase Season three.

Speaker 5 (01:19:14):
Familyte Did you hear that?

Speaker 3 (01:19:17):
Come on, he's gonna write He's going to write that
song for you. I can tell it all right. So
I'm ready. I'm gonna be having light.

Speaker 2 (01:19:24):
Here and fan take Alot and Sugar Steve, and I'm
paid Bill and uh Lieutenant Dan over here.

Speaker 3 (01:19:33):
This is quest Love Supreme. Thank you Neil for doing this,
and we'll see you on the next round. That's what's.

Speaker 1 (01:19:46):
H West Love Supreme is a production of iHeart Radio.
We one more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.