Questlove Supreme: Organized Noize Part 1

Questlove Supreme travels to Atlanta to kick it with some of the city's musical architects. Organized Noize appears in a comprehensive two-parter. In Part 1, Rico Wade, Ray Murray, and Sleepy Brown discuss their approach to sampling, recall the early days of OutKast and the Dungeon Family, and have a few laughs about their formation. This conversation is not to be missed.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeart Radio Supremo.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Role supram Supremo, Role Supremo Roth.

Speaker 3 (00:22):
My name is Questlove and I don't flake yea and
at yl Yeah.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
Right, Supreme Supremo Upbravo Supremo.

Speaker 4 (00:47):
My name is Fante and I'm gonna speak my cloud.

Speaker 5 (00:51):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
Organized taught me.

Speaker 4 (00:53):
Yeah, trying to get you out.

Speaker 6 (01:03):
My name is Sugar yeah, and I apologize this may
get noisy and unorganized.

Speaker 7 (01:10):
Well, right, Supreme, it's my ear yeah, and I'm over
joy Yeah.

Speaker 8 (01:23):
It's like I'm back in college again.

Speaker 9 (01:26):
Organized joying, Okay, I Marico yeah, and I'm part one,
part one.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
Yeah. So Supreme roll down.

Speaker 10 (01:49):
So this is Yoda Yeah, and you know I hold
it down yeah, organized noise. Yeah, we all in time,
come pray.

Speaker 5 (02:08):
My name is Sleeper, yeah, and I'm the smoothest. You'll
never find another mother that could do this.

Speaker 1 (02:21):
In my mind is like we'll probably do that.

Speaker 7 (02:27):
Roll sound.

Speaker 1 (02:31):
Roll all right, where's my where's my manager? Yeah? He
was like, you didn't sign up for this, You did
not sign up for this. I'm like, boy, you did
not do a good job. You're good, bro.

Speaker 5 (02:47):
You made enough classics to sustain Oh no, My probably
is gonna reason why I gon'na go viral.

Speaker 1 (02:53):
Well, that's a good thing.

Speaker 3 (02:54):
In twenty two, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another episode
of Quest Love Supreme at l Addition. We are in
Atlanta talking to a lot of the greats. What can
I say, Ladies and gentlemen, We are here with three
gentlemen who have built a movement, a sound, of way
of life, literally putting not even a section of the

(03:18):
because that's that's just very reductive. But I mean they
literally changed the scope of music as we know it
and of creativity as we know it. You know, some
of the blackest shit ever, some of the most afrofuturist
shit ever, what you call legacy from George Skyler or
down the sun Rod, down the p Funk and when

(03:41):
the baton came in their their hands, they created magic.
Simply put, I'll say, one of the most respected and
in some producer's eyes, most feared men.

Speaker 1 (03:52):
Dogs. Yeah, I won't even talk about us, like listening
to a new album like they did what Nigga?

Speaker 3 (03:59):
When I heard main stream, I wanted to jump out there,
know what it is like you can give loop literally, Yeah,
I've never I never had.

Speaker 1 (04:10):
A production collective. That just makes me like, damn, why
don't I think of that ship?

Speaker 3 (04:13):
Seriously, it's this is long time overdue, and you know
all the classic lpiece they've been involved in that that
they had their hands in from all the entire like Outcast, Cannon, Uh,
Goodie Mob, Cannon, Parent Advisory, some cut of Calhoun Joy Vote,
Oh god, I totally forgotten the last Awesome great Yes,

(04:43):
the names go on, dude and for on the real
I don't know if crazy, sexually cool would have been
what it was without ladies and gentlemen. It's it's actually happening.
We've been talking about this forever. Welcome Rica, Wait Ray,
Murray and the One and Only. I cannot believe Sleepy

(05:05):
Brown is on Quest Love Supreme, Organized Noise, Thank.

Speaker 1 (05:09):
You Man, too much good music listen. So this is
rare for us because like I prefer one on one.

Speaker 3 (05:19):
Shows where we get the grill people like it's I mean,
Steve joke that this looks like peace negotiations.

Speaker 1 (05:26):
Happening, right, Like what you did?

Speaker 3 (05:29):
I feel like it's beat between Sleepy and Sugar Steve
over here.

Speaker 6 (05:33):
I want to negotiating my contract.

Speaker 1 (05:38):
Yeah no, but this this will be really interesting.

Speaker 3 (05:41):
And as I said, we're in Atlanta right now and
I'm hoping to get all the edgumacation and all the
questions I want to answered about just the sound that
you guys have crafted for the last thirty years.

Speaker 1 (05:52):
Damn there.

Speaker 3 (05:53):
So I guess I'll start, well, I know your lineage
runs deep. I know all your lineage runs deep, but
especially sleepy, being the sign of the legendary Jimmy Brown Brick,
I'll start with you. Can you tell me what your
first musical memory was.

Speaker 5 (06:09):
I was six years old, right, and it was my
first concert I went to and I was with my
grandparents and uh.

Speaker 1 (06:17):
We get to the concert and uh walk on side
the stage.

Speaker 5 (06:21):
And my dad don start performing, and uh when I
seen them do dads right, my mouth dropped and I
look back at my grandmom when I said, this is
what I want to do.

Speaker 1 (06:33):
Period. I knew I want to do music.

Speaker 5 (06:35):
As soon as I saw my dad playing them horns
and everybody screaming and going crazy, I was just.

Speaker 1 (06:41):
Like, I gotta do this, this is this is what
I have to do.

Speaker 5 (06:44):
And plus, you know, my mom would buy me Jackson
five albums every Christmas right.

Speaker 1 (06:49):
You know.

Speaker 5 (06:49):
So I was like the six Jackson plus I was
in Brick Right and Commodoors and I was in everybody group.
So my first experience of music was the greatest era
of music to me was the funk era and the
disco era. No music has been made more beautiful than that.
So that's my whole.

Speaker 1 (07:08):
Being, you know what I mean?

Speaker 5 (07:09):
No matter what, That's why they called me funk or not,
because if they ain't funky, I ain't doing.

Speaker 3 (07:13):
I funks with that eschewing dazz and music and ain't
gonna hurt nobody. The captain obvious break is do you
have a favorite Brick song that isn't a hit or anything?

Speaker 1 (07:26):
Yeah? Yep? Fun What of them happy? Happy?

Speaker 3 (07:34):
You know what I was gonna say, Damn, I always
always say, but I've alway confessed that I'm kind of
working on Sultry right. I was like preface with like,
I'm not supposed to say this, but no, I'm getting
to the seventy seven episodes, and I gotta say, your
dad was a charismatic motherfucker even when performing Happy on Soultitery,

(07:56):
Like I just.

Speaker 5 (07:58):
But they always had the biggest smile it's like we
saw him perform. He was just excited and happy to
perform for people. And he's always been that way. When
he was younger, he had had a band in Savannah
that did a couple of records, Jimmy and the Mighty Sensations,
that did pretty good. So he's always always loved music
till this day.

Speaker 1 (08:18):
You know what I mean.

Speaker 5 (08:18):
I'm working on the album right now with him. We're
doing like an instrument Yeah, instrumental jazz. So he played flute, trombone, ato, sax,
every horn you can put in front of him and
kill it.

Speaker 1 (08:33):
Living from the Mind was also one of my favorite. Yes, sir,
that Baseline killed me and uh uh Somerset uh summer
telling them White album coming. Yeah, yeah, I know that.

Speaker 3 (08:43):
You wait, Brick Trivia, have you heard this tipbit about Prince?
Do you know the story? So Prince was such a
fan of Brick. What do you know that he wrote
get it Up? He wrote that for Brick and they
rejected it. We interviewed Mars, I'll do it for you

(09:12):
sound effects, sound yeah, Mars, and we I mean we've
had damn near I remember at the time or except
Terry Lewis Terry Lewis. But yeah, when we asked Mars
about him and Prince Craft in the first record, you know,
he told us that he's playing drums on everything. He
was like, when we may get it Up for some reason,

(09:35):
like Prince was really into not for some reason, I
mean everybody was into it, but.

Speaker 1 (09:41):
Man, you just blew me.

Speaker 3 (09:43):
Yeah, Prince had wrote get It Up for Brick to
be whatever the album is with with the Green where
was like, it's like the Green Leaves just for that album.

Speaker 1 (09:55):
They rejected it. You gotta talk to your dad about that.
What you're doing. Yeah, man, there you go. That's crazy
all right. So, Ray, what is your first musical memory?

Speaker 10 (10:10):
Me and my brother and sister used to turn the
lights off and dance around two flight time, Yes, sir,
the airplane land NAS New York state of mind. So
early on, I kind of like my father's jazz head.
So he he had all of this music which was

(10:34):
like everything that we ever heard in hip hop. You
feel me, all of this ship that cat sample, that's
the ship that I grew up with playing in the house.

Speaker 1 (10:43):
Yeah, all three of you are born in Atlanta. I
was going, okay, Yeah, I was born and you Where
were you born? Im about to say you gotta have
me swag boys, I know where are you born? Where?

Speaker 11 (10:57):
I was going to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Speaker 1 (11:00):
Yes, yes, my mom is from Pittsburgh.

Speaker 11 (11:05):
But I grew up before we came to Atlanta.

Speaker 10 (11:08):
We came to Atlanta with MANA Jackson when he took
over the city, when he became the first black man.

Speaker 1 (11:12):
Right.

Speaker 10 (11:13):
My fathers and mother were in Tuskegee, Alabama. So I
grew up in Tuskegee pretty much Alabama.

Speaker 3 (11:20):
Okay, I got roots there too. Shout out to Mobile,
not TEXIV, but Mobile. All right for you, Rico, What's
what's your first musical memory?

Speaker 12 (11:29):
Oh man, Even with listening to their memories, I was
mine is as simple as That's good now. It's the
simple ast him music on the radio, because you know
what I'm saying, I didn't really hit it. We didn't
have a car when I was younger, so I didn't
really hit the radio until like Mama was cleaning up
or something, or or when I finally just went into

(11:49):
that back room we had an extra room, and I
just kind of went to digging.

Speaker 1 (11:53):
Guo.

Speaker 3 (11:54):
Yes, the guest room and all the junk sits in the.

Speaker 12 (11:59):
Man finding more than records back there one day back
but the records nothing, no.

Speaker 1 (12:10):
A bunch of fact.

Speaker 12 (12:12):
Yes, yes, money, but like Donald Summer and like the
Ring My Bell and all that kind of stuff with
some of the records and Iley Brothers. Yeah, I was
seeing that stuff as records. But on the radio when
she was it was just the energy of house. She
would be a different person when the music came on
and she turned up loud and she cleaning up. Some

(12:33):
people always made that. I always say, you know, I
like to play my music when I'm cleaning up. I
really understood what that meant. It's like I feel good today.
I mean today is this is what I'm doing. I'm
going for I need to feel good.

Speaker 8 (12:45):
You need to feel good what I'm getting this.

Speaker 12 (12:46):
Yeah, So my examples of music, and another one at
a young age was my first little job when I
was like ten years old, just unloading the back of
eighteen or like.

Speaker 1 (12:54):
A truck or whatever.

Speaker 12 (12:57):
They used to play the radio, and I just remember
that made it go by. So the music music was
always a I didn't never think I could necessarily be
able to make it. They never think I would be
a part of the business. But I knew how important
it was and how much I did, how much it
did for me just at that young age, and didn't
even know who, didn't know exactly who, none of the
artist was. Just knew that at that time being a

(13:19):
man of my age, which is fifty. During that time
nineteen eighty, I was eight.

Speaker 1 (13:26):
So like like.

Speaker 12 (13:26):
What he's talking about, like soaking up, sir at the
right time. It's the end of the seventies. So we
but they still loan it. As far as the albums,
I could still see album I still saw eight tracks,
you know what I'm saying. I still wrote in cards
when we did that, actually had an eight track.

Speaker 1 (13:40):
In it, so collect them. Wow.

Speaker 12 (13:43):
But your knowledge of a brick is amazing because even
when when I found out who his father was or whatever,
you just thought about that's ice cube song.

Speaker 1 (13:57):
Yes, vasline, that's the song that you got back. That
was deep. I was so happy when they did.

Speaker 4 (14:04):
How did you feel about like a lot of other
artists have sampled before that.

Speaker 1 (14:11):
You know, Kid played the Ain't Gonna hurt nobody? You
know him? Did he did? It's all good? It was
yeah good.

Speaker 5 (14:18):
So but when I heard Q on one of the
coldest disc records.

Speaker 13 (14:23):
Ever all the time, bro my hat like Jenny, So
I was, man, that's still one of my favorite Man.

Speaker 5 (14:39):
I still play that records and like I'm in the
mirror and I'm cute and let me shut up.

Speaker 3 (14:45):
So I have a lot of musician friends that are
in uh Atlanta, like uh little John Roberts used to
live down in Philly. However, there were four musician friends
of mine that gave me theory on how.

Speaker 1 (15:02):
They got so advanced in their musicianship.

Speaker 3 (15:04):
Now, you mentioned you'd be in fifty that you were
eight back then, and I know that one of the
most crucial points in the timeline in a black person's
life in Atlanta history, of course, and if you're eight
years old were the Atlanta murders. And what my friends
told me was like, basically because their parents were strict,

(15:27):
like yo, you ain't going outside, you know, I pick
you up for school.

Speaker 1 (15:30):
You stay in the house.

Speaker 3 (15:32):
And because of that specific late sixties early seventies generation
told to stay in the house, they just got more
advanced than their music.

Speaker 1 (15:42):
Can you explain to.

Speaker 3 (15:43):
Us, like how that period affected you guys, Like were
you fully aware that many young black kids were getting
kidnapped and all those things, and like were your parents
like no, you you know.

Speaker 12 (15:56):
It was prime time for us. And the fact that
I lived in apartments, single parent. Mom she went and
she worked, so it was latchkey kid right. So so
then I had two little sisters like six and five
years younger, like, so it was like and you have
to watch them, yeah, and I had to watch them.

Speaker 1 (16:12):
So it was almost like I was trained. I was wrong.

Speaker 12 (16:16):
Mom had got me ready the knife behind here to
whoop over here like pistol over on top of the closet,
and yeah, like everything was She treated me as a
young adult because she was like, I mean, I don't
wanted them white folks doing this, right, So she was scared,
so she was like, you can't outrun the because stop
thinking that.

Speaker 1 (16:35):
Oh, ain't gonna get me. I'm too fas, I promise
you police can't get me. Mop I'm dropping fishes one
league like she said. She said, she said, dope, you.

Speaker 12 (16:49):
Know, and then just trying to get rid of all
y'all they trying to just scoop them up. But and
she just made me believe that it was something that
it actually necessarily was, but it wasn't because it was
a lot going on Inland.

Speaker 1 (16:59):
It was the bevideo games. Video games that just touched down.

Speaker 12 (17:02):
So that's why when I disscovered them, them dollar pieces
in that in that back room.

Speaker 1 (17:07):
Yes, you want to just go hit the arcade.

Speaker 12 (17:09):
And we had an arcade downtown Atlanta and the Omni
An Arcade at It's like the arcade is where you
first started meeting that.

Speaker 5 (17:16):
The people, the people who do music, the people who
were eventually was gonna be the people, the dancers, the
people who loved New York and knew that we would
get shunned for acting that way, but people still would
do it, almost to the.

Speaker 12 (17:28):
Point where like, I want to be different, you know
what I'm saying. Didn't know that being I don't want
you don't necessarily want to be copying somebody else.

Speaker 1 (17:34):
But that's different that that dudes. You had some dudes
that was straight and lit and tell you they was.

Speaker 12 (17:42):
So as far as the child murders, we community centers.
So like people got a chance to do a boy scout.
They was trying to get you to do summer camps
that they had at the city. Had put a whole
thing together to where they was giving out t shirts.
I remember these, these these classic teacher as will say,
eighty eighty one, eighty two. And then it kind of

(18:03):
let you know that my mama care about me because
she made I went to the camp kids who don't
go to camp, like, man, this shit, excuse me.

Speaker 1 (18:10):
This is free.

Speaker 12 (18:12):
In yeah, this is free and so like it's just
seemed like and those people was also bringing it to
you too as well as far as making sure that
you know, be with a friend, stop trying to do
stuff by yourself. So so that little fear was kind
of how you should have felt as a young adult anyway.
But the city was so active about it or whatever
as far as no trick or treating you know what
I'm saying, like, and eventually grew until y'all can go

(18:32):
to the mall and do it. But really it was
like when you get home at three thirty or whatever,
go in the house at four o'clock like it was
a curfew.

Speaker 1 (18:40):
It wasn't apparent. It was like eighty eighty one these two.

Speaker 3 (18:43):
Years, yeah, because he had numbers.

Speaker 10 (18:50):
Nine was when we first started this year, and then
eighty was the year was the second year.

Speaker 11 (18:55):
That's when everything got like just what we're doing.

Speaker 12 (18:57):
That's when I starteding eighty one. When it was it
was like I wasn't eve tripping about it. Then by
that point point it was like like it was it
was more like yeah, we trained, we was trained in
or whatever like. But but I do remember saying like
like damn, we don't get the freaking.

Speaker 1 (19:12):
That they used to be.

Speaker 12 (19:13):
Like Halloween used to be cool because everybody show up
at school. Didn't we have even a little Halloween. Then
they started doing a little carnivals at the school. The community
kicked in. I got to say that, like and watching
the special that HBO did or whatever, like it was
most definitely informative. It most definitely enlightened me on a
lot of things that I thought was going on, and
it kind of like brought validity to what I knew
what was happening. But I knew it wasn't just that

(19:34):
because a culture of because we Atlanta's a melting pot,
you know what I'm saying, Like, you know you got
San Francisco, but Atlanta's We had gay laws put in
place when I was younger as well because of because
of disrespect, you know what I'm saying, Like somebody just
wanted to be you know, because of racism, because we
founded racism in a great way that we was on
top of that before it became a worldwide thing or

(19:57):
whatever as far as dealing with you know, different people
of because.

Speaker 8 (20:01):
That explains why Atlanta is such a mecca for that
community as well.

Speaker 3 (20:04):
America's democracy lies in the hands of Atlanta or Georgia.

Speaker 1 (20:11):
Period. Yeah.

Speaker 12 (20:12):
Absolutely, so with all those things are because of the
Wayne Williams.

Speaker 1 (20:17):
My dad and me like that's the number one conspiracy theory.

Speaker 5 (20:20):
Yes, I'm so, you said, Wayne Williams, because I still
say in my mind Walter Clyde Orange of the Commodore.

Speaker 1 (20:30):
Had those classes that whatever.

Speaker 3 (20:32):
But I never, I never truly felt that it was him,
especially with what's happening now so unhinged.

Speaker 1 (20:43):
I always felt like it was something else and some
other people.

Speaker 12 (20:46):
Yeah, I think it was a collective. It was a collective.
I think people took advantage of about it. It was
like it was happening or whatever. And that's why the things,
the numbers, yes, and the things that I'm telling you,
all the stuff that was reinforced. It's the reason why
we didn't lose more because it was thirty two kids.
It was thirty two, it was like thirty one thirty
two kids, it was like, I mean.

Speaker 11 (21:04):
Well, technically it was more than that.

Speaker 10 (21:06):
It has never stopped the word yes, I mean I
mean Atlanta's the center for sex trafficking.

Speaker 11 (21:15):
Yeah, yep, so it technically has never stopped.

Speaker 10 (21:18):
You just don't hear about it being associated with Wayne
Williams but abducted missing, that hasn't changed at all.

Speaker 1 (21:27):
Yeah.

Speaker 12 (21:28):
Yeah, but now though, with the fact that you have
people illegal, Like when I was younger, Beefer Highway, it
was like it was you know, it was Spanish a
little bit. But now like we have completely Atlanta. It's
not just a mecca for black people. It's Latinos, it's Asians.
We have everybody here working to That's going to say
it's working together, but but been work been living together
for long enough to when now they know each other,

(21:50):
everybody cool.

Speaker 8 (21:51):
It's been a good decade for your your like divers diversifying, gentrification.

Speaker 10 (21:55):
But back to your question, your question, you said something
about it the h did that affect you in No,
it's the neglect that made Atlanta artists perfect their crafts
and talent shows, high school events. You feel me because
there was no outlet, So you had, yeah, you had

(22:17):
a bunch of high talent competing against itself without any
kind of visualization in terms of everybody else.

Speaker 3 (22:25):
So that said, uh, what is your version of Okay,
Like I know the history of the Bronx and the
Cold Crust Brothers, and so what is Atlanta's first generation.

Speaker 1 (22:41):
Hip hop history? Rahim the dream?

Speaker 12 (22:45):
Yes, but I'm all independent, but I'm gonna say this though,
I'm gonna say this, So SOS band or like what's
the group Brick? How you to my brick? Atlanta had
a band culture in the seventies. Yes, came toon roles.
So when so when the drum machined start kicking in,
that's they might have turned down the print song if
he had drum drum beats in it because they were
such a live just like how the Roots was early on,

(23:06):
Like it's such a live thing. That's what made the
package that they so like with that Brick had a
studio twenty five sixty, A lot of studios that was
in Atlanta, Like when that j pace they used was
either a church or an old musician from a band
group from Atlanta who left something there. So that was
like for me, like to me, that's where the musicianship

(23:27):
started at. But as far as when the drum machines,
like Ray was saying, the talent shows, it was almost
like we couldn't necessarily do music. We didn't have the
culture that crushed brewed like or whatever, like like we
had Shaddy, you got right here in the dream. You
got these groups, these artists that are coming out, but
really they are somewhat emulating what we love about New
York but doing it down South style. So but the

(23:49):
fact that like the DJ and the fact that we
took on the other aspects of it, it wasn't it
was like our movement was why I guess we got culture.
It's like we was into the style, like like you
would see people dressed like the fat laces shoe lakes.

Speaker 1 (24:03):
I mean, inde is the shoelaces.

Speaker 12 (24:05):
We literally mimicked a New York culture and the Miami culture,
like from gold teeth to the to the big ear rings.
It's really what you see and what you want to
see or whatever. So like for me, our most original
stuff was us being having an original style of dance
or a dress, coming up with our crazy hair when

(24:25):
we was wearing perms and binga ways it was really country.

Speaker 1 (24:28):
It turned up like like.

Speaker 7 (24:30):
We was doing that too year, not the dudes, but yeah,
the girls were definitely doing all the dues.

Speaker 14 (24:38):
It was the dual player players dry fast.

Speaker 8 (24:49):
It sounds like d.

Speaker 1 (24:53):
Shouts out. They definitely like also credit.

Speaker 3 (24:59):
Jermaine said that, you know, he had to go to
New York part of it and live in New York
and kind of bring it back. And even with like
Chris crossed his first record, like half those breakbeats came
from literally from like you know what this but whenever,
like mugs would leave the studio after work on Cyprus
Hill and like the sounds would still be in there,

(25:20):
which is.

Speaker 1 (25:20):
Why like, uh, the midnight theme loop is in jump
like you too much?

Speaker 12 (25:31):
Knowing that he's not telling too much at all, because
that's that really makes because the most sense because we three,
it's three of us, so it's not just Ray, it's
not just me, and it's it's like we all have
a certain amount of history. And the way we did
because we did like we're gonna spend as much time
as you won't talk. We went into New York. We
flew me and raced it, fly to New York, like
when we got bigger royalty.

Speaker 1 (25:53):
Checks or something.

Speaker 12 (25:54):
Instead of going to the mall, instead of going about
all the new designer stuff, We'll go to New York,
get hotel rooms the street he raised, pizza, and go
to all the Jewish little stores and buy up everybody,
all of them.

Speaker 1 (26:05):
We got.

Speaker 12 (26:05):
We got some, what he said to day, I got some,
not Pete Rock, but he said he said QI it was,
but it was more than Q two whoever. He said, Yeah,
I was holding these and I was professor president.

Speaker 1 (26:17):
You would go to record where we found him. See.

Speaker 10 (26:21):
But our discovery of New York as a source right
was only because we had like Pilford, Atlanta, Yeah, and
the South, because you know, everybody got a record collection.

Speaker 3 (26:33):
I was about to say the best records I've ever
found were below yeh line.

Speaker 1 (26:37):
Absolutely.

Speaker 12 (26:38):
But when we first started from my forty five, I'm
talking about Carmine and Bleek. About this dude he went
in the back. He already identified where the breaks came
in at. He had already because all he does was
the old man sitting least at those the spots he
would hit it.

Speaker 1 (26:53):
He's like, yeah, so.

Speaker 12 (26:54):
He didn't know kind of money we had. He was like, yeah,
you know, I charged like forty or fifty for these.
I was like, cool, how many you got? Were dropping
bags thousands of dollars, And each time we got a break,
we like, that's an original One thing about one thing
about hip hop, originality is the most important thing because

(27:14):
it inspires and motivates. Yeah, so if you come up
with something, even if you didn't do it the best,
you just presented it to the world. So somebody else
is gonna rip it another day or whatever. Right in
these first little eighteen months. They can't come behind you
with it. It's got to be your lane only right now.
So as many breaks as we had, it was up
to just making records that coincided or whatever. But our

(27:36):
that was that was our lifeline. Once we made it
into the music industry, we felt like as long as
we were digging, we were reading books and we were learning,
and that's what New York had forgot for a little while.
They got caught up into they've done out, and that's
why the South got in there because we didn't.

Speaker 1 (27:51):
It looked like they let us in with master p
and cash money.

Speaker 12 (27:55):
It was like, that's because they fucked up and then
fucked with us early on when we would we were
a brother. That's why it's called the East Coast because
Atlanta's on the East Coast.

Speaker 1 (28:05):
It's a DC's on the East Coast.

Speaker 12 (28:08):
It's like all of all these places are reminiscent of
hip hop, even though we give all the credit to Bronx,
give all the credit to New York Brooklyn, because it's
deservingly so. Like like we always looked at New York
as the father and the Los Angeles as the mother,
and we were the child that came from. And that's
why he said from neglect, that's where Atlanta came from.
The fact that that that neglect was enough to try

(28:30):
to figure it out on your own.

Speaker 4 (28:31):
Now coming up in the South, like we I tell
you all the time, like we had to study everything.
So it's like, you know, it wasn't just if you
came up in New York. You might have knew what
was going on if you lived in Brooklyn, or you
might have knew who the hot dude was over here.
But in the South, we had to know everything. You
had to know all right, this is New York, this
is the Midwest, this is this is Texas, this is Houston,

(28:52):
Like you know what I mean, and it just made
it always made for me. It just gave me a
grade of vocabulary. You know what I'm saying, and you
know what I mean, just knowing everything because you had to.

Speaker 1 (29:01):
Know it well. First of all, how did you three meet?
Mm hmmm. We met very very sea. Music. Music is
why we met. Music is how we met.

Speaker 5 (29:16):
There was this girl I was dating at the time,
he named Cookie. She knew Rico, she knew T Bars
very well. Okay, so and she went T Bars then
she was this was t So. I was in the
dance group in all of high schools started that was
kind of like the bomb we used to go around
girls just scream all the stuff. So facts facts. So

(29:38):
Cookie told me. Now I don't know how true this is.

Speaker 1 (29:41):
Well.

Speaker 5 (29:41):
Cookie told me that wanted wanted me to meet Rico,
and Rico wanted to meet me. So I was like, cool,
So we go. Me and Cookie go over with Tion's
house which is in East Point, walk up to his.

Speaker 1 (29:53):
Job, tea stuff outcasts came in and.

Speaker 5 (29:58):
Then I walk in. You know what I'm saying, and Cook,
You're like, yo, Rico, this this pant he was like.
So it's like it was it was a dance that
we used to do, like stuff the time show and

(30:18):
when you ended, you hit your legal roof.

Speaker 1 (30:20):
All right, So the whole time he told me he
wanted me. When I meet him, he just the ship up.
He tried to feish you. But I started laughing because
I was like it was funny at me. I was
like crazy.

Speaker 5 (30:37):
But anyway, so you know, we meet her whatever.

Speaker 1 (30:41):
I'm gonna tell this other part.

Speaker 5 (30:43):
So we meet her whatever, and uh, I'm like, yeah,
we will, you know, he said we'll hang out some
day whatever, blah blah blah. So I walked back down
with my girl Cookie and which they started fussing.

Speaker 1 (30:54):
M hmm. We get around the corner there in all
out brawl in the middle of the street.

Speaker 4 (30:59):
Wow, who winning. I'm sorry that like this like this
she might have been a little yeah, but that's a
little fights then because she threw the first took off
and Cookie went behind Cookie with Hood and ship.

Speaker 5 (31:22):
They get to fight. I'm in the middle of trying
to break it up, calls Ryan by. So they fuss
at each other and walked their separate ways and I'm
just standing there.

Speaker 1 (31:32):
I'm like, okay, so.

Speaker 12 (31:35):
Walk They just got into the fight b and just
and just to go back when he is a.

Speaker 1 (31:42):
Crazy way to meet your future straight up.

Speaker 12 (31:45):
Not but because like he said, I already knew who
he was, because he to be honest, he was a legend,
like as far as the like didn't look like it,
as far as as far as because he had a
little had a little smurf I mean.

Speaker 1 (31:58):
Or whatever.

Speaker 12 (31:59):
He was kind of like not chubby, but just the
way he was. But the boy, the boy could move.
I say, the boy could move. The boy was in
the number one best group in Atlanta at that time
or whatever, and I had just took was taking dance
lessons from a member of that group, somebody who was
in that group. But they put him out. They put

(32:20):
him out because he was no one doing too much.
But he talked. He taught me how to dance. But
I knew I was never gonna be them. So when
I saw him that day, it was more.

Speaker 1 (32:29):
Like so like.

Speaker 12 (32:35):
But he went from that day, he like he said,
he laughed or whatever, but he did see the fact
that I had a job and I was kind of
I was doing stuff. So so yeah, so he was
like he was tired of dancing. I had just learned
how he was like wow, two two three year legend.
Already he was ready for music. Then he was already

(32:55):
starting to do them, like four tracking demos, and I'm
just looking.

Speaker 1 (32:58):
Like yeah, drum.

Speaker 12 (33:04):
So when we talk about your first experience with music,
never never thought this would happen, Never thought I would
meet somebody that actually made music.

Speaker 1 (33:13):
He was showing me.

Speaker 12 (33:14):
So now I'm getting money, I'm doing stuff and I'm
not selling dope like I really got a job. Just
want to stay fresh, just trying to look like I'm
just don't live in these apartments right here.

Speaker 1 (33:23):
You know what I'm saying. I got a car. You
know what I'm saying, I'm living.

Speaker 12 (33:25):
I'm saying I'm living like I live in bucket, but
I'm living in this point like off helping and the love,
you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (33:31):
So yeah, but so. But he was the one who.

Speaker 12 (33:34):
Was like, yo, this is just local dancing, this is
the this is local. And he the one who wanted
to start the group. I want to be an artist,
and I just I believed in that. I love the
fact that he believed in me or nothing. I felt
like I could sell it. I felt like I could
do it. So I started learning about music. I started
like reading whatever you could learn the little especially Vince whatever,
Jack the rapper, Whatever's gonna come to town. I'm trying to

(33:55):
do it right. Then he bumped into a Ray at
the studio at Joe Car Jeane Car.

Speaker 8 (34:03):
From they live. They moved here, they moved him. She
lived in Philly now.

Speaker 1 (34:07):
But yeah, yeah, Joe Car, Damn man, the things you learned.

Speaker 8 (34:10):
That's my family because we just.

Speaker 1 (34:16):
I'm a student.

Speaker 8 (34:18):
We ain't never seen you over there, you know, because
I don't live here. I graduated from Cornership.

Speaker 1 (34:22):
Come back where years did you go to Clerk?

Speaker 8 (34:23):
Uh?

Speaker 1 (34:26):
Were years old?

Speaker 8 (34:27):
Ninety? When I was a I went to ninety six
to ninety.

Speaker 3 (34:30):
Nine Jugie House at over here.

Speaker 5 (34:35):
Yeah, but Joe, Joe had a little studio, a nice
little bils little studio in his house.

Speaker 1 (34:40):
Dog and he used to, let you know, me and
Rico go there and work and stuff. Now we used
to pay for it. Of course it went on all right.

Speaker 5 (34:52):
So one day I'm in the working and Joe tells me, like, yo,
I gotta run somewhere.

Speaker 1 (34:57):
You're cool, you can stay here.

Speaker 5 (34:58):
She's he told me, said, Yo, my boy, Ray gonna
come through here and grab something right quick. He won't
be nothing but a minute, but you know you'll meet
him whatever. I said, Okay, cool. So I'm in there.
I'm confused because I don't know what the hell I'm doing.
All of a sudden, he the door closed. Ray comes
around the corner. He doesn't talk to me at all.
All he does is grab his head.

Speaker 1 (35:18):
Okay.

Speaker 5 (35:19):
So he goes in there and he gets to the keyboard,
loads his disc, do all this boom, and when he
hit it, my mouth dropped because I'm like, how the
fuck you just do? Wait a minute, this just sounded
like public Enemy, Like, Bro, how you make this summer?

Speaker 7 (35:34):
Go?

Speaker 1 (35:34):
With that sampling and all listening. He look at me
and I'm looking so Ray, you're the quiet I'm looking.
I'm amaze automatic. As soon as I sorry, I said, reed, Bro,
I don't mess some nigga. Ain't Ray. We got to
have him, I said, he has to be a part

(35:55):
of this.

Speaker 5 (35:56):
Bro, you don't understand he could teach like he has
to be a part cause the way Ray taught me simples.
I came from the funk era, where I thought I
would have God thought everything right. So when I first
started hearing like, you know, a rapping everything I thought
in my mind with some stuff. It was original. He

(36:18):
came in there with a bag by this big with
nothing but tapes. M Ramsey, Lewis, James Brown, Blackbirdy, just
everybody and all the breaks just started playing stuff and
I'm like, wait a minute, that's what.

Speaker 1 (36:31):
Wait a minute, what do you get that? He's like,
you know, Ray, it ain't.

Speaker 10 (36:38):
I've been recording every time I go over to somebody house,
you know what I mean? Because I was playing with
these records when I was little. I love music, so
I record, and I was a DJ way early, like
you know what I mean running seeing him first came out,
I was one of my homeboys taught me how to DJ,
so I was DJing back spinning, you know, uh sucker
sucker mc so. Later on I found out that through

(37:01):
my DJ friends that a lot of the records.

Speaker 11 (37:03):
That's when we first found this, uh the Breakbeat.

Speaker 1 (37:06):
Collection, Ultimate Beats and Breaks, shout out the Breakbeat.

Speaker 11 (37:10):
See.

Speaker 10 (37:10):
I didn't know, just like Sleepy, I didn't know everything
was a sample. First, I thought that these guys incredible,
These guys are making this music.

Speaker 11 (37:17):
D da da dah.

Speaker 10 (37:18):
So I learned how to program based on listening to
shit and trying to reprogram on Boss drum Machines or
Leasia's drum Machines on nine on ninees.

Speaker 11 (37:27):
On five h five, seven or seven, you name them.
I then did it. Then I started.

Speaker 10 (37:32):
When I found the sample record, I said, oh, these motherfuckers. Yeah,
So this is what I didn't figure out. This is
what I didn't know. Did the compilation come out before
the records were hit or after?

Speaker 11 (37:47):
Probably after, okay, because in my mind they came out before.

Speaker 10 (37:51):
So I was like, oh, well, then I just need
to get the records before they motherfucker come out.

Speaker 11 (37:55):
And do it first. So I started digging deep.

Speaker 3 (37:59):
Wait, let me, let me just do a quick thirty
second tutorial. So basically, for those that two percent of
you that have been listening to us for six years
that don't know, so basically, you know, we always say
that in the in the folklore of break beadology that
basically African ben Bata was the collector, like Quhirk was

(38:19):
the system, Flash was the technique, and ben Bota was
the collector. And of course they were wiped the labels
away off the record, so you couldn't Sazam your way,
what's he spinning?

Speaker 1 (38:29):
What's he spinning?

Speaker 3 (38:31):
And eventually our homeboy break Be Lou decided to just
make a cheat sheet. You know, we could say the
Wikipedia of it, or we could say cliff notes of
all the essential breakbeas, like the basic four food groups
of the meat and potatoes of break beatology of what
they were spending in the seventies and the president. Yeah,

(38:53):
come nineteen eighty five, eighty six, when you're listening to
License to Ill and like early pre that that period
between like the Marley mal Rick Ruben period, and yeah,
I too was disappointed, Like I really thought Jamster Jay
was doing them bells on like Peter Piper what I'm saying,

(39:14):
I thought the time was really doing seven seven.

Speaker 1 (39:16):
Seven you speaking everything.

Speaker 12 (39:24):
It's still it still was amazing though that he took
Bob James and he was mixing it with a drum
pro and he was keeping it on beat for that
for the breakdown part still was amazing. It was just
that you could possibly do it too if you worked
at your crab, right, But but it wasn't gonna be
by doing what they did. So it's now just a
complete study session. He said, let me see if I

(39:45):
can reprogram the same beats with the same drums. Let
me just get to the level I'm there. And then,
like you said, we started digging because one thing they
taught you they had to put the name of the artists,
and they had to put the year.

Speaker 1 (40:00):
So you started studying Okay, years, your students, if you're.

Speaker 10 (40:04):
A student, because you studying years years. Yeah, that was years,
and you get the eighties.

Speaker 1 (40:11):
That's what you like. Yeah, what what's your what's your?

Speaker 11 (40:16):
You know, it don't stop.

Speaker 10 (40:17):
Maybe maybe it changed, But I'm gonna tell you when
it got whack for me, when when the fucking drum
machine started going in cameo, When the cameo drum sound,
when word was like the sound the sound though, because
you got to understand you're coming from a real snare,
a snare amplified, a snare distorted until this fucking eighties.

Speaker 11 (40:42):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (40:43):
It's kind of princess.

Speaker 3 (40:46):
It's funny you mentioned this because even for me, I realized,
all right, so I'm studying, uh, the Eisley Brothers, we
might do an arny episode. And when it came down
on to their ballots, I was like, yo, why doesn't
Ernie Eisley ever play the high hat like he'll just
play the kick and he'll just do the basic fibers

(41:08):
of it. And it just hit me that for a
lot of seventies cats, drums are almost just simply a
metronome and everything sits on top of it. I mean
there's a few, you know, James Brown, George Clinton, whatever,
But when Prince came along, it's the loudness of those
those hand claps, by the way. I mean most people

(41:29):
know this because they've read the Dilli book. Those Lynn
drum handclaps. That's Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. So yeah,
when Roger Lynn was sampling.

Speaker 12 (41:39):
H I did know what. I didn't know that, but
I knew from Jimmy Ivean. We've talked about it because
he's had Yeah, he was there, he was recording sounds.
He was there recording it sounds and.

Speaker 1 (41:52):
We were weaves here man. Yeah.

Speaker 5 (41:56):
Out of all the producers being in hip hop, the
ones that I truly love himpec, I love Molly Mab,
love fucking Larry Smith.

Speaker 1 (42:04):
About absolutely.

Speaker 5 (42:07):
Head absolutely, the band for Hill, the band for Sugar,
heel Bro, those and uh uh, the most incredible mixed
sounding records ever. Yeah, Larry Smith, he really brought like
R and B kind of sensibility to hip hop, but
it was still hip hop and the record sound really big.

(42:27):
I mean you listen to like Friends everything now it's still.

Speaker 10 (42:31):
Every one love, just crazy everything. Go back to Uh,
what's what's the name of his group that he was in.

Speaker 5 (42:39):
Curtis Yeah, record with my dad.

Speaker 1 (42:46):
I'm still record for you, bro.

Speaker 3 (42:53):
I was trying to you know, you know the last
question I asked Jay before I've seen him maybe like
months before, and the thing that always confused me was
he would actually scratch the intro. And the thing was
he would scratch it or he would take that same
break and scratch it for rock Box. But in my mind,

(43:18):
I was like, wait a minute, I know you guys
are using a d MX rhythm machine, so how did
you scratch that without like like did you just make
a thirteen second intro and send it to the factory
for you to scratch it?

Speaker 1 (43:32):
And then he told me.

Speaker 3 (43:33):
That initially for cucucs running, Jay wanted to rhyme to action.

Speaker 1 (43:43):
With that intro. So what they wound.

Speaker 3 (43:47):
Up doing I think he said that, Uh, the engineer
did a did a distortion trick and just turned up
the compression so much like when you really you can
waiting on the right.

Speaker 6 (44:00):
Like, yeah, shout out to engineers everything that's happened.

Speaker 3 (44:06):
Ange likes co engineered every classic like from Voodoo to
just whatever, like all these classic records. But yeah, I
always wanted to know how Jay was able to scratch
and he's basically scratching Orange Crushes Action intro. But they
compressed it so much that it sounds like the drum

(44:28):
machine that they eventually programmed on the d question, you
have a class somewhere bro hip hop?

Speaker 1 (44:36):
N Y I was made me quit man. No, literally,
I stopped n YU to just do the podcast because.

Speaker 6 (44:50):
So can I ask a question? You guys said when
you were originally starting to dig and because they were
wiping the labels, you're where they had to listen.

Speaker 1 (45:02):
Yeah initially in the bird days.

Speaker 6 (45:04):
Yeah, but you said they would only listen the artists
and the year, So you were shopping or digging by year?
What about by label?

Speaker 1 (45:11):
But they listed everything.

Speaker 12 (45:13):
We were just looking the fact that they those were
the key the key points. They listed the whole title, publishers,
the writers, they were listed everything.

Speaker 1 (45:20):
But we would look for the years. First, first, just
so we could go.

Speaker 3 (45:24):
Would you would you stop at seventy nine maybe eighty one,
you know, saying.

Speaker 11 (45:28):
No, I get to eighty about eighty eighty.

Speaker 12 (45:31):
It depends on the cover to me too, because I'm
still I'm still the color. I still like the pictures cover.
Like the pictures too. I like the pictures, but the
years can help me trust it because I was into focus. Well,
because you get some that's where it's at. You can
get some hard drums, some pretty riffs or whatever like
so like, and then just the jazz you had to
listen to even though you didn't want to, you had

(45:52):
to because you would you would have missed the whole
phase of hip hop.

Speaker 1 (45:55):
It was like, like, because I.

Speaker 12 (45:56):
Was thinking earlier when we were talking about it, when
when they dropped that like when you realize what came
from weather and when the trip called Quiest did something
they had that that was it many realton it was
uh lyrics lyrics. But once you start doing it, once
you start leving loving it for that, it didn't matter

(46:19):
if you found something first you was.

Speaker 1 (46:20):
Like, oh god, they killed they did they killed that?
I like how I mean. So it's also about that
too like to be so was that inspiration for mainstream? Man, listen, listen,
that's just that. Now you gotta go ahead.

Speaker 10 (46:39):
I was gonna say, you gotta really appreciate that because
we dug so deep, because we appreciated all of these
these changes in production style, how it went from a
pure James Brown vibe to incorporating melodies and drums and
then getting away from them being combined.

Speaker 1 (46:57):
Two dope boys.

Speaker 3 (46:59):
Know it just hit me right now, dude, the drums
from mainstream, seeing drums from fall in Love.

Speaker 1 (47:05):
Yes, indeed, yep, yes, even.

Speaker 10 (47:09):
Now, I'm like, even now you tell me, you tell
me now, I mean what you say, why you say that?

Speaker 3 (47:15):
No, no, no, it's it's it's literally the same breaking No, no, that's.

Speaker 10 (47:22):
Not about snitching. See, this is the assumption. This is
the assumption, is that everything is as it was, meaning
that it's lifted as a loop.

Speaker 1 (47:37):
I'm sure you shot, but it may have.

Speaker 10 (47:39):
Been just sounds programmed in such an order with advance.
I mean, you gotta remember, now what let me explain something, mixplaining,
let me explain, let me explain something.

Speaker 1 (47:52):
I love it.

Speaker 10 (47:53):
Larry Smith is his foundation of production is partly because
he's in the band, but also because of the technology
he's using SSLS. Right, Okay, we started when we got
to the music industry, they left us in the room
with SSLS.

Speaker 11 (48:12):
So this is what we learned how to make old equipment.

Speaker 10 (48:15):
And the synthesis is what you got to really appreciate,
not necessarily the the the copying. You feel me the
ability to be able to make something be something else, Yoda.

Speaker 12 (48:34):
And I'm gonna get into the part because because to
be honest, you could be right.

Speaker 1 (48:36):
I'm not sure.

Speaker 3 (48:42):
I'm such a stickler for reverb sounds.

Speaker 1 (48:48):
I assumed.

Speaker 3 (48:50):
That you guys used iron Butterfly Soldier in our town
for the drums dropping them in here.

Speaker 1 (48:57):
But I can't speed it up.

Speaker 11 (48:59):
But you right, you might be close, might be.

Speaker 12 (49:02):
But the key to it, though, the key to it,
what I said, is yes, the program because they make
stuff our temple or whatever. We might take drums and
then program reprogrammed the same loop but end up touching
other sounds that make it might change. The high head
change is part if it makes it better. But but
the greatness or whatever, I'm impressed with, like you, Raphael

(49:26):
speak a lot of other people when they talk about mainstream.

Speaker 1 (49:29):
I love it because it creative people.

Speaker 12 (49:31):
The fact that y'all loved that, and the fact that
it wasn't orthodox, It wasn't it was I was it really?

Speaker 1 (49:38):
Can I ask? Is based on that? Okay?

Speaker 12 (49:43):
And then the thing is I think we had that
little rid keyboard that was the magic box, and we
discovered that little sound.

Speaker 1 (49:54):
We just let that sound go.

Speaker 12 (49:55):
But but the main thing is that I think it
was also Yeah, that's what I'm about to get to
without telling too much, was that it was it was
like a cell therapy, you know how.

Speaker 1 (50:05):
You know, we got that dump that bounce before the
bounce come in, we got like a quarter like don't
so it's like we have a half of rip.

Speaker 12 (50:13):
So like it's like a six bar loop like like
like rolling. Like the way we cut it off mainstream
was that with a straight beat. You're right, it was.
It was giving you a it was flipping a different part.
But I couldn't figure out how to do that weird
beat to that at that point in my career, so

(50:34):
I had.

Speaker 1 (50:34):
To go easy to keep it down the middle. But
the music go crazy, all right.

Speaker 3 (50:44):
So now what we know as the Dungeons Studios before
you guys get a budget before Elie and whatnot. Like,
I'm certain that you guys are creating a workspace in
some sort of environment or you know, you called it
the dungeon.

Speaker 1 (51:03):
What is the equipment there and who's there?

Speaker 3 (51:05):
I mean because just based on the videos, I'm assuming
that it's almost like the Southern Wu Tang where it's
like twelve of y'all, just like.

Speaker 12 (51:11):
The dungeon was my mother's basement, unfinished basement, the wooden steps,
go down the steps.

Speaker 1 (51:16):
Ray was Yoda. He is the cook up. He'd wake
up and get on the drum machine.

Speaker 12 (51:20):
And it was an MPC from the time MPC came out,
and we had one before we even moved over there,
like from the very first MPC we had one or whatever.
So and the problem was it was an unfinished basement,
so it was dusty. So he used to load the
three point five floppy.

Speaker 1 (51:36):
Yes, yeah he did. So sometimes we have to be
concerned it stop about losing things.

Speaker 6 (51:42):
As soon as I know DiAngelo's That's why we laughed
when we hear floppy. He's still using them.

Speaker 3 (51:48):
Shit, the Angelo is still it is still nineteen ninety
seven with him, and he doesn't one to move.

Speaker 1 (51:52):
No, no, but it's almost.

Speaker 12 (51:53):
A good it's a good sound though it's an analog texture.
I mean, it's some things you do for a sound
or whatever, like the SP twelve, Like that's what I'm saying.
The other drum machine that we didn't mess with that
much because the past was it was stick. Once we
figured out, we midted that to the MPC and programming
from the MPC.

Speaker 1 (52:09):
But get get the texture Legion eight O eight, so
you would filter the SB twelve and then just midia
through the.

Speaker 12 (52:16):
Yeah program program in SB two. I mean, like you
get your examples edited in the SB twelve right then,
since since literally every every SB twelve the buttons get
stuck so you can't read program, so you just made
it a min Once we learned MIDI for real, with
like oh I can control this drum machine with this
drum machine or whatever because they had MIDI. So once

(52:36):
we start doing that, like Waterfalls had the SB twelve,
I'm on it. Ludicrous Saturdays used SP twelve and I
promise you that was the sound. That was like the
bass music. It was like andre three thousand bombs over
bad there all that, but that's SB bomb. That's the
SP twelve type of vibe. So we had an SB
twelve down there. We had an MPC down there, and

(52:57):
you couldn't really record. We had a six track so
you can hear stuff. Had two big house speakers down
there or whatever. And and most of the time it
was about writing because you had the steps, so people
would sit on the steps. You have big boyd Dra,
you have kol Joe, you have big Big Rude, usually
closer to Ray.

Speaker 8 (53:14):
Because on your basement, on your steps, on the wood.

Speaker 12 (53:16):
Steps, the woods steps, you would see them down the steps.
But it was like it was almost like going down
to you know, Ray on the drum machine and you
and it was already known, you not really talking the Ray.
And all all you can do is is like is
appreciate this music box.

Speaker 3 (53:29):
So they're all writing, They all right there, and the
person that finishes first day on that song, oh.

Speaker 1 (53:34):
They're all writing.

Speaker 12 (53:35):
And he changed whenever he finished what he's doing for
that for that sequence, he changed the beat, and everybody,
everybody turned the page and try to remember when you
go back to get back on it.

Speaker 1 (53:43):
But you'll keep writing over a new beat. So now
your styles are.

Speaker 12 (53:47):
Changing because now you were just writing with a certain
thought process. Now that thought press has been enhanced by
the beat changing.

Speaker 1 (53:54):
It's like the plant based version of drink Champs right now.

Speaker 8 (54:01):
It also reminds me of like bo I mean you
watch the boot tang so.

Speaker 12 (54:04):
Yeah so, and then then digging in the crazy the
fact that Ray would start so early, some people would
be you would get a chance, just the knowledge of
like you hear you'll hear it. He'll sample it now,
he's chopping it up. Now, he messing it up. Now
he fitted program something to it. But but he might
sample five or six things before he start programming. Or

(54:25):
when I go down there later, or when Sleepy get
on there, he already unpacked the drum machine up with
so many different things that he maybe some of them
started on some of them he didn't. So it's like
if it's sometimes you might be like get that, Ray,
get that for me.

Speaker 1 (54:36):
You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 12 (54:37):
I grabbed that, Like Sleepy does it all the time,
like you gotta go yeah, just you know, because he
has his own sound. That's what's cold about Sleepy, Like
like like most artists get confused around Ray because he's
gonna go.

Speaker 1 (54:50):
From waterfalls to sell therapy. We diverse.

Speaker 12 (54:54):
So the fact that he might be digging on some
crazy all a sudden, he might go into something that's
in my mind. I'm the business person, like, that's not
for you.

Speaker 1 (55:01):
That's gonna be what I don't. You're the traffic cop.

Speaker 12 (55:06):
Yes, but I don't determine it, like I don't say
it in front of nobody. I said, I said, he was.

Speaker 1 (55:12):
Like, we can use that.

Speaker 11 (55:14):
Yeah, we trust each other.

Speaker 12 (55:16):
Like, I'm not gonna tell the artists then, because because
the Invo songs, Coolbries Songries was killing it cool, That's
what it was.

Speaker 1 (55:24):
It was only the It wasn't drum that little. It
wasn't even lie of drums.

Speaker 12 (55:31):
It was it was it was a it was a
beat redhead, a beat on and it was that like
you said, it was that Koobries was writing to that
hold on Him.

Speaker 8 (55:39):
Don't let Go. That's the song we're talking about.

Speaker 1 (55:41):
Yeah.

Speaker 12 (55:42):
But but when it got beautiful, I think I think
we called it John John John.

Speaker 1 (55:47):
We called John I happened to be we called in
for that. So the night that.

Speaker 3 (55:51):
He tracked that, I believe we were at the tabernacle
because he told me the tabernacle right, because when I
saw a little later that that night, he told me
that he just did it like two days before or whatever.

Speaker 1 (56:05):
And so that's how I think that this tabernacle not
existed on wait wait.

Speaker 3 (56:12):
And I'm also glad you told this story because I
always felt like you were secretly judging me, like you
and James and kiss my ass, James Poison. I feel
like I wanted to explain to you because the way
we were. You notice that I always I use my computer,
but I always put it through the that SB twelve
hundred I got, and I never used that SP twelve hundred. Yes,

(56:34):
the reason is there's a new version of me. There's
a new kidd out version of I got it. It
has great texture, but I haven't learned to really freak
it yet, So I still do my shit on my computer.
But I like the texture of how samples go through.

Speaker 6 (56:47):
They should just have an SP twelve plug in.

Speaker 1 (56:50):
They kind of got one like m PC. But you
just don't believe it.

Speaker 12 (56:54):
I'm saying too, it's not some things you just want
to like like that eight. Like what I'm willing to
do is to try to say up with the sounds
digitally again.

Speaker 1 (57:01):
But that but the quality.

Speaker 12 (57:03):
I gotta be honest, Legohn, how it sound really changed America?
Like like that that clean eight away the DJ. It
was Robert the DJ, the DJ.

Speaker 3 (57:12):
And I once thought that little John Roberts was a
little John Yo, he's really revolutionist. Because the thing was,
I knew DJ drama back when he was backpack, dramatic, dramatic,
and when trying to convince me that this guy Gangster Grills.

Speaker 1 (57:29):
Is dramatic, I'm like here.

Speaker 3 (57:33):
Until I seen him, I was like, holy ship, you
really did like so I did want At one point
I did think that little John Roberts was revolutionizing dance
culture in Atlanta.

Speaker 1 (57:44):
And then I realized there was two of them.

Speaker 6 (57:46):
So what what kind of MPC was it?

Speaker 1 (57:49):
Oh?

Speaker 6 (57:50):
Wow?

Speaker 1 (57:54):
I mean for your your weapon of choice.

Speaker 12 (57:56):
Original studio, the original studio downstairs, the bignkey one, the first,
the first, very first clank one.

Speaker 11 (58:03):
We started on the first one and then graduated with
each one.

Speaker 6 (58:06):
Do you feel like there's a different sound between the
different models?

Speaker 1 (58:10):
They are?

Speaker 5 (58:10):
They are like okay, now some people, three thousand, two
thousand was the second one right now?

Speaker 12 (58:17):
Three thousand one second, Well, that's the that's that's the one.
Three thousand three thousand was the one that they started
using two effects. The three thousand the one they start
using the effects. They start using the little where they
could like you can make a sample, you can hide
a sample. That's they start thou they started doing that.
The two thousand was the was the bounce box, but
anything you did was bouncing or whatever.

Speaker 1 (58:40):
So it does have difference. Does all of them have
a different sound?

Speaker 6 (58:43):
But what what gives it? The bounce the quantizing?

Speaker 1 (58:46):
Yes, yes, good job.

Speaker 10 (58:47):
Well, to be specific to the drum machines, when they
changed them around, they kept putting the fucking click the
tap button on different sides. So if you started on
the first one, you tap with your left or whatever,
and if you start then other one, you tap what
you're right, So it made people be biased to the
drum machine left handed, you know, like that right.

Speaker 6 (59:10):
And it seems like the three thousand is like the one, right.

Speaker 1 (59:12):
Three thousand is the one if you're dyling now.

Speaker 3 (59:15):
And the thing is that Rogerlin didn't It has his name,
but Rogerlin had nothing to do with the two thousand.
It's almost like the yeasy adeed situation where they have
a name but that sort of thing.

Speaker 1 (59:27):
So really the last thing that he did.

Speaker 3 (59:30):
He did the NBC sixty, the NBC sixty two, and
then he did the three thousand, and then NBC sixty
came and like here's a boot, you know, and my
sucker asked fell for the two thousand because it's for
left handed people.

Speaker 4 (59:43):
So all right, rapid five? All right, yeah, it's rapid five. Okay,
socks and which doctor of swat healing ritual?

Speaker 1 (59:50):
Okay that far?

Speaker 4 (59:52):
Look man, we look, bro, we ain't got time, Bros
got to look man.

Speaker 1 (59:57):
That probably to me.

Speaker 4 (59:59):
That and Kool Breeze album like Ghetto Camera Bro, those records.
I've heard parts of the story. What happened with those
two records in the Interscope deals.

Speaker 12 (01:00:11):
And Interscope situation was it was a good deal, but
it was just bigger than what we was used to
or whenever we had more power or whatever. So like
and the artists, you know what I'm saying. We by
that time, we as a company. We wouldn't produce. We
was production company, but we were a label, and the
artists had more responsibility or whatever, Like we was making

(01:00:32):
your music, but we wouldn't holding your hand to make
sure you went on your shows.

Speaker 1 (01:00:36):
To make sure you did in stores.

Speaker 12 (01:00:38):
Yes, we did that without cast, but they were seventeen
years old. Eighteen years old. It was more about do
you even have a bank card? You know what I'm saying.
I don't want to leave you out there. But by
the time we got the Goodie Mob, y'all grown. Yes,
And not to diflect, but I did what I want.
I've been wanting to say this. The quest because how
did you feel when you first met because the first

(01:00:59):
two a Goodie Mob was with the Roots and with
the Fujis.

Speaker 8 (01:01:03):
Oh, now that was already dramatic.

Speaker 1 (01:01:05):
No, it wasn't.

Speaker 3 (01:01:06):
Because we first met Goodie Mob, like my first introduction
to I mean, besides seeing outcasts on te people in
real life. We our very first trip to Atlanta. We
went to this radio station and I remember that, so

(01:01:29):
I didn't go to the radio station that night, but
I listened and basically all of Goodie Mob and the
Roots like freestyled for twenty minutes. It was on YouTube
for the longest, Like it was like a legendary moment.
I just remember Reek coming back, like, yo, there's even
more of them, because the thing was because the thing is, yes,

(01:01:52):
there were there was a lot of bias towards how
we in the Northeast. Yes we're very I be very particular,
very territorial about culture and whatnot. So yes, we tend
to think that most of down South was just Luke
and nothing else. And so shout out to cosmic Keev

(01:02:14):
for he always rode for the Player's Ball remix. Now
I will be super super transparent, honest, the original Player's Ball.

Speaker 1 (01:02:27):
I remember when it came on BT.

Speaker 3 (01:02:30):
And it was the jury is up in the air,
because we were like at the all right, so here's
my thing, here's all right. What it happened was no, no, no, no.
Where I was, I was dirty dungeon. Hip hop has
to be filthy, like the first Jungle Brothers record, the

(01:02:51):
first Wu Tang record. And when the Chronic came out,
I told you, and Dre laughs his ass off. I
hated the Chronic for like twenty years because it just
sounded to pristine too.

Speaker 1 (01:03:03):
Yeah, it was too. It was like, wait, I thought
we were against this. I thought we didn't want to
sound like afternoon radio to me.

Speaker 3 (01:03:14):
Then suddenly hip hop just sounded clean and big and right.
But I didn't come from like club culture where ship
had to kick. I wanted this ship to like that, right,
And I was just like, I don't know, man, like
it's too clean. And and then I got in cosmic
Kev's car and he played the main Ingredient remix version,

(01:03:39):
and when the drums kicked.

Speaker 10 (01:03:40):
In, like, let me could cut you off because you've
been dropping these motherfucking gems.

Speaker 5 (01:03:47):
I didn't know what I'm thinking about the producer main Ingredient.

Speaker 12 (01:04:02):
We literally played played it with the piano and had
sleep becoming singing.

Speaker 5 (01:04:06):
Yeah, you got to say, it's like, it's cool. Yeah,
that's what we did. But that ain't what.

Speaker 1 (01:04:11):
I thought it was. Listened to it, right, I'm it's that,
but it ain't that.

Speaker 3 (01:04:15):
I grew up with Shame on the World as a record,
so I instantly knew.

Speaker 1 (01:04:18):
So maybe didn't guess what somebody else came behind us
and did and did that young This is what they did.
When I heard that Youngster's record.

Speaker 5 (01:04:34):
I liked it because I like the Yeah, I actually
liked the beat of the seven was real.

Speaker 1 (01:04:39):
Cool to me. Oh damn, it was mad props. I
didn't even know that.

Speaker 3 (01:04:46):
No, no, at a moment where I didn't even think
of that ship. No, no, no, But when Cosmic Kav is
like Philly swamp Master flex and that's hard.

Speaker 1 (01:04:57):
When he used to.

Speaker 3 (01:04:58):
Have his like mixtapes out like I'd be in the
car and when he put it on the way them drums,
it was like a hard version of friends.

Speaker 1 (01:05:10):
You know what I mean?

Speaker 8 (01:05:12):
And you are so good.

Speaker 1 (01:05:21):
Joke, Yeah, I mean it was. It was a hard
version of friends.

Speaker 3 (01:05:25):
Like like if I were drumming, that's what you're saying.

Speaker 1 (01:05:30):
If I were, Yeah, well here's the thing, Like I wasn't.

Speaker 3 (01:05:34):
Even though I'm immersed in hip hop and all that ship,
like I'm still trying to figure out, hey, how can
I recreate these breaks?

Speaker 1 (01:05:41):
I would have been a perfect supplement to that ship.

Speaker 3 (01:05:46):
So when he did that, then that's when that was
my Kaiser Sosa Coffee Drop reveal moment of I was like, oh, ship, there,
this is a problem.

Speaker 1 (01:05:59):
Then I was like, y'all really did earn those four
and a half mics? Yes? Yeah?

Speaker 3 (01:06:02):
The fact we were rased one day and the boy
the easy issue like all right, let's go, and I wouldn't.
I would like try to read the review before I
see what the mics are. And I saw half and
I was like wait, it's a Leve review. They wouldn't
do no three and a half live review two three

(01:06:23):
yo foro and a half, Like, we stopped rehearsal and
I immediately went to rextas like, yo, I gotta get this.

Speaker 12 (01:06:29):
Ship, hey man. So it's so monumental what you're saying now.
Because to even back that up, I remember when La
read because it was important to him to call me
in every Tuesday, every day, every once a week when
radio reports come out. He just wanted me. He was excited,
but he knew it wasn't his. He was excited, but

(01:06:49):
he knew this is y'all. Y'all need to be excited.

Speaker 1 (01:06:52):
And he said that too. He was on the show
four weeks ago.

Speaker 3 (01:06:57):
Yeah, yeah, and he definitely said that even like he
didn't know the world like he could instantly.

Speaker 1 (01:07:04):
Have saved hip. He didn't really know whatever y'all say.

Speaker 12 (01:07:10):
Absolutely, but but but he started he started felt, you know,
like I owe you to teach you. And he was like, yo,
if this market plays your record, it's probably gonna trigger
these markets around it. So so shout out to the
bay because that's who really jumped.

Speaker 1 (01:07:23):
That's who and that broke y'all.

Speaker 11 (01:07:25):
Absolutely absolutely, And that makes sense.

Speaker 1 (01:07:30):
That makes sense because.

Speaker 12 (01:07:32):
Yes, they played the original one. They played the original
one Vegas, every other market New York when we had
our peak, I'm looking at New York.

Speaker 1 (01:07:41):
I'm like, I said, they still.

Speaker 12 (01:07:42):
Ain't and he said look at me and said they
just yeah. He said, they're just not They're not really
fucking with it. But I said, that's all you had
to say. We went and soon as soon as he
let me know. Soon as he said they didn't like,
I said, they don't want to hear all that music ship,
then okay, cool, let's break it down. Let's just break
it down. Let we was already gold at that point.
It was like, we need to give and for you

(01:08:04):
to tell me that Cosmic Kost somebody who was a
big influencer in the East Coast, because guess what, everything
turned around once we dropped that remix. The whole East
Coast lit up for love for Outcasts.

Speaker 3 (01:08:19):
You had such a crazy momentum, especially with Outcasts as
your main trojan horse, to literally change the narrative of
how the world thought Southern hip hop was. This is
what I gotta know. As a lead single, Yes, a
song being eighty bpms in twenty twenty two, twenty fifteen, whatever,

(01:08:45):
like say, the second half of the arts between twenty
ten and twenty twenty is normal, But in nineteen ninety.

Speaker 1 (01:08:53):
Six, elevators.

Speaker 3 (01:08:57):
And the thing was you know, I asked even off
campus Grill, dre and and and Big Boy about this,
But I since y'all create, how like that was such
a risk y'all could have just played it safe and
just kind of fit in.

Speaker 11 (01:09:16):
What did it follow?

Speaker 1 (01:09:17):
Though? No? But I can tell you this for a fan.

Speaker 11 (01:09:20):
Meaning that what do we do before that?

Speaker 8 (01:09:22):
It was the single?

Speaker 1 (01:09:23):
I mean, what we do before that?

Speaker 11 (01:09:27):
What do we do before that? Hip hop wise?

Speaker 1 (01:09:30):
I mean it was good. In my it was so.

Speaker 10 (01:09:34):
So because they broke the ground with pianos and the
this this.

Speaker 1 (01:09:39):
Wane with with with self therapy.

Speaker 11 (01:09:43):
It was easy for the cast to pick up.

Speaker 1 (01:09:46):
It was so different. I promise you that that's a
real story behind it. Give it to me, the real story.
The music golownin about this.

Speaker 12 (01:10:04):
This is the actual This is the actual bees needs
this what happened? Antonio read? At this point, we were
in a contract negotiation. We were trying to bring our label.
We wanted to be a label.

Speaker 1 (01:10:14):
We want to out here to sign us Red Clay Records.

Speaker 12 (01:10:17):
So if you look at the original versions of Elevators,
it's say Red Clay Records. We end up leaving. But
so when so we was in a little bit more control.
Big and Dre's they first single they produced, right, they produced,
They produced it. They produced the first single they produced.

Speaker 5 (01:10:32):
They came to Big Boy, came up with this incredible hook,
and we produced it in the sense.

Speaker 12 (01:10:37):
Of we put derebl on it. We made sound like
a big song, so they want to put it out.
I looked at it as a setup record.

Speaker 1 (01:10:44):
This is a little street.

Speaker 12 (01:10:44):
It's gonna be the street Red Streets sing and they
read them like, nah, you gotta give me a up Temple,
we gotta maybe you got you gotta do you know,
all the bases of the food group gotta come. This
is our first single moment at l and someone said,
it's a fact at Alien. Throw your hands in the
air like that. Why I ended up being second. It
was supposed to be. It was gonna was gonna go.

(01:11:05):
They was gonna come with that. They had they playing,
they had they roll out playing the same reason why
he wanted Miss Jackson to be the first single on
the other album. But but but since we were in
control and we and in the spirit of hip hop, right,
thanks we New York, now we Atlanta.

Speaker 1 (01:11:21):
Right, I'm saying we powerful a little bit. Fuck it,
We're gonna leak it.

Speaker 5 (01:11:25):
Right, took off, ship took off. Let's go sh it
took off beyond anybody's job. So we took we we
leaked it.

Speaker 8 (01:11:33):
I wonder how y'all leaked it back then? Did you
leak it to a DJ?

Speaker 12 (01:11:35):
Yes, we went straight to Grey Street it yet it
was it was actually make sure it was probably people
like eighty nine point three. It was ninety one on
the college. It was a college stations because back then
we had been schooled in the fact that that's the
only way hip hop is gonna be hurdy. First, mainstream
radio wasn't an option. It wasn't even option. It when

(01:11:56):
something you thought was gonna happen. So at least we
get there. It was just a real to make a
real hip hop community in Atlanta. Outcast was big enough
to where and it was a cool record. We didn't
and we did a remix where we probably took another
one of those good breaks on the Parliament.

Speaker 1 (01:12:12):
Yeah, shifted, man, this is my thing. Way how can
racist think? Have you ever studied?

Speaker 8 (01:12:28):
Has somebody the pictures.

Speaker 1 (01:12:32):
Quest A spots out? It's not listen, it's cool. I
like this ship.

Speaker 3 (01:12:38):
I literally, I'm literally on a producers spread of like
just thirty dweebs who.

Speaker 4 (01:12:44):
Sit and just all we do, just sit in when
I know when I found So Fresh, So Clean, I
was like, get then that's not a sample.

Speaker 1 (01:12:52):
But I know we know that. What what am I?

Speaker 9 (01:12:55):
All right?

Speaker 1 (01:12:55):
All right? The record? We never heard the record? This
is we titles.

Speaker 10 (01:13:06):
I appreciate how the universe worked. Yes, you tune into
the frequency.

Speaker 12 (01:13:11):
On that when we really and truly didn't never like
everything else, I mean on God, we never like like
like that was literally like us producing like my ear.
I mean like like like sleepy I had a road
sleepy playing a melody, he playing a melody, and me
programming a beat that fitted the melody or whatever, and
we actually created a breakbeat, like like we created a

(01:13:34):
break beat. And then years later somebody say, that's a
jazz recordar sounds just like so pressed, So clean. I said,
they wed our ship. But she came out in the
seventies I'm like, wow. But now let me say this.

Speaker 5 (01:13:49):
I never heard the record, but maybe it played when
I was dreaming one night, because I swear to god,
I went to Rico house.

Speaker 1 (01:13:56):
I said, I got this ideal. Man. He's like, well,
I'm like.

Speaker 4 (01:14:06):
I said, I'm just saying I sat down and read
I got a couple like that.

Speaker 11 (01:14:12):
But Barry got a couple like that. But something sounds
like all the time.

Speaker 1 (01:14:17):
It literally happens all the temple. You subconscious, what thing,
what thing?

Speaker 12 (01:14:23):
You can say for a fact, there eighty eight keys,
and I gotta say it felt good to his fingers,
the movement. So that's why. Again that sounds like, but
they ain't stay there though.

Speaker 1 (01:14:39):
It goes.

Speaker 5 (01:14:44):
Sound nothing like that, don't sound nothing.

Speaker 1 (01:14:54):
We're not okay, no no, no, no, we're.

Speaker 3 (01:14:57):
Not even we're not in that whole got the journal,
but we are scientists, and just it means that how
it gets built.

Speaker 1 (01:15:07):
Wait, let me let me just.

Speaker 10 (01:15:11):
What.

Speaker 4 (01:15:12):
I can't wait, that's what they simple.

Speaker 1 (01:15:19):
That was just what they say. Listen to it. Listen
to it, right, but everything else right now, it's not like.

Speaker 12 (01:15:29):
That's just the to me, this whoever it is DJ premiere,
if it's you know, all the great ones. That's why
organized noise is respected and is a part of this
this class of people. You know what I'm saying, because
you spend time. But now they've given they've given the
kids so much technology to what they got the notes
on the board for him, they're showing. So the music
sounds cleaner but very musical, but people don't respect.

Speaker 1 (01:15:51):
It as much. It's not as creative because because.

Speaker 12 (01:15:53):
We have to do a lot more, we have to
like speed things up a little slow it down to
get it into.

Speaker 4 (01:15:59):
Because you only have a little bit of sampling time,
like ten and a half seconds.

Speaker 1 (01:16:03):
Can I ask speed it up to? Yeah? How does
how does your cousin feel about?

Speaker 3 (01:16:11):
Like does he look at you guys like you guys
are like like as Future ever asked, Like, no.

Speaker 1 (01:16:18):
Man, Future, do some sh it on my record? Or
yes he did? He did. He did that and I
hated it because I mean I hated it. I loved it.

Speaker 12 (01:16:24):
I love the thought of doing it, but the fact
that like he wanted to do it because he wanted
the song that sounded like back in the day, and
that's cool, but we.

Speaker 1 (01:16:32):
Want a song that sounds like right now.

Speaker 12 (01:16:34):
So let's evolve, Let's come together and do something that's
not just some old sound and ship but some new
sound and ship with the old, with the with the familion.

Speaker 1 (01:16:41):
Can you'll just do both? Yeah, that's what That's what what.

Speaker 8 (01:16:44):
I what happened anyway?

Speaker 1 (01:16:46):
Right? I mean you are well.

Speaker 12 (01:16:48):
I got a whole I got a whole album on
him anyway, but I want to do wherever I got
him wrapping over everything. Future, I got f man Future.
It's my cousin if I want it, and if we
wanted to, Yeah, futures like like like we wanted to,
we could with what's working for him or whatever. Is Like,
it's maybe not because the song we did, he did
some Andre three thousand, did Somerey three thousand rhyming.

Speaker 1 (01:17:10):
Under whatever, and it was dope. I just think that,
to be honest, it was just it sounds. It was.
It was dope.

Speaker 12 (01:17:16):
But me and Ray had a version that we had
kind of like made it a little more futuristic, and
it was stupid and they and they didn't they didn't
want to use that one.

Speaker 1 (01:17:25):
So I've been mad since.

Speaker 4 (01:17:29):
Yeah, what's up, everybody? This is Fante Fonte The Love
for Quest, Love Supreme. This interview was so meaningful for me,
and I'm sure I can tell whether you listened along
or watching this on YouTube. I was losing my mind
and just geeking out the entire time. We're pausing this
two part discussion here for now, but please make sure
you come back for part two for the quest Love
Supremes Atlanta sit down with the Gods Organized Noise.

Speaker 1 (01:17:51):
We continue to speak about outcasts.

Speaker 4 (01:17:53):
Learn one of the biggest R and B hits began
as a beat for a Dungeon Family MC and also
did a deep dive into summer their best works.

Speaker 1 (01:18:01):
This was This was amazing.

Speaker 4 (01:18:03):
Check it out, Quls Fontello.

Speaker 1 (01:18:05):
Yeah, What's Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. For
more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.