Questlove Supreme: Raphael Saadiq Part 2

This episode of Questlove Supreme is the one you have been waiting for. There are too many words. Just listen to the iconic Raphael Saadiq. Part 2, you're welcome!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio, Ladies and Gentlemen.
As you know, we had an epic conversation with the
one and only former Tony Tony Tony and rape El Sadik.

(00:21):
This episode we continue that conversation with part two. He
talks about more of a solo career, making records, he
talks about score movies, He talks about all the other
artists that he's worked with. Really interesting tippets for your
music heads out there. This is part duo, partdiuh of
Raphael s One Quest Love Supreme. Hope you enjoy it.

Speaker 2 (00:56):
You know how many other random stories do you have
like that?

Speaker 3 (01:00):
Because you just drive me one too, But that's that's
my favorite one.

Speaker 1 (01:02):
Oh my god, Wait a minute, I don't I don't
even want to skip. I gotta ask you something yes
or no. And this is without blowing up your spot.

Speaker 4 (01:12):
I already know where you're going with no.

Speaker 2 (01:14):
No, no, I don't think you know.

Speaker 1 (01:16):
Is the four tops strung out for your love?

Speaker 2 (01:20):
Does that mean anything to you?

Speaker 3 (01:22):
You got me strong out?

Speaker 1 (01:24):
No, it's it's it's it's on the Catfish record nineteen
seventy seven.

Speaker 3 (01:29):
I mean every record means something to me, but not
like that. I don't know. Okay, I'm curious to what
do you think?

Speaker 1 (01:34):
Let me let me let me then ask who who
was who was the creative head behind I couldn't keep
it to myself me all right, I'm just asking.

Speaker 3 (01:46):
No, there there's uh similarities.

Speaker 2 (01:50):
There's yeah, there's.

Speaker 1 (01:50):
There's there's a song on that Catfish record from nineteen
seventy seven that is literally the twin of that and
I was like, oh damn, they made they made the
their version of that song.

Speaker 2 (02:01):
But I mean I.

Speaker 3 (02:02):
Felt like that's I felt like those two core progressions
back and forth was a lot of different.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
Records exactly like anyone.

Speaker 1 (02:09):
Because that's what I'm saying is like a Sam Smith's situation,
like anyone could have picked.

Speaker 3 (02:13):
That song call not that close but right now?

Speaker 1 (02:18):
Which now House of Music for for House of Music?
Was that just your derivative challenge album where it's just like,
I'm gonna do my of this song and that song.

Speaker 3 (02:31):
Man, my whole career is that I know.

Speaker 1 (02:33):
But this this album, did anyone from Navana's camp ever
get at you about Let's get down?

Speaker 3 (02:41):
Because because because to me, I think they got that.
I thought that was from a derivive, a derivative of
alshow get down, get not getting not cool in the game.
But uh, I'm your boogey man. That's what. Yeah, like
they got a song. It sounds like that too. With that,

(03:03):
come on, let's get down. They got a joint like
that too. But the way the way I was singing
that song, I started singing it like it was an
effect on my voice, and then I put an effect
on my I was sunging come on, I start doing that.
But but Casey in the Sunshine Band got a joint.
It's just like that.

Speaker 5 (03:24):
Really a second, I thought you were about to say no.
Their version goes.

Speaker 4 (03:34):
Ding ding ding ding ding ding.

Speaker 3 (03:36):
Right, McDonald's and McDonald's, So for.

Speaker 2 (03:41):
Me, for me, I gotta bring up all right.

Speaker 1 (03:45):
Yes, well, we'll enter some sort of talk of what
they do, but can you please talk about how you
discovered the great Spanky Chalmers Alfred Yeah, sure, man, the guitarist. God, oh,

(04:05):
my mom, it's funny.

Speaker 3 (04:07):
My mom is eighty nine now, and she she had
she has uh, she's lost some of her short term memory.
But one thing she never forgets to say to me
every other day is I showed miss Spankey.

Speaker 4 (04:22):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (04:23):
All the time. Spanky lived with me for a long time,
and so what happened was Spanky growing up in Oakland
and listening to gospel quartet. Spanky was sort of the
king of that, and I didn't know him for years.
I just knew his music. I knew how he played.
And at one point, Uh, the last album was House

(04:45):
and Music, I think the Tony's last album was. And
we had these musicians that everybody thought I needed to
make music. This is when the Tony sort of split up.

Speaker 2 (04:56):
Mm hmm.

Speaker 3 (04:56):
It was like outcast, get my sided the album and
they did their sided album.

Speaker 1 (05:02):
And was there a mutual coach in the middle that
sort of make that happen.

Speaker 3 (05:08):
Yeah, For years, I couldn't really understand what I did,
you know, because there's always two sides to a story,
and sometime you like to point. If you're on one side,
you could point the finger. But I never knew what happened.
So we were getting together and we're going to record together.
We had this house Jerry Brown was gonna record. The
whole thing was we were going to bring the press
all to one house. They're gonna interview us before we

(05:30):
put this album. That was gonna be a part of
the press Humble marketing plan. Then I get a call
and they were like, you record your side by yourself
and we will record our side ourselves. So they took
the guitar player that we had at the time. It
took him. So they was like, well, if he doesn't
have the guitar player, he can't be do what he do.

(05:54):
I don't know whatever. So I get yeah exactly. So
I get home and my mother has a friend named Frankie,
and if somebody at my house said Frankie called you,
I called him back, my mother's friend. This guy was
kind of like my godfather. But he said this, I said,
Frankie said, no, this is Spanky. He says, Spanky. Who's

(06:17):
Spanky Charmers? I said the guitar player, Spanky. I was like,
put something on it. I said, where's your guitar play?
He played the guitar on the phone, And next day
I had him at my house in Sacramento and we
was in sear. I let him leave after a let
it guy. So I got him and we recorded that

(06:40):
album we recorded with you. We recorded with a lot
of different people, and he sort of wanted to teach
me to play, but I just thought it was impossible
to learn how to play that good. So some things
I did learn, I kicked it. I kicked myself every
day for not you know, sitting down with him more
as I should have. But I really want introduce him

(07:00):
to people like yourself and being different people. And he
got a chance to meet people like Pino because he
was so well respected in the gospel. Feel I felt
like his talent would lend himself to so many people.
And I was just, you know, happy to have him
in my life as much as I did. But that's
how I actually met Spanky.

Speaker 4 (07:18):
How old was he? He was an older guy. About
how old was he?

Speaker 3 (07:21):
Yeah, he was the older guy. But this guy could teach.
I mean, for many years, people would knock on my door,
my house, my studio, I'm here for Spanky, Spanky's I
got a guitar lesson with Spanky or even the album
that he played the Voodoo album on. He played his
guitar that my I bought from my uncle for like

(07:43):
three hundred and fifty dollars. Some guys sold him Gibson.
I let Spanky use the guitar. He played it all
over the album and it was my guitar, but when
it was time to give it back, Spanky didn't want
to give it back, so and Spanky kind of fell out.
I was like, Spanky, I just let you use it.
But it's my guitar. It is day. People still come
by my studio and they just want to look at

(08:04):
that guitar.

Speaker 2 (08:05):
You still have that guitar?

Speaker 3 (08:07):
Still got it? Wow, we play.

Speaker 2 (08:11):
You've of course met Sharky, correct.

Speaker 3 (08:14):
I met Sharky a million times. Amazing.

Speaker 4 (08:16):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (08:16):
The story that tells me about Sharky was like he
met Sharky when Sharky was like maybe thirteen, twelve or thirteen,
and it's so weird. It's so weird meeting like and
this is the same for like DJ Harrison, Like there's there's.

Speaker 2 (08:33):
A slew of.

Speaker 1 (08:36):
Gen Z or millennial gen Z you know, born in
eighty eight, eighty nine to ninety that or it's like
seven or eight when the stuff is coming out and
how it affects them, Like there's at least five cats
I know now, four of them who've never met Spanky ever.
And it's it's as if it's like I know, you

(09:00):
know when people say, like, well the spirit of blah
blah blah and them, Like, I fully believe that because
I've never seen such a mythical figure like Spanky and
his story and the legend.

Speaker 2 (09:15):
Of Spanky like now spread out through the industs.

Speaker 1 (09:20):
Yeah, it's just something to believe and like in right now,
Like I don't know if you've been back to Oakland
interf you're still like heavy into it, Like do you
still meet musicians that are like just off kilter like that,
that are like killing that no one will ever know about.

Speaker 2 (09:38):
But like just local cats.

Speaker 3 (09:41):
There's there's a couple I haven't met anybody. I haven't
met anybody like that, but I know there's there's a
few people brewing. You know in every department, you know,
a beat makers, samplers, keyboard players. If you if you
keep your eyes open, this is it's gonna be another one.
But that was that one, right there was a special

(10:03):
one because he was so good. But he was always
keen on making records. You know, if he worked with somebody,
he wanted to give you a part that that can
make a record. Like every time I play you know
what they do when they go Laren playing, Darren Planning,
Blarn Laryn Clarinho, Blannard bla bl blonard. Now I still

(10:25):
on the guitar and I try to learn those parts
now and I pretty much got it. But I'm not
as nice as Spank. You know. Spank is like I
got hard bass fingers. I play really hard, but just
knowing like to put him in one of the greatest
hip hop bands ever. You know, to you guys that
Grace Philly put that on your record.

Speaker 4 (10:44):
When I was.

Speaker 3 (10:44):
Working with you guys in the record, I feel like
I have to do nothing. You got the best, you
gotta you gotta guy to rap in your group that
could rap for sixty ninety months, But I'll stop. You
got you Who's just gonna play a beat that everybody like?
I got Spanky playing guitar. I have to do nothing
but whisper something that was it? So that's him. Wow.

(11:08):
I mean I had. All I had to do was
matching me a drums boom boom boom boom. So people
say you produced that record, I was like, bruh, that's
like being Phil Jackson with Jordan on the team. I
don't know if that's producing. That's called a that's called
a perfect storm in a room with the best people.

Speaker 5 (11:27):
Sometimes less is more and that trust me that helped,
that everything about that should helped. I also like to
know you were the person that also taught me the
one thing that my girlfriend hates, which is abusing my awards.
When I got to your house, your American Music Award
was your doorstop. That's when I was like, well, you know, stop,

(11:55):
so I've used every grammar I ever had, like bathroom,
all that stuff, And you know, is that is that
American Music a Wards still like somewhere in the draft somewhere.

Speaker 3 (12:04):
Probably you know is probably I just said. I just
remember I did this interview and I forgot that that
thing was in the corner man and somewhere, and this
lady wrote, yeah, his American Music Awards was like in
the corner with like dust all over him, like I
just never.

Speaker 1 (12:24):
When we went on that night, I was like, yo, man,
his award was a doorstopper. And I was like, yeah, man,
I want to be that famous one day where I
just don't give a fuck. We're my grad that's woman
do when I get my ship and.

Speaker 2 (12:34):
You know what, a guy first went right on the toilet.
I was like, I'm gonna top of you.

Speaker 3 (12:38):
Fel one of the guys from around your Way to
the famous Tom Bell. I met Tom Bell through his
daughter one time. I was walking down the street and
I'm like, hey, in San Francisco. I said, you look familiar,
he said, I'm not. Before she said, you know, it
sounded like a one liner. She was cute, and she goes, yeah,
I'm Tom Bell's daughter, and I go, Damn. She said,

(13:02):
that's that's what you said last time you met me.
So I said, come to the show. She comes to
the show. We're walking down the street. She put Tom
Bell on the phone. Tom Bell tells me don't worry
about awards, Grammys, any and that stuff. He said, because
when I the I R s come to your house,
they leave those on the mantelpiece.

Speaker 6 (13:23):
Damn, that ain't even real goal.

Speaker 3 (13:25):
And so then one of my then one of my
friends who got a drug case and one of my
good friends, and he wanted me to bail them out.
And so the Bell people came to my house and
they wanted me to sign my They wanted me to
uh sign my house's collateral. So guy I grew up
with and I was like, I'm not putting up my
house collateral. In my head like I'm doing that, even

(13:46):
though I knew he wasn't gonna run, but they was
offering him nine year, nine year deal. They wanted to
cut his locks off. He wasn't doing none of that.
So the lady and her daughter they look up at
my wall and they see all these gold albums. She goes,
what about four those? And I did like this, they
don't mean nothing.

Speaker 4 (14:06):
They don't mean nothing.

Speaker 3 (14:07):
Do I act like a billion dollars? I was like,
are you're acting?

Speaker 6 (14:13):
I love it?

Speaker 3 (14:13):
Okay, maybe I could part which is maybe four for
a little while too. They took those gold albums down
like they was worth a million dollars apiece?

Speaker 6 (14:23):
Are gold albums gold?

Speaker 3 (14:25):
No about? I mean?

Speaker 4 (14:31):
Thank you for Yeah, they're not anyone get question honest question?

Speaker 6 (14:35):
Sorry?

Speaker 3 (14:36):
Wait yeah, Ray, that's hilarious.

Speaker 1 (14:42):
I gotta say that your your your work with with
G one and and DJ Quick definitely felt like was
a marriage made in heaven. I always wanted to know
why you didn't do more with them, or at least
in that period.

Speaker 3 (14:58):
You're good, you really good questions.

Speaker 4 (15:02):
I'm a fan.

Speaker 5 (15:04):
Yeah, I want to ask you about Jaking the fat
Man too. After this that's going.

Speaker 2 (15:07):
Yeah, yeah, but I wanted to know, why do you
want to DJ?

Speaker 1 (15:10):
Quick didn't work with you more, which led you and
I love your work with Jake and fat Man.

Speaker 4 (15:15):
Two.

Speaker 3 (15:16):
What happened was they Jake and the fat Man is just
scratched them. They're just terrible people. Damn ok wow, I
worth talking about. Scept Bobby, the guy who programmed drums,
was like really good. He was more like he was
more like trying to be like a dealer. He I've
always needed drum programmers to to finish what I like

(15:39):
to do, and he was that. But the rest of
it was not even not worth anything talking about. But
back to Quick in g one. The reason why we
didn't do more songs because it was a budget thing
and I wanted to do three songs with him, but
the band kept saying it was too much money. So

(16:00):
every time I would say it was okay, Quick would
come back to me and said, lawyer said it wasn't okay.
So after three times I asked my brother, who's saying
no when I'm saying yes? So we were going to
get about three songs for probably forty five thousand dollars,
which was a deal. Quick Yeah, and Quick was being

(16:20):
really cool with us, and they wouldn't. They were never
okay to budget, So we end up only doing one
which we would have follow up songs, and it was
less get down and pretty much nobody showed up to
the sessions but me. So that was the band, wasn't it.
That was just me and Quick in G One Wow.
And that's why we didn't get more songs. I wanted

(16:43):
three songs, so if we have this record, we'd have
a follow up and a follow up. You know, you're young,
you know, you know knowledge is wasted on the young.
You know, we didn't didn't know, you.

Speaker 1 (16:52):
Know, towards the end of House of Music, did you
know that this is the end of my tenure with
with Tony to.

Speaker 3 (17:06):
Yeah, I was short of the dummy and that in
that one, because I think I went to like the
President was like, yeah, this is my last album, and
I had written more than half the songs. And so
that's a mistake you don't do when you because they
would have promoted the song even more the albums if

(17:26):
I said I was doing the next album right. And
so instead of putting the money into us, they put
into the other little group. They had those little three kids. Uh,
I forget the name of them. Now three little white kids,
little pop group all for whime. They were Brothers now
Nicholas before them.

Speaker 4 (17:47):
Was it was it all? It wasn't. It wasn't.

Speaker 2 (17:50):
Like there's that type of group like t r L
group or.

Speaker 3 (17:54):
Yeah, I saw with a t r S the something
brothers like a hands not a t Yeah, it was Handsen.
So once I came back like, you know, yeah, I
don't think I'm gonna do any more records and solo

(18:16):
record and so what they did, they just made the
money back that they put out on this and and
they can't be moving that move on my part. But
I was definitely, I definitely knew that I didn't know
if I was going to do a solo record. I
was really confused because I really loved being in bands
and so you know.

Speaker 1 (18:37):
Yeah, which leads to the the original Lucy Pearl, which
was supposed to be.

Speaker 2 (18:43):
Delroy Li Rose.

Speaker 7 (18:46):
Yeah, talk about your Uma slash lim Wip Rose slash
like your side groups and the idea of the super
group that sort of.

Speaker 2 (18:59):
I mean, yes, Lucy Pearl got off the ground, but
you know, well the.

Speaker 3 (19:04):
First the first one was gonna be Lambert Rose, but
with Michael Archer and and and Uh and Q Tip.

Speaker 2 (19:12):
Kamar and was in this as well.

Speaker 3 (19:16):
Lamar was part of Lynwald Rose.

Speaker 2 (19:18):
I did that. I did not know.

Speaker 4 (19:20):
Okay, it was.

Speaker 3 (19:21):
Us three, but you know those are my really good friends,
and we're we're very left brain people, right, and we're artists.
And at the time d was hottest, you know, he
was hotter than Fish Crease at this point. So you
know his defense, he couldn't really stop to do that,
you know what I mean, He couldn't stop to do that,

(19:42):
and he wasn't gonna stop to do that, but he
wanted to do it. Chip kind of wanted to do it,
but with all of us being so left brained, it
just it could have never worked, you know what I mean.
I mean, you know the story better than me.

Speaker 4 (19:54):
So speaking the.

Speaker 1 (19:56):
Way before, I forget what exactly did you do on midnight?
Because I asked Bob Power all the time, like Raphael
has credit on Midnight on Midnight on Midnight, Marauders, is
that you on BASSI is that your fuzz line?

Speaker 3 (20:11):
No, that's me on the night is on my mind?

Speaker 2 (20:13):
Yeah? Well the song is called.

Speaker 3 (20:15):
Playing Bass Midnight.

Speaker 5 (20:17):
Oh, that's in Playing Bass okay, okay, right, yeah, I'm
thinking it's the guitar organ.

Speaker 3 (20:26):
My claim to fame is I'm the only R and
B cat on one of the biggest hip hop albums
in the world, like Shut It Down, Drop the Mic.
I don't want to hear it hip hop fans, I
don't want to hear it Living Dreams.

Speaker 1 (20:39):
You came out to play with them, uh the first
Like me and Tarik went to a tried New Year
shill in New York and you came out and played
bass with him.

Speaker 2 (20:48):
We was like, like losing our minds.

Speaker 3 (20:51):
Yeah, I love hip hop is just so I mean,
so it's so bass heavy for me and I just
like when I first heard when I first heard rappers
the light when I was a kid came on the
radio or I was like and it wasn't good times.
I was like what is this. I was like, oh,
it's on, and from there it was all about it

(21:13):
was all about New York hip hop for me. I
just always, I mean, I just always like the Brownstones.
I was in love with Brownstones. I didn't even know
what they were called, you know. I actually like when
I saw roun DMC come to Oakland and they got
off the tour bus and Hurricane and all these jackets
came out with Death Jam. It just looks so New York,
looks so powerful and strong for hip hop. I just

(21:36):
always uh knew it it was. It was a base thing,
and I just always wanted to, you know, beat some bass.
I still want to do a project where I'm playing
bass and it's just basing drums. And I just got
like mcs just like rhyming on an album, just as
why yet, what's that organization, you know, organizing it?

Speaker 1 (22:00):
I feel you How, how when you finally got to
do Instant Vintage, how is that for you? Like to
you know, like, now that you're officially on your own
as a solo artist, was it.

Speaker 2 (22:15):
An easy pivot to do?

Speaker 1 (22:17):
Or you know, because now you don't have I mean,
I'm assuming that there's some level of collaboration between you
and and yeah, the rest of your band that you know,
makes the process easy. But if you're there alone just
making the decisions that that has to be a harder
thing where you're responsible for everything.

Speaker 3 (22:37):
Musically, it wasn't hard at all. What was hard was
the interviews the press because I was used to being
able to if I was tired to break up the
interviews into like two or three. I don't know how
people do the whole solo thing, whereas it's like people
talk to you all day. That that drove me crazylam music.

(23:00):
I could you could leave me in a room. I mean,
I got everything in my room right now, I got
able to hear. I could pull up right now and
write a song right now. I got my mic in here.
I could do that all day. But when you start
getting me like you gotta talk to twenty people, and
I can't go like Dwayne take just take forties, Tim
take three of these. I was confused about that. I

(23:22):
think I gave a call to UH to Mike Mike Archer,
and I said, hey, bro, I said, man, I gotta
give you a couple of props because this is like
a little different, you know, like and you know he
don't really do interviews, he don't do them, you know,
but you know you can't, you know, so I'm I
can't really be that person. It looks like I'm copying

(23:44):
printing somebody. I don't talk to people. I mean, I
really couldn't pull that. No, But yeah, I think that
was the hardest part. And I think performing live. Was
I thought I had it all together and I did
this show in Chicago. I think I was singing this
so called damn. I don't even know the name of
the song. Now go upstairs and change.

Speaker 4 (24:10):
I was singing body the string arrangements on that song too, man,
I love thank you.

Speaker 3 (24:15):
That was that Benjamin Wright, and I think I walked
out and I just uh, I sounded like the sheep
every for the whole song. I was like this, man,
long time, I'm talking about the whole entire song. I'm like,
shake out of it. Shake out. I couldn't do it
until like maybe second in the middle of the second song.

(24:36):
I popped out of it. I said, I didn't even
know I could be that scared. I was really nervous
because when I had my brother on this side, and
Tim and all the guys behind me, it's like you
got a wall of people. You know, it'd be like
you playing with the Roots, and I'm like, just leave
everybody off the stage and you just go play drums
and you go rap a song. It's it's it's gonna
be a little different, even though you know you're about

(24:57):
to get off. That was a little weird, a career.

Speaker 5 (25:03):
I want to ask you about that record too, man,
the record with Calvin Richards and how did y'all hook up?

Speaker 4 (25:08):
He's another excuse me, yeah, excuse.

Speaker 3 (25:10):
Me, yeah, excuse me? Well that song. I wrote that
song for Angie Stone, okay, And so once we were
singing and it was happening, I was like, hey, Angie,
I think I need this for my album. And he
just happened to be hanging out with her that day
and I told both of them. I was like, yeah,
I think I'm taking this one from my album, and
that's how I got on the album, and they were

(25:31):
cool about it.

Speaker 1 (25:32):
Speaking of excuse me, speaking of excuse me, dog, why
did you why did you take the live off the
House of Blues album out of rotation like in streaming.
I can't mind it nowhere only because that version of

(25:53):
excuse me on that record.

Speaker 2 (25:57):
To me, will you guys do the false ending it's.

Speaker 5 (26:00):
Gonna be y'all and then you go back into the song.

Speaker 2 (26:04):
That's my favorite ship.

Speaker 1 (26:05):
I abused, like after I heard that, almost every Root
song does a false ending. Yeah, it goes back to
the that is my favorite thing. I'm just begging you
please put that record.

Speaker 3 (26:18):
Yeah, Yeah, I am. That was in the VARs. That
was that was the first when I That was the
first records that I like that I did independently. So
those two records Ray Ray and that record I'm re
releasing and I'm trying to get Lucy pro album back
right now to h to release them all of my
new my new venture wait.

Speaker 2 (26:39):
For streaming.

Speaker 3 (26:41):
No, it's still available, but it's not not the way
it should be available.

Speaker 4 (26:46):
Trying to bring that thing back under new management.

Speaker 5 (26:51):
About Lucy perl Man, So I've seen, yeah, I've seen,
Like I've heard stories from a lot of people that
were involved Don stuff from your perspective, what was that experience, like.

Speaker 4 (27:04):
What what was the kind of rise fall whatever? How
was that part? Yeah, why did you only do one
one record?

Speaker 3 (27:13):
Well, Don Robinson only she she wanted to do a
solo album before she actually worked with us, and I
think she wanted to do a solo record when she
worked with in Vogue. So I think Sylvia wrong gave
her a deal, Doctor Dre gave her a deal and
none of those worked out. And then she kind of
grew up in Oakland. I think she's from Connecticut, though

(27:33):
from some part of in some part of Connecticut, but
she grew up in Oakland a lot, so I just
thought first we were gonna get We were auditioning girls.
In the first girl we talked to Aamar Braxton, h okay.
So then we were like maybe not. And then we
said so somebody said I should call Don Robinson. It

(27:57):
kind of heard some stories, but I was like, you know,
let's see if she wanted to do it. And she did.
She agreed to do it. We worked with it. I
got my friend may to Uh. She's a female writer
who don knows, she's from Oakland. She sing with a
lot of country singers. She's a great writer, and so
she came on. She came on board and we just
got together. As soon as the record came out we

(28:18):
got to Amsterdam, Don was like, this is my last record,
my last tour. And we were only like three months
into the record, and so she pretty much quit. She
pretty much quit pretty fast. And I mean, if you
follow her thread on YouTube, you'll hear her dogging just
killing me, saying I help her lose her house.

Speaker 6 (28:37):
And yeah, she's not happy.

Speaker 3 (28:39):
I mean, but the grip was all together for three mins,
and your house would have been an escrow. I mean,
all of a sudden, we didn't stay longer. We didn't.
We didn't stay together long enough for somebody to buy
a house or lose a house.

Speaker 6 (28:49):
Yeah, and then came Joy, right.

Speaker 3 (28:53):
And then Joy helped me out and came to finish
the tour for us. We were just finishing the tour off.
Really that was it. But we had a We had
a blast making an album. But when we were doing
the vocals, I pretty much would go to Lemandria and
get drunk and then uh, the other guys will produced
vocals with with her, Doctor Dre said. Doctor d said,

(29:16):
so I want to know this, how did you get
an album done? Basically I went to Leandrea and got
drunk when she did vocals.

Speaker 4 (29:26):
Man, appreciate that's that's hilarious.

Speaker 5 (29:29):
So with Joy, because I love like of your of
your solo records.

Speaker 4 (29:34):
I think maybe Ray Ray might be my favorite. You
know what I'm saying that.

Speaker 3 (29:39):
Record?

Speaker 4 (29:40):
Man, Listen, we was on we was on tour. That's uh.
We was torn.

Speaker 5 (29:44):
I forgot little brother was torn some day where I
can't remember, but we used to run that ship on
the tour bus.

Speaker 4 (29:49):
And Joy's intro like I did a record with Joy
a couple of years ago, she came to the crib.

Speaker 5 (29:54):
We recorded man, listen what you Love, because for me,
save Us is the greatest song of all time. I'm
jacking the ship out that song on the next Roots record, especially.

Speaker 2 (30:11):
Especially now.

Speaker 3 (30:13):
Well yeah, yeah, that's funny. Yeah that that was a
that was gonna be my record to the way I
kind of curated those records were like, when I did Instadvintage,
I was like, this is my introduction Ray Ray, I
was like, I'm just gonna have the most fun I
could ever have. And then when I did the Way
I See It, I did When I did the Way

(30:34):
I See It, I was like, this is gonna tell
everybody how much I was like love the motown in
the sixties. So I just really played dress up on
that record, and I dressed like that for a whole year,
and and I had because that record actually came out
before Amy Amy Winehows came out, and we used to
talk a lot about it, and she came out with
her record and really blew up, which gave me an

(30:56):
open gate to like really taking that record further. But yeah,
that was that was in my records, and yeah, your
little Brother records though, Bro, were just I was like, what,
thank you so much? What record? What records? What record
was it was? It? Was it Little Brother or was
it another group out of Detroit Extreme that did the

(31:21):
the slum that did the spoof of cheating Bob of
the jazz singer that was that was that was spoof too, though, right.

Speaker 5 (31:34):
We did we did like the cheating, the Ron Eisley
or Kelly kind of spoof.

Speaker 4 (31:38):
We did that cheating.

Speaker 5 (31:40):
Yeah, that's all me, okay because rolling Thank you, Bro,
I didn't realize. I didn't realize that you were doing
both voices. I thought the straight was was was always
I thought you and I thought the straight boys guys.
Was I forget your partner this name right now?

Speaker 2 (32:03):
Damn uh.

Speaker 3 (32:05):
Yes?

Speaker 4 (32:06):
Nah? No, hell no.

Speaker 1 (32:10):
Genius because I thought, who's purposely singing like sharp?

Speaker 5 (32:15):
Like there was a whole science behind that thing. No, nah,
that was me that really in the fact.

Speaker 3 (32:22):
Okay, my little brother came on. I was like little Brother.
I was like, I was selling everybody.

Speaker 4 (32:29):
I was like, thank you man, thank you man, And
you have to.

Speaker 3 (32:34):
Sing, Bro, you could sing sing?

Speaker 4 (32:37):
I tried. Yeah, when we did both speaking.

Speaker 6 (32:40):
The last time we were together.

Speaker 3 (32:42):
That's why we were together.

Speaker 6 (32:45):
Was singing.

Speaker 3 (32:46):
Almost feels that he was a little brother because he
was singing so good. I got, I got all, I
got all the way home and was like that was hell.
It was from a little brother that was singing the
hell out of that song.

Speaker 5 (32:59):
Thank you, Bro, I hit you. Afterwards, I hit you.
I was like, Yo, appreciated, but yeah, no, I was.
I love that time man.

Speaker 3 (33:06):
Picnic was like I was like in shock because you know,
I mean because questioning like the way they the way
they just kind of grew and everything. You just sit
back and look at how somebody grow. I'm looking at
these people and I'm looking all like the African artists
on the on the on the actually on the bill
that all the people, the kids in Philly knew. So

(33:27):
I would go to that stage, I would look at
the artists and look at the audience, and when I
was just sitting there like blown away.

Speaker 6 (33:33):
Like wow, yo, you know.

Speaker 8 (33:34):
The highlight of your show for the whole rooth Picnic
was that if you was grown, you was having a
real good time.

Speaker 6 (33:40):
Ross and rothfael Man listen.

Speaker 3 (33:42):
But speaking of that, speaking of that, who is that
dude that was playing the drum machine? Was with his
fingers elliotts Eliot, that's crazy, and then a mirroring them flip.
I like flipping songs. But ever since that day, I've
been trying to flip everything I do that show.

Speaker 1 (34:03):
No, you know, we just wanted to do something different.
It's weird you say that, because like I was trying
to figure out, like, okay, now that we've turned into Earth, like,
you know, the Roots started out as a threesome, as
a foursome. You know, we just when we meet interesting characters,
it's just like, all right, join the band, join the band.

Speaker 2 (34:22):
Oh you play two, but join the band. Joined the band.

Speaker 1 (34:25):
I was actually having like a Graham Central Station moment,
and I was like, yo, be really dope if we
had somebody that played the role of Chocolate. You mentioned
Chocolate earlier, Larry Graham's former girlfriend that was playing the
drum machine back in the day, and I was like,
I want something. And we just happened to look on
YouTube one day at the time, we you know, Jeremy

(34:48):
Ellis and Strow were two dudes that just played you know, instruments.
It's like we still don't know what to call and
we just say Strow, Elliott on the beatbox. But it's
it's it's it's a new there's a whole new generation
of cats that like that are redefining what musicianship is.

Speaker 4 (35:09):
You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 6 (35:10):
The race been doing that for years.

Speaker 2 (35:12):
We do that.

Speaker 8 (35:17):
Wait, American, you're gonna go off a ray ray because
I just wanted to ask Rafael about an unsung singer
that needs to be sung, Tdra Moses.

Speaker 6 (35:23):
Can you just talk about her for a second, Yes, please.

Speaker 3 (35:28):
Tidra is my is a weapon man, people. She just
she started a little later in her career. You know,
she had twin boys when she was younger, and she
had to take care of boys. But like she so Tdra,
I wrote that I had had this on my label
and I signed Truth Hurts and I had Yeah, so

(35:51):
I put truth that record that Tdra singing take Me
was for Truth Hurts. Yeah me too, That's what I said.
After She's so she she so, teacher was singing a
song in the studio and I'm looking at teaser. You know,
teacher got these beautiful legs too, right, So the body

(36:11):
and her body is like yeah, So I'm sitting there
She's singing take Me, and I'm sitting there like yeah
in a way too. Her singing this song but is
like her pen is crazy. Her vocal rangers is crazy.
If anybody, I say, if anybody wants somebody. She even

(36:32):
wrote that song I Want You back on the Yeah yeah.
So I took the melodies from her for those records,
and she just always somebody that I really like to
work with. If I was ever in the doing a
duets album, which I don't think I really am, you know,
but she would be the person.

Speaker 5 (36:48):
Wow, that's man, man. She was my crush back in
the day man and people. Man, could you could you
have ever had guessed like how big of a song
that Scott can you feel Me?

Speaker 4 (37:05):
Was?

Speaker 3 (37:09):
So there was the night that a Leah passed passed
away when I wrote it. I wrote this. I wrote
this song with Aliyah in mind. Everybody was calling me
and I thought my friend was in the plane too
for Tima Robinson. So I was in this kind of
different mood and and I and had Ray Murray with

(37:31):
me from Organized Noise, Organized Noise Yeah, so Ray programmed
programmed the drums on that and uh Ray also titled
my album Instant Vintage. I just remember him making the
beat and I just started playing those chords on the
piano HM and after that we started writing it. It

(37:51):
was just a song on the record. And this guy
UH from London and one of the biggest DJs ever,
JOHNS Peterson, he knew somebody. They took the record, they
remixed it, and I saw the record that amba and
it said Sky Can you Feel Me? Remixed? But it

(38:11):
was for sale and I'm like, what is this? And
it was extended and it was long, and I bought it.
I listened to it. It was a look yeah, you
know that happened. And I finally met the guys like
fifteen fifteen years later. I met him like on my
last tour and they were all talking about it. And

(38:33):
I would go places and I would play that song
and people would just like go. It was almost like
the guy of that that movie. He he was like
really big in Africa and he didn't he didn't know
it hin. That's how Sky was for me. I would
go somewhere and I'll be due and people start like
I was playing like what I had so I had

(38:57):
not I had not a clue and I usually I
usually can my show with that song.

Speaker 4 (39:02):
Yes, nah, I love that song.

Speaker 6 (39:04):
The version that here is the version that we know recognized.
Which version is it?

Speaker 3 (39:09):
Well, the version on the album is the one that
you hear, but there's a version this so long.

Speaker 2 (39:14):
Yeah, they just extended the strings.

Speaker 3 (39:15):
And yeah, they just extended the strings.

Speaker 5 (39:18):
I want to with jam who who did that? The
yam who edited I wanted edited when I was too Yeah,
I think he did editor. Make me hot, said brother.

Speaker 2 (39:26):
Oh he did that nice?

Speaker 1 (39:29):
Okay, Yeah, Ray Giles did the same thing for us,
like back when our first record was just like some
local thing. He took our record and pressed it up
and just started playing it like he he he was
the John Peel.

Speaker 6 (39:44):
But they sell it because that's a whole nother thing,
Like what's with that? You can't just be.

Speaker 1 (39:49):
Don't just make copies of it. I don't think he
personally sold it like he just made. He was just
making something for it, be like me making an edit
so I can DJ that night, that sort of thing.
I get that, you know, because he needed four hours
of content for his radio show. Yeah, man, you know
that feel was damn near almost like a hidden cutter
like bird on side to And I always wanted to know,

(40:10):
like why wasn't that ship a single like hmm this guy.

Speaker 2 (40:17):
Yes, I mean.

Speaker 3 (40:18):
People, I just feel like but after after after it
never ranged an anniversary. We were just floating. It's like whatever,
whatever fell, unless you were a music connoisseur. We were,
we were. We were just floating. So that I'm I'm
still floating. I mean, that's what I've been, just floating, floating, floating.
If I didn't love music, man, i'd have been done

(40:40):
after it never rained.

Speaker 6 (40:44):
Those romantic words come from those ways of saying things
like where does that come from?

Speaker 8 (40:49):
Is that like relationships? Or is that just this is
what I feel like? Where does that come from?

Speaker 3 (40:53):
It's just what I feel. It's just it's just I
just I just say the things that the guys want
to say that they can't say. But that's why I
see people just. I remember I went to a show
like the West Coast Hip Hop Show, Old school hip
Hop show, and it was at Universal before they tore
tore down the Gibson Theater. And in the back it
looked like it looked like the yard. It looked just

(41:15):
like Chris Blood just and when I walked through the yard,
every every gangster was like, no Ah, this song and
this song means this to me at the end of
the day, at the end of the night, when you're
trying to be hard at bricks, at the end of
the night, you probably trying to lay down with something.

(41:35):
You know. We grew up with the Isley Brothers and
we grew up with Ron and you know, like in
my biggest you know, del Phonic, Christ's and Philly group, right, yes,
and those are some of my favorite groups. And Delphinance
was the coldest group because they was talking about leaving
girls and girls was in love with him. They was like,
did not blow your mind this time? Did not? My

(41:58):
older brother said, you didn't want to take your girl
to a del Phonic show because even though they was
like you I thought this, I thought this, this harder
was true. Girl, now did not think it? Baby, but
this time I'm really leaving you. But every girl wanted
to see him. So I think for me it was
always if you could like make them passionate songs. But honestly,

(42:19):
I want to blow it for girls. But I was
really in love with the music. The words that I
put on top I just felt like the words that
go on top of the song, I think this some ship.

Speaker 6 (42:32):
This is all the songwriters. You this is what are
we learning? It's okay, all right, let's.

Speaker 1 (42:37):
Just rap it fire because let's rap it fire because
you work with too many people between D'Angelo and Total
and Solange and yes, uh, Erica, you want to gram
me with Loving My Life Mary J.

Speaker 5 (42:52):
Blige, Yeah, yeah, yeah, I want to yo Peace of Mind,
the little Backing and Faith record. Man, how'd that come about?

Speaker 3 (43:01):
I love that science, But I've been a little dragon
before they really got hot in the States. So when
they started over, when they started coming over, because they
were on my record, one of my records, I just you.

Speaker 4 (43:13):
Know, yeah she was on Stone Rolling. She was on
Stone Rolling, right.

Speaker 3 (43:18):
He was on that album. Yeah, she was on that record.
Yeah she was on that record with the name of
the record. But you know, I mean, I just I'm
a utility guy. Quest It's like, I just feel like,
if if there's somebody who wants me to, you know,
to work with him, and they feel like I could
bring something to the project, and then that's that's kind
of what I what I do. I just worked with
Kanye on Donda and and I'm on the record, but

(43:41):
nobody knows I'm on the record. It's almost like one
of those tribe things ever record, Just.

Speaker 8 (43:45):
Tell me the track so I can skip to it,
because I just I couldn't do what it's going to it.

Speaker 3 (43:48):
I'm not I'm not really on it. I'm just singing
like something at the very end of I think it's
called pure soul and funny out. Everybody was like talking
about like he took me off the record. I just
I ever seen people get mad because it wasn't on
somebody's record, right, but the check Still, it's a new generation,
like our general. We come from a generation that following

(44:08):
what's a big word, right, you know, now following the
leading word. But but I just think I work with
a lot of people. But I tell my nephew, who's
an amazing producer, piano play, guitar player, like just be
a utility guy, a person that don't mind showing up
to work with somebody that's really good man, you know,

(44:29):
you know for me, and that's what it is for me.
I just like, if if you, if you, if I
see you and you're like, yo, I'm in the studio tonight,
bring your base. I'm coming. I'm showing up. I don't
know what you're doing. And I don't care. I know
it's you and when I leave, if it come out,
who if you don't. I had an experience and I learned,
like I learned from working with different people. So I'm

(44:50):
working with Snoop a lot too, And and it's like
but it's so many different people that come through. There's
like great producers, new musicians, new people. You see people
running different programs. Like when I came to your show,
I spend more time looking at that kid. That dude
was making the beats. I was like glued on this dude.
When I left, I was like, I've just seen all

(45:12):
these lights on these drum machines. I'm like, to me,
that's what the music is about. Like who can I
learn from? Like you? I played drums on records. I
mimic you on drums. It never sound like you because
I'm not you, But people like the beats like I don't.
I don't program good drums, but I play if my
drum set could sound, I got a drum set that

(45:33):
finally sounds like SP twelve. It's it's your drum set.
That one of the drum sets that you one of
your drum sets that one of my friends who was
an artist. He took your drum set and he painted
it to look like my guitar. So it was in
my room for like a year. My engineer took it
out and he man, he set it up. That drum

(45:57):
is the best drum set sound had.

Speaker 2 (46:00):
You want to know why? I told them.

Speaker 1 (46:03):
See, they wanted to like, you know, we got these
uh we got to connect in Japan and we're gonna
use the hollowwood of this particular forest and blah blah blah.
And I was like, nah, I said, what what do
y'all use for? Like them cheap high school sets? And
they're like, oh, you don't want that, quess you want
these uh hollow trees and da da da da da.

(46:23):
And I was like, no, I want I want the throwaway,
trashy shit that y'all hate. And I was trying to
tell them that like the breakbeats we grew up on
was done on the cheapest Yeah, yeah, like a serious
drum set, that sort of thing, and they they were
they try to talk me out of it, and I said,
and I want you to sell it cheap too, because
you know, they're like, our bottom line is if we

(46:45):
sell a drum set for two hundred bucks.

Speaker 2 (46:46):
Then we can't sell this one for four thousand.

Speaker 1 (46:48):
I was like, no, it's going to be like a
drug deal, Like you're gonna give them a taste and
get them at hooked. Like you get a kid, a five,
a six year old a drum set for two hundred
bucks and it sounds dope.

Speaker 2 (47:00):
Then when they turned thirteen fourty, they're gonna be drummers.
And I need, I need, I need.

Speaker 3 (47:05):
I needed a couple of those in my life. I got.

Speaker 2 (47:07):
I'll give it to you.

Speaker 1 (47:08):
I mean, because I'm trying to get rid of these boxes,
and my girlfriend will gladly welcome that request to make
less space in the house I have I can't give.

Speaker 3 (47:17):
We played, I played those drums, and I went back
into the control booth.

Speaker 2 (47:22):
I was like, what sound like break beats?

Speaker 3 (47:25):
Yes, like break beats when I've been chasing my whole life.

Speaker 2 (47:28):
All right, working with Total?

Speaker 4 (47:31):
Yes, you gave them some jams the whole days. M Yes,
they go one.

Speaker 1 (47:41):
I want to know how taxing was the process to
produce total, But more than that, like how easy was
it as far as puff breathing down your neck for.

Speaker 2 (47:53):
Magic? And you gave them really.

Speaker 3 (47:56):
Kind of two hits. This is funny. So I didn't
really want to do it, ye think, because I didn't
know what I could I didn't know what I could do,
you know what I mean, Like you got to know
if you could pull it off. So Joscelyn Cooper at
the time wasn't published for a midnight music and so

(48:17):
she was telling me Puff was looking for me. So
I was basically running from Puff. I was like, I
was not answering the phone and nothing. So Joscelyn called
me like, hey, Ray, I got Puff on the phone.

Speaker 2 (48:34):
Put you on the spot, right.

Speaker 3 (48:37):
And so so this is even a funny part. This
what Puff says. You gotta love Puff of this Buff say, man,
I really think you could do something with this group man,
like right down your alley, Like they not really singers,
they something like you.

Speaker 4 (48:57):
That's sick.

Speaker 3 (49:00):
I was like, I was like this, okay, I mean
I never said I was Luther. Definitely, you know, I
seen to make it work. But what do you mean
is like I make things work? And so when he
said that once he got me on the phone. When
they came out, that girl Pam right, she has so

(49:20):
much swagging attitude, and I think they thought they were
so much under the gun. They sung with so much
personality that it was just flying off the tape, you
know what I mean? They sung the tape that.

Speaker 6 (49:34):
Pamc were her sunglasses one like.

Speaker 3 (49:36):
Oh yeah, Pam is like she's like you know she
just like I wouldn't know Pam if she walked in
my house right now? You actually being up being really
a fun project and like I said, I have Bonnie
Boy Yeah actually vocal coaching them too.

Speaker 4 (49:56):
Oh kissing you Jam? I love that song?

Speaker 6 (50:01):
What's the other one?

Speaker 4 (50:02):
Do they think about us?

Speaker 3 (50:03):
What do you think about us? Now?

Speaker 8 (50:06):
I was going to ask a music supervision scoring composing situation.
It seems like whenever you jumped into the game that
you were really selective. I thought that like Insecure was
your first, but like you even did Underground, which is
impressive because you.

Speaker 6 (50:22):
Talk about like why you went that way and do
are you selective? And how you because I mean love
Craft like.

Speaker 1 (50:29):
It's Laura your your official partner when you do TV scoring.

Speaker 3 (50:33):
Sometimes yeah, sometimes we do a lot of projects together.
She do a lot on her own. I know she
did some stuff with you guys too. She had a
bigger picture of the in studio you work with.

Speaker 5 (50:43):
You actually worked with a good friend of mine before,
my buddy man Deshaun Daniel Crawford, and that's my man.

Speaker 4 (50:52):
Yeah, that's that's yeah.

Speaker 3 (50:53):
Yeah, damn, you're playing in my band. Yeah, that's one
of my piano teachers. All my friends were my that
played keyboards on my piano teachers. I'm playing piano like
as good as I can a lot.

Speaker 2 (51:06):
But indeed, Daniel Crawford that makes the remixes and all
that stuff.

Speaker 4 (51:09):
Yeah yeah, yeah, wait, you do.

Speaker 2 (51:11):
Know that Daniel also can do what Stroe does, right.

Speaker 3 (51:15):
You know what? I have seen it. I've seen it,
but he he kind of sneaks and does it around me.
He don't do it like I've seen him. I've seen
him do it before, and I was like, no, this
is what he does. He goes like, I'm like, who's
the drummer. He's like, oh, that's me. I was just
like this and then and then it goes away. But
when I saw your guy do it, it was like
a whole.

Speaker 2 (51:36):
Daniels in that first generation. I couldn't get him.

Speaker 1 (51:38):
So then there's like who else, ohtro and but Daniel
was like one of the first guys I saw like
play drums and keys at the same time.

Speaker 3 (51:50):
Laura's my partner on a lot of stuff. We did
love Craft, we did Underground, we did a couple other
little little flicks, and I was really just getting you know,
just getting my feet you get my feet in and
Laura went to She's a great she's like a professor
at the school. So it was kind of good, great
going up being with her because I was learning from
her all at the same time. You know, like like

(52:11):
I said, I like, I'm like a sponge. I like
to be around people I could learn from.

Speaker 6 (52:14):
With Laura's role just for us law apartment.

Speaker 3 (52:16):
She's a stream composer, okay, because.

Speaker 1 (52:19):
She like she just you know, she pulled she pulled
me into the academy. Okay, yeah, like she she got power,
you know.

Speaker 3 (52:26):
Yeah, and yeah, she's really good. And I'm I'm I mean,
you can't really be selective in that business, you know,
if you want to get in real but at a
certain point you can. I just happen to be able
to I just happen to get some great phone calls.

Speaker 6 (52:42):
So tell me about the Lovecraft phone call and the
Underground phone call.

Speaker 3 (52:46):
Just because well, Misha Green is she did, Sha Green
did Underground.

Speaker 6 (52:51):
And love Craft right.

Speaker 3 (52:52):
So it's like when you're on the team, if they
think you could handle it, they call you. And they
called us as a team and he jumped right on
it and Cure I was working with salone and.

Speaker 6 (53:03):
She said, you did all the work. I think us
that she was.

Speaker 3 (53:09):
So long just funny because when I was doing Insecure,
I would be working on the song and Solans be like, oh,
that's for my album and she was just taking and
I'm be like, yo, but I think it's in the
show now, be kind of gone. So I just been
you know, just you know, I just felt like with music,
you just have to be able to you know. I'm
sure you guys all experienced that with radio, being in radio,

(53:31):
whatever we're in, we all have to diversify and do
different things. Honey. I just felt like in music, we
all have the knucklehead status of he's a musician, he
can't be on time, he can't do this, and I
kind of want to get rid of that before somebody
started believing that I was that person. And then film
and television, if they need a pink elephant on Sunday,
you have to deliver it.

Speaker 4 (53:52):
You deliver it.

Speaker 3 (53:53):
That's why I have my setup right here in this room.
I just pull it out, bloom bloom and just start working.
So and I start to really enjoy it now. Actually
I didn't enjoy it at first. I was just trying
to be a part of it because you know, I
liked watching like Donnie Hathaway used to score. He scored
this film Blues.

Speaker 1 (54:18):
Okay, so you've worked with a lot of your heroes
like earth Wind and Fire. I know you worked with
the Beg's. I think, uh ship it was earth Winding
Fire the Beg's. I forget uh Whitney Well when, yeah,
you worked with Whitney Houston. Is there a classic artist
that you almost to work with that that it didn't

(54:41):
go down?

Speaker 3 (54:42):
Yeah? Man, Eddie Kendricks.

Speaker 4 (54:45):
Wow are you serious?

Speaker 2 (54:47):
Wow?

Speaker 3 (54:48):
Yeah yeah, we we was. But I did this song
called that song called Leavin.

Speaker 4 (54:54):
Yeah, yeah, he was going to sing that song with me.

Speaker 3 (54:58):
Oh wow, don't hear that part going? No no no, no,
no no no no so going. So when I sing
that one part, it sounded like the ghost of Eddie
Kendrick because it don't sound like me when I do
that one part, I'm like when I heard it back,
I'm like, that's not me. That feels like just like
it's him on that one part. Yeah, Eddie Kendrick is uh,

(55:23):
because my older brother Randy, he he's like Eddie Kendricks
and that's that's his favorite, and that's one of my favorite.

Speaker 2 (55:31):
I know you did someone on one of those Linel
Richie records.

Speaker 5 (55:34):
What was it like?

Speaker 3 (55:35):
I did? See? I first toured with Sheila after the
Under the Trade Moon tour. She opened the line on
that was it wasn't outrage it was dancing on the
cylind tour after Outrageous.

Speaker 4 (55:50):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (55:52):
Yeah, So I toured with Lionel, so we call him
Lionel B. So we were always pretty much closer. I
did this one song on Lionel, but Linel was it.
Linos like us. Lionel is a great storyteller. He'll tell you.
He's like, if you don't have any stories, then you
can't talk to me. You need you need stories, he said,

(56:15):
who wants to work with an a n R guy
or an artist a person that doesn't have any stories?
But you know we have stories because we tour with
different people and you know, me touring with n W
A and hanging out with ice Cube every day, you know,
and ice cream telling me stuff like you know, I
want to make movies. I'm don't make movies. And then
to watch him make next you know, next Friday. I'm like,

(56:37):
I heard him say that early in his career. Then
watch him do it.

Speaker 2 (56:41):
Did you go to those n w A pool parties?

Speaker 3 (56:45):
Damn? I went? I went. I went to I went
to the UH to the uh the water gun parties
when everybody just run around the hotels, like the cheap
Motel six is like firing off water guns and and
all that stuff. Million ah.

Speaker 4 (57:01):
Man, it wasn't a movie, Okay.

Speaker 5 (57:04):
I wanted to ask you man you had a record
because I was thinking about your you were talking about
your scoring career and like stuff with Insecure and everything.

Speaker 4 (57:11):
It's a record you just dropped. I think it was
last year, maybe your full last uh. But is it good?
It's good to you, It's good to me? Bro, Like
what's the word on it? I love that song?

Speaker 3 (57:22):
Man, Like, yeah, well that's like that's that was a
one of the songs I put in Insecure, and I
was it was like, you know, it's very you know
those songs when you put them on the score they're
very low. So he heard it and she said, can
you go back and make a song to that? So
then I just went back in and I just put
a verse on it because at first it was just

(57:42):
saying is it good to you? Good to me? And
I did that, and like because during the pandemic, I
moved to Portland, Orgon. Oh wow, why Portland because I
caught COVID and I was like, I'm not going to
be in dusty ass l A.

Speaker 2 (57:57):
We all right over here, but in Portland, Oregon. Yeah,
I'm ruined my old time favorite city.

Speaker 3 (58:04):
So you know, yeah, yeah, yeah, I know people tell
me that. You know, I see all the venues you play.
My best friend is Brian Grant. He just played for
the Trouble. So I've been going out there for years.
So I got a place out there so I can
hike and it's just nothing but trees. So you're just
walking through this trees getting all this oxygen. And and
like in a month, I got my spell on my

(58:25):
taste back and I just got back to LA. I
just got a place there besides my studio. I was
staying in my studio like stity there like for like
three months, three months ago. I've been in Portland the
whole time.

Speaker 4 (58:37):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (58:38):
And I found a nice studio to record that. Bro,
I found studios. It's inexpensive to record that. It's a
lot of musicians out there that's untapped and nobody know
about I don't.

Speaker 2 (58:50):
Yeah, I'm trying to tell the world Portland is where
it's at.

Speaker 3 (58:54):
They don't you Every morning, Bro, I got I got
a nineteen eighty five Vovo wagon. Bro, y'all do.

Speaker 4 (59:03):
You see it.

Speaker 1 (59:04):
I'm not far behind you when I get my money, right, yo,
I'm getting me a spot important.

Speaker 3 (59:09):
Oh telling me everyone?

Speaker 6 (59:10):
Hey, Raphael on the side, note, what made you lock
your hair?

Speaker 3 (59:14):
I was already curious, uh Donald Trump?

Speaker 4 (59:18):
Word?

Speaker 3 (59:20):
Yeah. What happened was I was watching the news earlier
on he was talking to him. I was like, this
ship sounds crazy, and I was just like I was
watching the news, and before I knew it, my whole
head was twisted.

Speaker 5 (59:36):
Anxiety about You took the word about anxiety.

Speaker 2 (59:40):
Twist anxiety.

Speaker 5 (59:42):
Yeah, wait a minute, ship, you twisted watching the news
going like, wait a minute.

Speaker 2 (59:50):
I got turned the white light to him. You're right,
you're absent.

Speaker 6 (59:54):
That's when you started to a mirror in the pandemic.

Speaker 3 (59:57):
I was.

Speaker 2 (59:58):
I don't know why.

Speaker 3 (59:59):
I just when you look at my album, my last
album cover of Jimmy Lee, yes it looks like my
hair is short, but there's little, tiny, tiny balls on
my hair. That's that's how short it was when I
was twisting my scalp watching them then or you knew

(01:00:19):
what I was growing up, That's what happened.

Speaker 2 (01:00:21):
Anxiety.

Speaker 6 (01:00:22):
That is what is the thing that Donald Trump did?

Speaker 5 (01:00:25):
Thank you?

Speaker 3 (01:00:27):
Yeah, that's great. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:00:29):
Is there anything that you've not done that you wish
to do?

Speaker 3 (01:00:36):
I want to, I want I want to. I really
want to live in Europe for a minute. I've been.
I just I just I don't know really where I
want to live. I kind of want to go somewhere.
And I kind of want to make a record with
a symphony, but not a not a large symphony with
like So when I listened to the Dell Finals, always
felt like they had a drummer like you, they had

(01:00:59):
a bass player that was like good as hell, but
they had an orchestra that was right by the book.
So I've always wanted to make that record, but not
the big, big giant, just like you know, something that
you can't ever imagine having on the tour, but just
something like that would have. But just I always wanted

(01:01:20):
to make that record when I can. I sort of
did it with when I had Spanky and people where
I could just I could write on the spot, I
could just sing parts to people and we make the
record that way. I mean, like without just sitting back
and writing, kind of sit back and play and then
go okay, you do this, you do this, you do this,
and then go write the words and have people kind

(01:01:42):
of want to do that because I think we're living
in this experimental phase where nobody really understands streaming or
how are we making money or any of that, and
you know, we're so happy about making pennies and people
were all about, like you know, people holding up gold
albums talking about they streamed a million, goes a million plaque.
Is this It's really confusing right now to me. So

(01:02:05):
I just think the only thing we have left is, uh,
it's it's creativity. I think we should be at the
top of creativity and and not don't worry about what
everybody else is doing and don't knock any younger kids
or anything like that, but you know, like yourself just
bringing light with that. You know, I don't know feel
if you notice, but like that documentary of that that

(01:02:28):
guy that hosted so that guy and listen to him
and his struggle to get that thing to fly and
it still didn't come out. But all of those people
until now we might as well just kind of just create.
And so I think for me, I just want to
just you know, create. I kind of want to take
out a tour where I'm like, it's just me. I'm

(01:02:49):
working on a tour call to recital, whereas it's me
just playing piano and and base and telling my stories
now because the reason why it's cart recite it was
because I can't play the piano that good. I just
can't play good enough to like for my songs and
and make mistakes. So I'll be making mistakes, but most
of them be me talking about my career, like this

(01:03:10):
interview that we're doing like a woman, Yeah you know
what I mean. Always wanted to tour like a comedian
with it, like with a chair in the glass and
so Warden bring all the money home.

Speaker 6 (01:03:23):
There you go going on versus.

Speaker 3 (01:03:26):
I'm just a versus who would you?

Speaker 4 (01:03:30):
Who would you go against? The verses.

Speaker 3 (01:03:33):
They had me going against D'Angelo, right, I was supposed
to do that.

Speaker 6 (01:03:36):
The only one that did the show that wasn't even
a versus loved him, but that wasn't no versus.

Speaker 3 (01:03:41):
But I didn't. I didn't do it because it was
supposed to be. They wanted to be Maxwell Maxwell. It
was supposed to be basketballing him.

Speaker 4 (01:03:50):
Right.

Speaker 3 (01:03:50):
He didn't want to do it, But I don't. I
don't know. I don't know. I like Versus for it's
a fund as entertain but who could I love it?

Speaker 6 (01:03:57):
Who could sell?

Speaker 1 (01:03:59):
If you're if your legacy were more tighter with the Tonys.
I would have loved to see a live Tony condition MA.

Speaker 3 (01:04:09):
Condition, would Chris? Every time Chris Webber sees me, he
loves MA condition. He's like, yeah, buddy, I'm get you
on the stage of condition and see what you do.
Chris Webber loves MA conditions, so he's always trying to
put stokely against me my boy though Chris is my boy,

(01:04:30):
but no, honestly, but stokely by.

Speaker 6 (01:04:35):
So you can say condition in the Stokely records and
Tony records.

Speaker 3 (01:04:40):
Stokely is like I tell people, Stokely sing circles around
any and then Stokely, the kind of person you'll be
like in France and somebody be like, hey, Stokely's down
the street doing a fusion gig.

Speaker 2 (01:04:53):
On drums, right, exactly right, And then he's.

Speaker 3 (01:04:56):
Like stokely Carl Michael So his dad was a black
college professor. He like this intellect and everything. I'll be
like every time I talk to Mit, Hey, secret smart guy.

Speaker 4 (01:05:08):
Oh.

Speaker 5 (01:05:08):
I was gonna ask just about the with you know,
with the Tony's, you know, with you guys breaking up,
but you know y'all actually family.

Speaker 4 (01:05:15):
How does that play in your family dynamic?

Speaker 3 (01:05:19):
Like?

Speaker 4 (01:05:20):
Is it Thanksgiving? Is it cool? Is it smoke?

Speaker 3 (01:05:21):
Like?

Speaker 4 (01:05:22):
How do y'all handle each other in real life?

Speaker 3 (01:05:25):
Man? Our traditional Thanksgiving has been over for so long.
I don't even think families have traditional Thanksgiving anymore. Indigenous people, Yeah,
I think for us, my father always come on to
see us get together and do something. And I think
what we're gonna do is we're gonna get together be
Dowayne and Tim because you know, we're pretty much a

(01:05:45):
group in the beginning that wasn't really R and B
were more like the Black police. And we're gonna get
together and do like a kind of like a farewell,
like thank you to be We're gonna do that. I
was at Dwayne last night. If you if you look
on his Facebook, Dwayne can't go anywhere and let's get down.

(01:06:11):
If you see Dwayne, he's gonna be singing whatever you
want or let's get down, are singing, Hey, Hey, the
blues is all right. Dwayne is like an old man
just running around singing like the same song.

Speaker 6 (01:06:23):
He had a dope single they haven't remember he had.

Speaker 3 (01:06:26):
Yeah, I'm just saying, Dwayne, he's not gonna miss the performance.
So last night I was in San Francisco before I
got to New York. We're sitting in this club called
Black Black Cat. These guys up there killing it. I mean,
I mean killing everything. We're sitting in the audience with
the mayor of San Francisco, and this is this young
lady and it's her friends. And at the end of

(01:06:46):
the night, Dwayne grabs the guitar to from this guy
from uh the Nationals and the piano player and start
playing let's get down and get on the mic? Is
it not like to call my brother? So then we're
doing two. I'm embarrassed because we're doing two verses of
Let's get down after these dudes was up Player playing
Cold Train and I'm like, come on, Wayne, But I

(01:07:09):
guess that's my introduction of like of telling people that
we are about to get together and and do our
farewell and like, you know, thank for people, thank people
for it's support, and we and we're actually gonna do
like we're gonna do instruments. We're gonna put out four
four songs, and it's it's gonna be instrumental record, just

(01:07:30):
instrumentals almost like you know, Summer Madness and break stuff
like that. And then because we never performed the last
album House Music anyway, we're gonna get together and learn
that album and then give people like three new instrumentals,
three four instrumental songs. That's the plan. And this is
the first place I said it, but this is.

Speaker 4 (01:07:55):
Yeah, man, I would love to see y'all do Wild
Child live.

Speaker 3 (01:08:00):
Man was yeah, Yeah, that's that's that was our thing.
Even when we did that record, that's the record, when
they said let's you do your side of the record
and I do mine. Even though I did that record,
I went back and god doing He said, hey, bro,
you got to sing them on this part of the record.
He was like, of course, But I found out the
reason why he didn't reacuse, this is the funny thing.

(01:08:22):
You're gonna You're gonna dig this because I was always
trying to figure out, like what did I do with
these guys. You know that they didn't want to record
a record with me because my dad came over. He
was like where everybody else? I said, I didn't want
to break his heart. And my dad passed away about
five years ago, and I said, uh, I don't know, Dad.
They just decided they wanted to record their side of

(01:08:43):
the record on their own. So he was he said,
are you gonna be all right? So I just have
to make my dad feel good, I said, you know,
because he thought I was on my own. And I
used to say, like Muhammad Ali refords too. I'm like Dad,
I'm like, I'm like Ali. I felt like a butterfly thing,
like a beam. And my dad he starts smiling when
I say that, because I just want to make him
feel But honestly, I didn't know what the hell I
was gonna do, but I figured it out, and so

(01:09:08):
I asked Tim, I said, so, man, what did I
do to you? Man? Like what did I do? Like,
I don't I don't really understand, like I understand what
I what y'all did to me. I understill did it
to me. It was just like, you know, we just
had regular band issues when you don't have enough money.
Every black band don't have enough money. The problem is
money most.

Speaker 4 (01:09:28):
Of the time.

Speaker 3 (01:09:29):
So what happened was I figured it out because they
never told me. Every time we did an album, when
you heard strings on the album, they cost forty thousand
dollars twenty five thirty thousand dollars a song. Okay, so
that's me. I would spend all the money in the

(01:09:50):
production I took. I put the money on in the film,
you know. And so they didn't want to record me
because they was like, he gonna spend all all the money.
I got it, but they never told me. I just
figured it out.

Speaker 1 (01:10:08):
You need to watch Metallica some kind of Monster, and
I want y'all that for y'all because you'll be you'll
be really shocked on how the smallest issue can cause
the biggest problems in a group. And then when the hindsight,
when you talk about it, it'll be like you remember

(01:10:29):
that time you stole my rich Crackers and said that
you didn't, and I saw it in your bag.

Speaker 2 (01:10:35):
That's why I talked to you.

Speaker 3 (01:10:36):
You know, I'm I want to get you talk about
Metallica because I told Dwayne I said, I said, bro
like Metallica. I said, when we come on stage, I said,
my mic is gonna be far right, your mic is
gonna be far left, or you're gonna be right. I'm
gonna left, and Tim is gonna be right in the middle.

(01:10:57):
I said, We're gonna make this ship like Metallica. We're
gonna have a choir like a sixteen people and a
keyboard player to the side, and they gonna be singing backgrounds.
We're gonna just be playing these instrumentals. I said, it's
gonna have to feel like Metallica. You know, when we
recorded some of our albums, like by Sons and Soul,
Metallica was in it was there too. They were Salclito,

(01:11:22):
uh Rika Plan Plan Yeah. So and so I was
hanging out with Metallica, like you know, all day times,
and they would play shows in New York. I would
go hang out with him. So we have a lot
of a lot of you know, Connoe of Metallica and
those little patty things like you said, it's definitely we
probably have some of the most silliest reasons.

Speaker 4 (01:11:41):
Yep.

Speaker 1 (01:11:42):
And you'll be shocked at, yeah, at what little communication
could do. And you know, I will admit that, you know,
me and a certain member probably as close now as
we were.

Speaker 2 (01:11:55):
You know, it's weird that we.

Speaker 1 (01:11:58):
Did this operation for nineteen years almost without communicating with
each other.

Speaker 4 (01:12:03):
But you know, me and people the same way, we
didn't really become friends to make a little watch.

Speaker 2 (01:12:07):
You gotta communicate, You gotta communicate.

Speaker 3 (01:12:10):
I mean also with my brother last night and I
just I just said, bro, look, it wasn't for you
bringing all them records and playing all those Ernie solos
and playing all those Larry Graham records and put me
on the Larry, I wouldn't be the person who I
was today. Some of the ball getting that record deal
and shit changed, and start going backstage, and then you'll

(01:12:33):
be like, hello, hold on, be back. You start everybody
start getting new friends, and all of a sudden you
like then all of a sudden you like the five
heart beat. You like five RT beats front.

Speaker 1 (01:12:42):
Center right flash it's normally at the top. Wait, I
got two more questions and then I gotta go. But well,
you we kind of brought up one thing. You brought
up one thing, which was is did you when you

(01:13:02):
when when Claire Fisher did the strings for anniversary?

Speaker 2 (01:13:05):
Did you get to meet him or you just send
in the tapes.

Speaker 4 (01:13:08):
And he sent it back.

Speaker 3 (01:13:10):
I was with him every time he worked with me.

Speaker 2 (01:13:13):
What else did he do besides the anniversary?

Speaker 3 (01:13:16):
He did a song that we call that we have
called on the on the revival album that we never
put out. It's called Cherry Love with Me. And it's ridiculous.

Speaker 2 (01:13:24):
Wait, you have a you have an unused Claire Fisher song?

Speaker 4 (01:13:28):
What the fuck?

Speaker 3 (01:13:29):
What this song? Cassette? Bro, I don't think we even
find the multi tapes. And if I can find it,
I'll send it to you.

Speaker 2 (01:13:37):
You can just freaking let a clear Fisher song go unscathed.

Speaker 3 (01:13:43):
And bro he he like I met Claire even in
the last So then I did Claire this song? Uh?
We were talking about with TJ Moses take me. Yes,
that's Claire too.

Speaker 4 (01:13:55):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (01:13:56):
To our listeners, Claire Fisher is a string arranger. All
the Prince stuff that we love as Chaka Khan ask Rufus. Yeah,
like switch look up, Reaching for Tomorrow that that's probably
like one of my favorite Claire Fisher moments. And and
but you know, he had to push me away with
the Jackson's and he really turned like a lot of

(01:14:19):
like black music and to really like lush, lush arrangements.
Steve and I got to work with Claire Son Brent
on the Elvis Costello record.

Speaker 2 (01:14:30):
Claire.

Speaker 5 (01:14:31):
Actually the last thing that Claire did before he passed
away was really love Like I know that he wrote
the string arrangements for DiAngelo, but his son finished and
executed it like at the time he was doing it,
he passed away, But that was the one of the
last things he worked on. The last thing I wanted
to ask you just in general, like in your in

(01:14:53):
your canon and you're songwriting canon, what's the what's the
fastest song that he wrote that was like popular with us, Like, oh,
I wrote that song in three minutes?

Speaker 3 (01:15:04):
Mm hmm. Pler with you probably probably probably was the
Blues as far as that was, it just wrote itself,
just kind of wrote itself.

Speaker 1 (01:15:16):
Yeah, okay, okay. And what was the struggle song? What
was the song that, like all of them, you really
just like to fight to the finish.

Speaker 3 (01:15:27):
I think the struggle song. It wasn't it wasn't a single,
but we just have this thing where our album would
be done and then label would say, now we need
a single, right, okay, So that single was if I
had no lute blues? Was that? But the song that

(01:15:47):
I have a problem with was coming into the man
of who I was. It was probably blind Man. What yeah, yeah, yeah,
because blind Man was a song that I felt like
it would have been a voice like Bobby Blue Bland, right,

(01:16:10):
And I was singing all those kiddies songs, you know,
like no, no, no no, and all of a sudden
I had to say the first lyric and that song
was like look at here, I'm still standing dingn Yeah,
that's the Teddy Pendergrass line, you know, like you can't
say looking here with the voice I've been singing with
with the albums before that.

Speaker 4 (01:16:28):
So I wrote.

Speaker 3 (01:16:29):
I wrote it, and when I got to the mic,
I walked to the mic and I was like, look
at I was like, hold on, I thought you. I
was like, hold on, shit, that's that's just not gonna work.
So I still I stood back and I saw I
looked at my shadow on the floor, and I had
a conversation and I was like, you gotta you gotta
pull from within, you gotta pull all these other different

(01:16:50):
energies and spirits from these people. And I that song
I struggled with but one after I did leaving. In
that song, I sort of like my sister I passed
away and my sister got hit by this car. My
sister was a great blues singer, and she had a
strong voice like Millie Jackson and Aretha and just I'm

(01:17:10):
talking about. My sister could sing any type of soul song.
And she was a parole office. She graduated from, you know, college,
had degrees, owned a lot of property and until my
sister's a singer the Al Green's version of I Can't
Get next to You like below it. And when my
sister passed away, I felt like her spirit just kind

(01:17:31):
of got into me. After that, I started singing better.
I started singing better after that. And that was after
my sister died, when I was in the hospital singing
it never rains, damn what Yeah, And then we I
went to the hospital and they pulled her off the

(01:17:51):
well and pulled off the machine. At that point, they
pulled her off the machine, and I went back to
the studio and I started recording that those songs. But
then my life for singing it just after that sorted changed.
But I never really got comfortable singing vocally until really
the way I see it, wow, until the sixties album
Okay pretty much.

Speaker 5 (01:18:13):
Man, I was gonna ask before we go on Instant
Vintage the high Tech in the lose, how did.

Speaker 4 (01:18:18):
Y'all hook up? I thought it was so dope that
you reach out there.

Speaker 3 (01:18:21):
Man, yeah, because i mean, like I said, my hip
hop thread goes deep, you know what I mean, Like,
and I just hit a high tech. I was like, bro,
I'm doing these interlus and it'd be so sick if
I could drop three or few high tech doings right
in the middle of everything, you know, because he was
just ye'a. I just always loved, you know, high tech
because I could play bass to a you know. I mean,

(01:18:43):
all I ever need is is beats man beats, beats,
and and I can I can go all day if
somebody give me a beat, and I'm like, I'm like
more of like a MC on the bass, Like I
could just play bass lines all day, and I could
come up with a metal day because it's and even
in I was in Trinidad when we did the flow
Wind album. The Tony's was over there and this guy

(01:19:05):
told me, he said, man, you know in Africa, it's
we all speak through drums, right, rhythm, we all speak
through drums. Drums is ours our thing. So drums and
bass just singing to people. And that's why with all
these different music, it's really you know, drums and bass.
And I feel like even when I did Still Ray,
it's just really drums and bass, the keys, right, But

(01:19:28):
it's the way those drums sounds with. People always want
to rhyme over room. I can't find the multi tracks
to give them to nobody.

Speaker 2 (01:19:35):
So y Wiggins, I will send you some tracks. Great,
please it is please, No dog, it ain't nothing for that.

Speaker 3 (01:19:45):
Put them drum sets in them, bro.

Speaker 4 (01:19:48):
I got you.

Speaker 2 (01:19:49):
I'll text you. I got you.

Speaker 4 (01:19:50):
Wait, it just hit me.

Speaker 3 (01:19:51):
You know what.

Speaker 1 (01:19:54):
Fontage just hit me to something like a couple of
years back, and I just got trapped inside of this whole.

Speaker 2 (01:20:01):
I don't know if you saw that playlist I gave
you a liquor house music. Come on, yes, sir, I
feel I feel like I feel like that's I feel
like even more than Go Go.

Speaker 1 (01:20:16):
Liquor house music is the under undiscovered gem of R
and B music, like Sir Charles Jones and.

Speaker 3 (01:20:24):
All like.

Speaker 4 (01:20:28):
Down here like way, it's the last place. It's the
last place white people ain't took.

Speaker 1 (01:20:33):
Yeah, I feel like you need you need to do
the thin line between liquor house music and gospel courts.

Speaker 4 (01:20:42):
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:20:44):
To me, let me, let me send me the Yes,
I will, Oh God, Marvin's Candy liquor like it's all
just some people call it blues.

Speaker 4 (01:20:53):
Yes, come on, come on like.

Speaker 1 (01:20:55):
That Malaco Records, real cheap sounding karaoke R and B.
But it's my favorite ship of ault.

Speaker 3 (01:21:03):
Is Jesus, are you talking? Are you talking about like
songs like the Big Get It All and all them
songs the Bitch Get It Off?

Speaker 4 (01:21:10):
Yes, yes, yes, indeed yes Yo.

Speaker 3 (01:21:14):
Yo, the Biscuit Yo, my ex girlfriend parents. I've been
listening to that ship for like fifteen Yo. I got
a whole list of it.

Speaker 2 (01:21:23):
Yes, Yo, I'll be in the yo.

Speaker 3 (01:21:25):
They're gonna take that off he too pretty soon. These
dudes be like forty five old school hats. Yes. So
are you talking about so you ever heard of theotis.

Speaker 4 (01:21:35):
The yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:21:40):
Just singing.

Speaker 4 (01:21:41):
Uh stand up?

Speaker 3 (01:21:45):
Stand up dude played in my sister's band, my sister
blues band, Theotis was her guitar player.

Speaker 4 (01:21:52):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (01:21:54):
I know that's right because theoda has been on me
since I was like eight years old. Bro.

Speaker 2 (01:21:58):
Wait, there's a house moving in Oakland as well.

Speaker 4 (01:22:03):
Man, that's the issue universe now he lives. Yeah, yeah,
stand up in it.

Speaker 3 (01:22:09):
Yeah, stand up. The stand up man is my is
my my friend. He's the older guy.

Speaker 5 (01:22:13):
His stepdaughter is like real longtime fan of ours, like
good friend mine like she He came out, he came
out to a little Brother show.

Speaker 4 (01:22:19):
He came back, and we was going to get back.
He came out and kicked it with us straight up. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:22:23):
Man, Yo, but them horns, those cheap horns, I cannot take. Well,
I'll be definitely.

Speaker 1 (01:22:29):
There's a way, there's a way to adjuctwist to it.
But it's just like for me, it's the most Yeah,
but I mean Fante is right, it's the last sort
of ungentrified, the last ungentified movement of black music.

Speaker 3 (01:22:44):
That we have.

Speaker 6 (01:22:45):
And but then Raphael do it, and it's gonna get
gentrified right after that.

Speaker 3 (01:22:49):
No, I'll tell you. I'm gonna tell you who going
Who's gonna end up doing it? First?

Speaker 2 (01:22:56):
You said a white artist. I said, I know, Michael
Arthur is next to be on Malco.

Speaker 3 (01:23:01):
No, it's gonna be Mally Cyrus. Dad.

Speaker 4 (01:23:05):
You think you think you think he's gonna do this?

Speaker 5 (01:23:09):
Oh damn Billy gonna start singing about Jody Big Plaizer energy.

Speaker 2 (01:23:21):
I thank you, thank you for doing We've been begging
for this episode for so long. Man, thank you so much.

Speaker 6 (01:23:27):
I'm all in person. He can I just ask you
as a fan you, I feel like you've just done
so much for us. Is there anything we could do
for you? I'm never asked anybody.

Speaker 3 (01:23:39):
Everybody's everybody's I'll be around when this when this Tony's
project project comes out, Like I'm gonna start bringing out
a couple of artists, but you assume myself and the
artists are, they're gonna be pretty much underground artists. But
I just feel like when that happens with the platforms
that you guys have, you guys are already doing so
much with the platforms, and all we need is the

(01:23:59):
platforms for people to be I feel like we're going back. Absolutely,
that's it and when we come to town, just buy tickets.

Speaker 6 (01:24:06):
Okay, we got them, right, y'all? Okay, they say, yes, yes,
we got.

Speaker 3 (01:24:10):
There's a t shirt off that says that niggas don't
buy tickets. I didn't make it, but we do. We did.

Speaker 4 (01:24:21):
That's the nick.

Speaker 2 (01:24:22):
Listen right, well, I keep on doing what you.

Speaker 6 (01:24:26):
Say right right now.

Speaker 3 (01:24:28):
It's you're right, it is.

Speaker 2 (01:24:29):
Yes, yeah, we.

Speaker 6 (01:24:33):
Broccoli still eighty twenty eighty twenty were killing it twenty.

Speaker 2 (01:24:37):
Hey man, that's because we keep the price under one
hundred bucks.

Speaker 3 (01:24:40):
Sorry, we asked.

Speaker 6 (01:24:42):
You know you got generational wealth.

Speaker 3 (01:24:44):
So help us.

Speaker 1 (01:24:45):
Yes, this is not coach telling. I'm not charging a
thousand bucks to get in some ship.

Speaker 4 (01:24:51):
Yo. Man.

Speaker 1 (01:24:52):
I want to thank you and this this has been
amazing episode. This is definitely two part episodes.

Speaker 4 (01:24:57):
I know it is.

Speaker 1 (01:24:58):
Yeah, A big fan of yours and you know this
is everything I could ask for it. And I'm really
mind blowing how many things we have in common. Like
now now I'm gonna listen to Larry Graham a whole
nother way, man, But no, thank you for doing the.

Speaker 3 (01:25:11):
Show, bro Like Larry, Larry is the bible for us.
And we come out we're thinking about playing today as
our opening song.

Speaker 2 (01:25:19):
Dog there you go, there you go. Rap fiels, ladies
and gentlemen.

Speaker 3 (01:25:23):
Thank you, guys, thank you, question thank you, thanks.

Speaker 4 (01:25:25):
All the music much appreciate itble.

Speaker 3 (01:25:28):
Thank you, thank you too, man, thank you just seeing
you again.

Speaker 2 (01:25:30):
Oh for sure, for sure, I'm sorry y'all got you fired.

Speaker 6 (01:25:33):
It's all right today talking to you for three hours.

Speaker 3 (01:25:36):
I couldn't do that on the black You with the best,
you with the best right here, you in the best
hands right right, and my man, how do you.

Speaker 5 (01:25:44):
She holds us together? Steve seems like a long time
electric lady.

Speaker 3 (01:25:48):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (01:25:48):
Steve probably worked on on titled like I was.

Speaker 9 (01:25:51):
I was in the room when that was when when
Dee and and Ray were recording that song up in
See up in studio Sea.

Speaker 3 (01:26:01):
And now I'm looking at you like yeah, of course,
and so you were you in the room and d
was like, uh went talking about he was like when
the cat was making this moaning noise, you was in
the room and Dee Go was like hey Jimmy, and
everybody was like yeah, Jimmy, and I was like, ain't no,
goddamn Jimmy. That cat hungry.

Speaker 6 (01:26:26):
He'll always keep it real man, we didn't we had.

Speaker 3 (01:26:29):
We didn't have three grilled cheese sandwiches, all those extra
bacon that they put in it. The cat was watching
us eat.

Speaker 2 (01:26:40):
Wait, Ray, you don't even get it. You don't even
get it.

Speaker 1 (01:26:44):
The amount of bacon references I got for Steve, the
fact that you brought that up. Even on my audiobook
which I just finished, like fucking half hour ago, I
credited Steve for bacon.

Speaker 3 (01:26:58):
Dude. We used to be in the studio and we
would eat, we would smoke, eat, smoke and smoked, and
d was like Sod was like yeah uh. Dean would
be like, way, uh, I'm gonna eat something on the
healthy side from this other restaurant. So we just not Waverley.
So I'm like, what you order? He like, yeah, I'm
ordered burger.

Speaker 4 (01:27:18):
I'm like a burger.

Speaker 3 (01:27:20):
But at the Waverley we would go get like a
grilled cheese and the bacon come in it, right. De
would say, then I get extra bacon. I'm like, extra bacon.
The bacon is already filled in that chin thing with bacon.

Speaker 4 (01:27:41):
Steal. I know bacon.

Speaker 2 (01:27:44):
The podcast Yeah, but but but Ray, but getting untitled.

Speaker 3 (01:27:50):
All I remember is the bacon.

Speaker 5 (01:27:53):
Voodoo was nothing but bacon Fest. That's how he got it.
In summer body eating bacon and nothing else.

Speaker 10 (01:28:00):
That was the original title of the record.

Speaker 1 (01:28:02):
Actually, I've credited Steve on most albums with bacon because.

Speaker 2 (01:28:09):
You know, like what spinaches, the Popeye old boys just
like yo, I need a break.

Speaker 6 (01:28:14):
It's so crazy about to say most of the early
people do. Just think y'all didn't even eat pork. I'm
in shock over here, like.

Speaker 2 (01:28:20):
FROMA and you.

Speaker 9 (01:28:27):
Up, Raphael, Raphael, you remember recording on titled though. You
guys were standing in front of the console, you know
what I'm talking about. Yeah, and not not on this
not on the engineer side, on the other side, like
in between the console and the and the window to
the live room, and you guys were playing.

Speaker 10 (01:28:45):
You were on bass and was on guitar or or
no vice versa. I don't remember now, but.

Speaker 3 (01:28:52):
Yeah, well I was a guitar, he was playing, he
was he was playing piano.

Speaker 9 (01:28:57):
Thin So you played bass hanging on that yeah, okay, yeah,
but you were standing in front of the in front
of the console.

Speaker 10 (01:29:04):
It was like one of my first first gigs. I
was like, whoa, but and then we ate.

Speaker 3 (01:29:11):
I remember the tape ran out. Indeed, was like, y'all
was going to change the real so we could finish.
And I was like, now it's finish, don't don't just
leave it like that and just call it. And then
the dad said untitled, and I was like, just call
it untitled. Oh, I was like finished. Then I was like,
and I was like, when you leave, I said, when

(01:29:32):
I left, I said, you just gotta scream at the
end of the record. You gotta scream. He's like, he said, yeah,
were gonna do the video. We're gonna do the video.
So I told my boys, like, we did this song.
I said, it's good, but I like to Spanish joint
the best. That was my favorite album. So I didn't
think untitled was a single. So they put it out
and the video came out. My boy was like, hey,

(01:29:52):
it's a good thing. You ain't in the video. You
only had one part you could have did.

Speaker 6 (01:29:59):
But if I recall it the time, y'all both had
body around that time.

Speaker 3 (01:30:02):
So and everybody's just everybody just say, yo, only you
think that song was popular because because he was naked,
and I was like, he couldn't. I said, if it
was wacky couldn't have been naked, right, exactly. That's true
that when Maxwell was naked with that rubber ducky in
the in the in the bathtub, the cops knocking. That

(01:30:25):
doesn't work.

Speaker 4 (01:30:25):
No, that was the It was the luxury.

Speaker 3 (01:30:29):
Yeah, you can't. You got to ask some weapons to
do that one naked. You are so right? Yeah, he said, anyway, man,
thank you. I appreciate it. Long overdue man. Congratulations to
everybody man on your success. And wow, man, it's good
doing ask you. Look now I'm looking on when as
soon as he said it, I was like, wow, y'all
have bacon in coming?

Speaker 1 (01:30:49):
Yes, bacon, all right, so when you have a light, yeah,
ficolo paid Bill is not here, and doctor bacon this question.

Speaker 2 (01:30:58):
Love Supreme will see you on texts. Go around, Thank
you rich all right, see y'all.

Speaker 3 (01:31:05):
Hey, this is Sugar Steve.

Speaker 11 (01:31:07):
Make sure you keep up with us on Instagram at QLs.
Let us know what you think you should be next
to sit down with us. Don't forget to subscribe to
our podcast.

Speaker 1 (01:31:23):
What's Up Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. For more
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