September 28, 2022 • 55 mins
In Part 2 of the QLS interview, Steve Rifkind tells Team Supreme about giving Mobb Deep a second chance, discovering Akon, and how he has returned to the music business with the same passion.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Quest Love Supreme is a production of I Heart Radio.
What Up y'all? It's on paid bill Quest Love Supreme.
We are back with Part two of the Quest Love
Supreme Interview with Steve Ritt. You co founded Loud Records
and put out some critical albums by Wu Tang, Great
Kwan Mob. Do you haven't listened to part one? Please
check it out. Steve talks about growing up a music industry,
James Brown coming do it Far, Mitzvah, his relationship with
(00:22):
Dupap but now hip hop classics. Check it. I I
will say that my first listen to that album thirty
six Changers of Cuban Lamps. Oh, thirty six Chambers. So
the day that both Marauders and and and the Wu
Tank comes out, and we're driving up from Philly listening
(00:46):
to this, and you know, I know it's not not
since Princess fan Base with the album Dirty Mind. If
I heard what I deem like revision in an opinion
of the record when I first heard the Wood Tang record,
and not that I was looking from like a commercial
(01:07):
standpoint or an underground standpoint, but I just never heard
something so dirty in my life. I don't know that's
like this is way too underground for regular people, and
yet it almost became the pinnacle of maybe it's weird
like they became. They became the epicenter of the mainstream
(01:29):
of the system that they were against, which you know,
I wasn't complaining was power. Oh yeah they do. But
I just mean they still are still they still not.
I don't mean I don't even like enough four four
letter word wag like their mainstream that Christ No, But
I'm just saying that, I there's no way you're gonna
(01:50):
tell me when that first listen that this group was
going to be the Alpha and Omega and the epicenter
of what. But let me ask you a question. Sorry
for cutting you off when you heard when you heard
Cream and can it be for the first time? Well yeah,
well yeah, well yeah, what what I remember? I remember
hearing Cream for the first time in the studios I knew,
(02:16):
I mean I knew actually before because I was on
the road. I moved to New York, and I opened
up the New York office, and I opened up and
I took an apartment in New York and now I
was by a coastal But but at the end of
the day, when Cream came out and forget about the
well that's one dollar dolla BILLI and what that meant
to me or whatever. But I just knew that this
(02:40):
album there was something fucking special about it. Then three
months later, my office in l A was on Melros
and King's Road. What Cookies is literally the building with
cook Cookies is. And I'm going to the deli to
grab a sandwich and I see this white kid head
down to hear on a fucking skateboard with the old
Wo Tank Scully singing mood Tank panting on the up,
(03:00):
and I knew, get go. I said, at my age,
now I'm sixty years old. Now, I said, when I'm
sucking sixty, they're still gonna be around. I don't know.
In my mind, it was just like again, I gotta
go back to the first Jungle Brothers record. Like the
Jungle Brothers first album, straight Out the Jungle was just
(03:21):
like an inside secret for like real heads. Meanwhile, like
mainstream America only feels hammer Vanilla ice like more, you know,
mainstream rappers. And Jungle Brothers was on Tommy Boy correct
Uh no, no, no, that's day Lost sold. Jungle Brothers
was on Warlock and then went to Warrener Brothers for
(03:45):
the second album, and I was just like, just to me,
I you know, once once Cream started picking up traction,
I was like, wait a minute, this is almost like
if Straight out the Jungle by the Jungle Brothers really
got a chance. Now. I mean, there's a lot of
factors into the success of Wu Tang Clan, but what
(04:10):
I was basically leading up to was upon first listen
of that entire record, you knew you had lightning in
a bottle in your possession. Yeah, I knew we had
lightning Outcast was throwing up a party and when did
their album came out? To Summer Night ninety four, I
know I was at a party, an album released party.
(04:31):
I was with Steve Staff, okay, and I mean I
think I think Clark was DJ. The M T D
record came on and we're talking and also everybody just
went straight to the to the dance floor losing that
funking mine and that's when I knew that there was
(04:54):
That was like my first like I needed to see
it with my own eyes, right, and that's why I
like to be outside. So it was like at the
end of the day, like when I see something with
my eyes and that's what made me move to New
York and opened up shop in New York. And then
remember the new music seminar, Yes, right then, I said, Clark,
let's find the club was um Areas? Whose area? And
(05:18):
they let me do a showcase with the Licks Twister
and all of New York showed up. Shout out to
G two, who thanks trustee U one of one of
their many street team people that I've associated with with.
G used to be part of the Princeton hip hop
circle that you know, yeah, but you know he would
(05:42):
also work the Philadelphia market like would have like his
side guys or I don't know if Ge was part
of Rifkin's street promotion team or business personal people, but
that's how I got hit to them, all right, So
I have to ask you the other side of the
coin too, because a big part of my personal success
(06:05):
was also being the guy on standby whenever somebody would
mess up. I e blah blah blah, I'm not going
to make it to the show. Can you guys get
here in twelve hours? Uh da da da just dropped out, yo,
Can you guys fly in next week? And literally at
the beginning of WU Tang Forever. I swear to God,
(06:28):
at least six of my entire output of doing shows
we're based on Wu Tang shows not attempted during the
during the period of of you talking about the Boutang
(06:48):
gage to get some machine starting then, but just basically,
you know, like the roots might as well have been,
you know, the twelfth member of the Wu Tang clan,
because literally is like, uh, who's supposed to come or
whatever designated will remember we're supposed to show up, and okay,
we'll get the roots instead. So for me, though, in
(07:14):
and I have my theories about this. What are your
feelings on Wood Tang Forever? There's a double appul right,
but did you get goose bumps on certain songs? All right?
The album I mean was a double appule. So, like
(07:36):
I said, I never get to to myself in a
and I got goose bumps. On Triumph, I got goose bumps.
I've got the name of the kid, it's yours. And
there was one and and there was one more record
which I would have Well, I really got goose bumps.
But at the end of the day, I put that
Twitter together between Wotang and Rage, right, and you know,
(07:58):
we um it was first million dollar hip hop video.
Brett Ratner directed it. Oh yeah, look, no nothing else.
I just hadn't from my perspective. Uh that okay. So
first of all, I feel like the strength of Triumph
(08:19):
was that it was the first offering. I mean, you know,
it could have been, like, name any other song that
it could have been dogshit the song not actual dogshit.
I mean, it could have been Reunited. It could it
could have been whatever. Whatever. The first song from that
album was Gonna come forth, was gonna be Reunited? Was
the song that gave me googse bumps that you Triumph?
(08:41):
And right, why didn't reunite it? To me? The opening Reunited,
I mean first, you know, was ridiculous in that. I
mean the s they started fighting. So let me just
tell you where where I am, right, Biggy Passes few
months before that, right, Me and puffect conversations before Big
(09:04):
pass who's gonna come first? We were big and we
were both coming with a double album, so big was
always gonna come first, right because I didn't really we didn't.
We weren't having video records, right, so we have breadth
through the video and like you said, whatever the video
(09:25):
was the video. The video was but to me, they
were a rock and roll group or they were a group, right,
So the Rage tour was right. We sold lately in
records on that album if they finished that tour, mm hmm, right,
because we already we started in Florida and we were
(09:49):
coming up to New York, so that was already home base,
like and sALS we're going up now. We were gonna
do the bum fuck, you know, like the did Mid Indiana,
like the mid mid, mid, mid, Midwest and West Coast.
That album would have sold twenty million records, and that
(10:09):
was always my plan if we and I agree with you,
it should have went Diamond. I you know, I don't
know the exact conditions. I don't you know, I know
it's a fire. I always felt like, ah, whenever whenever
someone gets a good formula and they change it. I
(10:31):
wish they didn't make that record in California. I wish
they would have stayed. Well. Well, the problem was if
you saw the show where is this house got flooded?
Everything was destroyed, so that he had he had to
start from scratch anyway, and with everybody having solo record,
I understand what you're saying. With everybody, with everybody having
(10:52):
solo records in New York, you're being pulled ten different ways.
Everybody's being pulled, tended. They all want plas, the one
plat ghost, one class plat. So it's like they're getting
so then being in one house together and to create
that unity how they had it on the first album.
Granted it wasn't shottling and it wasn't in a basement
(11:14):
right right, but the house got flooded and everything was
everything was destroyed. Can I ask though, um, I kind
of feel like the end of that rain kind of
not the end of that rain, but at least the
stronghold of that initial period was the Hot ninety seven situation. Uh,
(11:39):
with that that was a bad situation. I was on
my god, how could you have rectified that situation? Or like,
how do you in terms of are you the type
of CEO that has to talk to the artists to
stop them from sabotaging their progress or whatever, or could
you explain the story that whole Hot nine seven situation
(12:00):
and then like Hot nineties seven not playing woods Hang anymore?
And I was, I was, I was on a plane,
I was, it was my bachelor party, Okay, I was
flying from Dallas to Atlanta, and you know, we land
and my phone's blowing the funk up. But you know,
I have all pretty much my senior executives with me.
(12:24):
You know. Was my brother, was a partner, my best friend,
my child's best friend, Rich you know, was a partner, Mojoe,
who's you know, became a brother in running promotion. You
know that they were all with me. And I'm getting
just when everybody had to you know, not even the
two way, just a page sto and like what the
(12:44):
fuss happening? And I couldn't get Ris on the phone.
And then Tracy, who was the programer, just called me.
I'm getting married in four fucking days, like called me
and says, go fund yourself, like you know, just like
I mean, she was a dude. We wouldn't went to fist, right,
(13:07):
But she didn't know that, you'd personally like she she
she was venting. I don't even think she was so mad.
I don't even think she went to the wedding. And
she was invited to the wedding. Don't again. Wu Tang
was the first rap record that had ninety seven fucking played.
They were a dance station had seven was also on
that No more music, less rap. They were on that,
(13:32):
so they weren't a rap I mean said it was
a dance station like and then Flex was I mean,
between Flex and Angie, they're the ones that took it
to a whole different place where Flex had to show
on the weekends, you know. And then you know, and
then thank god, you know, Puff came with Flavor in
the ear and there was some you know, and then
finally you know, and he was making those records like
(13:56):
so thank God for him because you know, so there
was it was absolutely unreparable. I guess we our listeners
that are are hearing, you know, they're they're doing summer
jam and yeah, you know, I don't know who's ghost
face or I forgot who said something out on line.
(14:17):
They don't play our ship, you know, listen, let's keep
it a hundred. There were seventy five thousand people there
right right. They're making a fortune, so we weren't. We
were on tour with Rage, right and at the end
of it, we weren't getting paid a lot of money yet. Yeah,
really a Rage tour and and goes you know, should
(14:41):
you have said it? No? But about to say that
don't help with your arguments. Like, just to be clear,
artists do not get paid for doing uh else? No,
but no, now they get you know, they started getting
paid a few years and not a few years after
that they were getting Aine Nicki Minaj not getting paid
these yeah for ny well no, I mean, but just
(15:05):
black artists in general, just you know, you just black
radio that you Yeah, I'll do it for free, you know,
as long as you keep playing my records. But so
there is literally absolutely no for no. So for a
while they even banned all records. What yeah, this is
(15:28):
the thing. But this is what was happening to right, Steve,
nothing wrong, That's what I mean. I mean, me and
Tracey you were friends. Who else is she going to
take that out of? But you know, are just happened
in Philly with beans like it happened with Foxy Brown
with Death Jam when she cutted out Kobe and they said,
(15:49):
we don't parent we playing these records for a minute
like that. I did not know that, Okay, Um, so
with actually you mentioned puff, I was gonna ask with
the with the opening sketch of side three or side
two of the Purple Tape of Great Kwan when they
(16:10):
kind of you know, draw a line the sand with
Bad Boy and Wu Tang I e the I guess
by that point in Bad Boys establishing himself as more
of a mainstream, uh middle on the I mean no,
I mean, but we gotta give credit. What credits do?
(16:32):
I mean? Puff had everybody. I mean, he he had
the palm in the world in the palm of his hands.
He was coming with it. And you know what, what
go said? You know, me and Puff spoke. He goes,
what was that about? I said, I don't know, you know,
I have no idea, but I go, let's just keep it.
We're in two totally different names. We're not even in
(16:53):
the same freeway, like you know, I'm just using New
York like you know, we're on the Northern States there
on the l i A, you know. And it's just like,
I'm not trying to get people. He's making radio radio records.
We're still making records for for the street, and I'm
not like I'm trying to help Helf get as much
as he possibly can, like so, and you know, and
(17:18):
they worked it out a few months later. So I
always wanted to know what the response was, because you know, yeah,
know when when Shuk said fuck New York or whatever
whatever the hell he said at the SURCE Awards, that
that that that's when we all they all reunited again, right,
and that was that was like two weeks after we
came out with the album. So were you there for
hip Hop's funeral? Um? I was there? No, I wasn't
(17:42):
there with my son was just born, So I pretty
much was taking that wrong there. Can I ask a
question real quick about these records since you have such
not made for radio records, but yet and still it
seems like you got to a stride where y'all were
picking like amazing singles. I had the best day in
our staff to this day. That person, though there was
(18:04):
a it was a team who was It was a
guy named Maddie See who actually distubbored Digg. You worked right, yes, right,
Scotfrey start up as my assistant, and he got himself
into um and are quickly stretching Armstrong who had the
stretching about Vito show, Yeah, and then hit he was
(18:31):
he was the first one. And then the guy named
Seawan C. King Yes, yes, yes, speaking of Maddie See. Um,
I remember getting Sick Ones Part one, how in the
world did you guys manage two on the second go
(18:53):
round get capsule lightning in the bottom like the Street Team.
So I was saying, the streets don't lie. The record
was cool, it did what it was supposed to do,
but it wasn't a fucking smatch. And we came in
and you know, and I said, Mattie, what are we
(19:14):
gonna do? You know, um, you know, we're cool, but
this is not gonna drive any anything home. And he goes,
as a matter of fact, havoc, just to the remix
last night. Here it is, and you heard it, and
we heard it. And I was on the way to
how could I be down? And um, I had a
walk man, not even at this man, I had a
(19:35):
walk man. And I was in a car with them
stretching Barbiito and I was on my me and Barbido.
I used to play basketball, and there was like some
type of celebrity game and they lost their mind, and
you know they were they were they were the first
one to play it. They played it, we gave it
the flex. This is September, October, and then when we
(19:59):
came back after Christmas. It's the biggest record in New York.
So but I'm saying, in your mind, it wasn't like,
oh well that didn't make it all right? What else
you guys got? Like I think another in our CEO
would have just been like, oh well that's still born,
so what else? What else is down the pike? But
(20:21):
it's just unheard when they song like that. Well when
they when they came to the office, I knew they
were the perfect like who is your first child? And
I got my first check and my first plaque and
everything else like that. But you know, when you give
a jab, you gotta come with a cross or a
(20:41):
hook right right away, right So Who definitely shook people
and got everybody's attention. But when we came with Bob,
that's when everybody, we everybody knew that lab was for real.
And I still had the marketing company. So the biggest
LAB got the biggest the marketing company. Of that the
big of the marketing company that more people wanted to
(21:03):
be allowed, and we would like we would like three
ft three, you know, well matcap we made a little
bit of money, but it just did a little over
a hundred. But you know, licktsed and go gold, but
the lixts at three thousand, who did two million on
the first record, and you know and mob did you
know they weren't planning him on the first album. So
(21:24):
even with you knowing because me, you know, I knew
of and I had the fourth and Broadway from the
back ye back and all that stuff like, but in
your mind you're like, yeah, these guys are gonna still
be a thing. Yeah. I mean they came to the
(21:44):
office they want I don't know if they were gonna
smoke a cigarette, they were gonna smoke a blump, but
they went to the bathroom and this is like, you know,
a corporate building and they live proud of you. Wasn't
there a because he was sick at the time. It
was had again. You know some of the guys, guys
and the sprinklers just went off. I said, did a
(22:06):
perfect follow up to all time And that's all. So
you there still have to be an edge or a
rock or an element of of your groups that authenticity. Yeah,
to make him I see, I see. Do you mind
telling us like a Prodigy story just because you know,
we were one of the last shows that he did
(22:27):
before we lost him. He was like a I mean,
he was a brother to me. I mean just um,
like he had such a good, good soul and you know,
he just wanted to learn and he was like a sponge.
I think his oldest son or daughter is my oldest
son that I think that like four or five months apart.
(22:50):
And he would say, is your son coming to the office.
I'm like, I don't know why he was. I need
to come up, and I got my kid with me.
You know, if he was coming up, that means he
must have been going over some artwork or whatever he
was going through. So we were fortunate enough, you know,
to have a nannie. So I'm like, I'll make sure
(23:10):
you see what time are you gonna be here? So
I just had to get approval from my wife and
you know, and the nannie would watch, you know, both babies,
you know, and and he and he was appreciated, like
and you know, we could have arguments and say funk
you to each other, but at the end of the
(23:31):
day we would both say, you know about love him
and you know, and it wasn't like we're just We're
just fighting for what we felt. And then it was
never about money. It was always about maybe a single
or a tour or something like that. It was not
like we already spent this and we're not going It
was just it was about passion and really what was
gonna get to the next level after the jay Z
(23:54):
incident and two thousand and one, did you like, how
does it leave? We'll CEEO respond to that, just like
off your back, just get the next record ready? Actually, wait,
can you explain the situation to me? You know again,
I was I was in l A for the summer.
(24:14):
I remember getting the call and I wanted to call ban.
I'm like, where the fund did you get that picture? Like?
How did you get the picture? Right? So, oh, we're
gonna get you know, we're going to get on this show. Yeah,
I got the t on that joy all right? So
(24:36):
so so at so at the end, at the end
of the day, it's like, man like, let's just get
to work and not even about this thing Jay or whatever.
It's like, what's this saying sticks and stones like break
your bones, but names will never on me. So I mean, yeah,
we got one on the chin, but you know what,
we're still standing. And it's not how many times you falls,
how many times you get up? Why did you decide
(25:02):
to sell the label? Because I wanted, I, you know,
when us selling to Sony, we will going to be
the third major in the Sony system. Right it's Columbia
Epic and now is gonna be Us. And and it
really wasn't about the money, was more about my ego,
(25:24):
which you know, was funked up. I was like, all right,
We're gonna be the third major, and I'm gonna be
able to have this be on the same playing field
as Jimmy as you know, as every as everybody else,
because I always felt we weren't on the same playing field.
And it ended up being the biggest mistake of my life.
So you left the n so like the whole Project
(25:48):
Pet period, and that that whole came three six Mafia,
like we broke the six Mail, we broke Project Pat,
we broke Flipped, Um Punt passed. During that time, we
had Murder Music. The Vena was before Vino was like
ninety right around the fun time um so that you know,
(26:12):
and it was just I never played a corporate game before.
You know, we went from the staff of thirty people
to the coolest, most creative company out there on both
aspects on the marketing side of things, and and then
on the record side of things. You know, we did
the deal and next thing, you know, I had the
staff of three people, and I'm like, what the funk
is this? Like there was this woman, God bless us.
(26:35):
So her name was Tolba Haman. You know, she was
in the sixties, calling me Mr Rickn. I'm thirty five
years old, thirty six years old, Like please don't call
me Mr Rickn, you know, and she was just and
I knew then it was like how much how much
time do we have left in this fucking deal? And
it was just like I was stopped for three years.
I started having panic attacks and anxiety attacks. I was like,
(26:57):
I just couldn't wait to get the funk out. And
it was the first time like I didn't know which
way to look because I thought I was getting kid
every which way I got from corporate. Now there's another
Philadelphia connection that you kind of have. UM. My good
friend Charles Stone the Third, who directed Many Roots video
(27:20):
Um made his debut um with with the Street Classic
called paid him Full Um, which is I believe one
of your first loud film. Could you talk about the
process of getting into the movies again, I didn't want
to be in it. We were doing all we were
(27:41):
doing all of Mirrormax's marketing through through the marketing company.
Now you know, we're branching out. Now I have every
film studio, MGM, Mirror, Maax, Walk, Warner Brothers, plus the
records and the Street Team. Marketing went to Corporate America
and I sold me to a company called Dinner Public
at that time, which was the largest advertising holding company
(28:04):
in the lane. Okay, so Merrormax wants there's a guy,
don't even Scott Lambert, who was an agent, William Mars,
who was just a really good good friend, um, a
really good friend of mine. And he says, merror Max
wants to do urban films, like I can get you
a three picture deal. And I'm like, huh if you
know he's like, he was a brother to me. I'm like, Scott,
(28:27):
that's not gonna happen. Why would they give me a
three picture deal? So he sets up a meeting. I
don't want to say hard I think it was Bob Winsey,
but I couldn't. I couldn't stand Bob. I already had
a fight with him once and I beat this ship
out of him. He meant this, Oh, I was safe. Yeah,
(28:47):
all right, those questions too, like yeah, he didn't mean,
he mean, he was just a fucking prick. I mean
when the big earthquake in l A happened, my office
was destroyed. I had to send a reported because I
don't give a fuck who died who did with that?
And I said this, I said, the next name, I
see you, I promise you smack the ship. And I
(29:09):
hung and I hung up the phone. A year and
a half later, my son is four weeks old. He
was born June tenth, July fourth, the weekend I'm pulling off.
I took a house in the Hamptons and there's a
guessish I go to take a kissing there he is,
He has no idea what the funk I am. I
smacked him in the face, I said, And that is
(29:31):
our promo, ladies and gentlemen, Steve will be on quest ups,
the freeme smacking motherfucker's up. I liked it a lot down,
not just any kind in the so how I got it.
So now we're doing a presentation for the video you mentioned,
you know, so we're coming and my brother says, um
(29:57):
Merrimacks is coming with off. By the time we land was.
It was the Mention, which was the sister label to Merrimax,
was like the indie side. Um to Jonathan, you're full
of ship. We land and get to the hotel. There's
a fucking contract. I don't know if my brother foratched
my signature. I don't even remember signing the deal. And
next thing you know, I have a three picture This
(30:17):
will happen within a week, a three picture deal. And
they threw crazy fucking money outs. And then Brett Ratner says, um,
Dame has an incredible story, right, But I go, who's
gonna produced it? I don't know nothing about I don't
even have to produce a record, Like I'm gonna not
produce a fucking movie because no, you gotta hire this
guy Ron. We hired this guy Rock and and the
(30:41):
and the rest of history, and they you know, I'm
not gonna The only thing that I did is we
had the deal. But this was I gotta give credit
to Dame. Dan did everything. He pickedure and he did everything.
I'm not trying to take his thunder. I mean he
did everything. And you know, I just went for the
ride when he asked me to take my name off
as executive producer I was taking my name off anyway.
(31:04):
It was based on a true story and I didn't
want any fucking headaches people just coming out of the
wood right coming at you. Yeah, so I was taking
my name if anyone, I was like, that's not a problem.
We now live in a time in which the the
African Renaissance is truly arrived with like um African music
and African artists getting mainstream success. But you know, I
(31:27):
know that you. I mean, I won't say a risk,
but you were actually ahead of the game. And I
believe you signed a con, is you not? What was
it about a con? And you signed him early, like
back in two thousand four, two thousand five, I believe
was that he was right when I left Glad, I
(31:47):
started an SRC right right right, So I signed Banner.
I'm a basketball and banner and yeah, I'm a basketball
guy and I break my nose playing basketball and the
the matro guy that I am. All I really want
to do is cribe. But my son is watching and
(32:09):
I want to show him, like I have blood all
over me and I want to show him that it's okay.
So like get hit and you don't have to pry
me while I'm seeing three of everything. It's like, you know,
if the baskets over there, I shut the bowl over that.
Like then I literally just ended up felt paining like
and I just passed out. And when they were taking
me to the hospital, Kenny Burns with him, and Kenny
(32:34):
he goes, you gotta hear this, and I'm like, what
the funk it is this? And there was only one
record that I wanted to hear and that I mean,
there's only one record that I said, just keep on
playing it over and over and over again. And my
philosophy was like I never considered myself an A and
R guy, Like it was always about the team. Wait,
Kenny Burns said that No, I said, Kenny had the
(32:55):
tape and he played for me. We were playing ball.
And now what went to the hospital to get my
nose ticks? Okay, I'm just I'm just tripping to Kenny
Burns is apart of the ACN store. This is amazing, Okay.
So um, in those days, I flew to Private M
and I just didn't know if I was being laughed
to fly. I didn't know what the hell was the
matter with my nose. It could have been like a
(33:16):
full you know rain Now, I don't know what the funk.
You know, they said they broken nose and I couldn't
really fly for twenty four hours for infectual. So I
just said, we're going to Atlanta, said in New York
and um I met the vine him at a con
the rest of his history and I pretty much did
the same thing. Um, universal laughed in my face. I said,
(33:36):
this is gonna be the biggest artists in my career.
And they said, oh, this is could be big at
the war. I'm like yeah, and they laughed, and I
got so fucking mad. I was like, you know what
funck you guys. And I had somebody that was with
me at laughed. Started off as an intern in the
Street Team guy and then he just grew and grew
and grew with me. And then when I started s SC,
(33:57):
he became he was. I gave him a piece of
the company me and he was my president STA. His
wife was pregnant at the time, and I said, God,
you do the East and the South, I'll do the West.
In the Midwest, and we didn't have a video, we
didn't have anything. He took a con and I took
a count for the book and I may we may
(34:18):
believe who was a con? And we yeah, wow, this
is like the Little Richard James Brown situation. We're both
Little Richard and James Brown. We're touring as Little Richard.
I didn't okay, so we had no video, nobody knew
(34:44):
what any kind of look like. And at the at
the end of the day, the record broke in Albuquerque,
New Mexico, and so like, so which is like, you know,
I fly, I fly into me York with the record
club locked up with styles. I was just about to
say okay, right time to New York. And this is
(35:06):
you know, Republic was doing for doing their their research.
I shouldn't not. There's a fucking report like like this
must have been fifty pages on every store in Albuquerque,
in EUTA. You wouldn't believe how many stores that were,
you know, between Target, the Walmart and the ship's going
through the roof, and we're like, what the fund is
(35:30):
going on? You know, and I'm like I'm trying to
bring it east and you know now you know, and
we had to change out philosophy because the Republic was
a radio company. They didn't understand street records. So I
had a cover like like Philly came in, Boston came
(35:50):
in Connecticut, Cayyon, Miami came. You know, New York was
the last one to come in, you know. And then
who was Mother's Day? And I get a phone call
from somebody goes, what the fund did you do in Brooklyn?
I'm like, what are you talking about? Let's talking about
a you know, And the truth is, I really didn't
do anything. We just we surrounded New York where it
(36:11):
would just have the weekend and with the King's Plaza mall.
You know, the record was being played in the fucking
call you know that Monday he broke calls me up
and he says, we're adding the record, you know. And
then two weeks later, like the research, it was like
number one requested in like top three call out. I mean,
the record broke and the right it was the first
(36:35):
first week, I think we scanned three thousand records. It
was the lowest sound scanning record I ever had in
my life. First week, but each week it did, you
go three thousand to fifteen hundred, stay stated three three thousand,
two hundred, three thousand, one hundred. And when that fucking
thing just took off, I mean, by by the fall.
(36:56):
We were at sixty thousand a week, mm hmm, and
we didn't even become like lonely yet. I'm so tired
of that record. I have a confessor about locked Up
in about locked Up, And this is before the errors exam,
where you can't find out who the artist is. I
(37:17):
swear to God for a good one seconds, for good
one seconds, I said, holy shit, ROBERTA Flecky. But but
(37:42):
locked Up with starts Pete was those story remix. I
didn't hear his verse, but a CON's voice. It was
so I can't describe it. It's it's such a compliment
to a con, such a compliment, and I'm saying this
is androgynus, but I literally are It was a woman singing,
and because it was done in such a rich alto,
(38:06):
and I never heard this voice before. For twenty seconds,
I was like, Hey, it could happen. I was like,
if and Aretha Brinklin working together, let me find out
that that's ROBERTA flag is about to come back like
a motherfucker. Okay, wait, before I let you go, there's
(38:33):
one question I always ask of every label CEO, can
you help me three x that you almost signed that
were close, but no cigars. Jay Zy you could have
you could have signed jay z B and B actually
hated me so much and because we took him for
(38:53):
so much money, they didn't want to give us any
more money to sign Jake. But I go back with
Dane since the years old when he was managing Original Flavor.
Wow wow so ja um. He wasn't an act, but
he was to me one of the best executives. You know,
IRV Gotti. When he had Mike Dronimo, we tried to
(39:16):
get the record and I will tell you this, whatever
reason we couldn't get to sample cleared and then being
he was saying, you're wasting your time and this was
literally I just signed my deep. They said, you're you're
wasting your time and we're not gonna give you money
to do find something else. So if I didn't deal
with Mike, I'm sure would it ended up being with me.
(39:39):
Are you talking about Master I See or the single
that he had that was more puffy ash No, the
first single, the first Master I See that's a goddamn masterpiece,
um wow z. And then then you had a chance
(39:59):
to sign him. Yeah. But but the thing was that
if he stayed with us, and I had to know
with Paul Rosenberg a few weeks ago. He wouldn't have
been Eminem four million records later he would have been eminent.
He would have been Eminem fifty million records. He was
an underground rapper, you know. And you talked about Genie
in the bottle, right, so you're talking about him and
(40:23):
Ray just creating magic that that. You know, he would
have been lobde. He would have been willed your punt.
We had a pop record on was still not to
play it, but you know he would have been just
in that lane. That was the only thing we knew
how to DoD hm. Wow, So I know that. You know.
(40:45):
One of the thing is also interesting about your story
is the fact that how the lineage goes down from
your grandfather, your father, you and now your your son
is an MC. Correct. So my youngest both my sons
played ball, you know, one one played college, another one
played for a famous high school out in l A.
(41:05):
And he didn't want to go to college, and out
of nowhere, he just started rapping and he put out
a record, and ship put the record at himself and
he did you know, a few hundred thousand streams flex
played the record on his own without the connection, no
knowing that, not knowing the connection. But but it was
(41:27):
during the holiday, so he played. He had a two
week run and he was going to music school in Florida,
full sale, and it was just you know, my son,
he doesn't want to read it. He needs to see
it and feel it. So he lost his love from
(41:48):
doing like real school work. That's not him. So you
know he has twelve twelve of his friends are like
his crew. They roll in the NBA. So he's gonna
be an intern for Rich paul Um starting December. Nope,
the way you're talking about basketball, I feel like your
true passion is owning a team. Or now I've lost
(42:11):
so much money in basketball. I mean, I'll I'm just
I'm just a fan now that that's all I'm gonna be.
I've lost tensively ins or dollars? Did you try to
never try to own a team. But like my my
philosophy in life, and this is what I've learned from
my dad. If I can help one one person and
save that life and put him in the right direction,
then I did my job on her. No money, Could
(42:33):
you know that feeling of saving somebody. You can't put
a price on it. And you know, so when me
and my wife split, my kids are interration, okay, and
they all came out different complexion. Well for you, you know,
one came out really lights getting attractor rapp m hm.
(42:56):
So when we split, she moved to Florida and there's
an area called Dellery Beach and in this one area,
Delwy Beach is probably the most gang affected in all
the flour in a in a five block radius, and
there was a gym there and she threw him in there,
and she goes, you gotta learn how to stand on
(43:17):
your own. And she wouldn't let me go to any games.
And then finally like I didn't know what AU was
or anything like that. And then I don't know where
I think she was coming out to late. I don't
know where where she was coming but she was like,
you gotta pick a bounce at two o'clock as a
game at twelve. I get there at one to watch
the game, and I knew he was gifted. And then
(43:39):
but I don't know that he had two of the
games at night, you know, one at six and one
at nine. I was in heaven and I just started
going to the games, and you know, they respect him
for who he was. And I just minded my ownusiness.
I wasn't going to try and buy a team, but
I didn't know that he was eleven and he was
playing on a fourteen on the team and they didn't
(44:00):
win a game. But now and he wasn't talking to
me with me and his mom separating, but now he
was back in my life. And I said to the coaches,
said the season can't be over, and he still, well,
you know it's over. I'm like, you gotta find something.
(44:21):
I go, because, well, there's a tournament next week for
twelve and under the team. I said, well, alex is eleven,
how old is say? And like we end up putting
six guys on the team. He goes, who will coach?
I said, I will? He says, what do you know
about basketball? I said, enough, I should you not? I
go seventy and that whole fucking song seven zero. So
(44:44):
Florida is known for football. I know nothing about football.
Half my team of professional formal players right now. So
they were just the best athletes in the world. And
I just had him pressed and they could all shoot
the shoot out of the ball and jump and they
were how old was Alex? He was eleven and twelve
like that time, right, Yeah, And I really thought I
(45:05):
was gonna become a professional basketball coach like I had
him traveling. We won States, we won Nationals, we won
the World Games, and I just started taking on challenges.
And then I get a phone call to buy a
tournament which was like a record convention, and just like
one thing went to another, and I mean I lost
my shirt. But at the end of the day, that
is my happiness. Music, right, Music is the closest thing
(45:28):
to God. Right, make your latic and make you cry,
just your memories. It's just it touches your soul. Sure,
and basketball just it just touches me too. Where I
get fucking crazy? Do you still get an itching or
like just one more hit metaphorically speaking as in drugs,
(45:51):
not like a hit single, but just is I mean,
are you addicted at all to the adrenaline? Yeah? I'm
finding that rare Jim So I got I got this
kid right now, same as take from San Diego, California,
m eighteen years old, self contained produces himself. Um he
(46:13):
had eight monthly uses on Spotify and now he's closing
in and I want to say a little under two hundred.
He had twenty five who was on TikTok and we're
closing in on three hundred followers and all the kids
just keep on putting out music and putting out music,
(46:35):
and his energy is fucking ridiculous. And people will say
to me, it's, you know, it's nothing what people are
used to be putting out. But you know what, my
old day, one of my old day, and our guys
on the West Coast brought it to me, and it's
it's it's different, and he's self contained. And each day
(46:57):
we're going up slowly, but and he's gonna break. I
just don't know when. I don't know how to read
records there, but the adrenaline that I get every day
and just seeing it if we're up ten streams or
a thousand streams or getting on a new playlist I have.
I was sick for a while. I had a mess
part attack eight years ago. That's why you lost the weight, No,
I just because I didn't want to get another heart attacks.
(47:20):
That's what I'm in. That's what I'm in. So um yeah,
I spent three times. What was that? Was it? Just overworking?
Was it stress. It was never going to the doctor
and not taking care of myself. If I went to
a doctor and said, hey, you blood pressures high, you
gotta do something. You gotta lose ten times. You gotta
(47:42):
do this, you gotta do that. Um, But it was
I'm not blaming my extual I'm not blaming anybody. It
was just me not taking care of myself. You could
say stress, you could say this, you could say that,
but it was just you gotta know your body and
you gotta just take care of yourself. You know, you
gotta make yourself a priority. Now, yeah, you know you
are learning that in the pandemic. Thank god. No, you
(48:04):
can't be a victim. And you know, and just like
who wants to hear a victim story at least not
of your own self? Like m so you don't feel
like a stranger in the strange land in terms of like, yeah,
I do, I have no idea what the fun I mean?
I have no I called the Empire distributes us the
(48:27):
smartest guy in the music business. I don't want to
bother him, so I speak to like what can I
do to that? Like I used to make a call sheet? Right,
two people will be some mixture you guys by streeting
guys today. Right, I've got five guys, right, and they
all worked with me who are all at the DSPs.
I mean I said here, like just twiddling my fucking
thumbs and I'll take a nap at three o'clock. But
(48:53):
I'm just saying that today, Like, how is it different
now promoting especially with the internet at the helm you
have no word of the Internet in the early nineties,
but you have nobody promote to like you can't you
can't promote Spotify the record they don't want to record
on the radio yet. So my day was today. I
(49:14):
got him a booking agent at t A right, and
I was really excited to do your things. So I
went to lunch, made a few calls and just thinking
about the podcast that saal like freedom to Make. That's
a dope day. That's amazing. Wait a minute, I'm gonna
(49:36):
get crushed if I don't ask one answer Roth question?
All right, could you talk about your your your work
with as Roth and and with Scooter I mean at
as great as as she was. I notion Pennsylvania. You know,
um you got the name with Jerry Clark introduced me
to Scooter. I was in Atlanta. The Scooter, I think
was still in college, and he dis reminded me a
(50:00):
little of myself. I thought he was a little bit
more full of ship, but I thought he was brain
and I offered him to become president of company without experience.
He gave Scoot Scooter a start. I gave Scooter his
first record here Ship. Now I feel like there's a
question that I should be asking that I don't know
(50:22):
to ask, because again, you keep on pulling these historical
I gave sca so this, this is what I'm proud of.
I gave scooted his first record here with I gave
Guy O Sirie. I got him his first deal with
Henji and Evili with Ruben Rodriguez at Angela Market. Wait,
what so I just didn't started Maverick. Guy was eighteen
(50:44):
years old. You gave oh Ship. No, I didn't sign.
I didn't sign him. I made the deal for Guy.
So Guy was was managing Henji. Yeah, at the age
of eighteen. Yeah, you imagine, I think at the age
of sixteen, and I begged him to go, let's start
an independent record company and he fucking said no. Wow,
(51:08):
it was another one. I want one more, at least three? Yeah, like,
give me some more. Start bragging, brag on yourself. This
is minority moment. I mean I can't brag it myself.
But you know Scooter, I opened him to become president.
That's so he said no. I said the guy, let's
start a record company. He said no, And I made
the deal and then on and that's you know, and
(51:31):
then zz me you know me rizzer and fetch up
you know those it can I ask you an awkward
question that probably nobody ever asked. Was it ever awkward
to have that many? Five percent is on the label?
Thank you good night? Also, I mean blackmaid is God
(51:55):
and the white maid is devil. They were all on
my wedding. I mean I never thought about it to
just now like and it never came to you know.
I also to know, I wanted to know at some
point where the where did they stop? Because I feel
like also at a certain point, you're helping to make
money too. So but that's interesting. Yeah, you never with
(52:15):
the bag. The only one that we had issues with,
um was dead press. Oh yeah, Um, I forgot about
the press. But at the end of the day, I
probably handled it wrong. It was my my ego was hurt.
It was like how the fund did not trust me?
Are you serious? Yeah? I mean I mean that the
(52:41):
first record. Were you there for the second album? No,
I can tell okay, oh no, I wish. I wish
that second that second album should have blown up, and
it didn't. But you know, but then you look at
you know mp any yup. You know it's just like
those those are records to this day. You know that's
(53:03):
still give me goose bumps. Yeah, stay around forever. Now,
I mean, this is the first time I think you
and I are talking, man, But I've heard but stand
up things about you, and you know, all the respect
that you had, and this is like a long, long, long,
long overdue conversation. Man. I thank you for coming on
(53:23):
the show. You in New York for you. I'm currently
in New York. The next time, we gotta go to dinner,
no doubt, no doubt. Well that's why you got a
daughter too. Yeah, right, where do you guys want to
go for dinner? I'll set it up and wait, so good,
(53:47):
build nothing, no questions. Well, I just I mean, Steve,
it sounds like like you made a lot of close
friends and and a lot of people hate you, which
makes you an authentic Steve. So congratulations on that. And
but what a great career. I mean no, it just
just too much, too much, the process incredible. Yeah, I
(54:08):
really wish I was there at Radio City for that
night at uh celebration. That night was so fucking special.
I mean it was. I mean I think it was
excess last performance. It was, and it was right before
everything shut down. Yeah, yeah, it was amazing. I was
in the Radio City would never be the same after that,
(54:32):
They never, they never said so many people backstage and
in their life. I also wanted to know how that
was organized and oneot, well you have a uh sick
of Steven and Bill and Fontagelo and Laya the great,
the great Steve Rifkin. Yes, this was amazing. Hope I
(54:57):
didn't talk too much. No, we live for rabbit, Holy
trust what is that? What are those words? They're going
together talk to us? We don't know. So until next time,
ladies and gentlemen, and I promise you that I will
have better camera working. Yeah, and Steve looked professional. I'm
(55:23):
just I feel like a drunk here, But anyway, thank you.
You get you're not a drunk and you're getting high
too much. All right, we'll see you on the next
go around. Thank you very much, lady and gentleman. What's
(55:44):
What's Left Supreme is a production of My Heart Radio
but more podcasts. For My Heart Radio, visit the I
Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
your favorite shows.
Quest Love Supreme is a production of I Heart Radio.
What Up y'all? It's on paid bill Quest Love Supreme.
We are back with Part two of the Quest Love
Supreme Interview with Steve Ritt. You co founded Loud Records
and put out some critical albums by Wu Tang, Great
Kwan Mob. Do you haven't listened to part one? Please
check it out. Steve talks about growing up a music industry,
James Brown coming do it Far, Mitzvah, his relationship with
(00:22):
Dupap but now hip hop classics. Check it. I I
will say that my first listen to that album thirty
six Changers of Cuban Lamps. Oh, thirty six Chambers. So
the day that both Marauders and and and the Wu
Tank comes out, and we're driving up from Philly listening
(00:46):
to this, and you know, I know it's not not
since Princess fan Base with the album Dirty Mind. If
I heard what I deem like revision in an opinion
of the record when I first heard the Wood Tang record,
and not that I was looking from like a commercial
(01:07):
standpoint or an underground standpoint, but I just never heard
something so dirty in my life. I don't know that's
like this is way too underground for regular people, and
yet it almost became the pinnacle of maybe it's weird
like they became. They became the epicenter of the mainstream
(01:29):
of the system that they were against, which you know,
I wasn't complaining was power. Oh yeah they do. But
I just mean they still are still they still not.
I don't mean I don't even like enough four four
letter word wag like their mainstream that Christ No, But
I'm just saying that, I there's no way you're gonna
(01:50):
tell me when that first listen that this group was
going to be the Alpha and Omega and the epicenter
of what. But let me ask you a question. Sorry
for cutting you off when you heard when you heard
Cream and can it be for the first time? Well yeah,
well yeah, well yeah, what what I remember? I remember
hearing Cream for the first time in the studios I knew,
(02:16):
I mean I knew actually before because I was on
the road. I moved to New York, and I opened
up the New York office, and I opened up and
I took an apartment in New York and now I
was by a coastal But but at the end of
the day, when Cream came out and forget about the
well that's one dollar dolla BILLI and what that meant
to me or whatever. But I just knew that this
(02:40):
album there was something fucking special about it. Then three
months later, my office in l A was on Melros
and King's Road. What Cookies is literally the building with
cook Cookies is. And I'm going to the deli to
grab a sandwich and I see this white kid head
down to hear on a fucking skateboard with the old
Wo Tank Scully singing mood Tank panting on the up,
(03:00):
and I knew, get go. I said, at my age,
now I'm sixty years old. Now, I said, when I'm
sucking sixty, they're still gonna be around. I don't know.
In my mind, it was just like again, I gotta
go back to the first Jungle Brothers record. Like the
Jungle Brothers first album, straight Out the Jungle was just
(03:21):
like an inside secret for like real heads. Meanwhile, like
mainstream America only feels hammer Vanilla ice like more, you know,
mainstream rappers. And Jungle Brothers was on Tommy Boy correct
Uh no, no, no, that's day Lost sold. Jungle Brothers
was on Warlock and then went to Warrener Brothers for
(03:45):
the second album, and I was just like, just to me,
I you know, once once Cream started picking up traction,
I was like, wait a minute, this is almost like
if Straight out the Jungle by the Jungle Brothers really
got a chance. Now. I mean, there's a lot of
factors into the success of Wu Tang Clan, but what
(04:10):
I was basically leading up to was upon first listen
of that entire record, you knew you had lightning in
a bottle in your possession. Yeah, I knew we had
lightning Outcast was throwing up a party and when did
their album came out? To Summer Night ninety four, I
know I was at a party, an album released party.
(04:31):
I was with Steve Staff, okay, and I mean I
think I think Clark was DJ. The M T D
record came on and we're talking and also everybody just
went straight to the to the dance floor losing that
funking mine and that's when I knew that there was
(04:54):
That was like my first like I needed to see
it with my own eyes, right, and that's why I
like to be outside. So it was like at the
end of the day, like when I see something with
my eyes and that's what made me move to New
York and opened up shop in New York. And then
remember the new music seminar, Yes, right then, I said, Clark,
let's find the club was um Areas? Whose area? And
(05:18):
they let me do a showcase with the Licks Twister
and all of New York showed up. Shout out to
G two, who thanks trustee U one of one of
their many street team people that I've associated with with.
G used to be part of the Princeton hip hop
circle that you know, yeah, but you know he would
(05:42):
also work the Philadelphia market like would have like his
side guys or I don't know if Ge was part
of Rifkin's street promotion team or business personal people, but
that's how I got hit to them, all right, So
I have to ask you the other side of the
coin too, because a big part of my personal success
(06:05):
was also being the guy on standby whenever somebody would
mess up. I e blah blah blah, I'm not going
to make it to the show. Can you guys get
here in twelve hours? Uh da da da just dropped out, yo,
Can you guys fly in next week? And literally at
the beginning of WU Tang Forever. I swear to God,
(06:28):
at least six of my entire output of doing shows
we're based on Wu Tang shows not attempted during the
during the period of of you talking about the Boutang
(06:48):
gage to get some machine starting then, but just basically,
you know, like the roots might as well have been,
you know, the twelfth member of the Wu Tang clan,
because literally is like, uh, who's supposed to come or
whatever designated will remember we're supposed to show up, and okay,
we'll get the roots instead. So for me, though, in
(07:14):
and I have my theories about this. What are your
feelings on Wood Tang Forever? There's a double appul right,
but did you get goose bumps on certain songs? All right?
The album I mean was a double appule. So, like
(07:36):
I said, I never get to to myself in a
and I got goose bumps. On Triumph, I got goose bumps.
I've got the name of the kid, it's yours. And
there was one and and there was one more record
which I would have Well, I really got goose bumps.
But at the end of the day, I put that
Twitter together between Wotang and Rage, right, and you know,
(07:58):
we um it was first million dollar hip hop video.
Brett Ratner directed it. Oh yeah, look, no nothing else.
I just hadn't from my perspective. Uh that okay. So
first of all, I feel like the strength of Triumph
(08:19):
was that it was the first offering. I mean, you know,
it could have been, like, name any other song that
it could have been dogshit the song not actual dogshit.
I mean, it could have been Reunited. It could it
could have been whatever. Whatever. The first song from that
album was Gonna come forth, was gonna be Reunited? Was
the song that gave me googse bumps that you Triumph?
(08:41):
And right, why didn't reunite it? To me? The opening Reunited,
I mean first, you know, was ridiculous in that. I
mean the s they started fighting. So let me just
tell you where where I am, right, Biggy Passes few
months before that, right, Me and puffect conversations before Big
(09:04):
pass who's gonna come first? We were big and we
were both coming with a double album, so big was
always gonna come first, right because I didn't really we didn't.
We weren't having video records, right, so we have breadth
through the video and like you said, whatever the video
(09:25):
was the video. The video was but to me, they
were a rock and roll group or they were a group, right,
So the Rage tour was right. We sold lately in
records on that album if they finished that tour, mm hmm, right,
because we already we started in Florida and we were
(09:49):
coming up to New York, so that was already home base,
like and sALS we're going up now. We were gonna
do the bum fuck, you know, like the did Mid Indiana,
like the mid mid, mid, mid, Midwest and West Coast.
That album would have sold twenty million records, and that
(10:09):
was always my plan if we and I agree with you,
it should have went Diamond. I you know, I don't
know the exact conditions. I don't you know, I know
it's a fire. I always felt like, ah, whenever whenever
someone gets a good formula and they change it. I
(10:31):
wish they didn't make that record in California. I wish
they would have stayed. Well. Well, the problem was if
you saw the show where is this house got flooded?
Everything was destroyed, so that he had he had to
start from scratch anyway, and with everybody having solo record,
I understand what you're saying. With everybody, with everybody having
(10:52):
solo records in New York, you're being pulled ten different ways.
Everybody's being pulled, tended. They all want plas, the one
plat ghost, one class plat. So it's like they're getting
so then being in one house together and to create
that unity how they had it on the first album.
Granted it wasn't shottling and it wasn't in a basement
(11:14):
right right, but the house got flooded and everything was
everything was destroyed. Can I ask though, um, I kind
of feel like the end of that rain kind of
not the end of that rain, but at least the
stronghold of that initial period was the Hot ninety seven situation. Uh,
(11:39):
with that that was a bad situation. I was on
my god, how could you have rectified that situation? Or like,
how do you in terms of are you the type
of CEO that has to talk to the artists to
stop them from sabotaging their progress or whatever, or could
you explain the story that whole Hot nine seven situation
(12:00):
and then like Hot nineties seven not playing woods Hang anymore?
And I was, I was, I was on a plane,
I was, it was my bachelor party, Okay, I was
flying from Dallas to Atlanta, and you know, we land
and my phone's blowing the funk up. But you know,
I have all pretty much my senior executives with me.
(12:24):
You know. Was my brother, was a partner, my best friend,
my child's best friend, Rich you know, was a partner, Mojoe,
who's you know, became a brother in running promotion. You
know that they were all with me. And I'm getting
just when everybody had to you know, not even the
two way, just a page sto and like what the
(12:44):
fuss happening? And I couldn't get Ris on the phone.
And then Tracy, who was the programer, just called me.
I'm getting married in four fucking days, like called me
and says, go fund yourself, like you know, just like
I mean, she was a dude. We wouldn't went to fist, right,
(13:07):
But she didn't know that, you'd personally like she she
she was venting. I don't even think she was so mad.
I don't even think she went to the wedding. And
she was invited to the wedding. Don't again. Wu Tang
was the first rap record that had ninety seven fucking played.
They were a dance station had seven was also on
that No more music, less rap. They were on that,
(13:32):
so they weren't a rap I mean said it was
a dance station like and then Flex was I mean,
between Flex and Angie, they're the ones that took it
to a whole different place where Flex had to show
on the weekends, you know. And then you know, and
then thank god, you know, Puff came with Flavor in
the ear and there was some you know, and then
finally you know, and he was making those records like
(13:56):
so thank God for him because you know, so there
was it was absolutely unreparable. I guess we our listeners
that are are hearing, you know, they're they're doing summer
jam and yeah, you know, I don't know who's ghost
face or I forgot who said something out on line.
(14:17):
They don't play our ship, you know, listen, let's keep
it a hundred. There were seventy five thousand people there
right right. They're making a fortune, so we weren't. We
were on tour with Rage, right and at the end
of it, we weren't getting paid a lot of money yet. Yeah,
really a Rage tour and and goes you know, should
(14:41):
you have said it? No? But about to say that
don't help with your arguments. Like, just to be clear,
artists do not get paid for doing uh else? No,
but no, now they get you know, they started getting
paid a few years and not a few years after
that they were getting Aine Nicki Minaj not getting paid
these yeah for ny well no, I mean, but just
(15:05):
black artists in general, just you know, you just black
radio that you Yeah, I'll do it for free, you know,
as long as you keep playing my records. But so
there is literally absolutely no for no. So for a
while they even banned all records. What yeah, this is
(15:28):
the thing. But this is what was happening to right, Steve,
nothing wrong, That's what I mean. I mean, me and
Tracey you were friends. Who else is she going to
take that out of? But you know, are just happened
in Philly with beans like it happened with Foxy Brown
with Death Jam when she cutted out Kobe and they said,
(15:49):
we don't parent we playing these records for a minute
like that. I did not know that, Okay, Um, so
with actually you mentioned puff, I was gonna ask with
the with the opening sketch of side three or side
two of the Purple Tape of Great Kwan when they
(16:10):
kind of you know, draw a line the sand with
Bad Boy and Wu Tang I e the I guess
by that point in Bad Boys establishing himself as more
of a mainstream, uh middle on the I mean no,
I mean, but we gotta give credit. What credits do?
(16:32):
I mean? Puff had everybody. I mean, he he had
the palm in the world in the palm of his hands.
He was coming with it. And you know what, what
go said? You know, me and Puff spoke. He goes,
what was that about? I said, I don't know, you know,
I have no idea, but I go, let's just keep it.
We're in two totally different names. We're not even in
(16:53):
the same freeway, like you know, I'm just using New
York like you know, we're on the Northern States there
on the l i A, you know. And it's just like,
I'm not trying to get people. He's making radio radio records.
We're still making records for for the street, and I'm
not like I'm trying to help Helf get as much
as he possibly can, like so, and you know, and
(17:18):
they worked it out a few months later. So I
always wanted to know what the response was, because you know, yeah,
know when when Shuk said fuck New York or whatever
whatever the hell he said at the SURCE Awards, that
that that that's when we all they all reunited again, right,
and that was that was like two weeks after we
came out with the album. So were you there for
hip Hop's funeral? Um? I was there? No, I wasn't
(17:42):
there with my son was just born, So I pretty
much was taking that wrong there. Can I ask a
question real quick about these records since you have such
not made for radio records, but yet and still it
seems like you got to a stride where y'all were
picking like amazing singles. I had the best day in
our staff to this day. That person, though there was
(18:04):
a it was a team who was It was a
guy named Maddie See who actually distubbored Digg. You worked right, yes, right,
Scotfrey start up as my assistant, and he got himself
into um and are quickly stretching Armstrong who had the
stretching about Vito show, Yeah, and then hit he was
(18:31):
he was the first one. And then the guy named
Seawan C. King Yes, yes, yes, speaking of Maddie See. Um,
I remember getting Sick Ones Part one, how in the
world did you guys manage two on the second go
(18:53):
round get capsule lightning in the bottom like the Street Team.
So I was saying, the streets don't lie. The record
was cool, it did what it was supposed to do,
but it wasn't a fucking smatch. And we came in
and you know, and I said, Mattie, what are we
(19:14):
gonna do? You know, um, you know, we're cool, but
this is not gonna drive any anything home. And he goes,
as a matter of fact, havoc, just to the remix
last night. Here it is, and you heard it, and
we heard it. And I was on the way to
how could I be down? And um, I had a
walk man, not even at this man, I had a
(19:35):
walk man. And I was in a car with them
stretching Barbiito and I was on my me and Barbido.
I used to play basketball, and there was like some
type of celebrity game and they lost their mind, and
you know they were they were they were the first
one to play it. They played it, we gave it
the flex. This is September, October, and then when we
(19:59):
came back after Christmas. It's the biggest record in New York.
So but I'm saying, in your mind, it wasn't like,
oh well that didn't make it all right? What else
you guys got? Like I think another in our CEO
would have just been like, oh well that's still born,
so what else? What else is down the pike? But
(20:21):
it's just unheard when they song like that. Well when
they when they came to the office, I knew they
were the perfect like who is your first child? And
I got my first check and my first plaque and
everything else like that. But you know, when you give
a jab, you gotta come with a cross or a
(20:41):
hook right right away, right So Who definitely shook people
and got everybody's attention. But when we came with Bob,
that's when everybody, we everybody knew that lab was for real.
And I still had the marketing company. So the biggest
LAB got the biggest the marketing company. Of that the
big of the marketing company that more people wanted to
(21:03):
be allowed, and we would like we would like three
ft three, you know, well matcap we made a little
bit of money, but it just did a little over
a hundred. But you know, licktsed and go gold, but
the lixts at three thousand, who did two million on
the first record, and you know and mob did you
know they weren't planning him on the first album. So
(21:24):
even with you knowing because me, you know, I knew
of and I had the fourth and Broadway from the
back ye back and all that stuff like, but in
your mind you're like, yeah, these guys are gonna still
be a thing. Yeah. I mean they came to the
(21:44):
office they want I don't know if they were gonna
smoke a cigarette, they were gonna smoke a blump, but
they went to the bathroom and this is like, you know,
a corporate building and they live proud of you. Wasn't
there a because he was sick at the time. It
was had again. You know some of the guys, guys
and the sprinklers just went off. I said, did a
(22:06):
perfect follow up to all time And that's all. So
you there still have to be an edge or a
rock or an element of of your groups that authenticity. Yeah,
to make him I see, I see. Do you mind
telling us like a Prodigy story just because you know,
we were one of the last shows that he did
(22:27):
before we lost him. He was like a I mean,
he was a brother to me. I mean just um,
like he had such a good, good soul and you know,
he just wanted to learn and he was like a sponge.
I think his oldest son or daughter is my oldest
son that I think that like four or five months apart.
(22:50):
And he would say, is your son coming to the office.
I'm like, I don't know why he was. I need
to come up, and I got my kid with me.
You know, if he was coming up, that means he
must have been going over some artwork or whatever he
was going through. So we were fortunate enough, you know,
to have a nannie. So I'm like, I'll make sure
(23:10):
you see what time are you gonna be here? So
I just had to get approval from my wife and
you know, and the nannie would watch, you know, both babies,
you know, and and he and he was appreciated, like
and you know, we could have arguments and say funk
you to each other, but at the end of the
(23:31):
day we would both say, you know about love him
and you know, and it wasn't like we're just We're
just fighting for what we felt. And then it was
never about money. It was always about maybe a single
or a tour or something like that. It was not
like we already spent this and we're not going It
was just it was about passion and really what was
gonna get to the next level after the jay Z
(23:54):
incident and two thousand and one, did you like, how
does it leave? We'll CEEO respond to that, just like
off your back, just get the next record ready? Actually, wait,
can you explain the situation to me? You know again,
I was I was in l A for the summer.
(24:14):
I remember getting the call and I wanted to call ban.
I'm like, where the fund did you get that picture? Like?
How did you get the picture? Right? So, oh, we're
gonna get you know, we're going to get on this show. Yeah,
I got the t on that joy all right? So
(24:36):
so so at so at the end, at the end
of the day, it's like, man like, let's just get
to work and not even about this thing Jay or whatever.
It's like, what's this saying sticks and stones like break
your bones, but names will never on me. So I mean, yeah,
we got one on the chin, but you know what,
we're still standing. And it's not how many times you falls,
how many times you get up? Why did you decide
(25:02):
to sell the label? Because I wanted, I, you know,
when us selling to Sony, we will going to be
the third major in the Sony system. Right it's Columbia
Epic and now is gonna be Us. And and it
really wasn't about the money, was more about my ego,
(25:24):
which you know, was funked up. I was like, all right,
We're gonna be the third major, and I'm gonna be
able to have this be on the same playing field
as Jimmy as you know, as every as everybody else,
because I always felt we weren't on the same playing field.
And it ended up being the biggest mistake of my life.
So you left the n so like the whole Project
(25:48):
Pet period, and that that whole came three six Mafia,
like we broke the six Mail, we broke Project Pat,
we broke Flipped, Um Punt passed. During that time, we
had Murder Music. The Vena was before Vino was like
ninety right around the fun time um so that you know,
(26:12):
and it was just I never played a corporate game before.
You know, we went from the staff of thirty people
to the coolest, most creative company out there on both
aspects on the marketing side of things, and and then
on the record side of things. You know, we did
the deal and next thing, you know, I had the
staff of three people, and I'm like, what the funk
is this? Like there was this woman, God bless us.
(26:35):
So her name was Tolba Haman. You know, she was
in the sixties, calling me Mr Rickn. I'm thirty five
years old, thirty six years old, Like please don't call
me Mr Rickn, you know, and she was just and
I knew then it was like how much how much
time do we have left in this fucking deal? And
it was just like I was stopped for three years.
I started having panic attacks and anxiety attacks. I was like,
(26:57):
I just couldn't wait to get the funk out. And
it was the first time like I didn't know which
way to look because I thought I was getting kid
every which way I got from corporate. Now there's another
Philadelphia connection that you kind of have. UM. My good
friend Charles Stone the Third, who directed Many Roots video
(27:20):
Um made his debut um with with the Street Classic
called paid him Full Um, which is I believe one
of your first loud film. Could you talk about the
process of getting into the movies again, I didn't want
to be in it. We were doing all we were
(27:41):
doing all of Mirrormax's marketing through through the marketing company.
Now you know, we're branching out. Now I have every
film studio, MGM, Mirror, Maax, Walk, Warner Brothers, plus the
records and the Street Team. Marketing went to Corporate America
and I sold me to a company called Dinner Public
at that time, which was the largest advertising holding company
(28:04):
in the lane. Okay, so Merrormax wants there's a guy,
don't even Scott Lambert, who was an agent, William Mars,
who was just a really good good friend, um, a
really good friend of mine. And he says, merror Max
wants to do urban films, like I can get you
a three picture deal. And I'm like, huh if you
know he's like, he was a brother to me. I'm like, Scott,
(28:27):
that's not gonna happen. Why would they give me a
three picture deal? So he sets up a meeting. I
don't want to say hard I think it was Bob Winsey,
but I couldn't. I couldn't stand Bob. I already had
a fight with him once and I beat this ship
out of him. He meant this, Oh, I was safe. Yeah,
(28:47):
all right, those questions too, like yeah, he didn't mean,
he mean, he was just a fucking prick. I mean
when the big earthquake in l A happened, my office
was destroyed. I had to send a reported because I
don't give a fuck who died who did with that?
And I said this, I said, the next name, I
see you, I promise you smack the ship. And I
(29:09):
hung and I hung up the phone. A year and
a half later, my son is four weeks old. He
was born June tenth, July fourth, the weekend I'm pulling off.
I took a house in the Hamptons and there's a
guessish I go to take a kissing there he is,
He has no idea what the funk I am. I
smacked him in the face, I said, And that is
(29:31):
our promo, ladies and gentlemen, Steve will be on quest ups,
the freeme smacking motherfucker's up. I liked it a lot down,
not just any kind in the so how I got it.
So now we're doing a presentation for the video you mentioned,
you know, so we're coming and my brother says, um
(29:57):
Merrimacks is coming with off. By the time we land was.
It was the Mention, which was the sister label to Merrimax,
was like the indie side. Um to Jonathan, you're full
of ship. We land and get to the hotel. There's
a fucking contract. I don't know if my brother foratched
my signature. I don't even remember signing the deal. And
next thing you know, I have a three picture This
(30:17):
will happen within a week, a three picture deal. And
they threw crazy fucking money outs. And then Brett Ratner says, um,
Dame has an incredible story, right, But I go, who's
gonna produced it? I don't know nothing about I don't
even have to produce a record, Like I'm gonna not
produce a fucking movie because no, you gotta hire this
guy Ron. We hired this guy Rock and and the
(30:41):
and the rest of history, and they you know, I'm
not gonna The only thing that I did is we
had the deal. But this was I gotta give credit
to Dame. Dan did everything. He pickedure and he did everything.
I'm not trying to take his thunder. I mean he
did everything. And you know, I just went for the
ride when he asked me to take my name off
as executive producer I was taking my name off anyway.
(31:04):
It was based on a true story and I didn't
want any fucking headaches people just coming out of the
wood right coming at you. Yeah, so I was taking
my name if anyone, I was like, that's not a problem.
We now live in a time in which the the
African Renaissance is truly arrived with like um African music
and African artists getting mainstream success. But you know, I
(31:27):
know that you. I mean, I won't say a risk,
but you were actually ahead of the game. And I
believe you signed a con, is you not? What was
it about a con? And you signed him early, like
back in two thousand four, two thousand five, I believe
was that he was right when I left Glad, I
(31:47):
started an SRC right right right, So I signed Banner.
I'm a basketball and banner and yeah, I'm a basketball
guy and I break my nose playing basketball and the
the matro guy that I am. All I really want
to do is cribe. But my son is watching and
(32:09):
I want to show him, like I have blood all
over me and I want to show him that it's okay.
So like get hit and you don't have to pry
me while I'm seeing three of everything. It's like, you know,
if the baskets over there, I shut the bowl over that.
Like then I literally just ended up felt paining like
and I just passed out. And when they were taking
me to the hospital, Kenny Burns with him, and Kenny
(32:34):
he goes, you gotta hear this, and I'm like, what
the funk it is this? And there was only one
record that I wanted to hear and that I mean,
there's only one record that I said, just keep on
playing it over and over and over again. And my
philosophy was like I never considered myself an A and
R guy, Like it was always about the team. Wait,
Kenny Burns said that No, I said, Kenny had the
(32:55):
tape and he played for me. We were playing ball.
And now what went to the hospital to get my
nose ticks? Okay, I'm just I'm just tripping to Kenny
Burns is apart of the ACN store. This is amazing, Okay.
So um, in those days, I flew to Private M
and I just didn't know if I was being laughed
to fly. I didn't know what the hell was the
matter with my nose. It could have been like a
(33:16):
full you know rain Now, I don't know what the funk.
You know, they said they broken nose and I couldn't
really fly for twenty four hours for infectual. So I
just said, we're going to Atlanta, said in New York
and um I met the vine him at a con
the rest of his history and I pretty much did
the same thing. Um, universal laughed in my face. I said,
(33:36):
this is gonna be the biggest artists in my career.
And they said, oh, this is could be big at
the war. I'm like yeah, and they laughed, and I
got so fucking mad. I was like, you know what
funck you guys. And I had somebody that was with
me at laughed. Started off as an intern in the
Street Team guy and then he just grew and grew
and grew with me. And then when I started s SC,
(33:57):
he became he was. I gave him a piece of
the company me and he was my president STA. His
wife was pregnant at the time, and I said, God,
you do the East and the South, I'll do the West.
In the Midwest, and we didn't have a video, we
didn't have anything. He took a con and I took
a count for the book and I may we may
(34:18):
believe who was a con? And we yeah, wow, this
is like the Little Richard James Brown situation. We're both
Little Richard and James Brown. We're touring as Little Richard.
I didn't okay, so we had no video, nobody knew
(34:44):
what any kind of look like. And at the at
the end of the day, the record broke in Albuquerque,
New Mexico, and so like, so which is like, you know,
I fly, I fly into me York with the record
club locked up with styles. I was just about to
say okay, right time to New York. And this is
(35:06):
you know, Republic was doing for doing their their research.
I shouldn't not. There's a fucking report like like this
must have been fifty pages on every store in Albuquerque,
in EUTA. You wouldn't believe how many stores that were,
you know, between Target, the Walmart and the ship's going
through the roof, and we're like, what the fund is
(35:30):
going on? You know, and I'm like I'm trying to
bring it east and you know now you know, and
we had to change out philosophy because the Republic was
a radio company. They didn't understand street records. So I
had a cover like like Philly came in, Boston came
(35:50):
in Connecticut, Cayyon, Miami came. You know, New York was
the last one to come in, you know. And then
who was Mother's Day? And I get a phone call
from somebody goes, what the fund did you do in Brooklyn?
I'm like, what are you talking about? Let's talking about
a you know, And the truth is, I really didn't
do anything. We just we surrounded New York where it
(36:11):
would just have the weekend and with the King's Plaza mall.
You know, the record was being played in the fucking
call you know that Monday he broke calls me up
and he says, we're adding the record, you know. And
then two weeks later, like the research, it was like
number one requested in like top three call out. I mean,
the record broke and the right it was the first
(36:35):
first week, I think we scanned three thousand records. It
was the lowest sound scanning record I ever had in
my life. First week, but each week it did, you
go three thousand to fifteen hundred, stay stated three three thousand,
two hundred, three thousand, one hundred. And when that fucking
thing just took off, I mean, by by the fall.
(36:56):
We were at sixty thousand a week, mm hmm, and
we didn't even become like lonely yet. I'm so tired
of that record. I have a confessor about locked Up
in about locked Up, And this is before the errors exam,
where you can't find out who the artist is. I
(37:17):
swear to God for a good one seconds, for good
one seconds, I said, holy shit, ROBERTA Flecky. But but
(37:42):
locked Up with starts Pete was those story remix. I
didn't hear his verse, but a CON's voice. It was
so I can't describe it. It's it's such a compliment
to a con, such a compliment, and I'm saying this
is androgynus, but I literally are It was a woman singing,
and because it was done in such a rich alto,
(38:06):
and I never heard this voice before. For twenty seconds,
I was like, Hey, it could happen. I was like,
if and Aretha Brinklin working together, let me find out
that that's ROBERTA flag is about to come back like
a motherfucker. Okay, wait, before I let you go, there's
(38:33):
one question I always ask of every label CEO, can
you help me three x that you almost signed that
were close, but no cigars. Jay Zy you could have
you could have signed jay z B and B actually
hated me so much and because we took him for
(38:53):
so much money, they didn't want to give us any
more money to sign Jake. But I go back with
Dane since the years old when he was managing Original Flavor.
Wow wow so ja um. He wasn't an act, but
he was to me one of the best executives. You know,
IRV Gotti. When he had Mike Dronimo, we tried to
(39:16):
get the record and I will tell you this, whatever
reason we couldn't get to sample cleared and then being
he was saying, you're wasting your time and this was
literally I just signed my deep. They said, you're you're
wasting your time and we're not gonna give you money
to do find something else. So if I didn't deal
with Mike, I'm sure would it ended up being with me.
(39:39):
Are you talking about Master I See or the single
that he had that was more puffy ash No, the
first single, the first Master I See that's a goddamn masterpiece,
um wow z. And then then you had a chance
(39:59):
to sign him. Yeah. But but the thing was that
if he stayed with us, and I had to know
with Paul Rosenberg a few weeks ago. He wouldn't have
been Eminem four million records later he would have been eminent.
He would have been Eminem fifty million records. He was
an underground rapper, you know. And you talked about Genie
in the bottle, right, so you're talking about him and
(40:23):
Ray just creating magic that that. You know, he would
have been lobde. He would have been willed your punt.
We had a pop record on was still not to
play it, but you know he would have been just
in that lane. That was the only thing we knew
how to DoD hm. Wow, So I know that. You know.
(40:45):
One of the thing is also interesting about your story
is the fact that how the lineage goes down from
your grandfather, your father, you and now your your son
is an MC. Correct. So my youngest both my sons
played ball, you know, one one played college, another one
played for a famous high school out in l A.
(41:05):
And he didn't want to go to college, and out
of nowhere, he just started rapping and he put out
a record, and ship put the record at himself and
he did you know, a few hundred thousand streams flex
played the record on his own without the connection, no
knowing that, not knowing the connection. But but it was
(41:27):
during the holiday, so he played. He had a two
week run and he was going to music school in Florida,
full sale, and it was just you know, my son,
he doesn't want to read it. He needs to see
it and feel it. So he lost his love from
(41:48):
doing like real school work. That's not him. So you
know he has twelve twelve of his friends are like
his crew. They roll in the NBA. So he's gonna
be an intern for Rich paul Um starting December. Nope,
the way you're talking about basketball, I feel like your
true passion is owning a team. Or now I've lost
(42:11):
so much money in basketball. I mean, I'll I'm just
I'm just a fan now that that's all I'm gonna be.
I've lost tensively ins or dollars? Did you try to
never try to own a team. But like my my
philosophy in life, and this is what I've learned from
my dad. If I can help one one person and
save that life and put him in the right direction,
then I did my job on her. No money, Could
(42:33):
you know that feeling of saving somebody. You can't put
a price on it. And you know, so when me
and my wife split, my kids are interration, okay, and
they all came out different complexion. Well for you, you know,
one came out really lights getting attractor rapp m hm.
(42:56):
So when we split, she moved to Florida and there's
an area called Dellery Beach and in this one area,
Delwy Beach is probably the most gang affected in all
the flour in a in a five block radius, and
there was a gym there and she threw him in there,
and she goes, you gotta learn how to stand on
(43:17):
your own. And she wouldn't let me go to any games.
And then finally like I didn't know what AU was
or anything like that. And then I don't know where
I think she was coming out to late. I don't
know where where she was coming but she was like,
you gotta pick a bounce at two o'clock as a
game at twelve. I get there at one to watch
the game, and I knew he was gifted. And then
(43:39):
but I don't know that he had two of the
games at night, you know, one at six and one
at nine. I was in heaven and I just started
going to the games, and you know, they respect him
for who he was. And I just minded my ownusiness.
I wasn't going to try and buy a team, but
I didn't know that he was eleven and he was
playing on a fourteen on the team and they didn't
(44:00):
win a game. But now and he wasn't talking to
me with me and his mom separating, but now he
was back in my life. And I said to the coaches,
said the season can't be over, and he still, well,
you know it's over. I'm like, you gotta find something.
(44:21):
I go, because, well, there's a tournament next week for
twelve and under the team. I said, well, alex is eleven,
how old is say? And like we end up putting
six guys on the team. He goes, who will coach?
I said, I will? He says, what do you know
about basketball? I said, enough, I should you not? I
go seventy and that whole fucking song seven zero. So
(44:44):
Florida is known for football. I know nothing about football.
Half my team of professional formal players right now. So
they were just the best athletes in the world. And
I just had him pressed and they could all shoot
the shoot out of the ball and jump and they
were how old was Alex? He was eleven and twelve
like that time, right, Yeah, And I really thought I
(45:05):
was gonna become a professional basketball coach like I had
him traveling. We won States, we won Nationals, we won
the World Games, and I just started taking on challenges.
And then I get a phone call to buy a
tournament which was like a record convention, and just like
one thing went to another, and I mean I lost
my shirt. But at the end of the day, that
is my happiness. Music, right, Music is the closest thing
(45:28):
to God. Right, make your latic and make you cry,
just your memories. It's just it touches your soul. Sure,
and basketball just it just touches me too. Where I
get fucking crazy? Do you still get an itching or
like just one more hit metaphorically speaking as in drugs,
(45:51):
not like a hit single, but just is I mean,
are you addicted at all to the adrenaline? Yeah? I'm
finding that rare Jim So I got I got this
kid right now, same as take from San Diego, California,
m eighteen years old, self contained produces himself. Um he
(46:13):
had eight monthly uses on Spotify and now he's closing
in and I want to say a little under two hundred.
He had twenty five who was on TikTok and we're
closing in on three hundred followers and all the kids
just keep on putting out music and putting out music,
(46:35):
and his energy is fucking ridiculous. And people will say
to me, it's, you know, it's nothing what people are
used to be putting out. But you know what, my
old day, one of my old day, and our guys
on the West Coast brought it to me, and it's
it's it's different, and he's self contained. And each day
(46:57):
we're going up slowly, but and he's gonna break. I
just don't know when. I don't know how to read
records there, but the adrenaline that I get every day
and just seeing it if we're up ten streams or
a thousand streams or getting on a new playlist I have.
I was sick for a while. I had a mess
part attack eight years ago. That's why you lost the weight, No,
I just because I didn't want to get another heart attacks.
(47:20):
That's what I'm in. That's what I'm in. So um yeah,
I spent three times. What was that? Was it? Just overworking?
Was it stress. It was never going to the doctor
and not taking care of myself. If I went to
a doctor and said, hey, you blood pressures high, you
gotta do something. You gotta lose ten times. You gotta
(47:42):
do this, you gotta do that. Um, But it was
I'm not blaming my extual I'm not blaming anybody. It
was just me not taking care of myself. You could
say stress, you could say this, you could say that,
but it was just you gotta know your body and
you gotta just take care of yourself. You know, you
gotta make yourself a priority. Now, yeah, you know you
are learning that in the pandemic. Thank god. No, you
(48:04):
can't be a victim. And you know, and just like
who wants to hear a victim story at least not
of your own self? Like m so you don't feel
like a stranger in the strange land in terms of like, yeah,
I do, I have no idea what the fun I mean?
I have no I called the Empire distributes us the
(48:27):
smartest guy in the music business. I don't want to
bother him, so I speak to like what can I
do to that? Like I used to make a call sheet? Right,
two people will be some mixture you guys by streeting
guys today. Right, I've got five guys, right, and they
all worked with me who are all at the DSPs.
I mean I said here, like just twiddling my fucking
thumbs and I'll take a nap at three o'clock. But
(48:53):
I'm just saying that today, Like, how is it different
now promoting especially with the internet at the helm you
have no word of the Internet in the early nineties,
but you have nobody promote to like you can't you
can't promote Spotify the record they don't want to record
on the radio yet. So my day was today. I
(49:14):
got him a booking agent at t A right, and
I was really excited to do your things. So I
went to lunch, made a few calls and just thinking
about the podcast that saal like freedom to Make. That's
a dope day. That's amazing. Wait a minute, I'm gonna
(49:36):
get crushed if I don't ask one answer Roth question?
All right, could you talk about your your your work
with as Roth and and with Scooter I mean at
as great as as she was. I notion Pennsylvania. You know,
um you got the name with Jerry Clark introduced me
to Scooter. I was in Atlanta. The Scooter, I think
was still in college, and he dis reminded me a
(50:00):
little of myself. I thought he was a little bit
more full of ship, but I thought he was brain
and I offered him to become president of company without experience.
He gave Scoot Scooter a start. I gave Scooter his
first record here Ship. Now I feel like there's a
question that I should be asking that I don't know
(50:22):
to ask, because again, you keep on pulling these historical
I gave sca so this, this is what I'm proud of.
I gave scooted his first record here with I gave
Guy O Sirie. I got him his first deal with
Henji and Evili with Ruben Rodriguez at Angela Market. Wait,
what so I just didn't started Maverick. Guy was eighteen
(50:44):
years old. You gave oh Ship. No, I didn't sign.
I didn't sign him. I made the deal for Guy.
So Guy was was managing Henji. Yeah, at the age
of eighteen. Yeah, you imagine, I think at the age
of sixteen, and I begged him to go, let's start
an independent record company and he fucking said no. Wow,
(51:08):
it was another one. I want one more, at least three? Yeah, like,
give me some more. Start bragging, brag on yourself. This
is minority moment. I mean I can't brag it myself.
But you know Scooter, I opened him to become president.
That's so he said no. I said the guy, let's
start a record company. He said no, And I made
the deal and then on and that's you know, and
(51:31):
then zz me you know me rizzer and fetch up
you know those it can I ask you an awkward
question that probably nobody ever asked. Was it ever awkward
to have that many? Five percent is on the label?
Thank you good night? Also, I mean blackmaid is God
(51:55):
and the white maid is devil. They were all on
my wedding. I mean I never thought about it to
just now like and it never came to you know.
I also to know, I wanted to know at some
point where the where did they stop? Because I feel
like also at a certain point, you're helping to make
money too. So but that's interesting. Yeah, you never with
(52:15):
the bag. The only one that we had issues with,
um was dead press. Oh yeah, Um, I forgot about
the press. But at the end of the day, I
probably handled it wrong. It was my my ego was hurt.
It was like how the fund did not trust me?
Are you serious? Yeah? I mean I mean that the
(52:41):
first record. Were you there for the second album? No,
I can tell okay, oh no, I wish. I wish
that second that second album should have blown up, and
it didn't. But you know, but then you look at
you know mp any yup. You know it's just like
those those are records to this day. You know that's
(53:03):
still give me goose bumps. Yeah, stay around forever. Now,
I mean, this is the first time I think you
and I are talking, man, But I've heard but stand
up things about you, and you know, all the respect
that you had, and this is like a long, long, long,
long overdue conversation. Man. I thank you for coming on
(53:23):
the show. You in New York for you. I'm currently
in New York. The next time, we gotta go to dinner,
no doubt, no doubt. Well that's why you got a
daughter too. Yeah, right, where do you guys want to
go for dinner? I'll set it up and wait, so good,
(53:47):
build nothing, no questions. Well, I just I mean, Steve,
it sounds like like you made a lot of close
friends and and a lot of people hate you, which
makes you an authentic Steve. So congratulations on that. And
but what a great career. I mean no, it just
just too much, too much, the process incredible. Yeah, I
(54:08):
really wish I was there at Radio City for that
night at uh celebration. That night was so fucking special.
I mean it was. I mean I think it was
excess last performance. It was, and it was right before
everything shut down. Yeah, yeah, it was amazing. I was
in the Radio City would never be the same after that,
(54:32):
They never, they never said so many people backstage and
in their life. I also wanted to know how that
was organized and oneot, well you have a uh sick
of Steven and Bill and Fontagelo and Laya the great,
the great Steve Rifkin. Yes, this was amazing. Hope I
(54:57):
didn't talk too much. No, we live for rabbit, Holy
trust what is that? What are those words? They're going
together talk to us? We don't know. So until next time,
ladies and gentlemen, and I promise you that I will
have better camera working. Yeah, and Steve looked professional. I'm
(55:23):
just I feel like a drunk here, But anyway, thank you.
You get you're not a drunk and you're getting high
too much. All right, we'll see you on the next
go around. Thank you very much, lady and gentleman. What's
(55:44):
What's Left Supreme is a production of My Heart Radio
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