Elijah Blake

On this week's episode of The R&B Money Podcast, Tank and J Valentine welcome the multi-talented Elijah Blake. The trio dive deep into Blake's musical journey, discussing his experiences in the industry, creative process, and the inspiration behind his latest project. From songwriting secrets to vocal techniques, this episode offers a candid look at the artistry of R&B. Tune in for an insightful conversation filled with laughter, industry stories, and musical wisdom from some of R&B's finest.

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https://www.youtube.com/RnBMoneyPodcast

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Tank: @therealtank  

J Valentine: @JValentine

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
R and B Money.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
We are.

Speaker 1 (00:07):
Thanks, take about the child. We are the authority on
all things R and B. Ladies and gentlemen. My name
is Tank, Get down time. This is the R and
B Money Podcast. How am I talking about the authority?

Speaker 3 (00:24):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (00:26):
On all things who R and B and talent? Man,
I'm talking about talent. Tell him tell them what else
was gonna say? A song? Right? Song writing? Sanging? Sanging? Yeah, yeah,
yeah yeah? Is your dress twisted? Right? Is your dress
tis right? What about your pontalonis yeah?

Speaker 2 (00:47):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, you got you got to let the
joints on, you know what I mean, some of the prens.

Speaker 1 (00:52):
Joints sell velvet be What is this.

Speaker 3 (01:04):
Man out here with my bros?

Speaker 1 (01:06):
Man? Man, listen, we we we had a brief you know,
I had a brief moment for b E T. And
we thank you for you know, stopping by and just
giving us a little bit of your time. You know.
He was on the move, shaking hands and kissing babies
and an honor man placing new records. You know what
I'm saying. We saw you moving around. People wanted to

(01:26):
talk to you. Man.

Speaker 3 (01:27):
I saw y'all.

Speaker 4 (01:28):
It came running over bro, like y'all are my favorite,
like this and maybe like two other ones I don't
I always was amazed when people watch podcasts.

Speaker 3 (01:37):
I'm like, y'all could just sit there because I got ADHD.

Speaker 1 (01:40):
And but don't have eighty HDAR. There's no such thing
as ADHD diagnosed. How you gonna tell him? There is
no such thing ASHD? He got c D the making
up ship medicine. Don't take it. You may have focus issues,

(02:06):
for sure, but that can be fixed if you want
it fixed, fix it right now. But listen. If you
are okay within your operating system, if it is working

(02:26):
for you, then there's no need to change. It is
working for me.

Speaker 4 (02:31):
And this podcast it may be like one other one
I could sit through. And so when I saw y'all,
I came running over. It was like, oh, this's a lie.
I almost knocked Josh Levi over, is it?

Speaker 1 (02:40):
LEVI love.

Speaker 3 (02:44):
Knocked him over to get to y'all.

Speaker 4 (02:47):
Not intentionally, you know, But it's a war room in
that thing, you know what.

Speaker 1 (02:57):
We I don't even think we were be even paying
a idea to what was going on. We had no idea.
We were just was lou Louba was there and they
was just and they were just coordinating it. And so
we were just sitting there and people would just come
in and we just you know, do the do the thing.
And then afterwards he was like, do you know, do
you have any interviewers today? I was like, Hey, we'd
about about what fifteen about ten fifties? Are you kidding me?

(03:21):
Maybe they were like twenty.

Speaker 2 (03:22):
Eight something crazy and it was there were people which
we found out later couldn't yah, yeah, that couldn't give
to us. And we had no idea because we kind
of That's the other thing too, we didn't really look up.

Speaker 1 (03:33):
We just kind of just stayed locked in.

Speaker 2 (03:35):
We didn't really walk around much, so we didn't really
know what was going on as far as the media
house thing went. And that was our first time doing it,
so we're just thinking, oh, they just have stuff set
up for us.

Speaker 1 (03:44):
We didn't know that there was like lines for me. Yeah,
because one of the one of the around the whole thing, one.

Speaker 2 (03:50):
Of the ladies from from BT came up to me
at the at the basketball the next basketball game the
next day.

Speaker 1 (03:55):
She was like, do you realize.

Speaker 2 (03:57):
That people were waiting for you guys to uh to
interview them?

Speaker 1 (04:03):
I was like hell no.

Speaker 2 (04:06):
I was like, it was like, you know, there's a
bunch of with all due respect, it was a lot
of really really dope platforms that were there.

Speaker 1 (04:13):
I was like no. She was like no.

Speaker 2 (04:15):
People were like, okay, yeah, we'll get to them, but
we're gonna stay here and are they almost done so
you know we can do our R and B money,
And I was like, that's authority.

Speaker 3 (04:24):
For And it was was irritating. Was it was rappers
in line.

Speaker 4 (04:27):
Yeah, I can't go on to Joe but.

Speaker 1 (04:36):
To Joe, but you can Joe loves.

Speaker 4 (04:39):
Actually, somebody came up to me after I got done
with y'all.

Speaker 3 (04:42):
He was like, Hey, your name is on the whiteboard
for Joe, but.

Speaker 1 (04:45):
You absolutely Joe.

Speaker 4 (04:47):
I'll be feeling the way because R and B. I
just feel like we get the short end of the stick.

Speaker 1 (04:53):
Bro.

Speaker 3 (04:53):
They sample us for hip hop.

Speaker 4 (04:55):
Okay, they mimic us for pop, very true, but then
they put us down here. But we don't get the opportunities.
They get all the benefits without the responsibility that we have.
We got to go to church, we learn how to
sing in church, We care about chors, we learn about progressions,
we're doing harmonies and everything, and they get to do
it bare minimum and get the like.

Speaker 3 (05:14):
You were saying, when you have fifteen hundred dollars in
your account.

Speaker 4 (05:17):
They get the lives, they get the cars, they get
to take care of their families are certain time, they
get the accolades, and they celebrate us in the shadows,
and that bothers me a lot.

Speaker 2 (05:26):
I think for us, and this is my opinion. I
think for us, it's more so about.

Speaker 1 (05:33):
I feel like R and B.

Speaker 2 (05:35):
And I've said this before, we have jazz moments, we
have this. You know, a lot of people in R
and B that are really good at it have this elitist,
you know, vibe about R and B. And they don't
make it as digestible to the world, and they're not
willing sometimes to do all of the things. You know,

(05:57):
as far as making a certain type of record, doing
certain type of collaborations, you know what I mean, performing
at you know, different places that will open up, you
know what I mean. As far as how I said,
as far as them being embraced on a major scale,
you know what I mean. Because the other part is,

(06:18):
for a long time there hasn't been a great return
for R and B. Right because it was really expensive
to make at one point, and then the return on
it wasn't crazy. So a lot of the machines that
make the rap music, that make the pop music were like,
I don't know how much. So we had a lot

(06:40):
of know how much since it makes So we had
a lot of R and B artists that were just
kind of falling to the backside and instead of pushing
forward and pushing harder, niggas kind of just kind of
like fell into their space, right And I feel like
Tank is a testament to all of that, because he
was receiving a lot of the things that a lot

(07:01):
of R and B artists get, like, oh, yeah, he's cool,
you know the quote unquote underrated thing. He's really talented.
But but but and then me and him had time,
I mean multiple meetings about like, Okay, how do we
how do we figure this thing out?

Speaker 3 (07:17):
I saw when the shift happened, you know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (07:20):
But there has to be a shift. Yeah, there has
to be a shift. You have to put yourself on
different platforms. You have to you gotta go do corporate events,
you know what I mean. You can't sometimes you gotta
take less. You might be a guy that charges fifty
one hundred thousand show. But there may be some things
that you tried at some you know for you know

(07:42):
that would be greater later for you. Oh, I'm gonna
take fifteen to night. But there are a lot of
people that's like, ah my fee and I got But hey,
that room that you're gonna perform in now has sponsors,
has brand partnerships. Now you're looking at it from a
different thing. And I feel like in R and B,
guys get so caught up guys, And.

Speaker 1 (08:03):
I actually just say, guys, because the girls, well, the
girls are able to live free. They get into it.

Speaker 3 (08:08):
Where can they live free?

Speaker 1 (08:09):
Because it's okay to be emotional as a woman still,
and women share that, like they share that emotion universally,
like dudes don't really share a whole lot with dudes
like they're cool, Like they don't really they don't really
embrace it or unless it's true gangster shit, then they'll
be like, Okay, I'm fucking with it. But women have

(08:30):
always been champions of each other in one way or another,
you know what I'm saying. He asked you, like, do
you think that's changing? I don't know. I think it's
working for some and not working for others. I think
I think a guy named Bennie Madeenas told me, he said,
if you want to make a big record, you can
make a big record. So you have all the tools

(08:52):
to make a big record. You're just making the record
you want to make. You're just living in the space
you want to live in. We're all, like he said,
we all because we do this in a certain way.
We all turn our backs to the audience on some
Miles Davis shit and just play our trumpet. We do
it all the time because because we're fulfilled by by

(09:20):
honoring the gift at its height, exactly, we are fulfilled.

Speaker 3 (09:25):
No one cares what's the story.

Speaker 1 (09:29):
But at a certain point we gotta we gotta move
right past that word music and get to the business
right as I'm making as I'm as I'm venturing into
music business. How do I sell some fucking records? How

(09:50):
do I get on mainstream radio? How? Because it's there's
there's a how. You know that, there's a fucking how.
You've got the other people in on the fucking platform?

Speaker 3 (10:02):
No you preaching?

Speaker 4 (10:03):
I was in a relationship, man, And then I remember
one time Sam Smith DMed me and there was a
song I had. It wasn't like doing well, but it
was I loved the song and he was like, man,
ill off.

Speaker 3 (10:11):
This record and I'm listening to it in my guarden.

Speaker 4 (10:13):
And I showed it to her because she loved Sam
Smith so much. So I'm thinking, like, you know, like
this is crazy, like at lista and she was like,
when are you going to get tired of being my
favorite singer's favorite singer shit and be the world's favorite
artist and that.

Speaker 3 (10:29):
Like I like that hurt me so bad.

Speaker 4 (10:33):
But I had to realize, like, yeah, like that don't
matter at all.

Speaker 3 (10:36):
What is the story?

Speaker 4 (10:37):
If eighty thousand records come out of day, why are
people going to care about me?

Speaker 3 (10:41):
And that's what with this album.

Speaker 4 (10:42):
I just was like I wanted to quit, and I
was just like, tell your story if it's your last chance,
you know, like when you're about to get fired from
the job.

Speaker 1 (10:50):
I don't like y'all.

Speaker 4 (10:50):
Anyway, this is what this album was for me, cause
it's like and I said, you know what, I came
in with something to prove. I wanted to like do
the runs and do all these things because I wanted
to say I could sing, because I felt like we
were in a climate where nobody was singing. And I
loved buying your albums. I love buying boys to Men
as a kid and just hearing it. I have to
know what the album was about, what the single was.

(11:11):
I used to buy albums because of the singers.

Speaker 3 (11:14):
But I was like, maybe nobody cares no more.

Speaker 4 (11:16):
So I said, let me challenge myself to just do
no runs and just do tone and the story and
every inflection is because of a pain or emotion I'm
trying to invoke in the listener. And bro, I ain't
never even gone top one hundred anything, and now today
we're number two and number three.

Speaker 1 (11:35):
Number you.

Speaker 3 (11:39):
Shot out?

Speaker 1 (11:39):
My god, but you a is it gonna start writing?

Speaker 3 (11:51):
I start plubing. Yeah, that's what. That's what I come back.

Speaker 1 (12:00):
What Yeah, it's it's in listening to it, you're you're
making your I hear your argument and the whole spill
that you gave was great. But your album says something different.

(12:20):
Your album says that you are you are very conscious
in making a statement, a broader statement. That's what it
feels like to me, Like it feels like it feels
like R and B. But it feels like something different
than you. It feels like something that everybody's going to

(12:42):
be able to move to. Everybody's going to be able
to pick out their favorite melody, everybody's going to be
able to digest their favorite hook. And that's what that's
really what it's all about. We have to we have
to get out. So we gotta get it out of ourselves.
We gotta stop singing in the mirror. We gotta stop,

(13:07):
and we gotta figure out how what we do can
affect the When did you first start loving music? When
it hit you? How can we get to the next
six year old right, because we got to attract them
with something. See how Michael Jackson always works, always, Michael

(13:29):
Jackson always works. My son wasn't around for none of it,
not even close. Michael had passed, and this little boy
was it trying in this room with a hat on
a glove and watching Michael Jackson on his iPad doing

(13:50):
Michael Jackson moves. Now, ask me how many runs Michael
Jackson did, not very many.

Speaker 2 (13:57):
He left him from he left him at childhood. Yeah, yeah,
did you see in the Olympics the sync and ized swimmers, Yes.

Speaker 3 (14:06):
I just saw that this morning.

Speaker 1 (14:08):
They're still performing to Michael Jackson records.

Speaker 3 (14:11):
And that's transcending race culture because that's Olympics.

Speaker 2 (14:16):
And when you say this all the time, and we
stand on this, Michael Jackson is an R and B singer.

Speaker 1 (14:22):
Yes, I don't care what they know.

Speaker 3 (14:25):
And that's how we got to mix up.

Speaker 4 (14:26):
Because what is pop. Pop is a derivative of popular culture.
Of course you do anything well enough, it will be popular.

Speaker 1 (14:32):
Yeah, so you think, so you have to figure And
what Michael did was conscious, right, it was deliberate, well studied.
What is that. I want to be the biggest in
everything in the world. So I'm gonna rehearse like this,
I'm gonna sing like this, I'm going to talk like this. Right,

(14:55):
I'm going to dress like this. Did it all on purpose?
We do so much in our feelings mm hm that
we're so let down because it's our feelings.

Speaker 5 (15:10):
Man.

Speaker 2 (15:11):
Music is almost one of the only things that the
creator of the music does for themselves. When you're making
a product, you make products for people, right, I have
a candle line, now, come on, candle Now, I like
my candles, but there were I was asking people, what, oh,

(15:37):
you know when you buy the candle, you know the weight,
does it feel more expensive? So I'm like, okay, well
I gotta I gotta go. I gotta go source out
marbles the heaviest weight. Oh, I don't like that I
have to throw my you know, the candle away. I
would rather, you know, have it as a piece of
almost a piece of art in the house. So I'm like,

(15:59):
I'm paying attention. We don't do that with our music
though we play niggas music on something, I don't care
if you like it or not.

Speaker 1 (16:06):
What what are you talking about?

Speaker 3 (16:09):
That's exactly what we were thinking about when we did
the vinyl.

Speaker 4 (16:11):
I was like, let's make the vinyl translucent red, just
because I ain't never seen.

Speaker 3 (16:15):
A translucent red before. But I know, like if I
pulled it.

Speaker 1 (16:18):
Out, wow, you're going to get a reaction.

Speaker 3 (16:23):
Yeah, we sold more vinyls than we did digital already.

Speaker 2 (16:26):
We have to make music collectors are people and ourselves right, like,
we're gonna it's your music, but we got it to me.
I think we got to get out of the space
of I love it so I don't care what nobody
else think. Well, then you're gonna be somewhere complaining about
nobody supporting it and.

Speaker 3 (16:46):
That's a harsh reality that a lot of people don't
talk about.

Speaker 1 (16:50):
That's the other side of it. They complain about it.
Don't complain about it if you just made it for yourself.
I used to complain and then I was like me complaining,
did sell no more records? So you did? You? You
stopped complaining and just made better records. Was this around,
please don't go sex life? No? This was no, this
was this was what now? Whenever? This is how I

(17:14):
feel kind of space I was. It wasn't it wasn't far.

Speaker 4 (17:16):
Back, so you still felt underappreciated during Like no, I
just I just I just, for some my reason, felt
like highlighting the disadvantages of something that I signed up for.

Speaker 1 (17:26):
I know what I signed up for, I knew what
I knew what I was getting into, and I signed
up for and I still went in. And then I
started to complain about it, and this thing callsed me
like what are you doing? I was like I'm mad,
I'm man, and he was like who cares who? And
then first like I said, who are you talking to?

(17:49):
I'm talking to everybody? Yeah, mockers, And you're really not
talking to nobody, and you're definitely not talking to anybody
who understands does matter? Do fucking better? Ye, do better,
Just do better. This one didn't work, Let's do another one.

(18:12):
And that's the cool thing about where we are now
is that you can just keep doing them.

Speaker 2 (18:16):
You just keep doing keeping until they like one, until
they like one, or like two or like ten. But
the ones that they didn't like, it's not this, Oh
you on the shelf, no more, Oh.

Speaker 1 (18:28):
This label gave up on you. You can put out
more music like it.

Speaker 2 (18:33):
She got to it, gotten to it was a nasty girl.

Speaker 1 (18:37):
Right back, better than she will ever right back.

Speaker 4 (18:41):
I was like this, my dad said, music is like
the music business like slot machines. Do you want to
be the person who sat who sits down in Vegas,
puts a quarter in for nine hours and then you
say it's never gonna happen you get up in somebody,
or you want to be the person that comes up
behind you, puts that quarter in and gets the jackpot.

Speaker 1 (19:00):
I'll be both every day. I keep going, just keeping listen,
I said, those slot machines for a very long time
at the wind shout out to the wind who well,
thank you to get my Marcus from Thank you so
much a nice free rooms. You want to get the
rooms in the top of suite. You're not that free gamble,

(19:22):
but whatever, they feel free because you're going at a different.

Speaker 3 (19:27):
Times with the studio inside of it.

Speaker 1 (19:30):
That's the pump which shout out to the pal shout
out to the tour at the pond, the tour at
the pearl with screen take care of us.

Speaker 3 (19:42):
What's the next one? Were asked him.

Speaker 1 (19:47):
So, so I asked you a question earlier, and I said,
when did you fall in love with music? And you
said six years old? What was going on at six
years old? What was being played at six years old?

Speaker 4 (19:57):
So this is the crazy story. This is why my
face think God is so strong. My mom is a nurse.
She's from a third world country. We came here from
the dr when I was like six years old and
she didn't speak English.

Speaker 3 (20:09):
But she became a.

Speaker 4 (20:09):
Nurse at the Breaker's Hotel, which is like people don't
know that West Palm at one time like had like
sixty percent of the world's billionaires like living in West Palm.

Speaker 1 (20:16):
Oh wow.

Speaker 4 (20:16):
And the Breaker's Hotels like where Oprah goes to have
runs and Trump and all of them go over there.
So She came from a third world country and was
immediately exposed to extreme wealth. And one day it was
taking her child to work day, and she worked for
this She was a nurse for this old woman who
traveled the world and loved music. She collected music from
Ace of Bass to Prince to SWV to the delfonas everything.

(20:40):
And she brought me to work with her and I
was like just humming something and she was like you singing,
and I was like, no, but I want to be
a singer. One day and when she died, in her will,
she left me her whole music collection. What So as
a kid, I was immediately exposed to Stevie Wonder where
everybody else was like listening to, like, you know, don't
know what, but I wasn't listening to what's on the radio,

(21:02):
because I did.

Speaker 1 (21:03):
Going through this collection.

Speaker 4 (21:04):
I was just being introduced to American culture. I was
learning how to speak English. But I was also exposed
to like this woman who loved music so deeply, and
she just didn't want to leave her you know, just
let it go to auctions or something. She left it
for me, So I was I just felt like that
was God saying I'm gonna plant this seed for you.
So while everybody else is listening to like hip hop

(21:25):
and just other things, I'm listening to like just Deep line, Babyface.

Speaker 3 (21:30):
And Voice the Men. And that's where it all started
for me.

Speaker 1 (21:34):
That's crazy. Do you still have the record collection?

Speaker 4 (21:38):
It's still back home. My uncle took something like found
it off. Like that's a whole other story.

Speaker 1 (21:46):
Always Mama smoked the te We can't help.

Speaker 4 (22:03):
But I think that's what helped me understand song structure
at an early age. And I used to fight all
the time, and I think that that was the first
time somebody told me I was.

Speaker 3 (22:13):
Good at anything, you know what I mean. Like, So
then when my mom took me.

Speaker 4 (22:16):
She's also Caribbean, so when she when you act up,
they think somebody put a root on you, especially, so
she took me to a church. She was like, somebody
put a root on my child. And she asked this
pastor to pray for me. He was in the middle
of choir rehearsal with a keyboard just like this, and
he was like wait one second, and he's like giving
everybody their parts and he was like, you ain't exempt.
He was like just leave him here, and like she left,

(22:37):
and when I was sitting down just like looking sad,
he was like, you're not exempt, get up here, and
he was like, can you hit the snow?

Speaker 3 (22:42):
Can you hit the snow? Can you hit this note?

Speaker 4 (22:43):
And he was like looking for the tenor notes. He
was like, man, God is amazing.

Speaker 3 (22:47):
He was like, I've been looking for a male that
can hit the snow. So he put me in the choir.

Speaker 1 (22:50):
How old are you at this point?

Speaker 3 (22:51):
Now I'm like seven years old?

Speaker 4 (22:54):
But again I still didn't have like singing ability. I
understood like song structure and with.

Speaker 1 (22:58):
Like you could just hear, but you could hear it. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (23:01):
So when he called me up, he was like, this
is crazy. So she's like, please let me do an
album with your son. And she's an album.

Speaker 3 (23:08):
An album you wanted to do a church album with me?
And my mom was like my son. So she's like, oh,
this is part of the spell that they put on
my circle. She's like, oh, you went part of it?
What kind of sorcery? So she was like okay.

Speaker 4 (23:25):
So he started working with me and training me, and
that's where it all started. I never was told I
was good at anything. I was a problem child.

Speaker 1 (23:33):
So you were so you go to this church. You remember,
name was the name of chur I.

Speaker 3 (23:36):
Don't remember the church, but I don't remember. His name
was mister Nickerson. And it starts with him, starts with him.

Speaker 4 (23:43):
And every day when everybody would go to after care
and like you know, play cards, she would pick me
up and drop me off at the church. So he
was like my basically my after care teacher and just started.

Speaker 1 (23:52):
Teaching you how to sing. Yes, that's crazy. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (24:09):
And when I started singing the solos, when I was
ready to sing the solos, I remember one of the
songs was a Lot of the World, and I watched
people cry like I'm just like music can do that
to people, Like I don't want to do this.

Speaker 3 (24:22):
I want to heal people.

Speaker 4 (24:23):
Because I was so used to breaking people's hearts, like
not in a I wasn't in a romantic relationship. I
was a kid, but like I was so used to
being a disappointment. I felt like I was a disappointment.
It was almost like Ferris Bueller, like every time I
come around, like, oh my god, don't hang out with him.

Speaker 3 (24:36):
He gonna fight, He's gonna be in trouble.

Speaker 1 (24:37):
He was a badass kid.

Speaker 3 (24:39):
I was bad. Like they used to call me Red
because I had all these red bruises on me. That
was my nickname Red.

Speaker 4 (24:45):
And yeah, that was the first time people looked at
me and saw hope. I felt like I had a purpose,
I could be something.

Speaker 1 (24:52):
So do you feel okay?

Speaker 2 (24:54):
So do you feel like a part of that was
you coming over from the dr of like being immersed
into this new American culture that you didn't really know
how to be.

Speaker 4 (25:05):
I feel like my biological father and this is I'm
just not able to talk about this, and I because
I had a fear of him watching it and being
disappointed in me.

Speaker 3 (25:12):
But I just feel like he kind of programmed me to.

Speaker 4 (25:17):
Basically, he just made it seem like the only way
I would fail him is if I ever ever let
somebody else be a father figure to me while being
absent in my life. So anytime that some an authoritive,
if anybody spoke to me with any authority, I rejected it.

Speaker 3 (25:31):
M So, if you was my friend and you told
me what to do, I want to fight you.

Speaker 4 (25:35):
If you was a teacher, nobody, I don't got to
do it because my dad told me the only way
I would disappoint him is if I ever let another
father figure or another man be a father figure to me.

Speaker 1 (25:44):
So that just created your aggression.

Speaker 4 (25:45):
Yeah, I wanted to fight everybody, and you can look
at my mom and I felt like then I was
mad at myself because my mother was my best friend
and the most important woman in the world to me.
But I would always make her pick between me and
her boyfriends or whoever, because my dad told me, like
anybody that she brings home is the enemy, and being

(26:05):
a great mother, she would always choose me.

Speaker 3 (26:07):
I could. I sometimes felt the friction, like not again,
don't make me do this.

Speaker 4 (26:11):
But I would always yeah when it's heartbreaking, Yeah, it
is like when I think about it. So that's why
I just try to give her everything, Like I just
catch after her some money yesterday because I.

Speaker 3 (26:22):
Really feel guilty. My sister's like, why are you spoiling her?

Speaker 4 (26:25):
And I just feel like I took her youth, like
because my father, I remember when he was dropping me
off at her house when she won custody of me.
He was like, the only way you could disappoint me, son,
is if you ever call another man father. And as
a kid, I looked like him and everything, like I
was like bad, Like it's just like you're programming like
a robot. He doesn't have information, like like you.

Speaker 3 (26:46):
Know, you think you my daddy. I'm a lash out.

Speaker 4 (26:50):
So through that I found healing in the church and
just my relationship with God. It just mellowed me out
a little bit. When I was saying, I would be like, oh,
I don't got to be the problem, got to fight everybody.
Everybody ain't after me, like this music can heal me?

Speaker 1 (27:03):
You know, when did you realize that that you actually
did have a gift, Like it wasn't just it wasn't
just this church thing or the guy showing you how
to do a certain thing. It was something that you
actually had in you that was special.

Speaker 4 (27:19):
When there was a talent show that was happening, So
now my stepfather.

Speaker 1 (27:23):
Enters my life. Okay around what age is this.

Speaker 3 (27:25):
Is around like twelve? Stepfather enters my life.

Speaker 4 (27:28):
And there was a talent show and I would just sing,
we can't be friends with this girl named Norma big girl,
so you know she.

Speaker 3 (27:34):
Was hollering.

Speaker 4 (27:36):
There were coxs part, come off, I had to do
RLS part and your key and it came at in
our high school. When it comes down to the last
two they couldn't decide and you had to do like
sing offs.

Speaker 3 (27:46):
And my stepfather was an audience and he was like,
you know you. I always thought you could be a single,
but I didn't know if you had to fight in you.

Speaker 4 (27:52):
He was like, when it came down to y'all two,
he was like, I saw a fire in your eyes.

Speaker 3 (27:56):
He was like, come on. He took me to the story.

Speaker 4 (27:58):
He bought me Brandy's album, he brought me your album.
He brought me everybody's album. He's like, who's your favoriteartist?
I told him, and he was like, study these people,
but study their careers, go look at their live performances.

Speaker 3 (28:09):
Like He's like, you have a chance at this. And
I was like, but how are we gonna find a
record label? You don't know what record labels? And I
always remember he said this, He said, if you do
anything well enough, they will come find you. Yeah, And
we did it, and Atlantic call every kid.

Speaker 4 (28:23):
And that's how I end up doing a development deal
and how I'm at.

Speaker 3 (28:27):
Trey because then I moved.

Speaker 1 (28:28):
At this point, now I'm like fourteen, okay, oh you
get a call from Atlantic at fourteen?

Speaker 3 (28:32):
They DM me on my space. Also, they hit me
to be in Pretty Ricky. This is great.

Speaker 1 (28:40):
Baby Blue hit me you in Florida.

Speaker 3 (28:42):
I'm in Florida.

Speaker 4 (28:42):
But now my space is like the thing and I'm
posting my own original music and I get a.

Speaker 3 (28:47):
DM from Baby Blue.

Speaker 4 (28:48):
From Pretty Ricky, He's like a pleasure had just left
the group around that time, and I'm like, I don't
know if y'all know, because back then, like you know,
Florida niggas, like I had like a part in my
head and shit like that. So like there was like
come out just for being to be Pretty Ricky. So
I'm like, is this a joker? I was like, Dad,
can you drive me to Miami? So he drove me
to Miami. We go, and they're looking at.

Speaker 1 (29:05):
Me like you a kid, they're twenty.

Speaker 4 (29:11):
I like team, but I don't think they knew how
young I was. I just was putting up music online.
I'm virtually unknown, and so I'm half Dominicans, so like
I had a mustache in the third grade, Like even
if you look at my own fatures, I have faced
smoking cigarettes and lunch.

Speaker 1 (29:31):
Look, look, look it's not what you think. Baby.

Speaker 3 (29:34):
I know Dominican where it's pleasure because I'm like, what
y'all broke up? I didn't know none of this. I
didn't It wasn't out that pleasure left the group broke up.

Speaker 4 (29:46):
No, it was like your audition would be if we
get there, baby Blue in swinst the door and I
now looking back, they knew immediately, like what the fuck
is going on?

Speaker 3 (29:54):
But they still let me sing and.

Speaker 1 (29:56):
Everything, Oh.

Speaker 4 (30:00):
Y, yeah you sing this, And it was just like
comical because I was like a kid saying you.

Speaker 1 (30:05):
Got me feeding That is great.

Speaker 4 (30:06):
So left there that that obviously didn't go through. We
all knew what that was going to be, but yeah,
he just really saw it. And then after that Aaron
bay Shock flew.

Speaker 3 (30:16):
He was like are you writing?

Speaker 4 (30:17):
Because I was putting up so I was putting up
original music and Aaron hit my dad. He's like are
you no, He's he DM do us and was like
Mike Karen is trying to sign this kid and everybody
Atlantic is looking for this kid.

Speaker 3 (30:31):
So he flew down. He was like who's writing these songs?

Speaker 4 (30:33):
Though again I'm fourteen, and my dad's like he's writing
them and Aaron's.

Speaker 1 (30:36):
Like you sure?

Speaker 3 (30:37):
I don't think he believed it.

Speaker 4 (30:38):
Yeah, So then it gets the Troy Taylor to develop
me go to uh, I gotta go to school Atlanta.
TTU gotta go to school, and Trey's about to do
the radio album. And even then, Trey's like, I already
told you could sing. He was like, but you can
tell stories and you think that like that's a game.
He was like, that is your gift to you're sleeping

(30:59):
on that gift. And I remember being and.

Speaker 3 (31:03):
I remember being so annoyed.

Speaker 4 (31:06):
I'm gonna tell you why I was annoyed because here
I am in a development deal. I'm homeschool now because
I was a freshman and chef Tone and all these
amazing Brian Michael Cox, John T. Austin, Everybody's flying in
to work with Trey. So I'm like, damn, because all
I want to do is sing. So I'm like, damn,
just write me a song. Let me just sing so

(31:27):
I can send something back to Mike so I can.

Speaker 3 (31:29):
Get off the bench. And then the Superstarring room is like,
but you can write too, and I'm like, no, I
just want to sing. I'm not sending it.

Speaker 4 (31:37):
So they looking at me like I'm not hungry. And
he would always be like Elijah Well, he called me
red at the time too. He's like, you can tell stories.
He's like, if you really get in that bag, you're
gonna be special. And I was like, He's like and
he noticed that. He said every time I'll tell you
that you like, shrug me off. He's like, write me
a song now, and I was like now, he said,
s K put on the beat, and that's the song
that became Jupiter Love.

Speaker 1 (31:58):
That's crazy on the spot. I think it's time at fourteen.
That's crazy. Yes.

Speaker 4 (32:06):
So I went from being a starving artist yeah, to
now having like twelve thousand dollars checks in the mail.
I will never forget this, bro. I think, like this
nigga trade, damn, it saved my life. I didn't want
to tell my mom I was starving because as a
Caribbean woman's like, bring your ass back home and go
to college. The church thinks I'm crazy, like letting you
go out there. And I was talking to Tray in

(32:27):
the kitchen one time and he was like, are you anemic?
And I was like, no, why you said that? He
was like, you're shaking. I was so hungry. I didn't
want to tell nobody in the house. I was hungry
I'm shaking. I probably didn't eat for three y's.

Speaker 3 (32:38):
I was already skinny.

Speaker 4 (32:39):
I didn't even weigh a hundred pounds, and he didn't
have to because I wasn't signed to him. I wasn't
Ever since that day, when he would be out with
a girl, he'll be on a date. If he just
came back from tour, he'll call me and be like, yo,
I'm at the sports bar and grill what you want.
They got lobsters, and he will always bring me something home.
So things like that like almost make me emotional because

(33:03):
if maybe if I did, I went three days not eating,
but if I probably would have went two more days,
I probably would have gave up and came back home,
you know what I mean. And he didn't owe me nothing.
He's never called me and been like, nigga, give me
a free song, you know what I mean?

Speaker 3 (33:14):
Like, I bet you that one time NA.

Speaker 1 (33:22):
Records the house and that extra butter Nigga come home.

Speaker 4 (33:30):
Yeah, man, And I remember when Sex, Love and Pain
came out and we rolled around to it like so,
I don't know, man, those are the moments where the
music industry so you know how you say you feel
like you knew what you signed up for.

Speaker 3 (33:45):
I didn't know.

Speaker 1 (33:46):
He's also fourteen.

Speaker 3 (33:47):
Yeah, I believed in the dream.

Speaker 4 (33:50):
I believe that if you made music good enough and
you were a good person, you would win. My reality,
I'm seeing the bad niggas win. And I saw a
tweet the other day. I was like, damn, somebody said,
what's something that you learned that as doing. Somebody said
there is no reward for being a good person.

Speaker 1 (34:09):
I don't agree with that.

Speaker 4 (34:10):
I don't say that, but I think I'm seeing the
reward now. It might not be right away.

Speaker 1 (34:17):
Niggas quit, niggas, quit bro a nigga.

Speaker 2 (34:20):
I am a walking as the church guys would say,
a walking.

Speaker 1 (34:24):
Test talk to talk because because I've seen I've seen
every part of the music industry.

Speaker 2 (34:33):
Literally, I've seen every part of you know, every pitfall,
every door being closed.

Speaker 1 (34:40):
Like literally my family was blackballed in the music business
for a minute, you know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (34:45):
So seeing how if you just don't quite and you
stay solid, you know what I mean? I was having
I was on the phone with two of my guys
last night. Man to my boys from Kansas City, that's
that's that's the homies.

Speaker 1 (34:59):
Man and.

Speaker 2 (35:01):
I said, the thing that I'm most proud of in
my career is that you can run my name through
the whatever you want to.

Speaker 1 (35:09):
It's gonna come back a one Yola, It's coming back.
It's pure.

Speaker 2 (35:13):
I ain't never fucked nobody over, I ain't never stole
nothing from nobody. I've tried to do nothing but help.
And God is shining on you now. Could it happen
for me at twenty possibly, But I'm good with it
happening for me now.

Speaker 3 (35:30):
Man, I come when you want them, but He's always
on time on man.

Speaker 2 (35:33):
So like you know, cause I see a lot of
those tweets and those memes and different stuff like that,
and when I see him, I just kind of laugh
because I'm just.

Speaker 1 (35:42):
Like, it can be greater later, and it will be,
you know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (35:49):
Like, think about how long we've been in this industry
and how you know, certain people have only had very
small seasons in it, and how we look up and
it's like, you know, for me, death in and for
Tank like this is decades, decades, decades of the music
bins of I've never done anything else.

Speaker 1 (36:09):
Yeah, And it's been real ups and real downs. Yeah,
can you survive them?

Speaker 4 (36:16):
A good testament to that is I was telling this
joke and the producer, I know they're watching, and I'm
saying this in light.

Speaker 3 (36:21):
This is not a dig.

Speaker 4 (36:22):
But there was a song on my last album and
Priscilla Renee, who I kind of started off just from
Florida to And I've always said, even when we was
making the rounds of songwriters doing six sessions today, I
would always be like that Priscilla is different.

Speaker 3 (36:37):
They would aways be like, who do you? I always said,
Priscilla is different.

Speaker 6 (36:41):
And.

Speaker 4 (36:43):
You know she had deals with it, didn't, you know,
doll houses where it didn't pay off. And one time
we were working on Keisha actually and she was playing
me her music. She was like, I'm gonna try this
one more time. And we were like texting each other,
like what can we do hire marketing things because you know,
now you got a little backstash from writing songs.

Speaker 1 (36:59):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (37:00):
So she's like, I'm just gonna go for it. I'm
like I'm going forward too.

Speaker 4 (37:02):
So she plays her album and I play with my
album and there's a song called dark Skin. I was like,
I would love to have you on this record. She
was like, I love this song. Can I get on it.
So I send her the file. She sends it right back.
She's like, I'm going in with cook. So I'm like, oh,
you're smart, like you putting out an independent project, but
you going to cook.

Speaker 3 (37:16):
You know, like how did you know what you spending?
So the quality is going to be there.

Speaker 4 (37:19):
So she sends it back and then the song now
has her myself, D Smoke and Duran Bernard. So I'm
playing the record and then so and there's a there's
somebody that's a part of the project. It was just like, damn,
the song's too long, Like we got to cut somebody
at the time. You know, it's D Smoke. He's popping,
so it's like you got to take the girl off
at the end.

Speaker 3 (37:39):
Who's the girl off? I'm like, that's money, she's fire.
He's like, she gotta go.

Speaker 4 (37:42):
I was like, bro, I don't care if that song
five minutes long. She's not coming off that record like
she's incredible. And I was like, it's a song about
dark skin is a chocolate woman. Like I'm just I'm
so sick of that, you know what I mean?

Speaker 1 (37:53):
Like so uh, and.

Speaker 3 (37:55):
I'm not chocolate enough to care. The record by myself
it's so bro.

Speaker 4 (38:01):
A week later, hours and hours go crazy. I call
that same person up I sent him. He's like, yes,
you are Bro.

Speaker 3 (38:09):
I said, you remember that girl you said take off
the record?

Speaker 1 (38:11):
That's her.

Speaker 4 (38:14):
And I just that's just the most beautiful Victorian Monett.
I feel like we are in that season where.

Speaker 3 (38:23):
Like we were. I think I started this when I
spoke to y'all.

Speaker 4 (38:26):
I look back at it and I'm like, damn, I
really got to get got to get a master class
from Usher. We were up there for two months working
on that project in New York at Jungle City.

Speaker 2 (38:36):
Come on, speak on that project because everybody, everybody may
not know. Yeah, so this is this is the platform
to tell him what it is.

Speaker 1 (38:43):
Man.

Speaker 4 (38:44):
Lusha was working on looking for myself. I was the
least qualified in that room. Diplo was going crazy with
the Beyonce Run the World. Usher's Usher Miguel was coming
in and out, and I literally was like, why do
these niggas have me here? Like is this Mark Pitts
just like really just trying to help me? Like this
pists got a heart like that? Or does us know
what I could do that?

Speaker 3 (39:02):
He did? He asked me to be.

Speaker 4 (39:04):
Here personally, and I just remember just like sometimes should
I speak up, should I say anything? So I would
try to come to the studio before like anybody got
there to just kind of get my ideas off so
that if Usher heard it, he would like it. And
how we really bond it was through connect For and
I think just how good I was at connect For.
I think he was able to be like, Okay, this
guy's actually intelligent, but he's so smart, Like I see

(39:26):
why him and Beyonce have had the longevity that he
watched me play and played me long enough to study
how I played, and he's one of the first people
to ever beat me and connect For, like, that's like
one of my superpowers.

Speaker 3 (39:39):
Is my superpower?

Speaker 4 (39:40):
I'm damning like unbeatable thing, Okay, And he told me
he was like, I know who could get you.

Speaker 3 (39:45):
He's like Beyonce and gets you.

Speaker 4 (39:46):
So there's like I don't know, there's there's something, but
I feel like that was when the ice broke and
I was able to have that synergy with him to
create a record like Climax, because prior to that we
were just there and I was like trying to do things,
and I remember somebody was like do that a LANDA shit.

Speaker 3 (40:01):
I'm like, I'm not from Atlanta. I just lived in
all Side in the trade.

Speaker 4 (40:05):
But I learned the moves that he was making when
somebody was walking the room and be like, Hey, we're
gonna rap this tour and hit these markets first, We're
gonna do these I'm like listening because artist development is
not a thing anymore. So now I get to be
exposed and be a fly in the wall with a
legend and understanding. Then one day he just was like,
he was like, what do you listen to it? I'm
like telling him about like I listened to Radiohead and

(40:25):
we're going through songs and he's like playing me Empire
of the Sun and he's like, you want to hear
what didn't make Confessions? So I'm like, yes, I want
to hear yeah, and he's playing me so and I'm like,
oh my god, this is insane. Why didn't this make
the project? And he's like, hmm, the story it was
a great song. This song might be better than this song,
but it would have thrown off the conversation. So now

(40:45):
I'm understanding committing to a body of work and sonically
and just the discipline that takes, and when I look
at money Long, I'm like, Okay, I know you was
back there with Rihanna, just like listening, studying. When I
look at how Victoria's moving, she wants it. You could
tell she wasn't just in the room playing paddy Cake
with Arianna Grande. She she was like, I need that,

(41:09):
and when it's my time, I will be ready.

Speaker 3 (41:11):
And she was so ready.

Speaker 4 (41:13):
So I do feel like there's like a an appreciation
now for the singer songwriter because we're the last of
the for the last batch of people to go through
artists development, and we understand the sacrifices that y'all make because.

Speaker 3 (41:25):
Now people like, oh, I don't know.

Speaker 4 (41:27):
Somebody told me the other day there was like I
brought up somebody to them and they're like, I don't
know who that is. I'm like, you do know as
a musician, oh, I said Stevie Wonder.

Speaker 3 (41:32):
They're like, oh, that's before my time. I was like,
that's before my time.

Speaker 4 (41:35):
As a musician, it's your job, Like what are you
pulling from?

Speaker 3 (41:40):
So you're just gonna pull from?

Speaker 1 (41:41):
Uh, that's a crazy you know what I mean?

Speaker 2 (41:45):
That Steve Wonder, just before you Steve wonders of all time,
of all times.

Speaker 4 (41:49):
That makes me so mad. But this is somebody that's
actually pretty successful, right, I get it.

Speaker 1 (41:53):
That's that.

Speaker 3 (41:54):
I'm just like that, ain't the flex that you think
it is? You got to study.

Speaker 1 (41:58):
Yeah, let's go. I have a saying, and I say,
I've said this a few times. When Climax was being made,
there was no better song being made in the universe.

Speaker 2 (42:15):
Wow, bro, what I've heard him say that before about
this song.

Speaker 1 (42:18):
I've heard him. Yes, when you were making that song,
there was no better song being made in the universe. Wow, bro.
I was that song dropped. I was shook it.

Speaker 4 (42:36):
Bro, that is the highest call I've ever got. And
that's hard to audit that song.

Speaker 1 (42:43):
I had to listen to it over and over and over,
and I was like, it's perfect.

Speaker 3 (42:51):
I didn't think we knew that at the time.

Speaker 1 (42:54):
That's a great song because I'm like a I'm like
a medium house, R and B, gospel, classical, I'm a
hybrid of I love fucking music and the meeting, the
meeting of the worlds in so many different worlds. In

(43:14):
that one song, it was all perfect. Yeah, yeah, you know.

Speaker 4 (43:21):
Mark Pitts came in the room the next day when
we did that record, and he played that record six times,
maybe maybe ten times, and every time you played the
Usher was damn gliding around the studio.

Speaker 3 (43:33):
This nigga can dance anything. He was just every time.

Speaker 4 (43:41):
I said, oh, they like this record, and Mark Piss said, congratulations,
y'all made a T shirt record. I said, what is
a T shirt record? He said, a song that can
fit everybody. He said, anybody can wear a T shirt.
And I was like, okay, But in my head I
didn't understand it because I knew Usher.

Speaker 3 (43:58):
Yeah, yeah, So I wanted to get a record that
he could really dance on.

Speaker 4 (44:03):
And then when he was like traveling his nat and
I think they were like, yo, as we're playing it,
it's looking like Climax is going to be the single.
I'm like this slow song right now with the Temple,
Calvin Harris and David Ghetto.

Speaker 1 (44:18):
It's not slow, yeah, it's not slow, it's moving like
it's and his singing on this song right, it's like
I have a top five of singers and no, no, no,

(44:40):
and the top ten of singers right and Usher on
this particular song it's top five.

Speaker 3 (44:49):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (44:50):
His performance on climax for me is a top five performance,
whereas in I'm a singer, motherfucker. Yeah for sure, I
wouldn't have sang it like that, Really no, because because
there's a thing right I could have copied. I can
copy him because my vibrada is not naturally fast, you

(45:15):
know what I'm saying. His shifts like he's the one.
He's one of those guys like back in those times,
back in R. Kelly's times, the scatting he was early
in that. I had to learn that that wasn't originally
my style, so I'm able to. I learned a lot
of things and owned a lot of things like they
were mine, but they weren't. Some things are just ushers,
they're his, you know what I'm saying. And on that song,

(45:36):
his ownership of that song, the way you got, the
way you the way you wrote it, and the way
it just made sense for him. It's an usher song.
Oh for sure. I don't hear anybody else say singing
that song no one.

Speaker 4 (45:50):
Which is crazy because when I when that song came
on and then I just got signed to death Jam,
everybody's like, you're so stupid, how could you give that
song to us?

Speaker 3 (45:56):
I'm like, y'all don't understand how songwriting works. We made
that song.

Speaker 4 (46:00):
I was basically contracted to come to New York and
do a song. And if you know, when you work
with an artist of Usher's caliber, you're caliber. You're not
write anybody who tells the truth in their music. You're
not writing for anybody. You're writing with them, you're telling,
you're helping them illustrate their story where they're at, and
then they're gonna put them in the record. So exactly

(46:22):
what you said, like that was his song from the beginning,
But that's from the conversations we're having. We're talking about
Empire of the Sun, Radiohead, and cold Play like him
and I really love cold Play, like so that that
verse is very cold.

Speaker 1 (46:43):
I went, I went to Vegas. I probably went to
Vegas you'll like six times. And I'm just waiting for
Climax and it never happened.

Speaker 3 (46:49):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (46:49):
So I'm gonna say this, and it's a threat. It's
a threat if Climax is not on the set list
on this tour, fall it's a problem. Somebody, somebody gonna
get seen.

Speaker 3 (47:05):
And this is not the person to play with a conversation.

Speaker 1 (47:11):
Hell yeah, this is a threat. If Climax is not
in the set list.

Speaker 3 (47:17):
And you about this big, my friend, somebody will be seen.

Speaker 1 (47:23):
You know.

Speaker 2 (47:24):
I respect it because that's how I felt about Slowly
And I put it back in to put put Slowly back.

Speaker 1 (47:30):
And set I did it. I did it.

Speaker 3 (47:32):
You do Please don't go right?

Speaker 1 (47:34):
Yeah you do.

Speaker 3 (47:34):
Maybe I'll deserve.

Speaker 1 (47:36):
But you know, Slowly was Slowly was like.

Speaker 2 (47:41):
A fan favorite more so than it was like the
chart favorite.

Speaker 1 (47:45):
You know, it wasn't the art favorite because the niggas
stole all the money. I saw another day to a
nigga stole he stole the radio. What what eating a
dummy company? Yeah? Yeah, this goes to the promotional I
never knew, my cousin what's getting siphoned, getting worked the

(48:12):
music business. The music one thing I am is aware.
So if I hear a certain song and they killed
it and they talking.

Speaker 2 (48:27):
About what if Jay Valentine would have Jay Valentine ain't
gonna go nowhere near.

Speaker 3 (48:33):
Valentine. Nothing.

Speaker 2 (48:34):
Valentine know what he can and can't do. And I'm
fine with that, you know what I'm saying. And and
and to me, arretst should be fine with that. Man
And should and should find their way to entertained.

Speaker 4 (48:46):
That is your artistry, because even when Tank was like,
I wouldn't have sung Climax like that.

Speaker 3 (48:51):
I'm over here like, but I'd be interested to see
how you would.

Speaker 4 (48:54):
Have because it's your artistry, and it's your artistry and
how you contribute to something.

Speaker 3 (48:58):
You're bringing yourself, your tone, you are approached to it.

Speaker 1 (49:03):
Yeah, but you hear things and you're like, that's the
way that should have been. Yeah, yeah, that's exactly how
that ship. Don't nobody touch nothing, leave it alone, leave
it alone. Well, time to be talented? Yeah, yeah, you're

(49:31):
playing that little piano you learned?

Speaker 3 (49:32):
Though, Man, what is this?

Speaker 1 (49:44):
Take your time? There's normally a speech that goes right here.
But the people just want to know what they want
to know.

Speaker 3 (49:58):
H fun?

Speaker 6 (50:01):
Yeah, your top fun moment, top fun, your top fun
Harry Easing what all me?

Speaker 3 (50:18):
So? Yeah, we got to know?

Speaker 1 (50:23):
How did they sow big though.

Speaker 5 (50:26):
You ain't gonna nor Yeah, gime on resolved?

Speaker 1 (50:49):
Yeah yeah, borry.

Speaker 3 (50:56):
Your son my god today? Okay, Top five.

Speaker 1 (51:02):
Hold on, hold on, Elijah Blake your top five R
and B singers.

Speaker 4 (51:11):
I'm glad you said R and B singers all right,
h this is no cap mhmm you tank, Donnie had
the way Joe Brandy, come on, tough, will be tough?

(51:36):
Who number five?

Speaker 1 (51:37):
Though? I think I know who know? Five? Two, three,
four fifth?

Speaker 3 (51:41):
My surprise.

Speaker 1 (51:44):
Mariah, Oh, come on right, come on.

Speaker 4 (51:49):
I feel like in terms of being a vocal technician,
she's nasty. I think that she doesn't get that credit.

Speaker 1 (51:57):
You know, you know what she she doesn't get that credit,
but only because it lived in such a pop space.

Speaker 4 (52:05):
And that's why being able to write them runs in
the melodies and get them a pop in that space.

Speaker 1 (52:12):
Like it's a shot. You think. They don't realize what
that is, what it's insane. They don't realize what that is.
Like I saw somebody the other day say yeah, but
on the ground they ain't can't say. I say, what
did you say?

Speaker 3 (52:27):
Jesus name, what.

Speaker 1 (52:29):
Did you just say? She can't do. I tend to
find that.

Speaker 2 (52:35):
Vocalists, especially in our space, get they get knocked down
vocally when they become more popular. Are they still more records?
It's like when they speak about boys to men and
they're like, yeah, boys to men was but ain't no

(52:55):
no nothing, there is no like what do you talking
of cold.

Speaker 3 (53:01):
They were singing in a pop space. They were pop stars.

Speaker 1 (53:04):
But that's the part in our Yeah, in our space.

Speaker 2 (53:08):
Yes, we look at that like, well, maybe they're not
as cold because they wasn't keeping it as real.

Speaker 1 (53:15):
What are you talking about?

Speaker 2 (53:17):
They were taking our music and giving it to the
world world, Yes, and the highest level.

Speaker 1 (53:24):
Mariah Carey was giving it to the world at the highest.

Speaker 2 (53:28):
Level and still getting it off to where getting it
off though, those who know can he getting it off?

Speaker 3 (53:35):
But did you hear what she just did? But the
kids are singing along, don't.

Speaker 1 (53:38):
Know what's happened, no idea, what's happening?

Speaker 4 (53:40):
Yes, her and Beyonce do that the best, the best,
the best. Beyonce sneaks it in just enough to let
don't play with me if I don't hear it though, like.

Speaker 1 (53:50):
Because us as runners, we can hear. It's like this,
she almost look up right there, watch right there? Got crazy.

Speaker 3 (53:58):
Yeah, if it's very if I want to, I want.

Speaker 1 (54:02):
To, I will, Okay, Top five R and B songs,
Oh so into you to me? Amazing song, amazing song.
They easy. I mean, it's it's just it feels like
summer breeze every.

Speaker 3 (54:22):
Time I got this song. It puts me in a
good space. Can you stand the rain?

Speaker 1 (54:25):
Why not? Why not? About real song? Right? Yeah? Yeah? Yeah, stories.

Speaker 3 (54:35):
And maybe just because dang standing there ain't water runs dry?
Voice to man a song for you, Donnie Hathaway, And
I have to say this, Brandy's when.

Speaker 1 (54:53):
You Touch Me talking about getting it off? She getting
it off off. Nigga is so many intricate things that
she does that feels subtle, and that in itself is
a skill. You think it's easy. It is not.

Speaker 6 (55:15):
It is not.

Speaker 1 (55:15):
It is not sweet. I'd like to hear you don't
run up on these notes.

Speaker 3 (55:24):
That's the master class on what to do, when to
do it, how to do it?

Speaker 1 (55:29):
Can I tell you something? That song for me, she
was already like one of my you know, she was
already in Bible space for me. That song right there
just it closed the book on anybody else being able
to be that. Who wrote that song? Who wrote When

(55:51):
You Touch Me? To write that? Yeah? Because that's that's yeah,
that's them, That's the dream team.

Speaker 3 (55:58):
Bro.

Speaker 1 (55:59):
And I'm listening to this song and I'm like, what
is happening right now?

Speaker 3 (56:04):
It just keeps getting better and better and better.

Speaker 1 (56:06):
Am I getting saved? Is the Lord touching me? Is
when you touch the touching me?

Speaker 4 (56:17):
Is it?

Speaker 1 (56:18):
What is happening right now? And I am taking When
I say.

Speaker 3 (56:23):
Note the harmonies she comes in delicate, then she's full
belting at the air.

Speaker 4 (56:28):
Well.

Speaker 1 (56:28):
We have and we have to and we can't look
past the musical contribution, dur child, we can't look we
can't look past the marriage, the perfect marriage of those things.
I'm getting chills like that. As soon as the track
came out, I was like, perfect, who's doing this? That

(56:48):
song is incredible? And then she she just said, sit down, kids, yes,
sit down, pull out your note pets. This is how Yes,
you sing a song from top to bottom.

Speaker 3 (57:05):
Yes, now you sang a song.

Speaker 4 (57:09):
That song changed placement, arrangement, everything for me. I think
it changed it for everybody. Yeah, Like that's the class
of Brandy right there.

Speaker 1 (57:19):
For sure, that is the ultimate master. You said that,
You said it right, that was the ultimate Brandy master.
I remember what I was doing. I was hosting h
R and B lived R and B Live here, and
Brandy was was a special guest one night, and and
I had never seen dudes like huddle up together like

(57:40):
shoulder to shoulder.

Speaker 3 (57:41):
Like she has that effect.

Speaker 1 (57:44):
I'm talking about my guys, Bob. Everybody was in the
corner like.

Speaker 3 (57:48):
She did live, she was.

Speaker 1 (57:50):
Live performing live. Everybody was everybody was in the corner
huddled up like like the musicians corner like that, like.

Speaker 3 (57:58):
What's she gonna do next?

Speaker 1 (58:00):
And she's just sitting on a stool singing and we
are sitting we are like in all the entire time,
is she the best? Hm? I will say an R

(58:21):
and B if we're if we're for that, yes, because
because Brandy is a thing. Not Jazmine over over Brandy. No,
I'm gonna go, I'm gonna go Brandy. Well, I think

(58:42):
Jasmine may have a slight edge on Brandy just in
terms of the the hype right right, right, I feel
like maybe Jasmine can sing a little higher, yeah, than
than than Brandy. Right, But in terms of the dexter
and the wheelhouse and the difficulty, she might be the best.

Speaker 3 (59:07):
I've asked this the singers at.

Speaker 1 (59:10):
That because then you go to the other the other
bags that include Whitney and Beyonce and Celine Dion right,
like those are different kinds of singers in a different
type of bag with power right and fall. But but

(59:35):
Beyonce can also go.

Speaker 3 (59:36):
Up and stay up.

Speaker 1 (59:39):
She can do that, so it's like jazzmin too. Brandy's
a thing that I feel like Jasmine falls within.

Speaker 3 (59:48):
That's the best answer I thought. I had the best
answer me and Rodney. You know how to ask.

Speaker 4 (59:52):
I had to ask Rodney. I asked this question to
singers all day because I want to know. It's always
Jazmine or Brandy or Beyonce. And I was talking Rodney,
and uh, I said, you know, I think some singers
are Superman and some singers are Batman. I'm not going
to say who I feel like a Superman, but I
feel like in any arena, Brandy is Batman. If you
give her time to think, because she's a thinker, you'll

(01:00:15):
never predict where she's coming from.

Speaker 3 (01:00:18):
It's just where she where she knows.

Speaker 4 (01:00:21):
It's not you know, everybody got their Pentatonic said, oh,
you know, they can do those things that are just natural.

Speaker 3 (01:00:27):
But Brandy, where she goes, you just can never predict that.
So how can you be prepared for that?

Speaker 1 (01:00:31):
It's just like you know, but it's all from the
house of Kim. Yeah, so Kim built the house. Yeah,
Eric Dark is said the same thing. Do I have
a video? I'm going to say he said the same thing.
Kim built the house that they all live in. Yeah,
get if they all get a floor? Yeah, Kim built
the house. Yeah, she built the ho I have. I

(01:00:54):
just have a floor in the house. Kim, Kim built
my house. In between John and then and then Isaac.

Speaker 3 (01:01:00):
And nobody gives Isaac his props.

Speaker 1 (01:01:03):
Us to watch Isaac on VHS whow singing with New Life, Yeah,
every day him and Loel how are they doing that?

Speaker 3 (01:01:17):
And how niggas do it to?

Speaker 1 (01:01:18):
You study the niggas, study and all their parts? What
about fred Hammon Monster? That's that's so my period of
not running, I study Fred.

Speaker 3 (01:01:29):
Hammon, Tony s He's so how people look at Kim
Tony's out there.

Speaker 1 (01:01:37):
I don't think there's anything Tony can do.

Speaker 4 (01:01:40):
And the mixing, I learned that I had never known
a male singer to appear like they're belting that high.
It was almost like he kind of showed and those
so where like when I hear avery or sometimes I
feel like when I do it, or like other singers,
I'm like, you know what I mean, It's just I

(01:02:02):
don't I can't find that prior to Tony, I can't
maybe Darrel, but Daryl was.

Speaker 1 (01:02:07):
In full all the way or was he mixing too?
I think Daryl was full.

Speaker 4 (01:02:14):
Yeah, I think Daryl was full. There was full chest
Daryl coldly I'm talking about yeah, full chess.

Speaker 1 (01:02:19):
Now's a CARDI surprised me. I was like, how are
you doing that that high? He's mixing right, he's mixing, Yeah,
but he's mixing cold.

Speaker 3 (01:02:27):
It's a smoo. We're not taking nothing away.

Speaker 1 (01:02:31):
He's mixing so cold. I tried it. When that's it. No,
I don't have it. I don't I don't. I don't
have that at the end of heart record full Yeah,
but I've drank too much. Patron at this point, you
can still do it. No no, no, absolutely not even no, no, no,

(01:02:56):
don't have that. That's full right full, So I ain't
got it no more. You come to see that, good luck,
I'll hire you. You bring that pink hair out.

Speaker 3 (01:03:11):
Nigga, y'all see me with that pink here, run turn
the bikes off, cut the cut the power.

Speaker 1 (01:03:17):
Uh okay, let's build a vultron. Okay, your ultimate, your
super r and b artists. I want to know where
you're going to get the vocal from one vocal, the
performance style, the styling, the passion of the artists, and
who's going to write for the artists.

Speaker 3 (01:03:35):
This is good.

Speaker 4 (01:03:36):
This is the best one I've ever gotten. Princess styling
vocal vocals of course, Whitney. Fuck yeah, I don't even
have them saying, uh, the styling, Prince, I love that.

Speaker 1 (01:03:53):
Figure. You're gonna say that performance style fu okay you cook? Uh?

Speaker 3 (01:04:01):
Passion, oh, passion, passion, passion, Michael mm hmm.

Speaker 1 (01:04:10):
You say that, nigga. Yeah, it's all it was electric,
just you felt that what is happening?

Speaker 3 (01:04:22):
He wanted don't play people who fight like that? Didn't
till jo jot bit and let's don't.

Speaker 1 (01:04:45):
I know those bubbles? Well, who's writing for the artist?

Speaker 3 (01:04:55):
Babyface? Yeah yeah, I actually want to hear.

Speaker 6 (01:05:01):
That, like.

Speaker 1 (01:05:03):
I need I need a baby Face written song. You
can get that. No, I'm just I'm just saying it
out loud on the loud speaker so that so that
the people can tag him when they watch this.

Speaker 3 (01:05:16):
The fact that it hasn't happened already, act like he
can't call it no no, no, no no, no.

Speaker 1 (01:05:20):
Different kind of pressure on him. You know what I'm saying.
It's not as a friend called your friends. He amy
I need to sign something.

Speaker 3 (01:05:25):
I don't.

Speaker 1 (01:05:25):
I don't think Face really be on the ground like that.
But okay, I think it's gonna get to him. Don't
get to him, A ricas, don't get to him. The
Tank say he wants a baby Face written song, not
no Tank involved. I know nothing when Face did Ronie

(01:05:46):
or Face did? I want that.

Speaker 3 (01:05:49):
I want to be at that session just I won't
even say nothing.

Speaker 1 (01:05:53):
I just want to watch line me up and sing
the backgrounds say less it don't it don't work if
baby Face ain't in the backgrounds. Shoot a do you do?

Speaker 3 (01:06:03):
I want to hear that. What what with the bridge
and the chords changing in the pree and then the
bridge that changes keys?

Speaker 1 (01:06:15):
He's a colst mm hmmm mm hm. But you got that?
Hold on? I like that better. I ain't saying no nicks. Hey,
I ain't saying no nick Come on, I ain't saying
no nigs. I ain't saying no niggas. Where you was

(01:06:37):
we used?

Speaker 3 (01:06:39):
What you need?

Speaker 1 (01:06:40):
Don't say she. I ain't saying.

Speaker 2 (01:06:53):
Oh yeah yeah yeah yeah, we hear now you didn't
seen no what he was looking at me like it
he turned up, he turned out.

Speaker 1 (01:07:05):
Back to that church.

Speaker 3 (01:07:05):
But yeah, wow, I can't even play with that church.

Speaker 1 (01:07:11):
Got second second, We.

Speaker 2 (01:07:13):
Had a very important segment. That's what you tell us
a story funny or fucked up? Are funny and fucked
up during your time in this music business. The only
rulee to the game is you can't say no names.

Speaker 1 (01:07:29):
The only rule. Mm hmm okay, okay, that one quick.

Speaker 3 (01:07:38):
People, people, this is the craziest thing I've ever witnessed.

Speaker 4 (01:07:40):
But if the people watching this, the artist watching this,
there was so many people in this from will know
exactly what happened.

Speaker 3 (01:07:47):
I was at a popular party in Miami.

Speaker 4 (01:07:53):
On New Year's and I was with a very popular
singer and uh, there was a rapper in the room
who had just kind of the singer felt like the
rapper took like unnecessarily jabs at her throughout her career,
and she just didn't know where it was coming from.
And we're talking to the we're having a conversation about it,

(01:08:15):
and you know, everybody in the rooms like maybe it's
in your head, maybe it's.

Speaker 1 (01:08:19):
Not that you know.

Speaker 4 (01:08:20):
But she's like, I don't necessarily want to have any issues,
and maybe I'm in my head, so this is why
just when we're around each.

Speaker 3 (01:08:25):
Other, I just don't speak.

Speaker 4 (01:08:27):
The rapper comes in the room, so now I'm seeing
it firsthand. The rapper comes in the room and addresses
everybody but her mm hm. And now she's irritated because
she's had enough, so she says, come on, man, every time,
and the rapper says every time?

Speaker 1 (01:08:48):
What every time?

Speaker 3 (01:08:50):
You're gonna just act like you don't see me every time.

Speaker 4 (01:08:53):
At this point, I'm thinking the rapper is gonna say,
you know, I'm so sorry understanding that.

Speaker 3 (01:09:00):
Bars the rapper walks up, it says, because I don't
see you. This singer ain't for the play play, so
she just needed permission to really take it there the street.
She said, well, fuck you looking like an uncooked sausage.

Speaker 4 (01:09:22):
You just don't know how to not handle you just
you just don't know how to handle not being the
badest bitch when you walk into the room. At this point,
I'm like, I'm about to get jumped because I can't
hit with her.

Speaker 3 (01:09:35):
Jesus.

Speaker 4 (01:09:38):
It got so bad that I'm like, let's go outside
because we're about to get joke, but then the rapper
ends up coming out and just apologizing and saying it
was a misunderstanding. But to me, if you guys knew
the people in this room and this take up because
I'm at this party, I'm not. I've always had an
old soul. So around ten pm, I'm ready to go
to sleep. Even when I was like twenty one, I'm
ready to go to sleep. I can't really keep up

(01:09:59):
with everybody. So this took place as I'm half asleep,
so I'm waking up to World War three, Like, wait,
what's happening? Why are you fighting with this nigga? So
that might be the craziest thing I've ever witnessed.

Speaker 1 (01:10:12):
Yeah, because I don't see you, I thought it.

Speaker 4 (01:10:16):
Was over then, But I should have never estimated the
person I was with, because she was gonna.

Speaker 3 (01:10:21):
Take it there.

Speaker 1 (01:10:21):
She was like with thennis On.

Speaker 3 (01:10:26):
Walk in the room was like, yikes, now this.

Speaker 1 (01:10:31):
Fight this whole thing, I don't care who fight. They
didn't fight. It was able to get squashed.

Speaker 3 (01:10:43):
They apologized, but I was ready to do my special
move because once I get you in the here, like.

Speaker 1 (01:10:48):
We gotta go.

Speaker 4 (01:10:51):
And I'm a fan of the raffer. It's very well
understood of Florida. Once Red gets you in the here like,
you're not coming out of it. So I was gonna
jump high off of something, bring him low and then
let God handle the rest.

Speaker 1 (01:11:07):
But you, man, you're the headlock, specially if.

Speaker 3 (01:11:11):
You're not getting out of it. It's a monkey grip.

Speaker 1 (01:11:19):
Just prepare for the worst hold on it of all
the bar fight moves to heaven. Your report, yours is
the headlock.

Speaker 3 (01:11:33):
You never feel me.

Speaker 4 (01:11:35):
You hold on and you let the word themselves out
trying to get out of it. I just I just
want to say, and you throw a windmill in there
every now and then. That's a horrible.

Speaker 3 (01:11:49):
Impial slide. We slipping and sliding like a tree.

Speaker 1 (01:11:54):
Daddy treated record, especially while you're going like were you
going right here with the with the basic one?

Speaker 3 (01:12:02):
Oh, I'm putting to sleep.

Speaker 1 (01:12:04):
You are getting this full d d T.

Speaker 3 (01:12:08):
Somebody did slam me on my head.

Speaker 1 (01:12:09):
You're getting this. You're getting this over the shoulders, suplex.
It's going to hurt you more than it's going to
hurt me.

Speaker 4 (01:12:17):
And the nigga was your side. He slammed me on
my head. That's my person never gets outs how it happened,
but I gotta put him in head like a glass.

Speaker 1 (01:12:26):
We're glass. You became a singer, and he helped calm
your spirit. I can see it now.

Speaker 3 (01:12:31):
This second time I was, I knew his move on
the w w. Oh no, he's going to the headlock.

Speaker 1 (01:12:36):
Oh no, oh my god.

Speaker 3 (01:12:41):
The second time I was putting a sleep.

Speaker 1 (01:12:43):
You gotta call it a name that the headlock has
to have a name. At this point, I'm gonna call
it the monkey grip. I don't think that's not the one. Wait,
what's monkey grip? Also, let's not do it. Let's just
I was getting ready to do my special to just
promote the pillow man. Don't try to choke out rappers.

Speaker 3 (01:13:08):
I didn't want to because I was actually a fan
of this rapper.

Speaker 1 (01:13:10):
I just I'm just imagining you going to the top rope,
trying to jump off of something to get to the headlines.

Speaker 3 (01:13:16):
It was a piano by me, so I was gonna
get on the piano.

Speaker 1 (01:13:18):
You calculated getting on the piano, and I'm like, we're about.

Speaker 3 (01:13:21):
To get jumped.

Speaker 1 (01:13:22):
It was that intense. I can laugh about it, but
it was so there's no way to get to the
headlock from the ground.

Speaker 3 (01:13:29):
I didn't have enough room to run and didn't do it.
I wouldn't need it momentum.

Speaker 1 (01:13:35):
This is Greg. We have to put him in a
position somewhere. I wanted to see that. I got to
see him do it. You have to video you like
it's leth Bro. Let me just tell you something, Bro again,
like I said before, you are you are the quality

(01:13:57):
than that. That of course our genre. But music music
needs man and and and thank you for you know,
for continuing for pushing through. You know what I'm saying.
We all have highs and off hals lows, and sometimes
we don't know how necessary we are until we get

(01:14:19):
on the other side of that, you know what I mean.
And you show up on the Army Money podcast and
I let you know how important Climax was to me
as a singer, songwriter, producer, as an existence in this
whole thing. You know what I'm saying, Like, never discount
that as you as you continue to go through this journey,

(01:14:41):
as you continue to get better man and get bigger,
someone is connected to you that needs what you.

Speaker 4 (01:14:55):
Do, Bro, that means the most. I just thank y'all
for extending yall platform. The fact that there is an
R and B platform. We don't have many, and I
think that this should inspire people to do more, especially
since you guys have been in the trenches.

Speaker 3 (01:15:07):
Like when I hear you talk about it, yeah, it
gives me chills.

Speaker 4 (01:15:09):
When I hear you talk about it, it gives me
chills because the underdogs, like basically we're the template for
songwriting production, vocal production. A lot of it was just
me finding when records used to leave, just wanting to
learn more and study as much as I can so
to be here. And again I didn't get to meet
a lot of my heroes. So meeting my heroes in
a way and then watching people like you guys, or

(01:15:31):
even Stevie say I hear you, it's makes I have
no choice but to be better and to acknowledge certain things.

Speaker 1 (01:15:38):
And they continue. Yeah, bro, we appreciate you.

Speaker 3 (01:15:41):
Man.

Speaker 1 (01:15:41):
Thank y'all. Man, man, we appreciate you pulling up. We
told you we're gonna we're gonna do it. Problem. Yeah,
we're gonna do a real episode. Yeah time, Yeah, need time.
So my name is Tank, I'm J Valentine. If this
is the Army Money Podcast, the authority on all things

(01:16:02):
R and B ah, as God as our Witness is
here Elijah, thank.

Speaker 3 (01:16:10):
Y'all for having me. Man. I can't wait to show
this episode to my mama. Got the biggest truck, Buny,
don't edit that part. She gonna get in trouble dot
R and B Money.

Speaker 2 (01:16:24):
R and B Money is a production of the Black
Effect podcast Network. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the
iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows. Don't forget to subscribe to and rate our show,
and you can connect with us on social media at
Jay Valentine and at the Real Tank. For the extended episode,

(01:16:46):
subscribe to YouTube dot com or slash R and B
Money