REPLAY: D-Nice

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

Speaker 2 (00:05):
We are thank take we are the authority on all things.

Speaker 1 (00:15):
R and B. Hey, what's going on?

Speaker 2 (00:19):
I am Tank Valentine and this is the R and
B Money Podcast, the authority on all things, all things
R and B in the building.

Speaker 1 (00:30):
Yeah, he's here.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
He's here, not just on live, not just on live,
just live where he is a super.

Speaker 1 (00:38):
Numbers are through the room. With his health, all numbers
will go through the room.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
Yeah, just a little bit, you know, this is this
is our brother on me, super producer, super d j
an extreme gentleman.

Speaker 1 (00:52):
Artists, artists. Yeah, yeah, ladies and gentlemen.

Speaker 2 (00:55):
Mister I'm giving you, mister take that.

Speaker 3 (01:03):
Yeah, when I'm sitting down on my throne.

Speaker 2 (01:05):
First of all, a toast to you, my brother, Thank
you man, major toast, major to.

Speaker 3 (01:11):
It's been crazy three years, man, damn, this is good.
Thanks and for my last trick.

Speaker 1 (01:25):
In honor. What have you done in honor?

Speaker 3 (01:27):
What have you done?

Speaker 1 (01:28):
Nice?

Speaker 2 (01:29):
Mister d Nice has a mystique. Okay, he has an essence,
has a style.

Speaker 1 (01:34):
He has a logo. Here's a logo only to me
an too many people I know ver logo Michael Jordan's
I really do have a logo.

Speaker 2 (01:44):
Man, you got a logo in the in the logot, yeah, yes,
in the logo, yeah, in honor of my brother, the
nice and his logo. First of all, I'm gonna look
like Uncle Ice for once. I'm on Uncle Ice. I
can smell a nig smelling with money.

Speaker 3 (02:05):
Yeah, it was great.

Speaker 1 (02:08):
I'm going to go to my bag.

Speaker 3 (02:11):
Yeah there you go.

Speaker 1 (02:12):
Oh yeah, and give some of this there you go.
Look at y'all looking like Jimmy.

Speaker 3 (02:16):
Jam you go, you go. I'm loving this.

Speaker 1 (02:20):
I'm loving this now yeah yeah, yeah, not too nice?
Is here is your head man?

Speaker 2 (02:27):
This is my se you see he's doing Yeah, come on, man.

Speaker 3 (02:34):
I didn't want to tot up.

Speaker 1 (02:35):
The juice and berries man and barries. Man, this is
his thing. How you feeling, my brother?

Speaker 3 (02:40):
I feel so blessed, bro. Yeah you know thirty This
is what like thirty six years in the music business.

Speaker 1 (02:46):
Thirty six yeah, nineteen.

Speaker 3 (02:48):
First record, South Bronx came out in uh nineteen eighty six.
Thirty six years in the music business. How old were
you when I was turning sixteen? You were sixteen? Yeah
when your first record dropped? Yes, so it was fifteen
turning sixteen. So South South Bronx. Yeah, it's crazy, man,

(03:09):
I've been here a long time.

Speaker 2 (03:10):
Bro, It's like I want to like, we can we
can start there though, we can. What what was that
feeling like or what was that process like even getting
to where you're fifteen years old getting ready to drop
a record.

Speaker 3 (03:24):
So back then it was different because the music, you know,
hip hop was still in this infancy. You didn't have
like many major labels, you know, buying for like hip
hop artists, you know, so we had to record everything.
The guy who started my group, DJ Scott Larrock and Krres.
They Scott worked in the men's shelter and kr Ress
was homeless and he lived there and so that's how

(03:46):
they met up, you know. And I was only at
the shelter because my cousin was a security guard at
the shelter, So that I literally walked into the music
business like it wasn't. I was trying to write arm
and B songs I loved like New Dish growing up,
and I knew that I couldn't sing, and I was
just obsessed with like reading the credits, and I was like, man,
I want to be a writer, you know. And my

(04:09):
cousin started working at the men's shelter and brought me over.
I brought some food over to him. And it's funny
about that story. I literally I shared this story with
our buddy Dave Chappelle. I was like, yo, he was like,
how did you get into the business. I was like, yeah,
I took my cousin some food. He worked at the
min's shelter. Then he introduced me to Scott and Carerus
and he was like, do you hear that? He said

(04:32):
you walked because I walked to get over there. It
was like three miles And he said, you walked three
miles with food to feed your future. And I was like, dang,
like and that's really what happened, man, Like that's a bar.
I walked right there. I walked with this food to
feed my future. And like, you know, that's why I
never take this business for granted. You know, like, even

(04:53):
through ups and downs, I know that I was supposed
to be in this business. You know, it wasn't about money.
It was about influence and you know, bringing generations together.
You know, when you think about it, my fans are
like literally from eight years old to eighty. You know,
not too many people can say that that they've been
in the business this long and and that you know,

(05:14):
we've had like this that kind of success.

Speaker 1 (05:16):
You know.

Speaker 3 (05:18):
I tried never to share that part of the story
because that's that's my book, is dealing with that three
mile walk. But now I love that I'm sharing it here.

Speaker 1 (05:26):
Yeah, no, thank you, bro.

Speaker 3 (05:27):
Yeah, I like, I was like, I had to tell
that story because I know, you know this like that.

Speaker 2 (05:32):
But that's probably I think i'd heard I'd heard before
about the about chars.

Speaker 3 (05:38):
Like literally living in the shelter.

Speaker 1 (05:42):
Amazing.

Speaker 3 (05:43):
It's a crazy story. The whole thing is crazy, man,
Like you know, yeah, yeah, yeah, the whole story is
just you know, it's as crazy as it sounds. You know,
back then it was beautiful to just not worry about
record companies or worry about what your fans are gonna think.
It was just purely just making records for the love

(06:04):
of music.

Speaker 2 (06:05):
And so were y'all making it just for the hood though,
like just for your neighborhood, because obviously with a record
like South Bronx, right, you know that it's regional, yes,
but are you are y'all even thinking anything of it
other than we about to turn the hood up?

Speaker 3 (06:22):
So it was always most most hip hop in New
York was always regional. You know Eric being rock him.
It was all regional, regional music, you know, especially Biz.
You know, God bless you know, in rest in peace
to Biz Markey. Biz was one of the people that
reminded me even in terms of like the way that
I DJ. You know, Biz said like, hey, when you
go into these different cities, respect their music. He was like, remember,

(06:44):
we used to just be regional South Bronx. Nobody beats
the Biz. Those records were really just New York records.

Speaker 1 (06:51):
You know.

Speaker 3 (06:51):
It took a while for it to kind of like
you know, kind of reach other markets. But that was
because back then you had to be patient. Like right now,
people aren't patient. If that record ain't popping in like
two months, it's over. Everybody's on to the next. Then
you can put a single out and that and rod
that joint for like a year and it may not
pop off. For me, look at the Wobble record. That

(07:13):
record flopped when they dropped.

Speaker 2 (07:15):
It, right, But it was something that I saw not
long ago. Were Tyler creator Tyler Creator. I don't know
the exact thing that he said, but you know, i'll
paraphrase he was pretty much just like, why would I
only promote something that I put my pretty much my blood,
sweat and tears into for a week or two weeks.

(07:36):
It's like I've been promoting this last thing for a year.
And I think that's what has separated him, even in
this new industry, from the rest of the younger generation
and the artist. He has a fan base that's insane. Yes,
that just rides it out with him, but it's because
he's showing them how passionate he is about his music.

Speaker 1 (07:59):
And just like like you said, you can't like now.

Speaker 2 (08:04):
If they're not on it in whatever the first couple
of weeks or the couple whatever it is, then it's
just all the next thing or.

Speaker 1 (08:10):
That didn't work. No, it's a big world out here.

Speaker 3 (08:13):
It's a big world, and there's someone out there that
didn't hear that record that if they heard it, yeah,
they may just love it.

Speaker 1 (08:20):
And that's what music used to be, Yes, that's what
it was. Discovery, the discovery of something.

Speaker 3 (08:25):
Man, we used to work like even when I dropped
my first single as a solo act after doing you know,
I had a couple of albums with BDP and in
mind you we weren't really making money back then. There
were no real budgets.

Speaker 2 (08:36):
You know.

Speaker 3 (08:36):
When I signed the Job Records, you know, they signed
me for twenty five grand I had to make a
whole album with twenty five thousand dollars, you know what
I mean. But as hip hop artists, we knew how
to do that, you know, Like we didn't go into
I mean I did go into like some of the
biggest studios that were around the power plays, and did
a couple of things at Hit Factory, but for the
most part, everything at home. And it's funny like back then,

(08:58):
all of the rock stars used to be in all
of the big studios, and then the hip hop dudes
used to be in like these little small joints. And
then at some point it flipped. The rock dues were like,
why am I spending this budget? Then hip hop dudes
because of our egos and like wanting to feel like
we made it in here, giving this budget back to
the record company who owns the studio. You're like, it's

(09:19):
three sixty all over again, you know what I mean. So,
you know, like so I kind of missed hip hop
back then for me, which is why even now, like
R and B is just it truly is like the
love of my life in terms of music genres like
R and B is just everything, you know, Like when
just growing up, the records that I chose to sample

(09:40):
to have an interprelation of it was always like some
R and B stuff that just felt good, like felt
sexy and fun and that's what made me happy. And
for y'all was very different than cares.

Speaker 2 (09:50):
And for you guys though at that time y'all was
sampling crazy. It was like wow, West because there it
was no charge yet.

Speaker 3 (10:02):
That was them, that wasn't us, because by the time
I started sampling, all of my records were cleared. Like
no one will ever go back and sue me, like,
you know, whether it was the Turtles, that's where I
got the baseline for call Me d Nice. I met
those dudes, you know, like they were happy. We split
the publishing fifty to fifty, like I saw them in Minneapolis.

Speaker 2 (10:20):
Oh so by time, by time your records came out, yeah,
we were clear. So we're already having to clear we
had the clear.

Speaker 3 (10:26):
Okay, Yeah, and yeah we were they were fair, you know,
like they were fair. You know, sometimes things that I
produced that I didn't get credit for because I just
didn't have the knowledge of the music business, you know,
like I worked on a lot of the music for
BDP whether it so I'm still number one, and you
know my philosophy all these records you may not know,
but these were like big records back then, and you know,

(10:48):
I have no publishing on it, you know, no producer royalty,
but I don't care, Like at this point in my
life where I am. It took that entire journey to
get here. Yeah, yeah, you know, and I happen to
like where I am right now. You know, I could
be you know, still in the studio trying to shop
old you know, a rap demo, and I'm not there.
I'm like having the time of my life doing exactly

(11:10):
what it is that I love. And it's music, you know.

Speaker 2 (11:12):
And so that process back then, right when when you
were fifteen sixteen years old, was it you didn't even
know what to ask or like, can you can you
kind of give insight on that because we try we
try to make this podcast as if as informative as
we possibly can. We want you know, the new generation

(11:34):
to see these things. Obviously they got a lot more
information now because you kind of look up whatever you
want to if you want to, yes, now, But back then,
right where you guys are in the studio and you
produce a record, does it even cross your mind to say.

Speaker 1 (11:51):
Do I get anything else for it? You know? So,
because I'm sure you probably didn't know what publishing was
in that time.

Speaker 3 (11:57):
I know I definitely didn't know what publishing was. I
didn't know what those splits, know anything about mechanicals, I
didn't know anything about this stuff. All I knew was, Hey,
I'm in the studio doing what I love, you know,
and the finished product, that's what you looked at, almost
as if that that was the master. So even like
in terms of photography, like I've always been in the

(12:17):
photography and I took a lot of pictures.

Speaker 1 (12:19):
You missed that on your on my intro digital Digital Creator,
Digital Creator.

Speaker 3 (12:29):
That could be included so much stuff. But even like
back then, you know, like you know, like as a photographer,
I thought the value of the image was the actual print.

Speaker 1 (12:44):
Mm hmm.

Speaker 3 (12:45):
So all of the pictures that I shot on tours,
I can't even tell you we have digital cameras then,
you know what I'm saying, Like I don't even know
where those negatives are. So it's like that's the way,
that was the way people thought back in the day,
like in terms of like artistry, Like, Yo, it's just
when the studio made these records, we didn't know that
hip hop was really going to have longevity like this,
like because you know, I'm from that Golden era. So

(13:08):
that era is right after from the Bronx. I'm from
the Bronx. And then that that era is right after
the explosion of hip hop with like the run DMCs
and LL and you know, you never I didn't know
what you know, those guys were making, you know what
I mean, Like you know back then, I would I
have you know, gold album. I wasn't making thirty five
hundred dollars a night to perform, you know, like because

(13:29):
people didn't want to ensure hip hop concerts.

Speaker 1 (13:32):
It was a lot, you know, Like so when your
song is when they call me, when they call me,
I was.

Speaker 3 (13:36):
Getting like five grand a night.

Speaker 1 (13:38):
The song was massive.

Speaker 3 (13:39):
It was massive, massive, massive number one song Billboard, Like
I'm making five grand a night because that the opportunity
to do shows weren't there, yea, you know.

Speaker 1 (13:52):
The hardest thing packed packed venues too.

Speaker 3 (13:55):
Yeah, I mean, but then you got to think, like
then people were like killing each other hip hop concerts.
You know, it was different. You know, it was really
the wild wild West, which is why like the song
I produced when I was like eighteen, self destruction, That
record was birth.

Speaker 2 (14:11):
Yeah you know what self destruction? She headed for self destruction.

Speaker 3 (14:20):
Yeah, I was eighteen man when I produced that record,
and you know that song was birth out of an
incident that happened at one of our concerts we were touring.
It was called the Dope Jam Tour and it was
headlined by Eric being Rock Him, Doggie Fresh Cool Odi.
Those were the three headliners, and then we had Bizmarquis

(14:41):
Ice team was the opener, and we went on second
my group BDP. Like it was a dope ass tour
though it was a dope tour. But someone you know,
at the concert with this girl, you know, they robbed
his gold chain and killed him. So then you know
people were coming down on hip hop and you know
it was very violent. West Coast was you had n
w A Like, it was just it was different, bro,

(15:03):
Like as much as people hate on puff, you know,
like oh he changed it to the to the shiny suit, yo,
to be honest with you, it was kind of necessary
at that point to yeah, to to bring some love
and to get to the next level. To get to
the next level, man, you know, but that wreck is
self destruction. Yeah, that was birth out of it, you know,
that kind of incident. So you know, that's so nearly

(15:25):
a million copies. You know, I did get mechanicals off
of that, but we actually said, did you get paid.
We donated all of the money to the National Urban League. Yeah,
like everybody, we just donated all of it. But you know,
you still get mechanicals and and you know, still get
publishing off of it. But royalties we donated like a
million dollars, close to a million dollars, which was a
lot back then now. Yeah, but nah, it's it's it's

(15:52):
funny how how it all works though, bro, because it
as much as I loved hip hop and that I
was a part of hip hop culture, hip hop was
and always good to me, you know what I mean,
like making the records. And then by the time I
was like twenty three years old, you know, I was
considered old school because I've been in the business for
so long and and you know, like what do you

(16:13):
do when people stopped clapping for you, and no one
wants to give you a shot. So that's why I
said this journey is so special, bro, because when people
stopped rocking with me when I was like twenty three,
I don't want to say everyone, but like, no record
company wanted to give me a deal. You would think
that I had, like, you know, like this whole negative background,
and I had none of that. But it was just
the fact that even though I was a young toy.

(16:35):
Yeah when I was, everyone wanted the new toys, the
pretty girl that walked into the room, you know, like
and because I was, but I was still young.

Speaker 1 (16:43):
Which is crazy, but it was old school twenty three.

Speaker 3 (16:45):
I was old schooled twenty three, So it was Yeah,
that was a tough time, you know.

Speaker 2 (16:50):
Like, yeah, gotta get you, gotta get Yeah, Yeah, that's
I think. You know, that's a pivotal moment moment for
most artists deciding what to do in that dark place
because the lights are not always on, like you said,
they're not always screaming for you. No, and in that
place you got to you gotta make a hard decision. Yes,

(17:12):
am I gonna go home? You know what I'm saying?
Am I just gonna be the musician at my family's
church and it is what it was?

Speaker 1 (17:20):
I tried?

Speaker 2 (17:20):
Or am I going to figure out the way did
you take in this? Did you take like like what's
the crazy ist event? You may have taken in your
opinion in that moment, Like cause your DJ your DJ,
so you can always DJ.

Speaker 3 (17:35):
I wasn't a DJ, so you weren't a DJ from
the rip. I was a DJ for kr US. I
was a show DJ before I put out my solo records.
I was a show DJ and producer, meaning I only
had to play the songs that we were performing at
the show.

Speaker 1 (17:48):
You would never spending at the CLUBB So I never played.

Speaker 3 (17:50):
In the club. I had never ever played in the
club until I became this guy, Like I was never
in Yo. I'm gonna do a show and then do
an after party somewhere like no, I was producer, care
rest DJ young playing those records they had.

Speaker 2 (18:04):
That was it because I think me seeing you as
I'm a young young kid and your song comes out,
my name is d Knights. I knew you as the
BDP DJ, so I'm like, he's a DJ who just
happens to have a song No, that's how I looked
at it. I don't know if that was promoted that way
through the label. I'm not sure.

Speaker 3 (18:22):
No, that's all people knew it.

Speaker 2 (18:24):
Yeah, it looked like, oh, okay, he was on this
from because I would be calid or you know what
I mean, like drama now stepping out onto the artist side.

Speaker 1 (18:34):
But I just looked at you as a DJ.

Speaker 3 (18:35):
Yeah. I was a jack of all trades, you know,
before Scott passed his whole. You know, I used to
be a little upset, like yo, when you're all gonna
let me rap on? Because I never really rapped on
BDP songs man, you know, like it's like, yo, when
you gonna let me rap? And Scott was like, hey,
you know, your job is like if something would happen
to Carrest and you would be the rapper, something happened
to me, you'll be the DJ. Literally, that's what he
said to me. And you know, unfortunately he lost his

(18:58):
life and then I became the dj J. But I wasn't,
you know, compensated like I was compensated, like yo, I
worked for BDB. Yeah, you know, and I don't knock that, man,
you know, I was I was young, you know, seventeen
eighteen years old, touring, got to experience the world, and
then it made me want to do my own thing
and you know, doing you know, doing shows back then

(19:18):
as a as a rap artist. I was just happy,
you know, like I was able to tour with you know,
without care res you know, no disrespect, you know, but
to stand on my own, you know, my tour with
you know, I did a seventy five city tour with
ice Cube and Too Short. It was like me Cube,
too short, poor righteous teachers, yo yo was the opener,

(19:41):
like yeah, you know, like it's amazing. Yeah, you know,
so I've seen all of that.

Speaker 1 (19:45):
And this is all before you're twenty one.

Speaker 3 (19:47):
Yeah. But then, you know, it wasn't a lot of
money being made, you know because like I said, I
was doing those shows for like five grand. You know,
there were no corporate shows there. You know, you could
charge ten times at out. You know, once your shows
were over, that was it, you know. And when I
was considered old school, you know, I had you know,
I didn't own a home or anything at that point.

(20:09):
I was renting, so I was able to like save
some money and then I bet on myself, which is
which is another important moment in my career. You know,
I had no health insurance, I had none of that,
and I just had this money saved and I was like, Yo,
I'm gonna try to put out my own records since
no one wants to. And I put out this record.
I put out this record and it was like, yeah,

(20:31):
the joint was on radio stations everywhere. I had no promo.
They were just playing it based on the fact it
was the nice Yeah. Back then, you didn't have MP three,
so you literally had to do deals. You have to
get your records printed, pressed it up, go through a distributor,
and then they would shipping to the record stores. I
had one hundred thousand units printed, shipped and they sold

(20:53):
through all of them. But I never got the check
because back then, back then, you know, distribution with some
gangster shit, you know, absolutely the straight gangster shit. So
if you don't have something else coming through the pipeline,
he ain't trying to pay you, you know what I mean.
And I didn't have another record coming back. The money
that I was generating from that was what I was

(21:14):
going to use to to record that next thing. But
because I didn't have that that other record coming it
was like they didn't answer the phones, you know what
I mean, Like the distribution company didn't answer it right
off the Yeah, that was it. And that's when I
went into the depression because I I really banked on
starting my own thing. You know, like back back in

(21:34):
the in the in the eighties and early nineties, you
had like Dick Griffy and like all of these R
and B dudes doing Solar records. You had Clarence Avon,
but we all know that it started from somewhere, but
like they definitely had a little bit more kind of
muscle and background, you know than I had trying to
use my own, you know, and that that actually that
kind of put me in like this real funk of like,

(21:56):
you know, I was depressed for like about seven years really, yeah, yeah,
it's about six and a half years. Seven close to
seven years. Yeah, I was. I was in deep depression. No,
actually five and a half years because then I jumped
into web development.

Speaker 1 (22:11):
So you're doing any music during that time?

Speaker 3 (22:13):
Yeah, Man, Like I had lost everything, bro, Like I
was literally like just with my ex and you know living.
I had lost my crib, lost my car, yeah, like everything.

Speaker 1 (22:24):
So you're not so you're not. DJ ain't either.

Speaker 2 (22:27):
No, so it's not like you're trying to go grab
That's why I remember I asked. I'm like, were there
anything any like random? No bar mits fors that somebody can.

Speaker 1 (22:37):
Pull up and be like d nice, He's none of them. No, nothing.

Speaker 3 (22:42):
All I lived off of was that quarterly published and
check that you know, slowly slowly got smaller and smaller,
smaller and smaller, you.

Speaker 1 (22:50):
Know what I mean?

Speaker 3 (22:51):
Where like, yeah, it was it was a it was
a rough time. But like I said, man, I have
no regrets, bro, Like I'm not here without all of that,
you know, like without those lessons because no one, no

(23:13):
one believed that this was going to happen for me
or the web development which saved my life, you know
what I mean.

Speaker 1 (23:19):
Guess when I met you?

Speaker 3 (23:20):
Yeah, when I met you?

Speaker 1 (23:22):
What year was? No, this was two thousand, This was
two thousand.

Speaker 3 (23:26):
At that point, I was already doing websites for for
Black Round, So like.

Speaker 1 (23:31):
Were you was? This was just your climb back up
or like my back up.

Speaker 3 (23:35):
So what happened with that was around ninety eight. My
best friend who was managing me, well, he was a partner.
I've always been like self managed, but back then we
were partners in the management company. And yeah, he was
when we stopped doing music together, you know. Years later
he formed a company called trend Setters with like four
guys out of Toronto, which is very important. You have

(23:58):
no idea how important you and you're the whole blackground
was to me. Like that moment was you know, he
Tony is his name, still one of my best friends.
He called me up and he was like, hey, I'm
involved in web development. You know, I know you probably
need to make some money, which was probably his way
of like kind of repaying me for you know, we

(24:19):
had some great times, you know, so now it's his
It was his time to like look out, like, yo,
I got an opportunity. You know, maybe with your connections,
you can go and make some introductions and then we'll
give you a piece of it. And I was like
all right, cool, you know, and you know, I started
making some calls. It was weird at first, you know,
like people thought that I was calling to sell a

(24:40):
demo or something, and I was really on some like yo,
like now I'm a part of this organization. This is
what we're doing. The one person that gave me the
shot shot was Joe Jomo Hankerson, which was Barry's son.
To all of you that don't know Barry Hankerson's son.
He we were competing at that point. I I didn't
know anything about programming, but we were competing this trendset

(25:04):
of company, which we had renamed it Boom Digital versus
an old company I mean they no longer exist called Razorfish,
which was like the top top you know, they were
killing everything and you're talking those deals were like multimillion
dollar web deals, like like now you got like squarespace,
you could just put up a website. Then you literally
had to program. So, you know, Jomo told me he

(25:28):
was like yo, you know, after meeting with him over
and over again, he was like, you know why I'm
going with you. He's like, I know you don't know
how to build a website. Flat Yeah, he was like,
but I know you will make sure that your guys
give me what I need. And I'm not gonna go
with Razorfish. I'm gonna go with you guys. That changed everything.

(25:49):
That conversation changed everything for me because it this is
an R and B company, you know what I mean,
Like this straight armed legendary, legendary R and B. But
those words were someone betting on me, you know. And
and you know, when you are when you've had like
failure in the music industry, you felt like people turn
their backs on you. To have a conversation like that

(26:10):
when they were on fire, you know, obviously I think
at the time he was they were still managing R.

Speaker 1 (26:15):
Kelly.

Speaker 3 (26:16):
Then they had Aliah and they had you. Your stuff
wasn't out yet, Missy or no, Timberlin's genuine like they
were on fire, so like to have the company. Oh
what was the rap group? Though? Who was in that joint? Was?

Speaker 1 (26:32):
Was?

Speaker 3 (26:32):
Oh my gosh, it was like I remember the picture
in the water white boys. No, it was some black dudes.
I don't know if Two Chains was down with it.
It was a rap group.

Speaker 1 (26:43):
Might have been in the group.

Speaker 3 (26:44):
It was a rap group from back then. Oh my god.
But at the end of this conversation, I'm gonna.

Speaker 2 (26:49):
Look at it was it was Statics. Uh, it was
Statics group, status group.

Speaker 1 (26:55):
You know, absolutely.

Speaker 2 (26:57):
Absolutely they was they was out of absolutely yeah, all
hovers they called I can't remember.

Speaker 1 (27:04):
What it was called.

Speaker 3 (27:05):
No, two Chains wasn't in that, but yeah, yeah, it was.

Speaker 2 (27:07):
It was statics like conglomerate. They were like a coalition,
like wrap coalition.

Speaker 3 (27:11):
Like it was hard. It was, it was hard. They
have these pictures they were under the water, like coming
out of the water like it was crazy. But anyway,
so like you know, that gave me my own confidence.
And I was like, man, he really believed like that.
You know. So I went from like making like seven
hundred and fifty dollars a month when when I was

(27:31):
just like helping the guys out, and then I started
making like twelve fifty a month. You know, like now
I got a little bit of money to you know,
I was still stay. I was moved back in with
like my family, but to take care of my kid,
you know what I mean. Like I saw what was happening.
I was like, because you had your daughter by this,
My daughter was there. My daughter was born in ninety six.
And you know, luckily for me, man, like I didn't
have you know, my ex wasn't she wasn't on me

(27:54):
about child support. You know, like she understood what I
was doing. She was like, yo, you know, whatever you
make and whatever you can give, you know, That's why
I like when I started making money, I gave. I
gave it all, like, nah, we're gonna make sure our
kid graduates and we're gonna do all of that. Because
without that kind of like support, even though we didn't
make it, but still without that kind of support, your

(28:17):
mind isn't clear.

Speaker 2 (28:19):
Yeah, they could have helped keep She helped ultimately get
you out of the space, but she could have assisted
keeping you in that space.

Speaker 3 (28:28):
Absolutely, absolutely, So yeah, shout to her the family, you know.
And the other thing that was important during that time
was because Joemo said what he did about I know,
you'll make sure that we get what we need. I
used to sit in the office and watch the guy's
program and I was like, oh, so that's how you

(28:51):
write code. Oh and then they didn't know like I
was going It made you learn. Yeah, I was going
out and buying books on HTML, you know, PHP flash
was new at the time. You know, I was downloading
source files.

Speaker 1 (29:04):
You know.

Speaker 3 (29:04):
They used to have these websites where somebody would write
a code and just post it for free and then
you can just pull it and like you know, kind
of like make changes and do whatever you want to do.
So I learned all of that stuff, you know, So
within like one year, I knew how to write HTML
and I just knew like just from learning. So then
that gave me leverage, like within my own crew because

(29:26):
most of the deals that they were getting were deals
that were and you know, and by the way, my
buddy Tony was always on my side, like, nah, we
got to make sure we take care of you. The
other guys not so much because they that's what.

Speaker 1 (29:38):
They did for a living.

Speaker 3 (29:39):
And he was my guy. He was like, nah, we
got to make sure that the's a full partner. And
those dudes didn't want to make me a full partner.
And then I left and started my own and I.

Speaker 1 (29:50):
Both know about guys that you know, make your full
partner share in the weld. Yeah, you know, we've all
been there. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (29:59):
I left, and then I started. I started my own
company called United Camps. And I never I didn't go
to your clients and say, hey, don't work with them.
I was like, I'm just gonna do my own thing,
you know, And I went to Motown. My first the
first project that I did for Motown, this was under
United Camps with what we did for you guys was
Boom Digital. But my joint the first artist was I

(30:23):
didn't even have a computer. This is how like my
life is just you bond bro. I didn't have a computer.
I was using their computers to learn. But when I
started my own thing, I having money. All I have
was just good credit, you know what I'm saying, like
Dell computers. First I went to Motown and I was
this woman that used to work over there named Kelly.
She was like Eddief's assistant. I was like, listen, on

(30:47):
the pop side, they're doing like these these flash evites
to promote artists, where artists can you can use like
these flash cards and like you can have your album
on there, like snippets of it and you know, people
can preview it in the emails. But they weren't doing
that for hip hop and R and B. And I
was like, yo, you know, this is it right now,
this is how you're gonna market things, you know, like

(31:07):
you should you know, let me do it, and she
give me a deal. It was like five grand for
me to make. And the first artist was Rashida the rapper. Yeah,
that was like the first project that I worked on.
The on the United camps and man, I did that
and then Motown gave me their account, so then I
started doing like Queen Pen and like a couple of

(31:28):
movie projects with them, and then I picked up Jay
Records and I did Alisha Keys site Diary of Alisha
Keys and Boys and Men and Lutha and Anie Lenox
And now now I'm making money because those sites used
to cost money. Then it was like minimum six figures,
you know. And it was all because of a conversation
I had with Joemo, you know, like, yo, I know,
you make sure it'll be right, you know.

Speaker 1 (31:51):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (31:51):
Yeah, yeah, there's so many phases to my career. Man,
it's crazy.

Speaker 1 (31:55):
So what moved you into? Djane? Well, I was gonna say,
what movie into the photography? Yeah? Because yeah, yeah, yeah,
I skipped a step. I did skip a step.

Speaker 3 (32:06):
Photography happened while I was It was a client. There
was a men's underwear client. They were called down under Gear.

Speaker 1 (32:14):
Damn.

Speaker 3 (32:15):
I remember that. That's crazy because this is around from house. No,
it was some black dudes out of Queen's. They just
wanted they just wanted to call that thing Doug and
it was down under Gear. They just wanted to call
it Doug. And it was just like men's men's underwear.

Speaker 1 (32:32):
Man.

Speaker 3 (32:32):
And when they sent over the assets for me to
use to build the website. I thought the pictures were
just corny, so I was like, hey, just pat the
budget with like a thousand dollars and I went and
bought a camera, and then I hired a model like
this black model, this dude, this African guy. You know,
he was a handsome dude. I was like, he looks
like one of these like underwear models, you know what

(32:54):
I'm saying. But I don't have Kelvin Klein money, so
he's gonna take this Doug dollars.

Speaker 1 (33:03):
This.

Speaker 3 (33:07):
Yeah, we went to Central Park. I'm photographing the dude.
The Central Park were like in is underwear and bathroom.
It was just straight up I mean, looking back on
it, it was so guerrilla style.

Speaker 2 (33:17):
But all we needed was like a couple of pictures.
Things come out of that.

Speaker 3 (33:22):
That a full on photo shoot. The lighting was all off,
like I didn't have lighting, no sens. I'm just out
there like taking these pictures. But to me, the secret
was to just turn everything to black and white. Like
then then those the lighting like you know, it becomes
these things. Yeah, it's more interesting in the shadows. Like
so because of that, because of that, experience. Now I

(33:42):
own the camera. I was like, all right, I kind
of like this photography thing. So I went to school
for photography while I was building websites. I went to
this place in New York called ICP International Center of
Photography and I went there for like a year and
you know, learn how to process film, learn composition and
all of that. Like it was just great, Like that's

(34:03):
what I would do at nights, Like like I was
a college student. You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (34:06):
But it was just are you moving under the needle
as you're doing this? Are you running into hey?

Speaker 4 (34:12):
Are you nice?

Speaker 1 (34:14):
No?

Speaker 3 (34:14):
No one, No one knew I was, you know. They
It was a while and the front the transition from
from from that part of my life into DJ is
when it when it hit me and I'll get into that.
Yeah you did. I was like, yeah, you didn't know that.

Speaker 1 (34:30):
I know, YouTube website.

Speaker 3 (34:32):
Yeah, but the photography, which is which again, my my
buddy God blessed dead, my man Chris Lighty. He he
was getting married in my in Miami at this museum
and he invited me because at that point I was
already like building websites. I was building the violated website.
And Chris was like, you know, we've known each other.

(34:54):
He was one of my one of my closest friends.

Speaker 1 (34:55):
You know.

Speaker 3 (34:56):
When I was married, he was my best man. Like
the dude was like yo, yo to me an invitation
to his wedding, so I didn't have you know, all
your R and B and music industry dudes. Was making
so much money and he was registered at like this
crazy place, ABC Furniture in Manhattan, Like everything on the

(35:16):
registry was like five thousand. I'm like, I'm got five
thousand about this man a wedding gift Like this is crazy.
So I was just at the wedding, just taking pictures
like no one even knew. I mean a couple of
people saw me taking pictures because I was asking him
to pose, but like Chris didn't really, he wasn't paying attention.
Then my gift to him was just this photo album
and I was like, yo, here's yo, here's a gift. Man.

(35:37):
Like then he called me and was like, I guess
he was watching it, you know, with this with his wife,
and he was like, yo, I paid all these people
mad money. Yeah, and they caught none of these images.
You should actually be shooting professionally and I was like, nah,
I'm good. I didn't want to be a photographer. He's like, man,
take the bag. And my first photo shoot for him

(36:00):
was one of fifties rebox campaigns, you know, so even
on the photography way, I was doing like that then.
And then then Tyra hit me up and you know,
she's fifty.

Speaker 1 (36:13):
Yeah, I saw what you did.

Speaker 3 (36:18):
I saw that shooting album covers. Do you feel that, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (36:25):
Because you got to handle I don't so, I mean
I might, I might get a Michael Jackson dropped her
in a minute from the Champagne that's followed on my head.
But yeah, yeah, you just went fifty Tyra. Yeah, what
I mean was the model Tyson Beckford that you shot
in the Central Park Man.

Speaker 3 (36:42):
No, he wasn't Tyson. It didn't look like he didn't
have Tyson's.

Speaker 1 (36:46):
Money, man, But he took the Dug dollar.

Speaker 3 (36:49):
Yeah, he definitely took the Dug dollar. But yeah, Tyra.
Tyra was awesome though. You know, she asked me to
follow her around, you know from you know, she was like,
I want you to come over to my house and
just photograph me, you know, from like a full day
in the life of Tyra. Yeah, and I did that
and she loved the images and she was like, hey,
I want you to can you shoot for my talk show?

(37:11):
Then I went on, I photographed fifty for a talk show.
I photographed Halle for a talk show, and then Tyr
was like, hey, can you do America's Next Top Model?
So I ended up being a.

Speaker 1 (37:21):
That's a cycle for That's a sore spot for me.
That's a sore spot for me.

Speaker 3 (37:26):
Were you on there?

Speaker 1 (37:28):
No, You're good? Good? Did you not win?

Speaker 3 (37:37):
I didn't win.

Speaker 1 (37:40):
Tyra actually asked me to do the theme song.

Speaker 3 (37:44):
Oh wow, you had an opportunity to Never told you that?
Wait what happened?

Speaker 1 (37:48):
Why?

Speaker 2 (37:51):
So yeah, shout out to my brother she Cares Stuart
and my brother Kenya Bears who at the time he
was working with Tyra and we used to all, you know,
we should be kicking it, and she Care put me on,

(38:12):
you know, connected me with them and we brought you know,
Tyra was like.

Speaker 1 (38:17):
She wanted to sing.

Speaker 2 (38:18):
She wanted to sing at that time, and she came
to the studio a few times.

Speaker 1 (38:22):
We worked. We worked a little bit and.

Speaker 2 (38:24):
She was like, yeah, you know I'm doing this this
this TV show.

Speaker 1 (38:30):
And I'm like, oh, Okay. She's like, yeah about like
models and this whole thing.

Speaker 2 (38:34):
And I'm thinking to myself TV show models, like, well,
who's going to sing the theme song? And she was like,
she's going to sing the theme song.

Speaker 1 (38:42):
I was like, who.

Speaker 2 (38:46):
You see, even though we had been already doing songs
like you know, cause.

Speaker 1 (38:52):
I'm thinking it's, you know, for fun, and it's the
whole thing.

Speaker 2 (38:55):
And I'm like, I don't know about just doing it
because obviously, grown up, you watch these shows and you
watch different TV and you think to yourself, these songs
aren't really songs, they're just kind of like and I
think at the time I probably had been watching the
Jamie Fox Show, remember he had he was he was
making jingles, but it didn't seem cool, right, The jingle

(39:20):
thing didn't seem cool. And I was writing real records
for real artists. I'm thinking to myself, I don't write jingles,
so I didn't write the damn jingle. And I ended
up running into Tyra a few years ago, of all places,

(39:40):
at Jimmy Ivean's like Christmas party or something, I don't
know what it was, and she was like, yeah, you.

Speaker 1 (39:46):
Remember the whole theme song, you know, We're.

Speaker 2 (39:53):
Like season twenty seven thousand, right.

Speaker 3 (39:57):
I'm like, yeah, you don't.

Speaker 2 (40:00):
Oh yeah, so yeah, American Time Model. You know that's
you know, it happens, it happens. I think I don't
know if it happens.

Speaker 3 (40:10):
It doesn't always know.

Speaker 2 (40:12):
It's okay, he's a fumbler.

Speaker 1 (40:19):
You fumbled to man ship. Yeah, but which one did
you fumble? Know? His fumbles are way crazier than mine.

Speaker 2 (40:25):
Give me one of yours. I fumbled an audition. I
fumbled two auditions. Probably the worst fumble was the stump
the yard audition. Oh wow, wait what hold on, hold on,
hold on, hold on you telling story? Let me let

(40:48):
me get a drink, because you stumped the yard.

Speaker 1 (40:53):
First of all, this is already very tricky.

Speaker 3 (40:56):
You buff.

Speaker 1 (40:56):
At the time it was, I was thinking, of course
I had I had the most.

Speaker 2 (41:00):
Of you with buff. Okay, buff dance and go ahead,
go ahead. So I literally shut the twinkie. I literally
I had the part. Oh I was playing the part
of Darren Hinton. Okay, I can see that. Yeah, I
can see and I see that.

Speaker 1 (41:16):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (41:17):
Knocked all the all the all the auditions down, locked
it down.

Speaker 1 (41:21):
They like, oh, you're in, You're the guy. You're the
guy you're in.

Speaker 2 (41:24):
Okay, so last thing, we're you gonna do this dance
audition and then and you'll be good. I was like, okay, cool,
I can I can knock that out. I got rhythm,
you know what I'm saying. I had rhythm, but I
don't want a freestyle.

Speaker 1 (41:36):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (41:37):
So in my mind, I'm like, okay, this is a
dance movie. I can step, but I gotta be able
to really, you know, deliver it. So you know, I
saw I call Christy and Dave Scott. Listen, I need
an eight count. I need a real eight.

Speaker 1 (41:52):
Count so I can dazzle them. So I can.

Speaker 2 (41:56):
He wants to dazzle niggas for stump the yard, but
go ahead, I mean yeah, he wanted to get a
spirit fain.

Speaker 1 (42:04):
And so I go in.

Speaker 2 (42:07):
We get rehearsals, rehearsal a couple of days, no rehearsal
the day, but day of I learned the routine. I
learned the account. I'm killing it in rehearsal, killing it right.
But I'm very like I'm o c D in a
lot of ways, right, and so a lot go ahead
and turn the bottles in a lot of ways.

Speaker 1 (42:29):
He turned shakers and I have severe OCD.

Speaker 2 (42:32):
Right, And so you know with the choreography, once you
teach it to me in a certain space, it has
to be in that space.

Speaker 1 (42:43):
It has to be in that space.

Speaker 2 (42:45):
It has to start exactly where that one is, exactly
at that measure where the music does whatever it does.
I have to it has to be there, or or
I malfunctioned.

Speaker 1 (42:56):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (42:57):
And so they said, all right, let's go in. When
they started the music, it was okay, No, give you
some backstory. This will really help you with the fumble. Okay,
E League game on Sunday. Okay, I'm going crazy. The
guy checking me, you don't want this body, get off me.
You can't hold me.

Speaker 1 (43:18):
Huh. You know you're dealing with. Yeah, maya business win game,
go home? Right? Next day, dance audition. Guess who's the director?

Speaker 3 (43:30):
Nigga?

Speaker 1 (43:30):
Who got the bucket? Who got the I got the bucket? Oh,
and he's giving me this and I'm like, you're in
my house now.

Speaker 2 (43:42):
Yeah, I say, hey man, hey brother, hey.

Speaker 3 (43:48):
Day, was that Tim Tim story director?

Speaker 1 (43:53):
We're gonna find out. We're gonna go.

Speaker 3 (43:54):
Yeah, I'm definitely gonna.

Speaker 2 (43:56):
He's a director, and I'm like, oh my god, right,
I didn't know.

Speaker 1 (44:00):
Yeah, So.

Speaker 2 (44:02):
They're starting the music and they start the music, lon
turn up, turn up. By the time they turn up
the music, I've missed the one, missed the one, the
one that I need to start on in order to
be dazzling. I was like, I said, oh no, no, no,
we got we can start off. No, it's fine, just
to start we are. I said, no, I really need
to start off, just start where we are.

Speaker 1 (44:23):
I'm like, ha ha.

Speaker 3 (44:26):
Ah ha.

Speaker 2 (44:31):
Ah, and everybody, everybody's gonna and they turned the music off.
They turned the music off, and I just I just
look at everybody and I said, thank you.

Speaker 3 (44:45):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (44:47):
I just walked the funk around.

Speaker 3 (44:51):
You wanted them to believe that that was your freestyle.

Speaker 1 (44:53):
And they never called me again.

Speaker 3 (44:55):
I love it.

Speaker 2 (44:57):
There's some listen, there's somewhere this take was gonna come
out and it's gonna be bad.

Speaker 1 (45:02):
I hope they've.

Speaker 2 (45:03):
Been directed and see this and be like, oh yeah,
the country might know. She was there, and she was like,
she called Christy and David. She said, what the fuck happened?
I was so great in rehearsal. I said, I missed
the one. I can't do it. I can't do it

(45:24):
from any other place. I need the one. Yeah, and
I fumbled stomped the yard. I would have been Dan Hinson's.
I mean, but Darren Henson is a dancer.

Speaker 1 (45:32):
So Darren Henson is a dancer. Of course he got
you know what I'm saying that he killed it.

Speaker 2 (45:35):
But yeah, so I guess I'm kind of a fumbler,
not as much as him, though.

Speaker 3 (45:41):
It's a great funnel story.

Speaker 1 (45:42):
Yeah, it's a great fumbo story.

Speaker 3 (45:43):
Your residuals wouldn't have been the same as his. His fumbles.

Speaker 4 (45:47):
Crazy, y'all gonna keep the money.

Speaker 1 (46:05):
I didn't know, nigga, you didn't know what post you was.

Speaker 3 (46:09):
I was eighteen seventeen. I know you got to keep
bringing bring that story up that was back then. Stop
bringing a bush.

Speaker 2 (46:26):
So you become the amazing photographer, phtography extraordinary for many
great things that we won't even continue to mention. So
how how long is that spend of time for you?
I mean, because you still you still shoot, you still
do your thing. But where you were purely focusing on photography.

Speaker 3 (46:49):
It was a short, short period. I mean I always collected,
like I always had a camera. There's always a camera. Yeah, today,
I totally forgot to bring the camera because I was
doing an interview. I was like, yeah, I gotta get
a shot at these studios. Really left my camera like
in the house, and I was.

Speaker 1 (47:02):
Like, we're not that important.

Speaker 3 (47:04):
Go ahead, go ahead, no, no, no, I know I'll
see you guys again.

Speaker 1 (47:08):
Go back and get that. We're gonna still be here.
So that wasn't like a long period where you were.

Speaker 3 (47:15):
That was like three years, a good three year run
of like because then dj started.

Speaker 1 (47:21):
So how did that kick off?

Speaker 3 (47:22):
So DJing started? You know, I started promoting parties when
I returned to the scene as a web developer of photography,
I started to get the music itch again, not as
a performer, but just like, yo, I just want to
do something with music because it's just everybody I couldn't
get into parties even though I was making money. Yeah,

(47:45):
they wouldn't let you in. Now, they wouldn't let me in.
That's why I started DJing. I mean, that's why I
started throwing parties because the party the party scene in
New York was very like and by the way, this
is not I'm not even being funny. It was like
mainly like like black promoters, like one of the biggest
promoters back then. I won't mention his name, but like yeah,
he was like, oh, I know who you are, but
you can't come in. And I was like those are

(48:08):
his words, No, those were I brought it up to
him like maybe about four or five years ago, like
oh remember that, and and then I thanked him because
I wouldn't have had that desire, you know, to do this.
But they used to like make people come in with
like if you're a dude, dude, you have to bring
two women with me. And you know I never really

(48:28):
travel with anybody. I'm always by myself. You know, I'm
the same way.

Speaker 1 (48:31):
You know.

Speaker 3 (48:32):
He was like, yo, you gotta get to the back
line and YouTube two girls. And I'm like wow. Then
I left. Then I went over to like a q
Tip party. Q Tip invited me to it, like his
birthday party, and that's when I started to see what
DJing like really was like in terms of that style
of DJing. So I started throwing parties because no one.

(48:53):
No one wanted me to dj, didn't, I mean rightfully,
so they had never heard me dj. I just had
this desire like yo, I want to spin and you know,
I ended up becoming a party promoter. The thing that
I hated about the New York party scene was every
party that people did that, you know, like that was
like the cool parties. They were always named after like

(49:15):
a candy bar some shit. It's like juicy Fruit Tuesdays
and good Plenty Sundays. I'm not making this up.

Speaker 1 (49:22):
Jesus place going to juicy Fruit Tuesdays, you know what
I'm saying.

Speaker 3 (49:26):
Like it was always like that, and I was like, man,
I joined in on one of them, the Juicy Fruit Tuesdays,
but I just want to do I wanted to be
associated with something, you know, and then uh, that is
rich juicy Fruit Tuesdays, did you know? And then I

(49:52):
went from that. I was like, after about six or
seven months, I was like, man, I just wanted I
want to DJ, yeah, but I couldn't get any parties.
Here's where this is. Everything for me was overlapping. So
you know, web development and photography overlapped, and then those
two things overlapped with me becoming a party promoter slash DJ.
So I started phasing the web stuff out because I

(50:15):
was having a good time, like on this party scene.
I was like, all right, and and what what prompted
the move was this meeting. I had this meeting and
I was building the website for for Vitamin Water for fifty.
I was shooting part of that campaign and I had
to meet with Reebok. So I'm in this. I was
in this meeting with Chris Lady, Steve Stout, Paul Fireman,

(50:40):
who was the CEO founder of Rebok, Keu Gatson, who
was like Alan Allen Iverson's liaison between Reebok and and Alan,
and then this one guy walks in and he walked
around the table. He said, what's up to everyone? And
then he stood in front of me. White dude sit
in front of me, and he just stood there. He

(51:02):
didn't say anything, and I stood up and I was like, hey,
I'm Derek Jones. And then everybody started laughing at me
because they were all in on the joke. And he said, hey,
you know I went to I think he may have
gone to like Boston, you whatever, But he was like,
I wrote my thesis on a song from your first
album called a Few Hours More. It was like on
my first solo album. And then that that was the
moment for me when I was like holy shit, like

(51:25):
the people I was running from the music industry. You know,
I didn't want to be d Nice. You know, when
I was building websites, I didn't introduce myself to his
d Nice. I was like, Yo, I'm Derek. But in
that moment that what he said to me resonated. It
was like, man, you spend all this time running from
who you are, and why not just embrace it? You know,
like be maybe not be that same person like you know,

(51:47):
shopping demos or anything like that, but like be who
you are. And because of that conversation, I was like,
you know what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna start. I'm
gonna go find a club because I remember I was
promote promoting the juice Fruit Tuesdays and shit like that.

Speaker 1 (52:01):
I was trying.

Speaker 3 (52:01):
I was like, yo, I'm trying to forget to choose Tuesdays.
I was like, I'm gonna go find a club that
would give me a shot to throw my own party.
But then I went to DJ's and you know, yo,
cats wanted like back then, they wanted five hundred dollars,
and I was like five hundred dollars for DJ, Like
that's I know, right, I'm bugging five hundred, Like, you

(52:22):
can't even come to me with that. Like I was
over here like five hundred dollars in DJ the party.
I was like, man, I'll do this myself. And then
the club. I will never forget this. The club was,
you know that in New York City. It's a hotel
called the Chelsea on twenty third Street, legendary hotel. It's
where where Donnie Hathaway not too far. No, actually no, Donny.

(52:47):
Donny didn't die there. Donnie died on like fifty seventh Street.
I believe where he, you know, committed suicide. But like
something crazy happened at the Chelsea. I can't remember right now,
but Iconic Hotel. They had this lounge downstairs downstairs called Serena,
and they hired me. They paid me one hundred and
fifty dollars to drink tickets and at the DJ for

(53:08):
six hours six But I didn't care because I had
my daytime web money.

Speaker 2 (53:13):
That's why you can DJ for three or full day straight. Yeah, okay, okay,
it all makes sense.

Speaker 3 (53:17):
Yeah. I used to DJ for like six hours for
one hundred and fifty dollars. Nobody was in there. Another
buddy of mine actually right before that a buddy of
mine gave me. His club in New York was on
twenty third Street as well, called called True, and I
would I would throw parties there and I would occasionally
DJ with my cousin. But the first time that I
actually was a DJ was at Serenas and the guy

(53:42):
that managed Mark Ronson at the time, Damon the Graft,
still a great friend, you know, owns a company called
DGI and they managed a lot of big DJs. He
brought me over to this club with Q Tip and
Mark Ronson with DJ and called Table fifty and I
used to watch them and I was like I would
standing and in the place was small, held like seventy
five people. Their joint was on Thursday. Their joint was packed.

(54:06):
My joint on Wednesday was empty. It was like ten people.
But it didn't matter. I was like, oh, I'm playing music.
Have them. And then one day Tip and Ronson didn't
want to DJ. So Damien was like, yo, you know,
Tip said you should do Table fifty on their night
and I was like, oh, that's dope, and I went
and I tried to DJ. Like Tip has a very

(54:29):
unique style of DJ and the SODA's mark, you know,
Mark plays a lot of like pop stuff now, but
then Mark was a straight up hip hop dude. It
was like Brand Nubian's and you know. Then he would
mix in the eighties and and Q Tip was strictly soul,
James Brown and all that vibe. So when I went,
I tried to DJ like them and then and Damien

(54:50):
was like, ah, man, just be yourself. Do what you
do as arena, but do it here. I would only
play R and B like eighties R and B, Tina, Marie, Rick,
James when nobody was really rocking all of that, you know.
So I started playing like that and the crowd was
like crazy. I was like, oh, this is this is
what it's supposed to feel.

Speaker 1 (55:09):
Like, you know.

Speaker 3 (55:10):
Yeah, And then I went from that, and then I started.
I had had a night and like a legendary night
in New York City at a club called Caine on
twenty seventh Street, and that became like my residency. I
did that for like three years, and then I started
to build my name, you know as a private event DJ.
With The first private event I did was was Puff.

(55:32):
I went to Puff. I was like, bro, I got
a vibe on the streets right now, like he was like, hey,
I've never heard you DJ a day by Life. He
was like, you're not DJ at my white party. You're crazy,
Like come on bro, He's like, Nahdi, I'm good. He
was just like that. Never saw him again, but I
was always friends with his assistants because I was always

(55:53):
trying to get in there. I was like, I'm gonna
figure this out, Like I'm gonna do this white party. Man.
I ended up with like a night playing a night
at this legendary club in New York called Lotus. Lotus
had a Sunday night party with the drummer and all
that vibe. That's why I used the drummer now because
it reminds me of that night and like the party

(56:14):
was crazy on Sundays. So I was the guest DJ
and I got a text from the girls that work
for Puff and they said, Puff just asked us where
should he go tonight. We sent him there you got
to put on the show. And they sat Puff right
at the table right in front of like this is
the DJ booth. There was one table right Puff is

(56:35):
on it. He's at the table. Now, I'm most people,
most DJs that were hot midnight, you're playing whatever the
new records are me, I'm totally reversed, Like I'm playing
Stevie one that midnight when it's packed and I know
everybody's dancing. Do I Do is coming on? And then
that drummer Puff was then on that table. He was like,
Oh my gosh, think of this is Yo. That's the

(56:57):
year he was hosting the VMA's in Miami. He was like, Yo,
you do all my VMA parties. And he kept his word.
I didn't headline him, but he had other DJs, he
had flex, he had you know, a couple of hours
on DJs. But I was on those parties. And then
that was like my first time like really seeing what
it was like to be at the private events. And

(57:18):
then I just went private event heavy, you know, super
Bowl stuff and yeah, and slowly phased out the web
stuff because it's not that I wasn't interested in it.
What I realized about the web stuff was it was
just a means to an end for me. It was
something that made me happy because music wasn't being kind
to me, and I didn't want to lean on music

(57:38):
and I wanted people to accept me for who I am.
So I taught myself that but that wasn't my passion.
My passion has always been music and to have an
opportunity to DJ these events that I played, and I
play R and B. Man, you know, I play hip hop,
but like mainly my sense of like seventy five percent
R and B or pop. Yeah, you know I'm playing

(57:59):
I'm getting a dot in there, get all of it.

Speaker 1 (58:02):
You can play the police.

Speaker 3 (58:05):
All of that. I'm getting that in there. But like that,
that all happened because you know, the hip hop dudes
weren't really let me in. They weren't let me in
the clubs. They wouldn't let me open lane.

Speaker 1 (58:17):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (58:18):
I had to find my own lane. And now I
play my own lane.

Speaker 1 (58:22):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (58:22):
Crazy that that's cool your story, bro, But it's it's
a it's a testament to not giving up one but
also breaking through that glass ceiling of people saying, oh,
this is what you do. No no, no, no, no no no,

(58:43):
I do what I want? Yes, right that And that's
for us, clearly is what's been our savior is doing
what we want to do and in taking on whatever
comes along with that. But you know, the earlier, you know,
before we start filming, you were like, man, y'all think

(59:04):
it's crazy. After I played you the song and I
was like, yeah, my manager, you're like, but to a
certain degree, yes we are crazy. But on the flip
side of that is we're just enjoying the process and
we're enjoying the journey and this music thing that we
get to do for a living.

Speaker 1 (59:21):
Yes, there's you can't just say that.

Speaker 2 (59:26):
Oh, I can only play one position in this game,
can do what I want to because music for me,
and I don't know how you guys feel about it,
but music is the last thing that you can purely
be completely free in. You get fresh out of jail,
do music. You can come off Wall Street do music.

Speaker 1 (59:47):
Like there's no you.

Speaker 2 (59:48):
Don't need any formal education, which sometimes hurts us, But
you don't need anything other than your gift. Little luck too,
for sure, some hard work, but your gift. Your gift
will get you through the music business. If you let
your gift get you through the music business, you let
your gift get you through the music business in so

(01:00:11):
many other ways, in so many other ways, because everything
that you spoke about is still creative, that's all I mean.
You were just being you were being creative the entire time,
but other guys would have just been like, ah, man,
I just gotta go. I don't know about this and
I'm getting away from that. And like you said, you

(01:00:33):
had your dark moments in it, but the light of
it was that you let your gift guide you.

Speaker 3 (01:00:41):
Look, I had my dark moment in this just before
the pandemic, you know, like just being very honesty. Was
supposed to be my last year of DJing. I didn't
want to dj anymore. I was tired. I was like,
you know, I kept feeling like you look at certain
DJs and they were not judging them, but it's like, yo,

(01:01:02):
why is that person playing there and I'm not on
that same stage. I'm a big DJ. In my mind,
I felt that I was. I played great music, Like
why am I not giving these opportunities? And I realized
that a lot of it had to do with like agism,
you know, like that's the real shit man, Whether it
was being black and trying to play in like this
kind of mainstream world because I never just saw myself

(01:01:24):
playing just urban events. I was like, no, because if
you go to a non urban event, they're playing the
same exact song, So why am I not playing there?
And like, you know, I remember going to some of
these big clubs and like these dudes would like literally
give me half the budget or maybe a third of
the budget that they were giving DJs that didn't look
like me, and I was cool. I was okay with it. Though.

(01:01:46):
I was like, all right, I just want to be
in the room, because my goal was never to just
be a resident at someone's club. It was like, no,
I want to be seen as the person that's playing
in places that you don't typically see black DJs, you
know what I mean, like playing a night that you
don't typically see an old school black DJ, you know.

(01:02:08):
Like but then after a while, you know, I just
became exhausted. Bro of like the constant battle, you know,
constantly fighting, you know, even with our own with our
own promoters, you know, like the people that would promote
more R and B was still a constant like oh
we don't have that budget and you still do the
same job. And then like after fighting and fighting, I
was like, man, I'm over these clubs. Twenty twenty, I

(01:02:33):
remember calling Love Nation and I never worked with a
company like Lob Nation. I had done like Jill Scott's Picnic,
which was that was a pivotal moment for me. That
was like, you know, maybe like seven months before the
pandemic and I played the Jill Scott picnic. It was me, well,
I wasn't headlining, but it was Jill Scott, Jasmine Sullivan, Music,

(01:02:53):
Soul Child, Mace and I was the opening act. And
we're in Philly, Mace Smith's his flight. So now they're
scrambling trying to figure out what to do to keep
people happy. And then the president of Live Nation Urban
came to me and said, hey, we're gonna switch. You're
not gonna open, Music's gonna open. You're gonna go on

(01:03:14):
after him. And I was like, are you fighting crazy?
Like this man's town he's singing. Yeah. He was like, no,
trust me on this one. You're gonna change the whole thing.
We can't. That's that's the way we want to do it.
And I thought he was out of his mind. And
music went on and he killed it, and when I

(01:03:35):
got on for my set, it was ridiculous. It was
like by that time, it was packed, The energy was crazy.
And then I went into it because you know, Jasmine
was gonna sing slow R and B songs and Jill's
you know, she got some not really up tempos, but yeah,
she's on Jill. It's gonna be a very vibe, vibe,
sitting down vibe, like some incense and like you know.

(01:03:55):
But from my set, it was like for a minute,
if yeah, for like an hour, and I was like, Yo,
this is what I need to be doing. I don't
need clubs. And then I hit them up like towards
the end of the year, like in November, and I
was like, look, man, I just I don't want to
do clubs anymore. If you guys have an opportunity for

(01:04:15):
someone like me to just be an opening act for
someone like, yeah, I would. I would prefer to do
that now because I was I was. I was tired, bro.
And then they gave me Jill Scott's tour. It gave
me ten dates on Jill's twentieth anniversary tour, but we
only did one that did Radio City Music Hall. And
it's funny how how this whole thing works. And this

(01:04:36):
is no knock to anyone. This is really about how
how life works. I was the opening act. I was
the warm up act, so my DJ booth was in
front of the curtains, no doubt. Yeah, yeah, that joy
was at the front.

Speaker 1 (01:04:51):
You got speak. I said, what stage is like.

Speaker 3 (01:04:54):
No, you cannot, that's left. But the stage looks like
I don't knock it, you know what I'm saying. Yeah,
But I did that one show and then did a
couple of more shows and then you know, obviously like
super Bowl and everything, and then and then pandemic hit.

Speaker 2 (01:05:09):
So before that though, before that, because this is this
is this is something that was very near and dear
to me and watching what y'all were doing, you and
our brother Kenny Burns.

Speaker 1 (01:05:19):
Yes, the nice breath, the nice and Burns, yes.

Speaker 2 (01:05:22):
Right, because that was something that kicked off before the pandemic. Yes,
And that was when I say y'all was burning ship down.

Speaker 1 (01:05:30):
Y'all was like on some real fly, We're gonna, we're
gonna we're.

Speaker 2 (01:05:34):
Gonna look good, the music gonna sound good, and we're
gonna turn this thing up.

Speaker 3 (01:05:39):
Right.

Speaker 2 (01:05:39):
So that so is this is that before you start
doing the opener stuff.

Speaker 3 (01:05:44):
No, No, it was always Kenny and I've been doing
this since like around twenty ten. Okay, we started doing
it with a party in Atlantic and Soul Fusion and
then we would do it every every like quarterly in Detroit.
It wasn't like the way we do quarterly Indroit. Yeah,
because we had a buddy out in Detroit by the
name of Dennis Archer, and Dennis would throw a party

(01:06:05):
out in Birmingham, Michigan, and he was just this, you know,
he's an attorney's wife the times to Judge and his dad.

Speaker 1 (01:06:12):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, they had yeah, they had it going. Ok.

Speaker 3 (01:06:15):
Yeah. So but he was like he was the dude.
He was like he was on the scene.

Speaker 1 (01:06:19):
De Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:06:20):
He would do these flyers parties and he was like, yo,
Anita and Kenny, it's going to be flat. And Kenny
and I are like, all right, cool, Kenny's going host.
And this is when we really started doing it together.
But the thing about Kenny and I, which was dope,
we both had our own we were both unique, We
had our own background, our own stories. So we didn't
do every show together. We just found like a few,

(01:06:41):
like the wedding and a few things like that that
we would do together.

Speaker 1 (01:06:44):
Yeah, I had tanks wedding, but yes, but whatever we did.

Speaker 3 (01:06:48):
Whenever we did something, it was special, you know, and
we would kind of reserve that for like Essence Fest
or something like that to do like the parties, but like, yeah,
but that stuff. You know, Rocking with Kenny is the
easiest thing, man, because we know each other's sensibilities, our
music sensibilities, Like I know when to switch that up.
I know when to change it up because I know

(01:07:09):
if I echo something out, Kenny's going to say the
right thing, and then I could just bring something totally
different than that would just excite everyone. So we never
talk about music. We never talk about what he's going
to say. It's strictly based on here, based on this
feeling that we trust each other. And you know, sometimes
he'll come over and be like, yo, trust me, this
is the one right here, you know, like and then

(01:07:31):
I'll play a swag surfing like I was never really
in this swag surfing, you know, like because that wasn't
my scene.

Speaker 2 (01:07:36):
Oh yeah, Kenny go crazy, He's.

Speaker 3 (01:07:41):
Going to surf. Yeah, but like yeah, but you know,
our vibe was always dope, man, and you know we
were we were continuing to build it even more, but
then that pandemic hid and then it was like we
were separated. And then, you know, because of what happened,
it just to my career into like some crazy, crazy

(01:08:02):
heights man, and so.

Speaker 1 (01:08:05):
When the pandemic hets, Yeah, let's talk about that.

Speaker 2 (01:08:09):
Let's talk about the initial right, because there's the conversation
that a lot of us don't talk about of the
full shutdown, Like it was so different for a lot
of other other industries, but for the music business where
we had to literally get out and touch the people. Yes,

(01:08:29):
it went quiet. I'm talking about radio silence. So when
that first hits, right, because y'all doing nice and burn show,
you're doing your own shows, y'all, y'all like y'all really cooking,
You're cooking, y'all cooking, y'all moving around. This money seems
like it's never ending because it's just it's like a
continuous hit record. You can always go get a bag.

(01:08:52):
And then they say the store's closed. The store was closed.
The store was close, bro.

Speaker 3 (01:09:01):
It wasn't closed for me for long, but it did
feel that way because that's when the you know, so
the reason why I went on and played it wasn't
that I was trying to find like I wasn't trying
to find a hobby or you know, like I was
really just frustrated, bro, because I you know, I'm self managed,
I've always been self managed. I got a team, but

(01:09:21):
like it's me, I handled the deals, you know, like
I talked to everyone because you know, for someone like myself,
you know, I just always a knew when to make
the right deals, like a new when to say, no,
I'm not going to charge that person that amount of
money because I see what this deal is going to do.
Who's going to be in that room. They may not
have this budget.

Speaker 1 (01:09:40):
You know.

Speaker 3 (01:09:40):
Sometimes when you have representation, they just people just want
to take, take and take. And I never really operated
that way. I was always like, nah, oh we'll be
in a minute. Yeah it makes sense for you, what
makes sense for me, you know. And you know, and
when when the pandemic hit, you know, when I was
home by myself. Look, you guys travel a lot, you know,
Like I know who you are and what you both

(01:10:02):
accomplished in your careers. We're never home, you know, but
you were also in relationship, you know, married at the time.
I don't know what your status is, but like there
was always someone home making sure that home was great. Yeah,
I was never home, you know what I mean. Like
I had moved to LA a year before, so a

(01:10:24):
pandemic I wasn't home until the day before the shutdown,
so I had no food. Everybody had broken into the stores,
you know. So I was in the stores and I'm
you know at the time, you know, I had a
little bit of paper, didn't matter. I had to buy
Lina beans, you know what I mean, and protein bars,
you know, and you know, just things that I don't

(01:10:45):
you know what I'm saying, whatever it is that I
could get for this two weeks because everything was shutting down.
And you know, when I was sitting at home and
I was looking around, I was like, man, I didn't
like where I lived because I had moved to LA
a year before, but I was never home to take.

Speaker 1 (01:11:01):
Time to, like you really know where you lived, Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:11:04):
Like decorate. I had like four pictures on the wall
when you walk through the door. That's literally it. No art, nothing.
I didn't personalize anything, you know. The sofa that I
had in there was a sofa that I had in
my New York apartment, which was much smaller. Now I'm
in the spacious kind of loft. So when I was
looking around, I was like, man, I mean I got
to sit in here for like for weeks by myself.

(01:11:26):
This is what I did, and I was frustrated, you know,
Like so when I got up that morning and I
went live for the first time on Instagram because I
never used Instagram Live. I used Facebook Live, you know,
for Essence Fest, but I never did all of the
lot of stuff. And what was the other one periscope?

(01:11:46):
Ever did any of that? I'm like, who wants to
look at me? You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (01:11:50):
Like I didn't.

Speaker 3 (01:11:51):
I didn't see what it what it could have become,
you know, Like I was just on some wants to
sit there and like spy on someone's life, you know
what I mean. Like, so it wasn't my vibe and hill.
I sat there at that counter and I was like, man,
I'm just gonna play some music and tell some stories.
And I opened my laptop up, selected a song and

(01:12:11):
I started I know what the first song was.

Speaker 1 (01:12:13):
I was just about to ask you.

Speaker 3 (01:12:14):
Yeah, it was a song called Rising to the Top
Kenny Burke, And that was my first song. And I
started my IG queue that up, and I started telling
stories about being a kid.

Speaker 1 (01:12:25):
Like yo.

Speaker 3 (01:12:26):
I was like, oh my gosh, it's two hundred people
in here. This is kind of cool, like yo, Like yo,
and then I would see like my friends in there,
Chuck Bone and this one. I was like, we're all
in there, Blue Williams, and like I was like, oh, yo, no,
you know, no DJ gears, just my laptop with the
phone sitting there and I'm looking at it reading like yo,
this is crazy, Like y'all, I'm gonna play this song

(01:12:47):
from like when I used to walk in the clubs
in like nineteen eighty six, when I first came on
the scene and Bruce E B Was playing this and
this this was like the anthem. This was the Queen's anthem,
and this was what they were playing hallm with Brucey
B was d at the roof top and I play
a song and then people were like comment to me,
like yo, this.

Speaker 1 (01:13:05):
Is dope engagement.

Speaker 3 (01:13:07):
Yeah, And I was like yo, And I wouldnt even
play the full song because I knew you could you
you couldn't play music on Instagram. I would just play
a little bit of it. Then I would switch it up,
like yo, remember you know this Dennis Edward joint was
just rocking, and I would play a little bit of that.
That's literally how it started. And I did that for
like hours, like three hours on the first day and
it was like two hundred and eighty people. And then

(01:13:27):
I knew John Legend had started doing his thing too.
So the next day I had Hassan Smith up. I
was like, yo, I just noticed that you can go
live with someone. You think John would go live with me?
And he was like, yeah, I'll call just your man,
I'll call him. So he called John and then I
started calling all my old school hip hop friends, like Yo,
I called Deggie Fresh. I was like, Doug, yo, go

(01:13:50):
live to me and say hi to the people like
I'd never done a lot yet people. I was just
trying to make the ship fly. Yo, just come And
Doug was like, I don't even know how he tried.
He didn't know how to join the conversation. It's way
up people than Doug. That did, y'all.

Speaker 1 (01:14:08):
He kind of get on there, Yo.

Speaker 3 (01:14:12):
Doug couldn't figured it out that the first person that
I went live with was I believe, I'll be sure
was I'll be sure that went live with me first,
and he was, you know, he was all on his NOWBA, might.

Speaker 1 (01:14:21):
As well kick it off with the RNV. You know, I.

Speaker 3 (01:14:25):
A with me and Kane went live with me. Dave
Chappelle went live with me, but not he didn't have Instagram,
so it went from his wife's account, you know what
I'm saying. So they was just watching TV and they
had the music going on in the background, me in
the background, and they was partying. But Dave went live
and talked to the people. And then the one that

(01:14:47):
I noticed because I wasn't paying attention to how it works. Now,
remember I'm a programmer. When I went live with John
Legend and he had his daughter Lula on his shoulders
and we were just he was just saying how to
the people. I looked at the numbers, and my numbers
went from like that. It was like at that time,
floating around three hundred. The joint said six thousand, and

(01:15:07):
I was like, wait, what the fuck just happened?

Speaker 1 (01:15:10):
Right?

Speaker 3 (01:15:11):
And then usually, like when I'm done, I just analyzed everything,
and I was like, oh my gosh, it's telling people.
It's notifying that other person's like whoever they're on with
telling their people, because that joint went to six thousand,
and then when he left, it went down to one thousand.
Like now I got a thousand people in there, and

(01:15:32):
I was like, oh shit, Like No one knew all
of that. This was early. No one was using ig
live like that. Thet no one like in that week
it increased seventy five percent because of what I was doing,
like no bullshit, so no one knew what was going on.
And I saw that and I was like, oh my gosh,

(01:15:53):
this is crazy. And I was in DJing. This was
now I'm just having like conversation and playing songs and
then back to the and then I decided to call
it a party because I called I called Clark Ken
up and I was like, yo, bro, like this actually
feels real, you know, like you know, I don't know,
like I'm happy in here. My speakers aloud, so it

(01:16:14):
felt like I was in the club.

Speaker 1 (01:16:15):
I was like you at this point too, You're in
an apartment.

Speaker 3 (01:16:18):
I was in an apartment. Neighbors, all the neighbors.

Speaker 1 (01:16:22):
How did you? How did you deal with that?

Speaker 2 (01:16:24):
I mean, they couldn't kick you out as the pandemic,
so it was like they could get gear.

Speaker 3 (01:16:27):
Me out, but they were banging on the walls, and
it was like, yeah, very annoying. It felt uncomfortable because
I'm not I don't like confrontation, and I also like
respecting people's space. But they didn't see what I was seeing,
what I was seeing.

Speaker 1 (01:16:40):
What did they know that d Nice was next? No,
they didn't know something.

Speaker 3 (01:16:42):
They didn't know even they didn't even know who d
Nice was because I ended up meeting the neighbors. They
had no idea who I was, which is a funny
story too. But like when I called Clark, I was like,
I'm gonna call I'm going to name this a party
because before that people started reaching out to me. Now
like you know, you know, checking spots, you know, got

(01:17:04):
the call from like someone from Wingstop.

Speaker 2 (01:17:06):
That was like I knew, I knew it was cracking.
When a girl asked me, she was like, and she
knows you too, but she was like, do you know where?

Speaker 1 (01:17:18):
Do you know where? Do you know where Derek lifts? No? Listen, listen, listen.
That was crazy that I don't.

Speaker 2 (01:17:26):
She's like, would you would you mind like, you know,
just calling him and getting his address because I wanted to.
I just want to take him something, so I just
want to deliver it. I'll just leave it at the
door and just you know, he's just over there by himself.

Speaker 1 (01:17:38):
I'm like, Oh, he's cracking.

Speaker 5 (01:17:40):
Yeah, Chazy get him like, oh, ship, you just want
to drop off the food?

Speaker 3 (01:17:52):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:17:53):
Then I started getting food. Yeah, I'm pretty I'm pretty listen.
We won't say it, but I'm pretty sure I called you,
got your address.

Speaker 3 (01:18:00):
They were sending food. They would have the chefs make
like yo. It was that first week was like crany
things flipped quickly like and it was really because I
never I didn't ask anybody for anything. Like I was
just like, you know, I'm just gonna play some music
because this feels good, like I was. Then I became
addicted to it. Then I was like, yo, I'm gonna

(01:18:20):
When Clark said that, I was like, I'm going to
go and get some gear because I didn't have DJ
gear at home. And I made it to like Guitar
CENTD in like thirty minutes before they closed. If I
didn't make it there, I wouldn't have none of this happens,
you know. But I made it there where you had
no gears. No, I didn't believe in having like gear
at home, you know what I'm saying. Like I lived
in an apartment. I didn't want to walk in my
living room and see like like turntables that just wasn't

(01:18:42):
sexy to me, you know. So I didn't have anything,
but like, now I'm stuck in the house, I need something,
and man, I bought that controller. And then that's when
I posted homeschool. And this dude right here was like,
don't call it homeschool. That's terrible. Man.

Speaker 6 (01:19:00):
I was like, it's homeschool by that guy?

Speaker 3 (01:19:04):
Why that guy? I thought I was young. I thought
I was doing something. I was like, this homeschool, I'm
teaching these guts about music. You know what I'm saying, Like,
you know, I'm educating you on the classics right now.

Speaker 1 (01:19:15):
He's always gonna call you with it. That ain't it? Ship? Yah?

Speaker 3 (01:19:18):
He definitely said that it.

Speaker 1 (01:19:20):
Man. He was like, what do you mean, I'm hot.

Speaker 3 (01:19:22):
He was like, no, that's not it. That homeschool, Like
that's cool. You should call it club quarantine.

Speaker 1 (01:19:29):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (01:19:30):
Yeah yeah, I hold you on that one.

Speaker 1 (01:19:31):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (01:19:32):
Brother. He was like, brother, you should call it club quarantine.
People thought I sole the name club quarantine from other people,

(01:19:52):
and I'm like, yo, I really.

Speaker 1 (01:19:54):
Just got it from this. Maybe he did, but I didn't.

Speaker 2 (01:19:58):
No listen, no disclaimer, no, no disclamer, no disclaimer, no.

Speaker 1 (01:20:03):
I just for me.

Speaker 2 (01:20:06):
That's what it was. It was love quarantine. It was
you literally brought the club to the quarantine.

Speaker 1 (01:20:12):
It was now if.

Speaker 2 (01:20:13):
Someone else was saying it, I don't know either because
I but I wasn't watching anybody else since so I
wouldn't even know.

Speaker 3 (01:20:18):
People definitely like Yo, I had club Quarantine, and I
didn't know if you did. If you started about.

Speaker 2 (01:20:24):
Yours, wasn't cracking your first day we was on and
we was telling everybody, y'all make sure y'all get here.
Who was a heavy promoter for you, Tyree Gipson?

Speaker 3 (01:20:40):
What was he really?

Speaker 2 (01:20:42):
And that's crazy because you you probably just didn't even know,
but ty Reese was promoting Club Quarantine as if he
was DJing because he was just so excited and he
loved what you were doing that much.

Speaker 1 (01:20:56):
I just I remember that. I remember that, and.

Speaker 2 (01:21:00):
And that's something, like I said, that's something you should
know because as brothers a lot of times we don't
understand sometimes the people that are pulling for us, and
we think we're doing you know, we think we're out here.

Speaker 1 (01:21:10):
By ourselves, right.

Speaker 2 (01:21:11):
We think that, oh man, I'm just somebody, and there
are people that are literally pushing you forward without even.

Speaker 3 (01:21:19):
You knowing without absolutely I mean that's how we got
excuse me, so many people in there. You know, there
were a lot of people like.

Speaker 2 (01:21:27):
That, Yeah, that were literally sending sending William DM to
each other, sending dms like oh d nights on yo
get in, like reminding.

Speaker 1 (01:21:35):
Each other everything.

Speaker 2 (01:21:36):
But like it was really the conversation started, it was
a community, man. Then it took on a whole another,
It became a whole other monster. Like you were actually
talking to people and telling people what you was drinking
and what you about the order from the bar and
like I'm doing the running man right now.

Speaker 1 (01:21:55):
What you do? Like it that the commentary was the best.
The commentary the best.

Speaker 2 (01:22:01):
You see real different people tap in, you see them
blue checks and people like.

Speaker 1 (01:22:07):
It was going up. It was going up.

Speaker 2 (01:22:10):
And I think, aside from your gift, which obviously drove it,
it was the fact that people were genuinely they were
genuinely happy for you because all of us that had
encountered you in real life knew the guy you were,

(01:22:31):
and we were really happy about something good happening to
a good person. And I think that was something that
pushed us to promote to talk about it to tap
in to you know what I mean, Like just like
you said you like, man, I just be random. I've

(01:22:51):
randomly called Jay about different things, but just even that,
it was like, no, this is my friend, but yeah
he cracking. And we've all had friends who get cracking.
But it was different, I think for everybody associated with
you because we were just like he deserved this, because

(01:23:11):
everybody hadn't experienced a D Nights party.

Speaker 1 (01:23:13):
Either, because you became very corporate for a minute where.

Speaker 3 (01:23:16):
You was very corporate.

Speaker 1 (01:23:18):
Where you was getting your corporate back.

Speaker 2 (01:23:20):
You just were you know what I mean, You wasn't
at every single club they could experience you like that.
And so now it give everybody Middle America. And you
put R and B in a different.

Speaker 1 (01:23:36):
Hea heavy heavy, heavy R and B.

Speaker 2 (01:23:39):
You put R and B in out totally love the
record you and Neo did. Yeah, yeah, like you was
really tapping in. It's you did so much with with
that one thing, like you, I mean, it's monumental. So
to see how it grew into like going to the
Hollywood Ball yeah man, yeah that was crazy, bro, the

(01:24:04):
Hollywood Bowl rocking like.

Speaker 3 (01:24:07):
That, Yeah, it's crazy. I was not going back next
year too, though, yeah. It was crazy.

Speaker 1 (01:24:12):
It was not as you should Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:24:14):
Yeah, that's to me, that is where that's what seek
represents because that was like the entire the entire early
part of the pandemic all I imagine. I couldn't think
of any other place that that felt like. I was like, man,
when the world opens up, I just want to play
the Hollywood Bowl because the Hollywood Bowl was the reason

(01:24:36):
why I moved to la I'd gone to a concert there,
like a Laurence Hill concert, and I was it was
Lauren Hill and like Dave Chappelle and I'm like, yo,
you mean you can party outside. I've never been there,
Like wait, you could sit here and party andrek whine
in your own box in order food, like it's fly Yo.
They had blankets. I was like, they had a blank

(01:24:59):
party with blankets. Listen, you got some off.

Speaker 2 (01:25:06):
And he was he was the full kicker of Club Corntine,
the prettiest women in the higher world.

Speaker 3 (01:25:13):
No, no, I definitely have some beautiful fallone.

Speaker 1 (01:25:15):
Oh my god.

Speaker 3 (01:25:16):
Like I'm like, I'm like tank like.

Speaker 2 (01:25:20):
One night, one night, because because one night, you know,
I used to be I used to be fooling around
and I'm in there playing music.

Speaker 1 (01:25:27):
I always get kicked off for playing.

Speaker 2 (01:25:29):
Songs for way too long, playing songs that are way
too nasty.

Speaker 1 (01:25:33):
And one night d Nice literally brought his people.

Speaker 3 (01:25:38):
I said, Yo, go there, we're gonna go. Let's flood
his page.

Speaker 1 (01:25:42):
I turned all the way up. What I was like,
Oh yeah, okay, y'all know we could get this mast.

Speaker 3 (01:25:49):
I didn't know he was that naughty. I'm like, god,
I'm just happy that.

Speaker 1 (01:25:56):
You know, some of the corporate people maybe they were there, baby.

Speaker 3 (01:25:59):
You know now. But you know what's so funny though
I was in the basement. There's leave her name out,
but she's a huge huge She's huge at one of
the film companies, like huge, like CEO type huge. And
I had a chance to speak with her in like
about a week ago, and she was with a buddy.
She was like, you know, she knew that we knew

(01:26:20):
each other, and he put her on the phone and man,
this woman, she was like, you have no idea. I
love you like I listened to you in the middle
of the night. So that means she was listening to
the slow songs that I was playing. I was extra nasty,
Like she was like, yo, I wake up. I would
shower and you were on like it really became it

(01:26:41):
became a thing, and it was something that people really
looked forward to, you know. And that's and to me,
that's what made like the Hollywood Bowl and these gigs
that I have so special. That when you look into
that audience, you see a little bit of everyone, Yeah,
you know, you see a little bit of everyone, different
backgrounds and cultures. And because that's what it represented, man like,

(01:27:03):
you know, and the thing that made it easy was
the music that I played represented love.

Speaker 1 (01:27:10):
You know.

Speaker 3 (01:27:10):
I didn't really thug it out.

Speaker 2 (01:27:13):
I think I went in your comments and tried to
get you to thug it out a couple of times.

Speaker 3 (01:27:18):
You lifted this up because in my mind, what I
saw on the other end of the phone was people
listening with their families. And I want to be respectful
of that, you know, I haven't you know, at the time,
she was eight. You know, I have an eight year
old you know, I don't want to hear like.

Speaker 1 (01:27:31):
Crazy dancing right in that kitchen with the kids.

Speaker 3 (01:27:35):
If we danced with you know, like, so that was
that that was on my mind. And I remember like
a few months ago, like one of my friends was
in town and she came over and she just stopped
by it. She was like, do you mind if I
stopped by for a minute. I want you to meet
this kid. And she pulled up. Her friend was driving.
They pulled up and I went outside and put the

(01:27:55):
hat on. I'm thinking, I'm going to meet like a
kid like, you know, eight or nine. She rolled down
the back window and this kid turned around and his
eyes lit up and she said, who is that baby?
This little kid was two years old, and he was like,
it's d nice. And I thought about it.

Speaker 1 (01:28:12):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (01:28:12):
I was like Elmo to this kid because I was
always probably on his mother's screens or on that you know,
in the kitchen, you know, like that's all he saw
for like two years. So like it even to the kids,
it means something crazy. Yeah, Yeah, it's wild, bro, it's wild,
and it's it's I don't want to say wild in
a negative way, it's it's too beautiful.

Speaker 1 (01:28:32):
Man.

Speaker 3 (01:28:32):
Like to know your music, your music, you know Stevie Wonder,
David Bowie, you know, Level forty two, Like all of
this music kept people dancing, you dancing your kitchen and
shit that you probably didn't even know, but it just
felt good. Your kids were dancing. You're just having a
good time and you know you probably were in there

(01:28:52):
in the kitchen cooking and the vibes felt good. And
then next thing, you know, like now you know that song,
like not too many people's playing Melbourne more, you know
right now Melbourne out to Melbournore, like Melbhood Melbourn because it's.

Speaker 2 (01:29:05):
Every now now I now interact with Melbourne Moore because
of Club Quarantine.

Speaker 3 (01:29:10):
Yeah, Stephanie Mills and fool legends. Sheila Eve was in
there every day now Rogers forget about it now. I
was in there every day, like yo. And then now
it's like when they see me out, they're like yo.
You know, like Melbourne Melbourne just she's getting her star
in Hollywood Walk of Fame and when she posted about it,
she was like, yo, I I owe a lot of

(01:29:31):
this to d Nice because he reminded people who I am,
you know, and like when you see an icon leave
comments like that, it's like wow, like you know, I
don't want to make it light. You know that I
was just playing music, but I selected those songs to
play when the world was listening because I wanted to
remind people of what what love felt like musically like sonically,

(01:29:51):
this this feels like love. You know, even if you
didn't know what they were singing, Yo, that rhythm? How
could you not? How could you put on David Boy's
fame and not feel like you want to lean your
hat to the side or something like the drums and
that guitar like you just want a head and not
you know what I mean? Like, how could you not
play like you know, Marvin Gaye Distant Lover and I

(01:30:16):
feel like you want to pour a glass of wine
in front of the world, Like, Yo, this is what
we listening to right now? This is it right now.
We used to slow dance. Let's slow dance together all
over the world in your living rooms. So I couldn't
have like a Hollywood Bowl without having Tank, you know
what I mean? Because I was playing those records in
the middle of the night, like Yo, everyone knew what

(01:30:38):
Tank record I was playing. I was playing dirty like crazy, yo,
dirty record. I was like, I played it one day
and I was like, God, damn, this shit is nasty,
but it's sexy. All types of what I'm doing with
this pillow and.

Speaker 1 (01:30:58):
All that pregnancy music.

Speaker 3 (01:31:01):
I put your face on the pillow.

Speaker 1 (01:31:04):
Yeah, so listen, list so listen on that note, on
that note.

Speaker 2 (01:31:11):
Nice, you're a superstar, right and you've you've had success before,
You've been known before, but now you are, you're an
international star.

Speaker 1 (01:31:21):
How does that feel?

Speaker 2 (01:31:23):
Because it's it's it's different, and managing that is different.

Speaker 3 (01:31:29):
It's different, you know, like before before the world opened up,
and when this thing was like blowing up crazy, I
was on the Zoom call with like it was like
puff jay Lene asked, it was Lenny Asked's birthday and
we're all in this and I was. I was still
on c q DJ, but I would play a song
and run back to the laptop, like and I'm in

(01:31:49):
this whole conversation with everyone and like and then Jay
kept going, Yo, how does it feel? And I'm like,
you're talking about bro? He was like how does it feel?
He's like, no, not really, I'm not trying to be
an asshole, Like, how does it feels?

Speaker 1 (01:32:04):
Like?

Speaker 3 (01:32:04):
Yo?

Speaker 1 (01:32:05):
Bro?

Speaker 3 (01:32:05):
I had success before? He was like, no, no, no,
you had success. You had a couple of hit records,
but this is different. I didn't know what he meant
because I was still at this jay Z asking you
jay Z Yo, I was still at home, so I'm like,
I don't know if this dude is talking.

Speaker 1 (01:32:23):
About your new fan.

Speaker 3 (01:32:26):
Yeah at this point, right, you know, I was like
Lens was like, yo, Jay, Chill Man chill. Like He's like, no,
I really want to know because this is different. I
didn't know until until we put that Hollywood Bowl on sale.

Speaker 1 (01:32:41):
Give the people how fast that thing sold.

Speaker 3 (01:32:44):
That thing sold out in like four days, man, Like.

Speaker 1 (01:32:47):
The Hollywood Bowl.

Speaker 3 (01:32:49):
Oh yeah, like in like four four or five days,
sold out, sold out, And then they were reserving some
tickets because it was selling so quickly that they held
a bunch of tickets because they were like, yo, we
got to make sure like artists got tickets or whatever.
But then when they released the artist tickets, those joints sold.
You know what I'm saying, it was like holy shit,

(01:33:09):
you know, and like the one thing that mattered the
most to me, well, one of the things that mattered
the most, not even the one thing, but it goes
back to the day of like opening for Jail and
remembering where they had me, not jail per se. Just
never want to say this about the artists, but like
you know, when they set up everything and they're like oh,
he's just the DJ. And having that DJ booth in

(01:33:30):
that corner, I was like, my joint is going to
be front and center.

Speaker 1 (01:33:36):
I need a castle at led WA.

Speaker 3 (01:33:38):
I was like, yo, I'm gonna have everything on top.
But I also wanted to make sure that every artist
felt love when they came out. That it switched from
my logo to his big ass tank on new you
know what I'm saying, and every time someone walked out
because it was that's what I personally feel like I
represented inclusion and love and like, you know, we're all
doing this together, you know. So you know, I just

(01:34:01):
remember sitting in that dressing room and Tank to sit there.
He was like, you're DJ, you sold out the Hollywood Bowl.

Speaker 4 (01:34:09):
That's wild.

Speaker 3 (01:34:10):
Like what, I've never played the Hollywood Bowl.

Speaker 1 (01:34:13):
I've never played.

Speaker 3 (01:34:15):
He's like, Yo, you got the Hollywood Bowl. Like this
is wild, and that's that's why I'm playing. Like, you know,
like when you know I playing Carnegie Hall next week, man,
and that you know that that feels crazy too, where
I'm like, man, I got my own night at Carnegie Hall.
Like I went specifically to Carnegie Hall to see, you know,

(01:34:35):
how they have like the little billboard posters on the
side of the on the side of the building. And
as I walked up, and it's funny, as I walked up,
one of the guys from New Kids on the Block
was walking up at the same time and he's like, yo,
died turned around to him and I was like, yo,
I'm trying to find my poster, and he was like,
I'll go with you. And then we walked over and
just stood there together and we were both sitting there

(01:34:56):
like because they had never played Carnegie Hall either, and
I think he's working on something right now for Carnegie,
but like we just stood there and we just looked
at him and was like, man, this is wild. This
is some wild shit.

Speaker 1 (01:35:08):
Man.

Speaker 3 (01:35:08):
Like, So not only did it it make me or
you know, kind of put the spotlight on me with
fans and like I was able to just play all
of the music, but I've also met a lot of
artists that I just personally adore, you know what I mean, Like,
you know, like you and I, all three of us,
we've always been cool. But like I think the pandemic
slowed everything down, and like seeing your names pop in

(01:35:30):
all the time, it was like, yo, these are my brothers.
You know what I mean, Like you could have just
been doing your own thing, but you chose to come
and you chose to be Like yo, you should call
it quarantine or whatever.

Speaker 1 (01:35:39):
You know.

Speaker 3 (01:35:40):
First person I heard about, you know, doing a bowl
because I didn't know how to ask artists. I didn't know,
like yo, I want I want to see if some
artists will come out. I didn't know how to ask.
I was like, man, I didn't know I had your number.
But I was like, I can't call this man like
I don't. I don't want him to say no. So
I called him. He's like, nah, take do that, man,

(01:36:00):
take it to it. And you did. You did most
of them, bro, And you know, like I got somebody
didn't want.

Speaker 2 (01:36:04):
To be not on any right, like Jay, So what
what's what's what's the schedule?

Speaker 1 (01:36:09):
What schedule? I'm pulling up.

Speaker 3 (01:36:14):
I'm pulling up. I'm pulling up for my flight. He's like,
don't even worry about it, you know, like I just
want to be there and that come on many now.

Speaker 2 (01:36:23):
But we're we're really about brotherhood, man, like seriously, like
we don't we don't say that as just some you know,
slogan or some little you know tagline, like we really
mean it, Like when we fool with you, we fool
with you. I mean obviously you've seen that with us, absolutely,
And I think we've been we've been in this industry

(01:36:44):
long enough to see the other side of it, the foolishness,
the dark side, the you know, the crab and the barrel,
the whole thing.

Speaker 1 (01:36:53):
And instead of complaining.

Speaker 2 (01:36:54):
About that, we're just like, we'll just operate different, what
porate diferent, and the people that we choose to deal
with will operate different with them so that they know
all these guys move in a different space and hopefully,
you know, as corny as it may sound, hopefully somebody
will experience that with us, yes, and then pass it

(01:37:17):
and move it and pay it forward.

Speaker 3 (01:37:18):
That's not corny at all, bro, Like, that's the way
it's supposed to be. Pay it forward, you know, Like,
and that's that's the vibe I'm on, man, Like, I
just want to share it with people, you know, Like, yeah,
even even the artists that I select, you know, like
a lot of artists. You know, when you talk about
like a Hollywood Bowl or you talk about a Carnegie,
you know that many like hip hop artists and most

(01:37:39):
Black artists that played the stage weren't really R and B.
They were doing like jazz or or.

Speaker 2 (01:37:44):
You definitely won't rap, definitely right right, And you're incorporating
all of that.

Speaker 3 (01:37:48):
So I'm incorporating that, you know, like you know got
I got Kine and I got Jada kids, he's gonna
do we gonna make it.

Speaker 1 (01:37:56):
Carnegie with the orchestra what? Yeah?

Speaker 3 (01:38:00):
Yeah? And you know what, I'm like, I'm on that minsion.
I'm like, how do we how do we like start
incorporating real music and not just the drummer, like because
normally if dudes aren't on tour with a string section
at all and a horn section that's all synthesizer, you

(01:38:20):
know what I mean, Like in Stems and no. Bro,
I'm like, We're still gonna have the elements of that
record because I'm still DJing, but I you know, I
created a whole set list for like the artists in
the way it's gonna flow so they can write charts
to it so they understand like I want this experience. Yeah,
and it's like a DJ experience, but with these live

(01:38:40):
elements that so you're still gonna hear Yeah, it's Bro's
gonna be that fart Like I wake up every day
thinking about that.

Speaker 1 (01:38:51):
Man.

Speaker 3 (01:38:52):
Like man, this is going to be like the whole thing.
You know, see how smooth doing they reminisce over you
with real horns out of here, with the strings on
top of it. Yeah, I'm excited. Bro.

Speaker 2 (01:39:06):
All right, brother, Well we got to pick your brain.
All right, let's do it a couple of seconds. You
know you play a lot of R and B. Yes, lot, plethora. Okay,
I want you to give me your top five R and.

Speaker 3 (01:39:22):
B artists, My top five R and B artists that
I love to play, Stevie Wonder Prince, I love playing
Michael Jackson, I love playing Marmon Gay, and I love
Chaka Khan.

Speaker 1 (01:39:39):
What's a cold list? Yeah that is a cold list.

Speaker 3 (01:39:43):
Yeah, yeah, that's what that's what I love playing. Yeah,
you know they're gonna be some Beyonce records in terms
of like what I love from my spirit and I
play that as a DJ.

Speaker 2 (01:39:54):
Well, hold on, let's get into it. Let's get into
that top five R and B songs or albums. You
can mix it in or you can just go songs from.

Speaker 1 (01:40:02):
From a DJ's perspective. Yeah, songs songs.

Speaker 3 (01:40:06):
Yeah, there's a Prince song that I don't it's it's
something about these chre progressions that I just love. It's
a song called Dirty Minds. Like you probably don't know
that song, but you know that you dirty mines.

Speaker 1 (01:40:22):
I love Prince.

Speaker 3 (01:40:22):
Oh yeah, dirty Minds. There's just something about that record
that when I play that.

Speaker 1 (01:40:28):
You know, Tank group in the church.

Speaker 2 (01:40:29):
So oh, he didn't get to hear My mama's favorite
artist and the only light skinned man she was ever
in love with Prince.

Speaker 1 (01:40:37):
Prince. You know, she hot yellow.

Speaker 2 (01:40:40):
She she only loved dark skinned men, but Prince he
was one light skin So yes, I recD I grew
up listening to Prince.

Speaker 3 (01:40:47):
That record moves me. Alexander O'Neill Charelle Saturday Love Now
that moves me like that? You know, uh, let me
think of another old Stevie Wonders do I do? Yeah,
that that moves I mean.

Speaker 2 (01:41:02):
Am I The only one that here is Jau every
time that comes on now though I don't hear like, okay,
I find it's fine.

Speaker 3 (01:41:12):
That's three. That's three man. There's a shaka in there.
I'm just trying to decide which shaka. I know you
I live you. Do you know that song?

Speaker 1 (01:41:24):
I don't know that record?

Speaker 3 (01:41:25):
Oh my god, Shaka Khan, I know you. I live you.
If you play it, I know it. Yeah, if I
know your settlings, yeah, you play it, I know it.
I just can't and I can't sing because I would.
I would be singing right now.

Speaker 1 (01:41:37):
Sure you don't want to try that. I don't want
to try to do like I did with No.

Speaker 3 (01:41:43):
Number five, number five, number five song that I enjoy
playing all about the Benjamins. I can't even lie.

Speaker 1 (01:41:52):
I'm gonna take that.

Speaker 3 (01:41:55):
Every time I play that. Yo, what every where you are?
I know he said R and.

Speaker 2 (01:42:01):
B, but the Puff needs to be in the conversation
when brought up absolutely as you know I mean, because
he's not only a rap legend, he's an R and
B legend. You gotta really go and figure out Puff
Daddy and what he's done in absolutely R and B
les shout.

Speaker 1 (01:42:21):
Out to love.

Speaker 2 (01:42:22):
Let's make an R and B voultron. Who you're going
to take the vocals from? Who are you going to
take the artistry from in terms of style and and
the visual, and who are you going to take the
performance from? Those three pieces? Let's start with the vocals.
Who you're gonna get the vocals.

Speaker 3 (01:42:41):
From Prince for the vocals. Prince could do anything with vocally.

Speaker 2 (01:42:50):
He was anything, anything, anything, you know, style, Do you
want your artist to look like?

Speaker 1 (01:42:57):
You want to put on any Yeah?

Speaker 3 (01:43:02):
Yeah, Lenny, Lenny, yeah, Lenny, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:43:08):
I see what you're doing though with the whole Prince
vocal No, no.

Speaker 2 (01:43:12):
Yeah yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:43:17):
Performance performance, performance, damn, that's that's a that's a tough
one for me. Michael was a dope performer, but like
it wouldn't go with that style like old Michael, like
young Michael when he was a kid. That Lenny Kravitz
look was his style. And mother used to make all

(01:43:37):
of this stuff like I used to like, I was
never really into like big stadium Michael Jackson, young kid
Mike with the hat to the side, like dancing, he was, yeah, man,
like child's heart, Yes exactly.

Speaker 1 (01:43:53):
I knew exactly what she was talking about.

Speaker 3 (01:43:54):
So like that, that style of performance, but but not
with the Prince vocals. And then Lenny looks, so who
would that be Jesus, Oh my goodness, Teddy pend the
grass when he was like when he was Teddy because
he made he made women.

Speaker 2 (01:44:15):
Yeah, with the open silk shirt. With the open silk
shirt might be three four.

Speaker 6 (01:44:20):
Chains, might see the taco meat. Yeah, husky voice and
it was aggressive. He was aggressive. Yo, you got, you got,
you got.

Speaker 2 (01:44:33):
Just think about the way he's saying turn them off.
Turn the screamed at her, he's about to play that
in the car headed back home.

Speaker 3 (01:44:43):
But he was a performer turn and god damn like
it was a performer, Like I don't even think you
could do what he did back then, throwing all women concert.
You can't, you can't, you can't, you can you can
you can't. Man, Listen, it's it's it's coming back. Yes,
it's coming back. It's coming it's coming back.

Speaker 1 (01:45:05):
We've gone through it.

Speaker 2 (01:45:08):
We've gone through this stage of trying to be cool
for each other instead of being.

Speaker 1 (01:45:14):
Cool for who we need to be cool for the woman.

Speaker 2 (01:45:17):
That's who we really need to be cool for because
everything revolves around man. And we've been in this space.
But it's it's coming back.

Speaker 3 (01:45:24):
They got put on suits in front of Instagram Live
for you.

Speaker 1 (01:45:29):
I hope not.

Speaker 3 (01:45:30):
Brother. I was like, I was like, yo, this was
one of my friends called me and she said this
was probably like the first after the first weekend of
like really blowing up, and she said, I'm gonna say
exactly what she said, so excuse the language.

Speaker 1 (01:45:45):
Ladies.

Speaker 3 (01:45:46):
She was like. She called me, she said, YO, You're
gonna have these bitches falling in love with you. I'm like,
what are you talking about? She was like, d your
whole audience nothing but women. And at that point, nobody
was connecting it to their TVs. You were literally holding
it in your phone. And she was like, these women

(01:46:06):
are just looking at you, like for hours. That's all
I'm looking at.

Speaker 1 (01:46:11):
This is you.

Speaker 3 (01:46:12):
This is crazy, and you're playing the music that they love.
They're gonna think you sing these songs. And I was like,
they definitely to the essence or word, they definitely did.
Like you know, women used to find where I lived
and show up downstairs with the kids waiting, Like.

Speaker 1 (01:46:30):
Where did you say with the kids? Yo?

Speaker 3 (01:46:32):
With the kids?

Speaker 1 (01:46:33):
Like those are our kids now? I like how he
said he's about to say something. You had to tell
one what I.

Speaker 3 (01:46:42):
Had to tell one woman? Because I went downstairs. I
thought it was I thought it was like Llo was
kind enough to like have this chef make food for me,
you know what I mean? Like as a one time
gift like yo. So then I ended up don't even
a chef sugar for She's always on I g but like,
oh yeah, she gets busy. But you know when when

(01:47:05):
I was expecting this delivery from her, So when concierge
called and was like, hey, is someone here for you?
If that person was coming at the same exact time,
so I was like, oh, let me go down and
get food. So I was hungry, you know, and had
a home cooked metal like that. So and I'm looking
for a woman with food, and all I saw I
was like this a woman with like two kids. And
then I went over and I was like, hey, you

(01:47:27):
hear from me?

Speaker 1 (01:47:28):
She was like, yes, it's me.

Speaker 3 (01:47:31):
Like during the pandemic, a lot of people are lonely,
and dudes used to prey on women, so they would
create like a fake d Nice account and be like,
oh no, this is my private this is d Nice.
This is my private account. You know, I'm going to
talk to you from here. So it made them think
that they were talking to me, and I was like
and then she had a kid, and I was like, man,
you weren't talking to me, you know, like unfortunately, you know,

(01:47:54):
plus you shouldn't bring your girls out to just meet
someone like that, you know, like it doesn't really you know,
it's not gonna be good for them. You know, it's not.
It's very dangerous out here. But it used to be
a lot of things like that. You know, like one woman, man,
she moved from Chicago. She left her husband. Not making
this up. I had never spoken this woman ever, not Wanwing,
not one conversation, and she moved to La. So I

(01:48:17):
made the mistake. This is why I moved into my
house because when I first moved to LA, I only
had like one hundred and fifty thousand Instagram followers, so
you know, wherever I took pictures didn't matter.

Speaker 1 (01:48:29):
You know.

Speaker 3 (01:48:29):
I remember sitting on my sofa and I lived across
the street from the Staples Center, and I took the
still picture. But all if you had gone back through
my Instagram, you knew exactly where I lived. And I
was like, oh my god. I wasn't expecting what happened
to happen. You know, we're like pandemic hits and then
not millions of followers now, like I would have never
done that, but this. Yeah, women, there were so many

(01:48:51):
crazy stories, man, like you know. One of my favorite
ones was you know this woman sent me a video
because I used to when I would do like my
CQ after dark and I was playing Tank Dirty and
I dimmed the lights. I'm licking my lips and ship.

Speaker 1 (01:49:07):
You know what I'm saying, full tank vive.

Speaker 3 (01:49:10):
Yo, I'm bringing it back. I'm playing with the buttons.
They started calling me spirit fingers and I'm like, I'm
doing this and I'm talking Yo. I'm over here like Yo,
i'ma I'm gonna play with it. I'm gonna let this breathe.
I'm gonna play with it. Then I would slow it
down and stop the record. Boom boom, now pressing the
pads Boom boom, doom, boom doom doom. Two fingers baby,

(01:49:33):
two figures like that. I was out of control, bro.
I was entertaining myself. Yo.

Speaker 1 (01:49:39):
A couple of beverages in Yo.

Speaker 3 (01:49:43):
Definitely Yo. This woman sent me a video. She was naked,
she had the iPad, she was holding the iPad up.

Speaker 1 (01:49:52):
With her with her knees.

Speaker 3 (01:49:54):
She had her phone, and then she was masturbating with
me in the background when I'm like yo, and you
can hear me saying, Yo, let me play with it.
And then she's like, yeah, play with the baby, and
she's like that.

Speaker 1 (01:50:06):
And I was like, Yo, this is wild. Yeah, this
is wild. I'm so excited.

Speaker 3 (01:50:13):
I was like, now I gotta chill with this.

Speaker 1 (01:50:14):
Man.

Speaker 3 (01:50:15):
Listen, I DJ for presidents.

Speaker 1 (01:50:16):
I gotta chill DJ every chill said.

Speaker 3 (01:50:24):
Oh man, R and B. Life is crazy. Man, Thank
god I couldn't sing. Then I will probably be out
of this.

Speaker 1 (01:50:30):
And your you you are fine the way you.

Speaker 3 (01:50:32):
Yeah, yeah, I'm good.

Speaker 1 (01:50:34):
You're to play play the redcord. I want to say
we had another segment for you, but.

Speaker 2 (01:50:39):
No, no, no, no, no, no, no no, yeah, he's
not getting out of.

Speaker 3 (01:50:43):
All right, Wait, what's the segment.

Speaker 1 (01:50:46):
So we have a segment.

Speaker 2 (01:50:48):
It's called I Ain't saying no names because there are
some names that he cannot say.

Speaker 1 (01:50:53):
Yeah, but there's some stories he can tell.

Speaker 3 (01:50:55):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:50:56):
So the name of this, like I said, this is
the segment is called I no names and the story
can either be funny or fucked up?

Speaker 1 (01:51:04):
Are both the only rule?

Speaker 5 (01:51:07):
You know?

Speaker 2 (01:51:07):
I'm saying no names. I can't say no names. I
ain't saying no names.

Speaker 3 (01:51:13):
Damn, I don't know if I have one of those stories.

Speaker 1 (01:51:15):
Yes, you do, Yes, you do.

Speaker 3 (01:51:18):
I don't. I ain't saying no stories, I.

Speaker 1 (01:51:22):
Don't know if I have.

Speaker 2 (01:51:25):
Nah, I really don't even have to be from you
don't gotta be from Club Quarantine. No, no, because you
know what I mean, You've lived five different lives, my brother.

Speaker 1 (01:51:35):
A lot of lives.

Speaker 3 (01:51:36):
Yeah, but I don't retain the information though. That's the
problem though, that I'm being serious, like, yeah, I don't
keep it. It's like, I mean, there's somebody who I'm
still trying to figure out if I slept with her
back in the day because I'm like, I'm like, did
I I don't know, because the way she showed me
so much love, and like.

Speaker 1 (01:51:56):
Some I just gotta ask, just gotta ask.

Speaker 3 (01:51:59):
I'm sometimes you just gotta have just left it alone.
I was like, I'm gonna assume that we did. But
you know, I want to know what I'm like, you know, Yeah,
I don't know, but I don't. I don't. I don't know, man,
I don't know if my stories. You know, I've always
been in relationships, you know what I mean, Like.

Speaker 2 (01:52:15):
No, but no, no, no, no, no, no, no, it's not
it doesn't have to be those type of stories, Ok,
it can literally, it could be a business story. It
could be you know what I'm saying, like even telling
up earlier obviously it was earlier things and we'll cut
this part out. But like even like when you talked
about records you produced, are what those situations might have

(01:52:36):
actually like the full stories in the sense of how
those situations might have went down or somebody still and
you're publishing somebody, you know what I mean.

Speaker 3 (01:52:43):
Like, really don't have an hitto stories?

Speaker 1 (01:52:45):
Bro are you serious?

Speaker 3 (01:52:46):
I'm dead that serious. I will tell you if I
had one, Like you know, I have one that that
happened recently, but I can't say that because it's too recent,
like and there's a little bit of issue with that one.

Speaker 2 (01:52:57):
But other than that, I can't be the only person
to come on here and not tell us a story.
Though you would be the only person who's ever come
on here and didn't say I ain't saying no names.

Speaker 3 (01:53:07):
I'm the only one that you know.

Speaker 1 (01:53:09):
Don't start the ship.

Speaker 3 (01:53:12):
I wish, I wish I could, Like, I mean, honestly,
can't even think, y'all. I'm like having like a fucking
brain fard, Like I don't know, like I don't know
a story like, you know, publishing wise, I only worked
with Carrerass, so I'm just using that as but like, yeah,

(01:53:32):
sh man, I I really don't have one, bro, that's crazy. Yeah,
I've led a good life though. Yeah, I'm looking you
in your eyes and I'm not like, really, I really
don't have one. I don't have anything. That's like. I
think that's why people rock with me. Man dead that serious.

(01:53:55):
So yeah, there's no no creeping stories, No I got
over on someone, no business deals, none of that. Ship man,
So I can't say any names.

Speaker 1 (01:54:07):
And D nice is just it's our first al.

Speaker 2 (01:54:14):
Throw some tomatoes at D night on them. He gave
all the good stories.

Speaker 1 (01:54:22):
It was another one where he just did say to now,
oh man, you know what, you know.

Speaker 2 (01:54:27):
What listen, I know it's somebody crazy. That's little your DM. Man,
you don't want to say that. It's fine, tell us
you know it was no no information. We walk away
on top. It's fine. Uh you know, listen, flowers to you,
my brother, nothing but flowers, nothing but admiration man, and

(01:54:50):
in salutes. And you know I I personally thank you.
You know you played my wedding and you know the
circumstance going into that you were actually a savior in
that space for me. So from me and my wife

(01:55:10):
like like, thank you. That was I never expected you
to do that. I never expected to say I'll do it,
what ye I'll do it. I remember when he told me.
I was like, wad he's gonna do?

Speaker 3 (01:55:27):
If you renewed your vows, I'll do it then too.

Speaker 2 (01:55:29):
The nicest gonna be my DJ, BRO said, I don't
I didn't even know what to say. I didn't even
know how to thank you, know how to pay I
didn't know what to do. But you know, just know
that that that meant. That meant everything to me, Bro
and everything. I appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (01:55:44):
Thank you for that.

Speaker 2 (01:55:45):
And continue man, continue to keep, continue to keep love first,
because you're in a you're in a very awesome space
to where you're able to spread that all over the world.
And if anything is going to change the world or
the dynamic, the negative dynamic that seems to be plaguing

(01:56:09):
everything social and everything of all things, it's gonna be
love to change, yes, sir. And it's more it's more
likely gonna be a song, and you're probably gonna play it.

Speaker 3 (01:56:19):
I like that. And before before we say goodbye. I
do have a story that I'll tell because this is
actually an important story. So and I and I won't
say any names. When I when I was on the scene,
like really just starting to bubble hard in New York,
a person that I know was playing like a huge,

(01:56:42):
huge event for the Oscars, like huge, and you know,
and uh and he was extremely arrogant but we were cool.
But when he got that gig, he was like, I
was like, man, you're gonna play that. I was like, yo,
one day, I want to play that. And he said
you'll never plad like literally said that. And then you

(01:57:04):
fast forward. And I'm not going to tell you which
Oscar party, but it was one of the I played
four of them this last Oscars. I played the Oscars,
I played the Governess Ball, I played Vanity Fair, and
I played the guy sirih Madonna party. And that guy
was my opening act at the very party. You know
what I'm saying, Like that's nice people. Yeah, you gotta

(01:57:25):
be nice to people. You gotta be nice to people,
you know, like and I did get a kick out
of that, Like, naw, you guys have to honor my
ride of request, even though I could have you know,
removed a couple of things, and it was like no, no, no,
no no, because I remember that conversation like a decade

(01:57:45):
ago and then here we are and I was like, oh,
I made it. Yeah, but I won't say any names.
So that's my story. Yeah, you didn't take the house.

Speaker 2 (01:57:58):
Four full pocket fully with all of the podcast is yeah,
all your pockets is.

Speaker 1 (01:58:06):
Full, ladies and gentlemen.

Speaker 2 (01:58:09):
Man I the brother man just just an amazing brother,
beautiful brother man. Brother we've all been rooting for and
you're getting well deserved.

Speaker 3 (01:58:22):
We love that you get.

Speaker 2 (01:58:24):
I am Tank, I'm Valentine, and this is mister mister
Dan Nice And this has been the r Andy Money.

Speaker 3 (01:58:31):
Podcast, So Yes.

Speaker 2 (01:58:44):
And Money. R and B Money is a production of
the Black Effect podcast Network. For more podcasts from iHeart Radio,
visit the iron Heart Radio 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 via at R and B Money

(01:59:04):
Podcasts or at the Real Tank or at j Valentine

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J. Valentine

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