January 13, 2025 • 62 mins
On this week’s episode of R&B Money Tank and J Valentine are joined by Grammy nominated singer/songwriter Eric Benét. The group will discuss the early days of Benét’s career from the moment he discovered the power of R&B, learning to overcome stage fright when he no longer performed with his sister, to how difficult and discouraging the music industry can be. Benét talks about how a co-sign from Luther Vandross gave him confidence. Host Tank and J Valentine also do this episode barefoot in honor of Eric Benét. Listen and Enjoy!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
R and b's Money.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Child.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
We are the authorities.
Speaker 4 (00:15):
R and B.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
What's going on? People?
Speaker 3 (00:18):
You have just tuned into the R and B Money Podcast.
I'm Tank, this is Jay Valentine, and we are the
authorities on R and B music and in the building
all the way from mell Walkee mail town.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Huh anything with mail letter mail do my brother from
another mother.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Thanks for the insight man waiting to come up in this.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Listen this. We want to this. We want to kick
this thing off the right way. Okay, we want to
kick this off the right.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
In honor, yes, okay, in honor of Okay.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
Let me tell you something. Let me tell you something.
First of all, are you all of a sudden organic? Yeah,
all of a sudden? Are you in touch with the
earth people? All of a sudden? You? Wait, listen, I'm
gonna tell you. Started this ship there was a man, yeah, walking.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Barefoot, barefoot.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
He had already had sea shells attached the strings and ship.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Yeah, And we was trying to figure out how is
he doing this? Is he Listen?
Speaker 3 (01:41):
I'm trying to tell you every girl I knew everyone
was like, oh my god. I was like, no shoes up.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
I love Eric B.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
I'm looking at my temple and was like, still represent
we are not wearing shoes.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
With no shoes, I'm gonna get rid of my heir.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
Jesus is here man, Jesus ey thing.
Speaker 5 (02:14):
It was every nay, Lenny Kraviss Maxwell, a very small
group of elite organic men.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
We all smell like that. You back then, some of
the ladies like, remember he would be on Venice Beach
and the nigga be selling. I got some portunity for you.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
Yeah, see this, he's been doing this, so you said
some money eventually eventually.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Now y'all come in the terms.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
Now you've got your feet now you now you now
you're not now you hold he's been doing it and
the women have been going.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
So let me ask you a question. Yes, answer your question.
Please do that.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
I want to talk about the bare feet thing. Go ahead.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Was that on Was that on purpose?
Speaker 3 (03:06):
Like did you know going into this like I'm gonna
give them something, something different, I'm gonna give them something vulnerable,
something you know what I'm saying a different kind of
with my feet out, I'm comfortable.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
I'm gonna tell you about that. I'm gonna, I'm gonna,
I'm gonna go a little surface with it, then I'm
gonna go deep.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
So when I was first signed back in nineteen Hendres
and Hum, it was me and my sister. We were
called Bennet. We were first. My first record deal was
with E and My Records, and so you know, we
came up in Milwaukee. We did like the clubs we
would do, like the obscure cities in Michigan and Illinois.
(03:49):
And then we got our record deal. And I was
always used to looking to my left and seeing my
sister right there. Okay, first record deal didn't work out
so good. My sister was like, baby brother, you go ahead,
it's music business, shit crazy, I'm gonna give me a job.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
A wow.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
So my dumb ass hung in there a little bit
longer and I got my solo deal. Once I got
my solo deal, I started to have to perform by myself.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
I was not used to that.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
The stage fright when you are used to looking over
and see your family member and all of a sudden,
it's me out there.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
It was.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
It was like I'd be backstage a little debilitated, just
like stage fright will come on me like that. So
I discovered one day that if I just took my
shoes off and went out on the stage. I relaxed,
almost like you felt at home. I felt at home.
And a byproduct was of that was women. Apparently I
(04:43):
must have had a good foot day or something and
they'd be like.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
Oh, look at his feet. I was like, oh, y'all
like this shit.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Okay, I'll keep doing it because it makes me feel great.
So let me flash forward. Great, I'm gonna flash forward
to something that I've reached. I told you I was
gonna go deep, something that I've just discovered, which you're
probably hipped to. You're so health conscious and YouTube. But
there's such a thing. It's called grounding and earthing.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
Have you heard of this, yes?
Speaker 5 (05:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
So basically, grounding is the science based upon the fact
that the Earth is just one big battery full of
negative electrons. We as human beings, are basically electric beings.
We're full of positive electrons. But when we walk around
with shoes on all the time, especially rubber soul shoes,
(05:31):
we are insulating ourselves from those negative electrons, which balances
our body and reduces inflammation, makes us healthy, makes us
sleep better, makes sex more boili. So basically, I've since discovered,
which I didn't know back then. That shit just keeps
me healthy, It keeps me young, It makes me feel
(05:53):
makes me feel like I'm twenty years younger than I am.
At least an hour day, I will walk around outside
barefoot in the dirt, in the sand and the grass.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
Wow. Yeah, it's real ship, you know what. And and
thinking about that, I used to always wonder why my.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
Country cousins healthiest ship well, was so far ahead every
party elements.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
They were faster than you. They were faster. It was
right right like they was driving. I was like, you're
not right, how are you driving? Just dropping the car.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Broke bruh, you and me both because that where's your family?
From my mobile? Alabama?
Speaker 3 (06:33):
I got Alabama, I got I got all all all
over Alabama, Birmingham specifically, I got Arkansas, little Rock all
through there.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
And then they all migrated. They Migras's how they got
to Milwauk into Detroit.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
But you are you are speaking the truth. Like we
would go down to Alabama and my other I'd be
ten years old, and my other ten year old cousins
be like driving, got girlfriends and.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
They got everything. We're going to see these goods around
the corner you want to go.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
I was like, I ain't much nowhere, you can't go.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
I don't know we're gonna do.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
We get exactly the joke, but they was ready to
get to it. It was like and then I had
two goods.
Speaker 6 (07:09):
Like, so, what you're saying with it, with the whole
barefoot thing, is that we shouldn't make jokes about the
little drunk white girls after the club.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
We can still make fun of this drunk Let's keep
that funny.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
I'm just wondering, man, how that all works. All right,
let's tap into the music. Man, Yeah, let's go.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
Let's go to the beginning, right, we like we like
to go to like the introduction of of you to
music and music to you. You know what I'm saying,
like the complete where your old story.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
No, I mean you can break it down in the pieces,
but the part where it's where you said you know,
where it claimed you because normally claimed you first.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
Right, you don't know what the gift is. You don't
know you have a gift. True, you were in a group.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
Yeah, you're able to do things that you just think
you're able to do. And then there's a moment where
you recognize.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Oh yeah, you really hit up. You really hit on
something right there. Because I remember as far back as
I can remember, you know, Milwaukee in grade school, sixty
Pith Street School and Capitol Drive, you know, something as
simple as music class. I just remember having an ability
(08:32):
to sing and understand music on a level that was
way above like the rest of the kids.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
And what I would do.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
I don't know if you did this, but because I
didn't want to stick out and be weird, I acted
like I was on their level, you know what I mean.
It's like I don't I don't want too much attention
on me right now. It's like, you know, the music
teacher would tell us, okay, class, it's like here's the
scale or here's the song, and it's like I would
already be like five steps ahead of them, and little
(09:00):
me over here and Dondrell over here is like completely clueless,
and I'm just like okay, I'm like I'm struggling too,
isn't that weird?
Speaker 1 (09:07):
No?
Speaker 3 (09:07):
That was me in sixth and seventh grade, and so
I was just kind of like staying here and then
really right right right right.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
It was almost like this, Yeah, I played football.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
Like you sing were you sing. I'm like, right, I
don't know if I want to, you know what I'm saying.
Because my cousin was the lead singer. My cousin Kisha,
was the one who was doing all the solos. And
then when I finally tried a solo, I tricked it
off really bad.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
You know what I'm saying. I was like, how do
I do? She was like, you was off? You know
what I'm saying. So I went back into training. You
know what I'm saying. Okay, So so you're starting there
and you're and and about what time is it?
Speaker 2 (09:46):
So this is I mean, this is grade school. And
then when I go home, like I'm I'm the youngest
of a group of five siblings, we're all musical, we
all sing. So that was the place. The whole house
from from my mom playing the piano. My dad didn't
really sing, but he had this extensive classical music collection.
So I would be in my dad's music collection listening
to Tchaikowsky and Brahms and Mozart, and then with my
(10:08):
sisters and my brother, we would sing. We would listen
to like the Silvers or the Carpenters, and we would
deconstruct the harmonies and like, you know, sing them, and
I you know, before my voice changed, i'd have the soprano.
So Michael Jackson, Yeah, I was michae I was a
little Microjacks established that. So that's where music that's really
(10:29):
People ask me who's my biggest influence, My biggest influence
on my older siblings, because I've always equated music to
love because that's how we that's how we would have
fun together. That's how we would show each other our love,
like like making music. So but outside the house, it
was almost like, Okay, I'm gonna I'm gonna keep that
talent close to my vest because it comes off a
(10:51):
little too overpowering for people outside the family circle. Now,
then puberty happened. So I've always been like the nerdy
and you know, I kind of still am. I've always
been like the nerdy science fiction book reading, you know,
into writing my own little weird stories and making up
(11:13):
my own songs. And so I've always been that little kid,
even in like thirteen or fourteen, where I would stick
to myself, and like I said, I still wasn't singing
publicly in school. But I remember when puberty hit, there
was a singing competition, and nobody really knew I sung.
There was a singing competition in junior high school, and
(11:37):
my sisters told me, go ahead, Eric, get into the contest.
And keep in mind, I'm thirteen now, and my all
my siblings are beasts, and that's when I come home. Yeah,
seventh grade, middle school. So I just grew up with
older siblings who literally could deconstruct the song and we
would put it back together. So I was at thirteen,
(11:59):
I was dope. So I entered the contest. Nobody really
knew I could sing.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
Bruh.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
I sang Lionel Richie's truly I kill that ship. I
killed that ship. You know that's still a fro no offense, Linel,
But at thirteen, I probably sang that ship better than
you respected. But you respected Bruh. Can I tell you?
The next day at school there were two girls I
(12:27):
had crushes on that did not know I existed. They
were waiting at my locker the next morning. I was like,
that's something to this ship. Both boup.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
Both up.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
Vicky Stanton, Vicky Stanton, Laura Oldenburg.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
Them oh vi VI Vicky Stanton, Laura.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
Oldenberg Oldenburg Oldenburg.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
Yeah, I was.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
You were early there too. You were early there too.
I didn't learned about equal Effers is way later in.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
I don't even know if I know now where, but yeah,
and from there, you know, from there it was just
like my cousin George, who was always like the musician,
the musician of the family. My George, cousin George played
you know, he was like you. He was like, played
piano and he played the guitar. And it was just
(13:24):
dope and my cousin George and my sister Lisa and
I we started writing songs. Then I dropped out of
college UW Milwaukee, joined this band, and then we got
our first record deal, the one I told you about Benet,
me and my sister. That's dope too. Yeah.
Speaker 6 (13:40):
So between time wise, when you guys get your first deal,
so when you get your deal and get your first
hit wreck, a lot of shit happened between that and
me having a solo deal.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
So what's the what's the time frame. So we're talking
about we signed the Benet deal with EMI Capital in
ninety two, Pluck from Milwaukee in Los Angeles, and that
was just culture shock man. That was yeah, yeah, but yeah, yeah,
(14:13):
I mean, I love Milwaukee, but it's like you come
out to la In the early nineties, it was a
whole nother expansive universe, from musical like the community of
badass music dudes, to like the most beautiful women you've
ever seen in your life, to like people who are
the hell of a lot of bullshitters, but but a
(14:37):
lot of people who are on a higher level of consciousness,
like talking about eating right and you know, you go
back home to Milwaukee and you just eat a vat
of pork. It's just you know, it's like salt pork.
You eat it, but come out here and it's like, no,
you know, it's like higher level of taking care of you,
your mind and your body. So it was just like
culture shock all the way around.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
And that's ninety two.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
That's ninety two. That record did not work out, as
everybody in the industry has these stories where your first
management deal, your first record deal, it's like, well they
kind of sort of put a single out but didn't
really put any money behind it, so we got dropped.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
Right.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
This was one of the hardest times in my life
because a few years prior my father died. My father
was a detective for the city of Milwaukee. So Dad died,
my girlfriend, Tammy Stouff, we became parents. We became parents
(15:38):
India short my daughter, India Shortly after I got dropped,
Tammy died in a car accident. So now I lost
my record deal. Dad's gone all of a sudden, single dad,
and I'm just trying to figure out, Wow, how am
I going to do this? Thank God, I have the
family I have because between my mom and my sisters
(16:02):
and my brother, they would let me like I could
take India. India was only fifteen months old, and my
mother did. So I have the most amazing family in
the world because I could, you know, if I had
to fly out to La to talk to some people
who were thinking about signing me. You know, as a parent,
especially as a single parent, you need to know that
your children or your child is safe and taken care
(16:25):
of and loved. And I never had to worry about
that when I was out there trying to make the
dream happen. I basically got a gig in Milwaukee as
an assistant engineer at a recording studio on Fondilac, Okay,
and I between George and this crazy ass dude who
(16:47):
is one of the baddest keyboards ever. Dmante you know Demante?
Do you know Demante Posi? Nigga's bad anyway, He's from Milwaukee.
Also met Demante and my cousin George during the off
hours at the at the recording studio that I was working.
They would let me use the studio to record demos.
So between me and George and Demante, we just started
(17:08):
writing all these songs, writing all these demos. That demo,
all those demos turned out to be my first album,
the first solo Eric Bene True to Myself album Nowhere,
which is amazing. Thank you, sir, crazy, thank you sir.
Yes's it's an incredible story.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
I'm riding with a girl through d C.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
Was it side Boom? It might have been that's another beast.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
I was upside. It might have been signed, She's a beast. Yeah,
it might have been signed. You gotta hit this from
I'm really she played that, she played that femininity. Oh
ship and at that time, pronounce it.
Speaker 3 (17:48):
That's how I like it. And I was like everything
for me was John p Key and Burrell, It was
Fraying Hammond and and then it was it was it
was all that, you know what I'm saying, so when
you tell me to listen to something like at this point,
I have every run in the book downloaded.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
That's how I lived my life. I run. I don't
want to verse, no first verse.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
Let's not gliss over that that you nigga.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
You don't just run, you just you kill it at
that time, Nigga, I have no verse. I'm gonna run
this hol of thame five minutes. So so if you
ain't doing that right, I don't want to get you're
not running through the whole song. And she started playing
(18:36):
this song and a.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
Missing to the thing.
Speaker 7 (18:40):
You was making the faces and ship right interesting right,
and the vocal was so clean and straight ahead, and
I was like, who's this again?
Speaker 3 (18:52):
After she had already told you. And then and then,
and then you did something that we do in church.
Was about the three and a half close to four
minute mark.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
You did a vamp. Okay, you let the band play
for a minute, and then you went into a vamp.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Yeah that's this nineteen seventy ship.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
Oh yeah, this niggas ba nigga vam. I was so
at that point, man, thank you you went into a vamp.
I was coming from yours. I said, your problem coming
from and then even I know we'll we'll get to
we'll get to the later in the two thousands, But
(19:35):
then you started going digging into your false settle with
the uh.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
I cried sometimes sometimes yeah yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
That bothered me.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
I took a shue with that.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
I took I took it. I felt the person at okay, okay,
because GEORGI said, I took that person because I'm going
thumb back, say let it. Why is this nigga, why
is this false settled? So clear it's been connected with me.
Speaker 3 (20:13):
And and I hear you sing that on stage and
you didn't miss a no wow a no, And I'm
a false settle that's what I do.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
You known for that?
Speaker 2 (20:25):
No?
Speaker 6 (20:25):
No, no, no, no, literally not just a false sttle, right,
you're known for not missing, which is as guys who
we all sing, right, we've we've been around one thousands,
so you know where that comes. But not missing, it's
a different type of gift, right, That's just that's that's
that's just special. Like you talk to somebody, especially me
being from the baby Me and my brother was talking
(20:46):
about it and he's like, man, because he's the first
person to put me on to you, right, and he
wanted to go see you.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
A Yoshi.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
Yosh and he was like, nigga, he didn't miss.
Speaker 6 (20:59):
And you know, as singers, we all know what that means.
But I had to ask again. I'm like, what do
you mean he didn't miss? That's a huge conference, Like
he didn't And you.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
Know about this that comes from that comes from going
through the ranks, like like, okay, so I dropped out
of college, but my college was being in those shitty
clubs all over the Midwest, right having to it's a
drunk crowd. This nigga over here is about to start
a fight with this nigga. There's some something going over here.
(21:31):
I'm gonna have to like take command of this whole room,
and I'm gonna have to do it consistently, And maybe
I wasn't able to do it for the first six
months I was in the band. But it was a
honing process where a lot of artists today they don't
have that honing process. They might they might be in
their lab in their base and they yeah, doing some beats,
(21:53):
put a couple of loops on it, you know, and
they got all kinds of technology. Catch your record and
catch a record, and then you put them on stage
and it's like, nah, you didn't go through the process, bro,
I can tell.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
Well, I mean they're not investing. They're not investing in
the process, right.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
I don't even know if there is the process, Is
there any reverence for it anymore? No, there should be,
there should be.
Speaker 3 (22:13):
But I don't really think that we're like probably the
lasts who are who are looking for people who are
actually just just seized and seasoned in some type of growth,
that's some type of developments. Like it's taken us years
to find an artist, right because we're like, nah, but
(22:34):
they hot in they all time.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
They got this record of them.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
But you that fleeting, Like that's so fleeting. I remember,
like one of the things that I so appreciate y'all
telling me that that means a lot to me. I
remember a couple of times in my career, and as artists,
I guess there's always some level it thinks for me,
there's always some level of insecurity. But I remember when
(23:00):
I first got I first started doing my solo deal,
and you're doing the rounds at the radio stations and
Luther Vandross was just leaving an interview and Luther was like,
I'm the type of dude where it's like, if I
know Luther is there, I at least want to just
(23:21):
say thank you. I don't I don't want to crowd
to you. I just want to say thank you. But
Luther found out I was there, He's like, oh no, no, no, no,
no no, you tell him to come here. When somebody
like Luther looks at you and say, you know what,
you're doing it right, you know, And that's all I needed.
Luther looks at me, that's it. So it's like, if
(23:42):
you thought I was dope before, that's probably when you
heard me go in the studio do that false little
let me show these niggas, you know. So it's like
when you get when somebody like that, like a Maurice
White or Luther Vandross or David Foster, that just makes
me want to, oh ship, if I thought I was
(24:03):
honing my craft before, I'm gonna have to like, I'm
really happy, I'm really going in deep now. So it's
those kinds of things that make me continue to strive
to be better to this day.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
Yeah, the hunger doesn't go away, you know, the grind,
the hustle. Yeah, never never goes away.
Speaker 6 (24:32):
So when you get that first hit record, right, because
thanks spoke about it a little bit, right, you know,
you put up on them with shoes off, was out,
you know what I mean, showing them sing something, showing
them something, and they're definitely showing out.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
What is that influx?
Speaker 3 (24:47):
Like?
Speaker 2 (24:48):
Yeah, man, you mean when you catch there, you catch
that r you fresh from Milwaukee, Yes, you're fresh from
your walk. You get a major hit record, and but.
Speaker 6 (25:04):
You don't but you also don't get the run of
the meal hit record. You get a record that nobody's
heard before. You don't get the some producer was did
that record, and then your producer heard it and y'all
recreated and now you get that little cheek code hit.
You had a record that sets you apart from the gate, right.
(25:28):
So it's a different it's a different level that's coming
your way. It's a it's a different kind of vibe
because back then.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
There were like you said, I mean, when you think
about what I was doing back then, and what cats
like D'Angelo were doing back then, and like Maxwell were
doing back then, that was outside of the norm.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
For sure.
Speaker 6 (25:54):
It was like Mashow was brushing his teeth right video,
Like it's like right brushing his teeth. They don't care
at all and they love it right right.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
So we.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
It was just kind of like this feeling of I
don't know, being that kind of a creative person. The
people who I work with. When I'm in the lab
and i've been, I've I like to go check in
on like how see how lots of people work. A
lot of people like to work like they like to
check out what's hot right now, like runk, what kick
(26:30):
sounds are hot right now? You know what's happening in
the top ten. And I'm going to try to put
my own spin on that. But I've never really worked
I've never really worked that way, even back then. I
always dig from a more intimate place, like even musically,
like I've never wanted to try to emulate the other
(26:53):
things that are happening out there. And when you work
like that, you're working in a bubble. At least I am.
You're working on this. No, I want to be cut
off from everything that's like top ten, top twenty on
the radio right now. I just want to be in
like this little fortress of musical solitude with myself and
whoever I invite to come in there and create with
me all that to say, as we're doing that, we
(27:15):
don't I don't really know how this is working like
a motherfucker here, but I don't know how that's going
to play out there because it's like so intimate to
us and we're like nerdy music heads. So that's kind
of it was like I was surprised in a way.
I was surprised because we were signed to what I
(27:37):
was signed to Warner Brothers as a solo artist, and
they really did just leave me alone. They let me
just do my thing. And then when I turned the
record in there was a reaction like somebody just reinvented
the wheel, and I was like, really was It was
just incredibly surprising because, like I said, I was grateful,
(27:58):
and it was at least it was affirming that I
felt like, Okay, I mean.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
And you had seen the bottom.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
I had already had huge loss, personal loss in my life,
my the mother of my daughter dying all of a sudden.
I'm a solo single father, trying to figure out the
next move. I was working at UPS. When I told
you I was working at the studio, I was also
working at UPS. Uh, and working at the studio to
make you know, to make a little bread. So it's
(28:26):
like I saw the bottom and once I knew that,
oh you mean, I can win by just being completely
authentic in my appreciation for music, not the music industry,
but music. Yeah, I was like, Okay, I'm not I'm
not gonna switch it up.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
And that's it. And that's a very unique situation.
Speaker 6 (28:48):
That's very as all of us has been in this
music business for so long to actually it's like getting
drafted to the right team because one or worked for you,
but universal may.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
Have not you know what I mean, or im I
didn't you know what I mean?
Speaker 6 (29:05):
So it's like in that space man, that that in itself,
and you know, we try to give that type of
information when we when we do these interviews for people
that are trying to get in the music business. People
are in the in the business to understand, like this
ship just don't happen the way you want it at
(29:25):
that time, and you got to keep pushing.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
You got to keep pushing until you find that situation
that makes the most sense for you exactly. But we
got off of the influx that came with this.
Speaker 3 (29:37):
You you.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
I'm from that area.
Speaker 6 (29:46):
He wasn't gonna let you around by the way around
baptized didn't.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
I'll tell you.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
I tell you here.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
A lot of people don't believe this, but actually, now
that you now that you know me, you can leave it.
Like I've always been the nerdy dude, like I've always
been the if it wasn't for music, if it wasn't
for me being on a stage and singing like my game,
like my just step up to a girl game was
was garbage, Like I had no idea I need it,
(30:17):
but I didn't know I didn't need it because you
know what I'm saying, So okay, So then you got
this guy who's basically uh looking at women feeling like
I don't really have that much of a shot, to
being on stage having a hit song and having them
(30:39):
literally come to me. It was overwhelming. And I'm going
to say this, that's one of the most like if
you're not ready for that kind of attention, you will die, yes,
or things around you will because it isn't all And
(31:01):
I don't use the word awesome like well, it can
be great, but it is. It is an overwhelming uh power.
And if you are an insecure person who always idolized
women but didn't know how to talk to him, and
all of a sudden you're the guy that they're coming
(31:22):
at to talk to you. That could be a very
dangerous thing. And there is a process where, you know,
for some of us, it takes a year or two
or ten or two.
Speaker 3 (31:35):
Where you feel me where it's like I'm in that
ten fifteen years you just jumped another.
Speaker 1 (31:45):
You know, I need a little bit more.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
Time to real this thing in right, because it's like,
all of a sudden, I can have all of it.
Are you fucking kidding me? It was like like, speak on, man,
come on, you stuttered Milwaukee, Milwaukee, Maryland.
Speaker 3 (32:04):
Yeah right, l A, now now I gotta I gotta taste.
When I went on tour with Genuine, it was it
was a it was a heavy taste.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
That was it was.
Speaker 3 (32:20):
It was the taste that changed my life. No, no, listen,
I definitely yes, you are correcting that, man. I know,
and Genuine would say to me, this is cool. I
know you having the time of your life, but it
(32:42):
ain't nothing like when it's you and I didn't believe
I'm never leaving you.
Speaker 1 (32:48):
I'm going to sing.
Speaker 6 (32:52):
You still dowhere if guy is on stage and we
got to show that he finds.
Speaker 1 (32:59):
A way to sing back to get let's do So
it's like.
Speaker 3 (33:03):
When you get with you, but then when it when
it listen when I watched, when I watched, maybe I
deserve start charting and me going from clubs like you
know what was one hundred people to a thousand people,
(33:24):
to seven hundred people to a thousand people, and then
to co headlining radio shows and arena's and London.
Speaker 1 (33:35):
To Chris and and and Nally you know and and
Jah rule Jesus Christ, you have.
Speaker 3 (33:44):
To be all the R and B shows all because
my name was Tank and so sometimes they wouldn't even
listen to my music.
Speaker 2 (33:52):
Just saw that's hilarious record.
Speaker 3 (33:56):
Yes, so so so like you take you, I just
I was dropped in a church kid. Still I'm still trying.
You know, it's still biblical for me, it's still spiritual. Lord,
If you just guide me tonight, I'll let me.
Speaker 1 (34:11):
Just won't do it.
Speaker 4 (34:11):
Lord, if you just let me get this tonight, I'm
not gonna do it. No mo Like, Lord, please guide
me tonight. And Lord, why did why did her ask
have to look like that?
Speaker 2 (34:23):
Lord said?
Speaker 1 (34:24):
Lord made you did that, you made you did this,
and I honestly was not. No, you were not. I
was not.
Speaker 2 (34:37):
There is no man and and people people don't understand this, bro,
like you get it. There is no man on this
planet who works at home depot or who's working at
Wells Fargo right now. If you throw him in this situation,
if you just throw him in the whatever you want situation,
(34:58):
it will kill him. It will suck the life out
of them. And so it's like you have to be
in a certain mental emotional preparedness, which I was not.
But like I said, it will take some years and
you have to live with.
Speaker 8 (35:15):
Some consequences, some consequences, some losses and losses, some consequences,
and it's.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
Like, wow, I need to reevaluate a lot of shit.
So but this, you can't be ready for that.
Speaker 3 (35:29):
And and I think on the other side of that,
the the upbringing and all of these things, and having
the family structure that we had prepared us in a
different way to where.
Speaker 1 (35:44):
We would be able to survive. Right, you know what
I'm saying. Because a lot of people, a lot of
people just don't know. And and for you, you did
it on a very public stage. Right, because you know
what you were involved in.
Speaker 2 (35:58):
So it's like anytime it's on a public stays, it's
a million it's not only magnified a million times, but
there's a certain uh, there's a narrative that they want
to tell to you know. Now it's clickbait, but it's
like to sell magazines to do this, So things respawn
(36:19):
a certain way, and then on the very tiny nucleus
of what's happening on the inside, there are details that
no one else knows and maybe I'll never share, but
it's like it ain't mistakes were made. I've taken accountability.
So what I've done, I've grown. But from the celebrity,
(36:40):
there's any celebrity out there who's dealing with that relationship
and the press ship, that's.
Speaker 1 (36:45):
That's that's that's a hard thing. And it's even it's
even harder now with social media.
Speaker 6 (36:51):
Oh my god, it's even harder now, right because back
then you just have to try to see you and
take a picture of you and then't write whatever they wanted.
Speaker 1 (37:01):
You get tired of it or they get tired of it.
Speaker 6 (37:03):
And now you make your own and you sorry typing ship,
and now you're like maybe I should Yeah, maybe I
should have.
Speaker 1 (37:10):
Just I'm a delete that right, they've already out. He
used to call me. You'll call me about seven in
the morning. What the fuck? Take what did you? What
do you want to do?
Speaker 2 (37:22):
What's her name?
Speaker 3 (37:24):
Seven? Five?
Speaker 1 (37:25):
Saying some can you stop this on line?
Speaker 3 (37:28):
This?
Speaker 1 (37:29):
No, I said, I said that said the same way.
Speaker 6 (37:39):
But I get that, I said, Tank, what you gotta
realize a lot of times you're talking to ghost. True,
you're literally talking to go like, yes, are there some
people that are real people that are going at you?
But sometimes it's just accounts that are made to literally
absolutely get a.
Speaker 1 (37:55):
Rise out of you. Well, what come on out, come
on now, doubt. Can you just stop on Instagram? Can
you do it for me for two weeks?
Speaker 2 (38:10):
Please?
Speaker 1 (38:11):
No, they have to hear from me. That's just not easy.
Speaker 2 (38:19):
I have this outlook on life. Mistakes that might be
a little different because granted, in the moment, they feel
like the exact wrong thing you've allowed to happen, or
you participated in happening, or that has happened to you.
But in my fifty four years on this earth, I
(38:43):
am fifty four.
Speaker 1 (38:44):
Come on, man, I did not know that nigga, I
don't think I'm buying no more shoes. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:56):
Man, what I've learned is mistakes, all of them. And
this is gonna sound like some cliche. You see you
on the Instagram with a lion in the background of
some sh sterc but from.
Speaker 1 (39:11):
Some nigga, that's just a terrible human, right. It's probably horrible.
Speaker 2 (39:20):
For the girls I'm talking about some certain people whatever
is it's a terrible human right, or the Instagram models
with the ass and it be like.
Speaker 1 (39:30):
Spiritual, you know, it's like, you know, I've got to
grow foot.
Speaker 2 (39:36):
To be like to be like only God, you know. Anyway,
So what the what was I saying?
Speaker 1 (39:44):
Oh, mistakes, mistakes, God?
Speaker 2 (39:47):
I know, great, I got to use the mistakes for
me have all been an opportunity to grow. So yes,
I have made mistakes in my life, and I feel
and I think it goes back. I think it goes
back to something something you hit on the parenting thing
my mom and dad instilled in me a long time ago,
(40:08):
like you are going to make a lot of mistakes
in your life. What do you do with those mistakes?
What do you do with those traumatic events in your life?
So when I have stumbled. When I've fallen, or when
I've made mistakes in business or in my personal life,
you know, I take a moment to fall back and see, Okay, God,
(40:33):
what was the lesson you were trying to teach me
with this one? Sometimes those lessons are obvious as hell,
and sometimes are not so obvious, But every time it happens,
it's an opportunity to be a better version of yourself.
My first record deal, to answer a question that deals
(40:53):
with more professional situation, my first record deal that I
did with my sister Beney. It was an incredible opportunity.
It was two kids being plucked out of Milwaukee, coming
to La seeing things and experiencing things that I only
saw on Magnum PI and stuff like that.
Speaker 1 (41:11):
You know, but.
Speaker 2 (41:14):
The record label didn't really give us autonomy, didn't really
give us control to make all of the music we
wanted to make, to pick the producers that we necessarily
wanted to work with, or at least we felt like
I shouldn't say that, because there was a lot of
energy on my part where I felt like I doubted myself.
(41:37):
Enough is that twenty something year old kid who well,
I certainly can't know so if they're telling me I
should work with this artist and that artist, and I
guess I should. That was a mistake. That was a mistake,
and that's a mistake that every young artist needs to
know right now. The reason why they own your shit
right now, Young artists out there, the reason why you're
(41:59):
geting and the attention you're getting is because you're dope.
Because the creative decisions you make are dope.
Speaker 1 (42:06):
Led you here.
Speaker 2 (42:07):
Don't doubt that, you know, like, lead with that. Don't
let somebody else who's been on their own journey and
have seen their own assent to fame and fortune tell
you this is how I did it, so you need
to do it. You need to do it like this. Look,
some of those lessons that they bestow on you are
(42:27):
appropriate and you can use that, but their path is
not your path. So I think that's probably one of
the biggest lessons that I learned. I think I learned
early from that mistake. That's why when I had an
opportunity to do the solo album in ninety six, the
Eric Benet record, I was like, look, okay, we can
do this record deal thing, but I have to be
(42:50):
in charge of everything from the way I dress to
the way I look to the songs on the album
I told you, like the whole album. My first album
was like the demo between my cousin George and Demonte
and me just met. So I need to be in control.
To the point where I named my first album true
to Myself because I had been through the whole Uh
(43:11):
the alternative.
Speaker 6 (43:12):
Yeah, I could only imagine Eric coming out as like
the fifth member of Joasy with like.
Speaker 1 (43:19):
The type of that was.
Speaker 2 (43:23):
Like, it's not you, you are somebody tried to get
me in, like a nigga was that to get me
in like a three boy band group where it was
me I was to singing nigga and it was like
this dark nigga from from like Nigeria or something, and
it was a white nigga who was singing whig and
(43:47):
it was like I almost did it. And this was
before my first record deal.
Speaker 1 (43:52):
I was like, and I was in the meeting with
the two guys.
Speaker 2 (43:55):
And come on, bro, this is our chance. You know,
if you don't like it, you know, we could blow
up and then you can do your own thing. I
was like, yeah, but I don't know the same for me,
So you're absolutely right. Man, it's like, you gotta, you gotta,
you gotta be true to yourself. You gotta be true
to yourself. You have to be honest enough with yourself
to know your gut, to know your soul, so that
(44:16):
when something doesn't vibrate right with you, you are the
first to know and and and act upon that. No
matter how old I get, I'm still that hungry, young
creative dude from Milwaukee. No matter what happened. Shout shout
(44:37):
out to Milwaukee. Thanks, hey, Wisconsin came through, didn't they
with that orange? Hold up?
Speaker 1 (44:42):
Bow it up? You know what?
Speaker 3 (44:43):
And that's that's okay, movie star writer all of that.
Let's pivot to that because you know, I don't really
do a whole lot of politics.
Speaker 9 (44:52):
You know sometimes and listen you in between you and
d L you, Oh my god, yeah, out there.
Speaker 2 (45:03):
I think that's the old man. That's the old man
in me.
Speaker 1 (45:07):
You are out there.
Speaker 2 (45:08):
The old man ship is real because once you get
to a certain age, it's like, let me just say
you are saying it. I remember when I first started
doing it. My management was like, yeah, you know, that's
how I started saying. You know, we really respect that
you want to voice your opinion, but we got to
remember there's there are people out there who like your
(45:28):
music who aren't exactly on the same political that man,
we're talking about a damn you know ship, damn Hitler
starter kit.
Speaker 3 (45:43):
Here's what I say, it's like, it is a double
ed short right in terms of the political part of it.
Once you start dabbling into that place, you can you
can feel the shift of people who were there for
(46:03):
the music then knowing discovering too much about you, right,
that makes them either go way left or way right
with you. But you're right, you're and you're out, you're
outspoken in terms of you know, in terms of the
political uh, in terms of your political status.
Speaker 2 (46:22):
I think once you hit fifty, what it is like
any any whatever like filter I had left that ship,
that ship just you.
Speaker 1 (46:32):
Know, because you were you were attacking who was you?
Who was you?
Speaker 3 (46:34):
You know you said something, you said something running, ain't
singing and if it's in insane you know because you
and you young niggas, you're putting the whole lot of
we grew up on you man doing that man attacking
(46:55):
the kids, saying like who was attacking the king?
Speaker 1 (47:01):
At some point we're gonna have to stop.
Speaker 10 (47:03):
Eric, you ain't nobody when I was growing up, when
I was in the studio, which I hate that.
Speaker 1 (47:16):
I said, Eric, come on, man, stop there people, This
new ain't ship. You put the time on it.
Speaker 3 (47:29):
But it was like it was like you were just
I mean, you were being honest about how you felt
about it. But you know what I mean, Like I
think I was.
Speaker 2 (47:36):
Having one of those moments where hey, I love like
I am. I'm one of the biggest fans of like
dope runs and people who can run.
Speaker 1 (47:45):
It's just like, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (47:47):
I think it's like one of those things where before
the run, there needs to be the melody, Like can
we at least know what the melody is before you start?
Speaker 11 (47:55):
Like and I know what I said, and I agree
with you, but they had to say it. But no,
there because because because I grew up, Yeah, you said.
Speaker 1 (48:06):
On Kim Barell.
Speaker 2 (48:08):
But see that's it's almost.
Speaker 3 (48:09):
So guess what I needed, Like she she didn't. She
didn't make a song that was like a straight ahead
or a commercial thing until way later.
Speaker 2 (48:18):
I know this sounds like bullshit, but it's almost like
that's different because because Kim Barell, Kim Barell is a
whole nother being.
Speaker 1 (48:26):
It's not different because I needed what she was doing.
I needed it.
Speaker 2 (48:31):
I agree with that. I'm not disagreeing with you. Like
these young nigga like kim Barell, probably.
Speaker 1 (48:38):
That's what it's like.
Speaker 2 (48:40):
It's like these young niggas would hear a Kim Barell
and be like, Oh, that's what I need to do,
and it's like, no, before Kim Barell was I don't know,
I don't. I mean, I met Kim Barell. She's a
wonderful person, but I don't know like her whole story,
but I would imagine before she could do all that,
at some point she had the base, like she could
(49:01):
do a melody for sure, so and she had to
evolve to that. But I think one of the frustrating
things for me is like young singers would see the
Kimbarell and be like.
Speaker 1 (49:14):
Oh, and that's what the song is, that's all it is.
Speaker 3 (49:17):
But as I was able to grab the pieces, well,
clearly you can use it and use it in spacessary
and that's.
Speaker 2 (49:25):
What the beauty of running like you you well you're
a songwriter, you're a producer, so you know construction of
along the melody, learn yes, yes.
Speaker 3 (49:35):
To learn to stop singing versus myself. You know what
I'm saying, like, Oh, they'll never be able to do this,
Like that was my mentality when I went to the studio.
They're going to be like when they can't sing, like
maybe I deserve was like in my mind, my worst
song vocally one of my biggest.
Speaker 1 (49:52):
Wow, and I didn't understand why until fifteen years later.
Speaker 2 (49:56):
Was that kind of stuff is incredible to me because
I kind of feel the same way like with some
of my biggest songs. For some of those songs where
and it's interesting how this works. It's like you can
be in the studio and you can have some song
that you feel like is a masterpiece and you just
have to put no every every box of that song.
(50:17):
No no, no, no, no no no, that wasn't right.
I want to can we can I bring the can
the guitar play come back to the studio because he
I wanted him to glisten on this, you know. So
it's like you can create this masterpiece and people will
hear it and be like wow, that's dope. Okay, let
me hear another one. And then you play a song
where you was in the studio for like four minutes throwaway. Yeah,
(50:40):
you can be in a song where it's like, okay,
we were just vibing on this, and then I put
some words on this motherfucker and it's like, oh shit,
that's the one.
Speaker 3 (50:48):
So it's like, I'm a story of mine, the story
of my career right A song Please Don't Go have
been played for numerous artists foof album whose albums I've
worked on. I was like, I got this one thing
right here playing it's cool. I'm in Glenwood Studios working
(51:09):
on uh, working on tex Club and pain and I
got one day extra. I finished all the songs I
wanted to release, said something here.
Speaker 1 (51:19):
They was like.
Speaker 3 (51:19):
They was like, well, you got one more day. If
you want to do something, you do something. I was like, okay,
they got good cookies and ship hang out at the studio, chill,
and I'm gonna record this one track. One.
Speaker 1 (51:28):
I was like, I got this one track. I'm just recorded.
Speaker 3 (51:31):
Lonnie, my guy, Lonnie he call, He's like, he's like,
what you working on teas. I was like, I'm just
working on this song right here. Like he's like, let
me get some of that. Bridge was like absolutely. It
was one hundred percenter into the bridge, so he puts
a bridge down. I sing the bridge. I'm like, I'm
just turn it in with the rest of them. Turned
the song in and it was please don't go. And
(51:53):
they called me two days later, nigger you did it
the street guy, nigga, you did that ship nigg And
I started naming every other song, Oh you like that
ship right there, and they're like nah. I said, oh,
I know what you want you talk about. You talk
about that one because I put the song NA not
that with nigga, Nigga, Please don't go. I said, what right, Nigga?
Speaker 1 (52:15):
Is that snad? I said, are you sure?
Speaker 3 (52:17):
Right?
Speaker 1 (52:18):
You know I haven't been out in five years. I've
been on the bench.
Speaker 3 (52:23):
Yeah, I've been at war. Yeah, we're in rec company
for five years. And they're like, this is a song
and I'm like, I don't I don't think. I don't
think that after five years of being absent, that this
is this is where we go. We don't start with this, right,
And they're like this, yes we do, right, Yes we do.
Black Round Records I got.
Speaker 2 (52:42):
I got the same story. So it had been a
minute since I went through this whole thing. With Warner
Brothers where I you know, we did A Day in
the Life and that was a big record for me.
And then I did this other record, another album called
(53:02):
Better and Better, but they rejected my album, so the
whole album. So I'm going to the record label and
I'm like, Okay, y'all don't really get this album. Okay,
will you let me leave the label? Will you let
me out at my deal?
Speaker 1 (53:19):
Nope?
Speaker 2 (53:21):
Okay. Will you give me like a budget to go
in and do some more shit like if you didn't
like Nope. So basically I'm just sitting. I'm just sitting
for a couple of years. They wouldn't let me out,
they wouldn't give me a budget to do anything else.
And so I'm back home just vibing some songs with
my dudes. Ultimately I got another I got a green
lid to do another record. And we were in the
(53:44):
in my promotion man's room, Ken Wilson, you know, come
on now, yes, my job, my god. So we're listening
to all these songs trying to figure out, like what's
the single. And we were listening we had a couple
of dope joys, so yeah, yeah, man, you can have
man man dope ship on that look. But that's all.
(54:06):
It's like, I got this other thing, but you know
it's not a thing already, shut that down. No, no, no, nobody,
this is something new that I was like this other thing.
It's probably not a single, but I mean I played
for you. Maybe we put it on the album for
the Japanese release, like Jeffards bonus track or some ship.
Like Nigga, I played the song Ken Wilson, Nigga, that
(54:31):
that motherfucker right there, Nigga, that's your first thing. It
was You're the only one, wow right, that you play
as your throwaway?
Speaker 1 (54:40):
Yeah. I thought it was just like, yeah, I thought
it was.
Speaker 2 (54:44):
I thought because when we wrote You're the only One,
I thought it was one of those like throwback to
you know, the whole vibe we were doing like a
seventies throwback thing, and I was like, I don't know
people ready for that right now. It's probably just gonna
be like a cool vibe on the album. Can It
was like, Nigga, that was the vibe, that ship right there, Nigga,
(55:04):
don't know what you're smoking, Nigga. So yeah, and that
was that was number one for like a couple more
number one.
Speaker 1 (55:13):
You got toast the number.
Speaker 2 (55:17):
Boy.
Speaker 1 (55:19):
It was got a lot of my money. We have
a part of the show. Okay, right, he can do it.
He can definitely. What is it?
Speaker 2 (55:29):
Does it involve calistenics or doing push up?
Speaker 1 (55:32):
No?
Speaker 6 (55:33):
No, no, okay, it involves talking that talk, so it's
called I ain't saying on that m.
Speaker 1 (55:41):
Hm, whoa No, listen, listen, listen, listen.
Speaker 6 (55:47):
It can be funny or fucked up. Are both funny
and fun up your story? But you do not say
the names of the other participants in the story. But
you give a non be like, oh you talking about that?
Speaker 1 (56:03):
Could have been.
Speaker 2 (56:05):
I ain't saying, I ain't saying. Okay mm hmm.
Speaker 1 (56:08):
But you know I know I didn't prep you for this.
You just not. We like to do it on the spot.
We like to do on the spot. You like to
get it honest uge.
Speaker 2 (56:21):
Let me see now in my memory, I'm you know,
I'm doing like the fucking don't say that. They don't know.
They don't know who that is that ship either. No, yeah,
we're swiping. I'm swiping right.
Speaker 1 (56:34):
Now in my brain. Old hell, let's see, no name,
no face, no case.
Speaker 2 (56:40):
Here's that I'm trying to think it don't fit. I
ain't saying no name.
Speaker 1 (56:46):
Y'all edit this ship. No we wrong you the ben man.
Whatever you need, whatever you need.
Speaker 2 (56:57):
Jamie told us, don't any ship custs us out.
Speaker 1 (56:59):
But I wanted to adder some ship. Okay, okay, okay.
Speaker 2 (57:05):
I ain't said no names. I mean it's I mean
just in the spirit of the conversation and being from Milwaukee,
and you know Milwaukee gets cold as ship. Mm hm.
Speaker 1 (57:18):
Ah.
Speaker 2 (57:18):
Somebody was uh this was I used to before I
actually moved to LA. I kept my I kept the
place in Milwaukee for a while. And uh there was
an artist. Oh my god, I can't believe I'm telling
you burdening ham. If I didn't have like three glasses
(57:49):
of wine, I probably wouldn't say this man hold up.
So there was somebody. There was this female artist who
I was kind of vibing. By the way, full disclosure,
was not married. This was like Eric in Milwaukee, just
like being at the Milwaukee BNA, being at BNA. There
(58:11):
was this artist in Milwaukee and we, uh, we had stayed.
I forgot how we got each other's information, but we
stayed in touch. And she was like, I'm in Milwaukee,
we should have some drinksoo, we went out. My god,
this sounds horrible. This sounds horrible, man, but it's really
(58:35):
not that bad. So we went out, you know, east
side of Milwaukee. It's all kind of dope little bars
and dope pizza joints, and were one drink after another
and it's cold as ship. I think it was probably like.
Speaker 1 (58:50):
It was it was. It was.
Speaker 2 (58:52):
It was either December or January in Milwaukee. So you know,
that's no way, no joke. So we are, we're drinking,
we're eating, and as we're drinking and eating, we're getting
a lot more touchy philly with the laughs, the laughs,
the lingering hands are lingering longer and boom boom boom.
Speaker 5 (59:11):
And then.
Speaker 2 (59:13):
We're both drunk, which this is everything about the story
is horrible because because I'm drunk in the bar with
this person and now I'm gonna I'm like where you're
saying what what? Held are you saying?
Speaker 1 (59:27):
Okay, I'm just driving.
Speaker 2 (59:28):
I'm not drunk. Incredibly irresponsible. So we're in the car
and she says we're driving past esther Brook Park. She
says streaking. I'm like streaking, Yeah, let's do it. So
it's like one o'clock in the morning, it's probably like
(59:51):
eight degrees outside.
Speaker 1 (59:53):
Drunk as hell.
Speaker 2 (59:54):
That's a great idea.
Speaker 1 (01:00:00):
Pull over, Oh my god, pull.
Speaker 8 (01:00:03):
Over as the Brook Park in the parking lot, looking ship,
we takeing off our clothes. We run through Estherbrook Park
one o'clock in the morning, butt ass naked, ended up
in the bushes, and that's where I'll leave the.
Speaker 2 (01:00:31):
Bushes eight degrees you are wow?
Speaker 8 (01:00:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:00:36):
Do you ever hear about the news run in Milwaukee?
Speaker 1 (01:00:39):
This this is me say.
Speaker 2 (01:00:40):
I got a lot a lot of crazy white boyfriends
in Milwaukee. So they got this are they used to?
I don't know if they do it anymore? But on
New Year's Eve, you got the Polar Bears, and they
jump into the Polar Bears, y'all. They don't know what
the Polar Bears is. It's a bunch of crazy ass
white people in Milwaukee. On New Year's Eve, they will
strip down to their swimsuits and jump into sub zero water,
(01:01:04):
freezing ice water for whatever reason. I don't know. But anyway,
some other homies in mind, some of them I went
to college with. But some of them were just like
crazy ass white dudes. Like I would go have drinks
with every year they would do the nude run. You
would run from like River West all the way to
the lakefronts. But as NICKI what, yes, So you would
(01:01:27):
do the nude run and you would ultimately end up
at this public swimming pool that of course was closed,
and then it would turn into.
Speaker 1 (01:01:38):
They were break into the swim.
Speaker 2 (01:01:39):
Yeah. So I did the nude run in Milwaukee once.
Speaker 1 (01:01:45):
But I feel like you do more.
Speaker 2 (01:01:47):
Probably probably the nude run Milwaukee.
Speaker 1 (01:01:54):
I did it like one time.
Speaker 2 (01:01:55):
I know I was lying. You could tell I was
lying right every year like new Road.
Speaker 1 (01:02:05):
This niggas wilf Ferro didn't mean that's Frank the tenth
right here? Why is the gentleman? This has been Everybody
Podcast with our brother Eric Bennay. He name name, name name,
I don't even be money money
R and b's Money.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Child.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
We are the authorities.
Speaker 4 (00:15):
R and B.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
What's going on? People?
Speaker 3 (00:18):
You have just tuned into the R and B Money Podcast.
I'm Tank, this is Jay Valentine, and we are the
authorities on R and B music and in the building
all the way from mell Walkee mail town.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Huh anything with mail letter mail do my brother from
another mother.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Thanks for the insight man waiting to come up in this.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Listen this. We want to this. We want to kick
this thing off the right way. Okay, we want to
kick this off the right.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
In honor, yes, okay, in honor of Okay.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
Let me tell you something. Let me tell you something.
First of all, are you all of a sudden organic? Yeah,
all of a sudden? Are you in touch with the
earth people? All of a sudden? You? Wait, listen, I'm
gonna tell you. Started this ship there was a man, yeah, walking.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Barefoot, barefoot.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
He had already had sea shells attached the strings and ship.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Yeah, And we was trying to figure out how is
he doing this? Is he Listen?
Speaker 3 (01:41):
I'm trying to tell you every girl I knew everyone
was like, oh my god. I was like, no shoes up.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
I love Eric B.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
I'm looking at my temple and was like, still represent
we are not wearing shoes.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
With no shoes, I'm gonna get rid of my heir.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
Jesus is here man, Jesus ey thing.
Speaker 5 (02:14):
It was every nay, Lenny Kraviss Maxwell, a very small
group of elite organic men.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
We all smell like that. You back then, some of
the ladies like, remember he would be on Venice Beach
and the nigga be selling. I got some portunity for you.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
Yeah, see this, he's been doing this, so you said
some money eventually eventually.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Now y'all come in the terms.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
Now you've got your feet now you now you now
you're not now you hold he's been doing it and
the women have been going.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
So let me ask you a question. Yes, answer your question.
Please do that.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
I want to talk about the bare feet thing. Go ahead.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Was that on Was that on purpose?
Speaker 3 (03:06):
Like did you know going into this like I'm gonna
give them something, something different, I'm gonna give them something vulnerable,
something you know what I'm saying a different kind of
with my feet out, I'm comfortable.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
I'm gonna tell you about that. I'm gonna, I'm gonna,
I'm gonna go a little surface with it, then I'm
gonna go deep.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
So when I was first signed back in nineteen Hendres
and Hum, it was me and my sister. We were
called Bennet. We were first. My first record deal was
with E and My Records, and so you know, we
came up in Milwaukee. We did like the clubs we
would do, like the obscure cities in Michigan and Illinois.
(03:49):
And then we got our record deal. And I was
always used to looking to my left and seeing my
sister right there. Okay, first record deal didn't work out
so good. My sister was like, baby brother, you go ahead,
it's music business, shit crazy, I'm gonna give me a job.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
A wow.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
So my dumb ass hung in there a little bit
longer and I got my solo deal. Once I got
my solo deal, I started to have to perform by myself.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
I was not used to that.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
The stage fright when you are used to looking over
and see your family member and all of a sudden,
it's me out there.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
It was.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
It was like I'd be backstage a little debilitated, just
like stage fright will come on me like that. So
I discovered one day that if I just took my
shoes off and went out on the stage. I relaxed,
almost like you felt at home. I felt at home.
And a byproduct was of that was women. Apparently I
(04:43):
must have had a good foot day or something and
they'd be like.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
Oh, look at his feet. I was like, oh, y'all
like this shit.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Okay, I'll keep doing it because it makes me feel great.
So let me flash forward. Great, I'm gonna flash forward
to something that I've reached. I told you I was
gonna go deep, something that I've just discovered, which you're
probably hipped to. You're so health conscious and YouTube. But
there's such a thing. It's called grounding and earthing.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
Have you heard of this, yes?
Speaker 5 (05:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
So basically, grounding is the science based upon the fact
that the Earth is just one big battery full of
negative electrons. We as human beings, are basically electric beings.
We're full of positive electrons. But when we walk around
with shoes on all the time, especially rubber soul shoes,
(05:31):
we are insulating ourselves from those negative electrons, which balances
our body and reduces inflammation, makes us healthy, makes us
sleep better, makes sex more boili. So basically, I've since discovered,
which I didn't know back then. That shit just keeps
me healthy, It keeps me young, It makes me feel
(05:53):
makes me feel like I'm twenty years younger than I am.
At least an hour day, I will walk around outside
barefoot in the dirt, in the sand and the grass.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
Wow. Yeah, it's real ship, you know what. And and
thinking about that, I used to always wonder why my.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
Country cousins healthiest ship well, was so far ahead every
party elements.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
They were faster than you. They were faster. It was
right right like they was driving. I was like, you're
not right, how are you driving? Just dropping the car.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Broke bruh, you and me both because that where's your family?
From my mobile? Alabama?
Speaker 3 (06:33):
I got Alabama, I got I got all all all
over Alabama, Birmingham specifically, I got Arkansas, little Rock all
through there.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
And then they all migrated. They Migras's how they got
to Milwauk into Detroit.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
But you are you are speaking the truth. Like we
would go down to Alabama and my other I'd be
ten years old, and my other ten year old cousins
be like driving, got girlfriends and.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
They got everything. We're going to see these goods around
the corner you want to go.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
I was like, I ain't much nowhere, you can't go.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
I don't know we're gonna do.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
We get exactly the joke, but they was ready to
get to it. It was like and then I had
two goods.
Speaker 6 (07:09):
Like, so, what you're saying with it, with the whole
barefoot thing, is that we shouldn't make jokes about the
little drunk white girls after the club.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
We can still make fun of this drunk Let's keep
that funny.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
I'm just wondering, man, how that all works. All right,
let's tap into the music. Man, Yeah, let's go.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
Let's go to the beginning, right, we like we like
to go to like the introduction of of you to
music and music to you. You know what I'm saying,
like the complete where your old story.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
No, I mean you can break it down in the pieces,
but the part where it's where you said you know,
where it claimed you because normally claimed you first.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
Right, you don't know what the gift is. You don't
know you have a gift. True, you were in a group.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
Yeah, you're able to do things that you just think
you're able to do. And then there's a moment where
you recognize.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Oh yeah, you really hit up. You really hit on
something right there. Because I remember as far back as
I can remember, you know, Milwaukee in grade school, sixty
Pith Street School and Capitol Drive, you know, something as
simple as music class. I just remember having an ability
(08:32):
to sing and understand music on a level that was
way above like the rest of the kids.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
And what I would do.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
I don't know if you did this, but because I
didn't want to stick out and be weird, I acted
like I was on their level, you know what I mean.
It's like I don't I don't want too much attention
on me right now. It's like, you know, the music
teacher would tell us, okay, class, it's like here's the
scale or here's the song, and it's like I would
already be like five steps ahead of them, and little
(09:00):
me over here and Dondrell over here is like completely clueless,
and I'm just like okay, I'm like I'm struggling too,
isn't that weird?
Speaker 1 (09:07):
No?
Speaker 3 (09:07):
That was me in sixth and seventh grade, and so
I was just kind of like staying here and then
really right right right right.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
It was almost like this, Yeah, I played football.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
Like you sing were you sing. I'm like, right, I
don't know if I want to, you know what I'm saying.
Because my cousin was the lead singer. My cousin Kisha,
was the one who was doing all the solos. And
then when I finally tried a solo, I tricked it
off really bad.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
You know what I'm saying. I was like, how do
I do? She was like, you was off? You know
what I'm saying. So I went back into training. You
know what I'm saying. Okay, So so you're starting there
and you're and and about what time is it?
Speaker 2 (09:46):
So this is I mean, this is grade school. And
then when I go home, like I'm I'm the youngest
of a group of five siblings, we're all musical, we
all sing. So that was the place. The whole house
from from my mom playing the piano. My dad didn't
really sing, but he had this extensive classical music collection.
So I would be in my dad's music collection listening
to Tchaikowsky and Brahms and Mozart, and then with my
(10:08):
sisters and my brother, we would sing. We would listen
to like the Silvers or the Carpenters, and we would
deconstruct the harmonies and like, you know, sing them, and
I you know, before my voice changed, i'd have the soprano.
So Michael Jackson, Yeah, I was michae I was a
little Microjacks established that. So that's where music that's really
(10:29):
People ask me who's my biggest influence, My biggest influence
on my older siblings, because I've always equated music to
love because that's how we that's how we would have
fun together. That's how we would show each other our love,
like like making music. So but outside the house, it
was almost like, Okay, I'm gonna I'm gonna keep that
talent close to my vest because it comes off a
(10:51):
little too overpowering for people outside the family circle. Now,
then puberty happened. So I've always been like the nerdy
and you know, I kind of still am. I've always
been like the nerdy science fiction book reading, you know,
into writing my own little weird stories and making up
(11:13):
my own songs. And so I've always been that little kid,
even in like thirteen or fourteen, where I would stick
to myself, and like I said, I still wasn't singing
publicly in school. But I remember when puberty hit, there
was a singing competition, and nobody really knew I sung.
There was a singing competition in junior high school, and
(11:37):
my sisters told me, go ahead, Eric, get into the contest.
And keep in mind, I'm thirteen now, and my all
my siblings are beasts, and that's when I come home. Yeah,
seventh grade, middle school. So I just grew up with
older siblings who literally could deconstruct the song and we
would put it back together. So I was at thirteen,
(11:59):
I was dope. So I entered the contest. Nobody really
knew I could sing.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
Bruh.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
I sang Lionel Richie's truly I kill that ship. I
killed that ship. You know that's still a fro no offense, Linel,
But at thirteen, I probably sang that ship better than
you respected. But you respected Bruh. Can I tell you?
The next day at school there were two girls I
(12:27):
had crushes on that did not know I existed. They
were waiting at my locker the next morning. I was like,
that's something to this ship. Both boup.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
Both up.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
Vicky Stanton, Vicky Stanton, Laura Oldenburg.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
Them oh vi VI Vicky Stanton, Laura.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
Oldenberg Oldenburg Oldenburg.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
Yeah, I was.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
You were early there too. You were early there too.
I didn't learned about equal Effers is way later in.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
I don't even know if I know now where, but yeah,
and from there, you know, from there it was just
like my cousin George, who was always like the musician,
the musician of the family. My George, cousin George played
you know, he was like you. He was like, played
piano and he played the guitar. And it was just
(13:24):
dope and my cousin George and my sister Lisa and
I we started writing songs. Then I dropped out of
college UW Milwaukee, joined this band, and then we got
our first record deal, the one I told you about Benet,
me and my sister. That's dope too. Yeah.
Speaker 6 (13:40):
So between time wise, when you guys get your first deal,
so when you get your deal and get your first
hit wreck, a lot of shit happened between that and
me having a solo deal.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
So what's the what's the time frame. So we're talking
about we signed the Benet deal with EMI Capital in
ninety two, Pluck from Milwaukee in Los Angeles, and that
was just culture shock man. That was yeah, yeah, but yeah, yeah,
(14:13):
I mean, I love Milwaukee, but it's like you come
out to la In the early nineties, it was a
whole nother expansive universe, from musical like the community of
badass music dudes, to like the most beautiful women you've
ever seen in your life, to like people who are
the hell of a lot of bullshitters, but but a
(14:37):
lot of people who are on a higher level of consciousness,
like talking about eating right and you know, you go
back home to Milwaukee and you just eat a vat
of pork. It's just you know, it's like salt pork.
You eat it, but come out here and it's like, no,
you know, it's like higher level of taking care of you,
your mind and your body. So it was just like
culture shock all the way around.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
And that's ninety two.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
That's ninety two. That record did not work out, as
everybody in the industry has these stories where your first
management deal, your first record deal, it's like, well they
kind of sort of put a single out but didn't
really put any money behind it, so we got dropped.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
Right.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
This was one of the hardest times in my life
because a few years prior my father died. My father
was a detective for the city of Milwaukee. So Dad died,
my girlfriend, Tammy Stouff, we became parents. We became parents
(15:38):
India short my daughter, India Shortly after I got dropped,
Tammy died in a car accident. So now I lost
my record deal. Dad's gone all of a sudden, single dad,
and I'm just trying to figure out, Wow, how am
I going to do this? Thank God, I have the
family I have because between my mom and my sisters
(16:02):
and my brother, they would let me like I could
take India. India was only fifteen months old, and my
mother did. So I have the most amazing family in
the world because I could, you know, if I had
to fly out to La to talk to some people
who were thinking about signing me. You know, as a parent,
especially as a single parent, you need to know that
your children or your child is safe and taken care
(16:25):
of and loved. And I never had to worry about
that when I was out there trying to make the
dream happen. I basically got a gig in Milwaukee as
an assistant engineer at a recording studio on Fondilac, Okay,
and I between George and this crazy ass dude who
(16:47):
is one of the baddest keyboards ever. Dmante you know Demante?
Do you know Demante Posi? Nigga's bad anyway, He's from Milwaukee.
Also met Demante and my cousin George during the off
hours at the at the recording studio that I was working.
They would let me use the studio to record demos.
So between me and George and Demante, we just started
(17:08):
writing all these songs, writing all these demos. That demo,
all those demos turned out to be my first album,
the first solo Eric Bene True to Myself album Nowhere,
which is amazing. Thank you, sir, crazy, thank you sir.
Yes's it's an incredible story.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
I'm riding with a girl through d C.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
Was it side Boom? It might have been that's another beast.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
I was upside. It might have been signed, She's a beast. Yeah,
it might have been signed. You gotta hit this from
I'm really she played that, she played that femininity. Oh
ship and at that time, pronounce it.
Speaker 3 (17:48):
That's how I like it. And I was like everything
for me was John p Key and Burrell, It was
Fraying Hammond and and then it was it was it
was all that, you know what I'm saying, so when
you tell me to listen to something like at this point,
I have every run in the book downloaded.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
That's how I lived my life. I run. I don't
want to verse, no first verse.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
Let's not gliss over that that you nigga.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
You don't just run, you just you kill it at
that time, Nigga, I have no verse. I'm gonna run
this hol of thame five minutes. So so if you
ain't doing that right, I don't want to get you're
not running through the whole song. And she started playing
(18:36):
this song and a.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
Missing to the thing.
Speaker 7 (18:40):
You was making the faces and ship right interesting right,
and the vocal was so clean and straight ahead, and
I was like, who's this again?
Speaker 3 (18:52):
After she had already told you. And then and then,
and then you did something that we do in church.
Was about the three and a half close to four
minute mark.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
You did a vamp. Okay, you let the band play
for a minute, and then you went into a vamp.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Yeah that's this nineteen seventy ship.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
Oh yeah, this niggas ba nigga vam. I was so
at that point, man, thank you you went into a vamp.
I was coming from yours. I said, your problem coming
from and then even I know we'll we'll get to
we'll get to the later in the two thousands, But
(19:35):
then you started going digging into your false settle with
the uh.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
I cried sometimes sometimes yeah yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
That bothered me.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
I took a shue with that.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
I took I took it. I felt the person at okay, okay,
because GEORGI said, I took that person because I'm going
thumb back, say let it. Why is this nigga, why
is this false settled? So clear it's been connected with me.
Speaker 3 (20:13):
And and I hear you sing that on stage and
you didn't miss a no wow a no, And I'm
a false settle that's what I do.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
You known for that?
Speaker 2 (20:25):
No?
Speaker 6 (20:25):
No, no, no, no, literally not just a false sttle, right,
you're known for not missing, which is as guys who
we all sing, right, we've we've been around one thousands,
so you know where that comes. But not missing, it's
a different type of gift, right, That's just that's that's
that's just special. Like you talk to somebody, especially me
being from the baby Me and my brother was talking
(20:46):
about it and he's like, man, because he's the first
person to put me on to you, right, and he
wanted to go see you.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
A Yoshi.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
Yosh and he was like, nigga, he didn't miss.
Speaker 6 (20:59):
And you know, as singers, we all know what that means.
But I had to ask again. I'm like, what do
you mean he didn't miss? That's a huge conference, Like
he didn't And you.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
Know about this that comes from that comes from going
through the ranks, like like, okay, so I dropped out
of college, but my college was being in those shitty
clubs all over the Midwest, right having to it's a
drunk crowd. This nigga over here is about to start
a fight with this nigga. There's some something going over here.
(21:31):
I'm gonna have to like take command of this whole room,
and I'm gonna have to do it consistently, And maybe
I wasn't able to do it for the first six
months I was in the band. But it was a
honing process where a lot of artists today they don't
have that honing process. They might they might be in
their lab in their base and they yeah, doing some beats,
(21:53):
put a couple of loops on it, you know, and
they got all kinds of technology. Catch your record and
catch a record, and then you put them on stage
and it's like, nah, you didn't go through the process, bro,
I can tell.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
Well, I mean they're not investing. They're not investing in
the process, right.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
I don't even know if there is the process, Is
there any reverence for it anymore? No, there should be,
there should be.
Speaker 3 (22:13):
But I don't really think that we're like probably the
lasts who are who are looking for people who are
actually just just seized and seasoned in some type of growth,
that's some type of developments. Like it's taken us years
to find an artist, right because we're like, nah, but
(22:34):
they hot in they all time.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
They got this record of them.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
But you that fleeting, Like that's so fleeting. I remember,
like one of the things that I so appreciate y'all
telling me that that means a lot to me. I
remember a couple of times in my career, and as artists,
I guess there's always some level it thinks for me,
there's always some level of insecurity. But I remember when
(23:00):
I first got I first started doing my solo deal,
and you're doing the rounds at the radio stations and
Luther Vandross was just leaving an interview and Luther was like,
I'm the type of dude where it's like, if I
know Luther is there, I at least want to just
(23:21):
say thank you. I don't I don't want to crowd
to you. I just want to say thank you. But
Luther found out I was there, He's like, oh no, no, no, no,
no no, you tell him to come here. When somebody
like Luther looks at you and say, you know what,
you're doing it right, you know, And that's all I needed.
Luther looks at me, that's it. So it's like, if
(23:42):
you thought I was dope before, that's probably when you
heard me go in the studio do that false little
let me show these niggas, you know. So it's like
when you get when somebody like that, like a Maurice
White or Luther Vandross or David Foster, that just makes
me want to, oh ship, if I thought I was
(24:03):
honing my craft before, I'm gonna have to like, I'm
really happy, I'm really going in deep now. So it's
those kinds of things that make me continue to strive
to be better to this day.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
Yeah, the hunger doesn't go away, you know, the grind,
the hustle. Yeah, never never goes away.
Speaker 6 (24:32):
So when you get that first hit record, right, because
thanks spoke about it a little bit, right, you know,
you put up on them with shoes off, was out,
you know what I mean, showing them sing something, showing
them something, and they're definitely showing out.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
What is that influx?
Speaker 3 (24:47):
Like?
Speaker 2 (24:48):
Yeah, man, you mean when you catch there, you catch
that r you fresh from Milwaukee, Yes, you're fresh from
your walk. You get a major hit record, and but.
Speaker 6 (25:04):
You don't but you also don't get the run of
the meal hit record. You get a record that nobody's
heard before. You don't get the some producer was did
that record, and then your producer heard it and y'all
recreated and now you get that little cheek code hit.
You had a record that sets you apart from the gate, right.
(25:28):
So it's a different it's a different level that's coming
your way. It's a it's a different kind of vibe
because back then.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
There were like you said, I mean, when you think
about what I was doing back then, and what cats
like D'Angelo were doing back then, and like Maxwell were
doing back then, that was outside of the norm.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
For sure.
Speaker 6 (25:54):
It was like Mashow was brushing his teeth right video,
Like it's like right brushing his teeth. They don't care
at all and they love it right right.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
So we.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
It was just kind of like this feeling of I
don't know, being that kind of a creative person. The
people who I work with. When I'm in the lab
and i've been, I've I like to go check in
on like how see how lots of people work. A
lot of people like to work like they like to
check out what's hot right now, like runk, what kick
(26:30):
sounds are hot right now? You know what's happening in
the top ten. And I'm going to try to put
my own spin on that. But I've never really worked
I've never really worked that way, even back then. I
always dig from a more intimate place, like even musically,
like I've never wanted to try to emulate the other
(26:53):
things that are happening out there. And when you work
like that, you're working in a bubble. At least I am.
You're working on this. No, I want to be cut
off from everything that's like top ten, top twenty on
the radio right now. I just want to be in
like this little fortress of musical solitude with myself and
whoever I invite to come in there and create with
me all that to say, as we're doing that, we
(27:15):
don't I don't really know how this is working like
a motherfucker here, but I don't know how that's going
to play out there because it's like so intimate to
us and we're like nerdy music heads. So that's kind
of it was like I was surprised in a way.
I was surprised because we were signed to what I
(27:37):
was signed to Warner Brothers as a solo artist, and
they really did just leave me alone. They let me
just do my thing. And then when I turned the
record in there was a reaction like somebody just reinvented
the wheel, and I was like, really was It was
just incredibly surprising because, like I said, I was grateful,
(27:58):
and it was at least it was affirming that I
felt like, Okay, I mean.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
And you had seen the bottom.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
I had already had huge loss, personal loss in my life,
my the mother of my daughter dying all of a sudden.
I'm a solo single father, trying to figure out the
next move. I was working at UPS. When I told
you I was working at the studio, I was also
working at UPS. Uh, and working at the studio to
make you know, to make a little bread. So it's
(28:26):
like I saw the bottom and once I knew that,
oh you mean, I can win by just being completely
authentic in my appreciation for music, not the music industry,
but music. Yeah, I was like, Okay, I'm not I'm
not gonna switch it up.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
And that's it. And that's a very unique situation.
Speaker 6 (28:48):
That's very as all of us has been in this
music business for so long to actually it's like getting
drafted to the right team because one or worked for you,
but universal may.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
Have not you know what I mean, or im I
didn't you know what I mean?
Speaker 6 (29:05):
So it's like in that space man, that that in itself,
and you know, we try to give that type of
information when we when we do these interviews for people
that are trying to get in the music business. People
are in the in the business to understand, like this
ship just don't happen the way you want it at
(29:25):
that time, and you got to keep pushing.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
You got to keep pushing until you find that situation
that makes the most sense for you exactly. But we
got off of the influx that came with this.
Speaker 3 (29:37):
You you.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
I'm from that area.
Speaker 6 (29:46):
He wasn't gonna let you around by the way around
baptized didn't.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
I'll tell you.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
I tell you here.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
A lot of people don't believe this, but actually, now
that you now that you know me, you can leave it.
Like I've always been the nerdy dude, like I've always
been the if it wasn't for music, if it wasn't
for me being on a stage and singing like my game,
like my just step up to a girl game was
was garbage, Like I had no idea I need it,
(30:17):
but I didn't know I didn't need it because you
know what I'm saying, So okay, So then you got
this guy who's basically uh looking at women feeling like
I don't really have that much of a shot, to
being on stage having a hit song and having them
(30:39):
literally come to me. It was overwhelming. And I'm going
to say this, that's one of the most like if
you're not ready for that kind of attention, you will die, yes,
or things around you will because it isn't all And
(31:01):
I don't use the word awesome like well, it can
be great, but it is. It is an overwhelming uh power.
And if you are an insecure person who always idolized
women but didn't know how to talk to him, and
all of a sudden you're the guy that they're coming
(31:22):
at to talk to you. That could be a very
dangerous thing. And there is a process where, you know,
for some of us, it takes a year or two
or ten or two.
Speaker 3 (31:35):
Where you feel me where it's like I'm in that
ten fifteen years you just jumped another.
Speaker 1 (31:45):
You know, I need a little bit more.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
Time to real this thing in right, because it's like,
all of a sudden, I can have all of it.
Are you fucking kidding me? It was like like, speak on, man,
come on, you stuttered Milwaukee, Milwaukee, Maryland.
Speaker 3 (32:04):
Yeah right, l A, now now I gotta I gotta taste.
When I went on tour with Genuine, it was it
was a it was a heavy taste.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
That was it was.
Speaker 3 (32:20):
It was the taste that changed my life. No, no, listen,
I definitely yes, you are correcting that, man. I know,
and Genuine would say to me, this is cool. I
know you having the time of your life, but it
(32:42):
ain't nothing like when it's you and I didn't believe
I'm never leaving you.
Speaker 1 (32:48):
I'm going to sing.
Speaker 6 (32:52):
You still dowhere if guy is on stage and we
got to show that he finds.
Speaker 1 (32:59):
A way to sing back to get let's do So
it's like.
Speaker 3 (33:03):
When you get with you, but then when it when
it listen when I watched, when I watched, maybe I
deserve start charting and me going from clubs like you
know what was one hundred people to a thousand people,
(33:24):
to seven hundred people to a thousand people, and then
to co headlining radio shows and arena's and London.
Speaker 1 (33:35):
To Chris and and and Nally you know and and
Jah rule Jesus Christ, you have.
Speaker 3 (33:44):
To be all the R and B shows all because
my name was Tank and so sometimes they wouldn't even
listen to my music.
Speaker 2 (33:52):
Just saw that's hilarious record.
Speaker 3 (33:56):
Yes, so so so like you take you, I just
I was dropped in a church kid. Still I'm still trying.
You know, it's still biblical for me, it's still spiritual. Lord,
If you just guide me tonight, I'll let me.
Speaker 1 (34:11):
Just won't do it.
Speaker 4 (34:11):
Lord, if you just let me get this tonight, I'm
not gonna do it. No mo Like, Lord, please guide
me tonight. And Lord, why did why did her ask
have to look like that?
Speaker 2 (34:23):
Lord said?
Speaker 1 (34:24):
Lord made you did that, you made you did this,
and I honestly was not. No, you were not. I
was not.
Speaker 2 (34:37):
There is no man and and people people don't understand this, bro,
like you get it. There is no man on this
planet who works at home depot or who's working at
Wells Fargo right now. If you throw him in this situation,
if you just throw him in the whatever you want situation,
(34:58):
it will kill him. It will suck the life out
of them. And so it's like you have to be
in a certain mental emotional preparedness, which I was not.
But like I said, it will take some years and
you have to live with.
Speaker 8 (35:15):
Some consequences, some consequences, some losses and losses, some consequences,
and it's.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
Like, wow, I need to reevaluate a lot of shit.
So but this, you can't be ready for that.
Speaker 3 (35:29):
And and I think on the other side of that,
the the upbringing and all of these things, and having
the family structure that we had prepared us in a
different way to where.
Speaker 1 (35:44):
We would be able to survive. Right, you know what
I'm saying. Because a lot of people, a lot of
people just don't know. And and for you, you did
it on a very public stage. Right, because you know
what you were involved in.
Speaker 2 (35:58):
So it's like anytime it's on a public stays, it's
a million it's not only magnified a million times, but
there's a certain uh, there's a narrative that they want
to tell to you know. Now it's clickbait, but it's
like to sell magazines to do this, So things respawn
(36:19):
a certain way, and then on the very tiny nucleus
of what's happening on the inside, there are details that
no one else knows and maybe I'll never share, but
it's like it ain't mistakes were made. I've taken accountability.
So what I've done, I've grown. But from the celebrity,
(36:40):
there's any celebrity out there who's dealing with that relationship
and the press ship, that's.
Speaker 1 (36:45):
That's that's that's a hard thing. And it's even it's
even harder now with social media.
Speaker 6 (36:51):
Oh my god, it's even harder now, right because back
then you just have to try to see you and
take a picture of you and then't write whatever they wanted.
Speaker 1 (37:01):
You get tired of it or they get tired of it.
Speaker 6 (37:03):
And now you make your own and you sorry typing ship,
and now you're like maybe I should Yeah, maybe I
should have.
Speaker 1 (37:10):
Just I'm a delete that right, they've already out. He
used to call me. You'll call me about seven in
the morning. What the fuck? Take what did you? What
do you want to do?
Speaker 2 (37:22):
What's her name?
Speaker 3 (37:24):
Seven? Five?
Speaker 1 (37:25):
Saying some can you stop this on line?
Speaker 3 (37:28):
This?
Speaker 1 (37:29):
No, I said, I said that said the same way.
Speaker 6 (37:39):
But I get that, I said, Tank, what you gotta
realize a lot of times you're talking to ghost. True,
you're literally talking to go like, yes, are there some
people that are real people that are going at you?
But sometimes it's just accounts that are made to literally
absolutely get a.
Speaker 1 (37:55):
Rise out of you. Well, what come on out, come
on now, doubt. Can you just stop on Instagram? Can
you do it for me for two weeks?
Speaker 2 (38:10):
Please?
Speaker 1 (38:11):
No, they have to hear from me. That's just not easy.
Speaker 2 (38:19):
I have this outlook on life. Mistakes that might be
a little different because granted, in the moment, they feel
like the exact wrong thing you've allowed to happen, or
you participated in happening, or that has happened to you.
But in my fifty four years on this earth, I
(38:43):
am fifty four.
Speaker 1 (38:44):
Come on, man, I did not know that nigga, I
don't think I'm buying no more shoes. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:56):
Man, what I've learned is mistakes, all of them. And
this is gonna sound like some cliche. You see you
on the Instagram with a lion in the background of
some sh sterc but from.
Speaker 1 (39:11):
Some nigga, that's just a terrible human, right. It's probably horrible.
Speaker 2 (39:20):
For the girls I'm talking about some certain people whatever
is it's a terrible human right, or the Instagram models
with the ass and it be like.
Speaker 1 (39:30):
Spiritual, you know, it's like, you know, I've got to
grow foot.
Speaker 2 (39:36):
To be like to be like only God, you know. Anyway,
So what the what was I saying?
Speaker 1 (39:44):
Oh, mistakes, mistakes, God?
Speaker 2 (39:47):
I know, great, I got to use the mistakes for
me have all been an opportunity to grow. So yes,
I have made mistakes in my life, and I feel
and I think it goes back. I think it goes
back to something something you hit on the parenting thing
my mom and dad instilled in me a long time ago,
(40:08):
like you are going to make a lot of mistakes
in your life. What do you do with those mistakes?
What do you do with those traumatic events in your life?
So when I have stumbled. When I've fallen, or when
I've made mistakes in business or in my personal life,
you know, I take a moment to fall back and see, Okay, God,
(40:33):
what was the lesson you were trying to teach me
with this one? Sometimes those lessons are obvious as hell,
and sometimes are not so obvious, But every time it happens,
it's an opportunity to be a better version of yourself.
My first record deal, to answer a question that deals
(40:53):
with more professional situation, my first record deal that I
did with my sister Beney. It was an incredible opportunity.
It was two kids being plucked out of Milwaukee, coming
to La seeing things and experiencing things that I only
saw on Magnum PI and stuff like that.
Speaker 1 (41:11):
You know, but.
Speaker 2 (41:14):
The record label didn't really give us autonomy, didn't really
give us control to make all of the music we
wanted to make, to pick the producers that we necessarily
wanted to work with, or at least we felt like
I shouldn't say that, because there was a lot of
energy on my part where I felt like I doubted myself.
(41:37):
Enough is that twenty something year old kid who well,
I certainly can't know so if they're telling me I
should work with this artist and that artist, and I
guess I should. That was a mistake. That was a mistake,
and that's a mistake that every young artist needs to
know right now. The reason why they own your shit
right now, Young artists out there, the reason why you're
(41:59):
geting and the attention you're getting is because you're dope.
Because the creative decisions you make are dope.
Speaker 1 (42:06):
Led you here.
Speaker 2 (42:07):
Don't doubt that, you know, like, lead with that. Don't
let somebody else who's been on their own journey and
have seen their own assent to fame and fortune tell
you this is how I did it, so you need
to do it. You need to do it like this. Look,
some of those lessons that they bestow on you are
(42:27):
appropriate and you can use that, but their path is
not your path. So I think that's probably one of
the biggest lessons that I learned. I think I learned
early from that mistake. That's why when I had an
opportunity to do the solo album in ninety six, the
Eric Benet record, I was like, look, okay, we can
do this record deal thing, but I have to be
(42:50):
in charge of everything from the way I dress to
the way I look to the songs on the album
I told you, like the whole album. My first album
was like the demo between my cousin George and Demonte
and me just met. So I need to be in control.
To the point where I named my first album true
to Myself because I had been through the whole Uh
(43:11):
the alternative.
Speaker 6 (43:12):
Yeah, I could only imagine Eric coming out as like
the fifth member of Joasy with like.
Speaker 1 (43:19):
The type of that was.
Speaker 2 (43:23):
Like, it's not you, you are somebody tried to get
me in, like a nigga was that to get me
in like a three boy band group where it was
me I was to singing nigga and it was like
this dark nigga from from like Nigeria or something, and
it was a white nigga who was singing whig and
(43:47):
it was like I almost did it. And this was
before my first record deal.
Speaker 1 (43:52):
I was like, and I was in the meeting with
the two guys.
Speaker 2 (43:55):
And come on, bro, this is our chance. You know,
if you don't like it, you know, we could blow
up and then you can do your own thing. I
was like, yeah, but I don't know the same for me,
So you're absolutely right. Man, it's like, you gotta, you gotta,
you gotta be true to yourself. You gotta be true
to yourself. You have to be honest enough with yourself
to know your gut, to know your soul, so that
(44:16):
when something doesn't vibrate right with you, you are the
first to know and and and act upon that. No
matter how old I get, I'm still that hungry, young
creative dude from Milwaukee. No matter what happened. Shout shout
(44:37):
out to Milwaukee. Thanks, hey, Wisconsin came through, didn't they
with that orange? Hold up?
Speaker 1 (44:42):
Bow it up? You know what?
Speaker 3 (44:43):
And that's that's okay, movie star writer all of that.
Let's pivot to that because you know, I don't really
do a whole lot of politics.
Speaker 9 (44:52):
You know sometimes and listen you in between you and
d L you, Oh my god, yeah, out there.
Speaker 2 (45:03):
I think that's the old man. That's the old man
in me.
Speaker 1 (45:07):
You are out there.
Speaker 2 (45:08):
The old man ship is real because once you get
to a certain age, it's like, let me just say
you are saying it. I remember when I first started
doing it. My management was like, yeah, you know, that's
how I started saying. You know, we really respect that
you want to voice your opinion, but we got to
remember there's there are people out there who like your
(45:28):
music who aren't exactly on the same political that man,
we're talking about a damn you know ship, damn Hitler
starter kit.
Speaker 3 (45:43):
Here's what I say, it's like, it is a double
ed short right in terms of the political part of it.
Once you start dabbling into that place, you can you
can feel the shift of people who were there for
(46:03):
the music then knowing discovering too much about you, right,
that makes them either go way left or way right
with you. But you're right, you're and you're out, you're
outspoken in terms of you know, in terms of the
political uh, in terms of your political status.
Speaker 2 (46:22):
I think once you hit fifty, what it is like
any any whatever like filter I had left that ship,
that ship just you.
Speaker 1 (46:32):
Know, because you were you were attacking who was you?
Who was you?
Speaker 3 (46:34):
You know you said something, you said something running, ain't
singing and if it's in insane you know because you
and you young niggas, you're putting the whole lot of
we grew up on you man doing that man attacking
(46:55):
the kids, saying like who was attacking the king?
Speaker 1 (47:01):
At some point we're gonna have to stop.
Speaker 10 (47:03):
Eric, you ain't nobody when I was growing up, when
I was in the studio, which I hate that.
Speaker 1 (47:16):
I said, Eric, come on, man, stop there people, This
new ain't ship. You put the time on it.
Speaker 3 (47:29):
But it was like it was like you were just
I mean, you were being honest about how you felt
about it. But you know what I mean, Like I
think I was.
Speaker 2 (47:36):
Having one of those moments where hey, I love like
I am. I'm one of the biggest fans of like
dope runs and people who can run.
Speaker 1 (47:45):
It's just like, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (47:47):
I think it's like one of those things where before
the run, there needs to be the melody, Like can
we at least know what the melody is before you start?
Speaker 11 (47:55):
Like and I know what I said, and I agree
with you, but they had to say it. But no,
there because because because I grew up, Yeah, you said.
Speaker 1 (48:06):
On Kim Barell.
Speaker 2 (48:08):
But see that's it's almost.
Speaker 3 (48:09):
So guess what I needed, Like she she didn't. She
didn't make a song that was like a straight ahead
or a commercial thing until way later.
Speaker 2 (48:18):
I know this sounds like bullshit, but it's almost like
that's different because because Kim Barell, Kim Barell is a
whole nother being.
Speaker 1 (48:26):
It's not different because I needed what she was doing.
I needed it.
Speaker 2 (48:31):
I agree with that. I'm not disagreeing with you. Like
these young nigga like kim Barell, probably.
Speaker 1 (48:38):
That's what it's like.
Speaker 2 (48:40):
It's like these young niggas would hear a Kim Barell
and be like, Oh, that's what I need to do,
and it's like, no, before Kim Barell was I don't know,
I don't. I mean, I met Kim Barell. She's a
wonderful person, but I don't know like her whole story,
but I would imagine before she could do all that,
at some point she had the base, like she could
(49:01):
do a melody for sure, so and she had to
evolve to that. But I think one of the frustrating
things for me is like young singers would see the
Kimbarell and be like.
Speaker 1 (49:14):
Oh, and that's what the song is, that's all it is.
Speaker 3 (49:17):
But as I was able to grab the pieces, well,
clearly you can use it and use it in spacessary
and that's.
Speaker 2 (49:25):
What the beauty of running like you you well you're
a songwriter, you're a producer, so you know construction of
along the melody, learn yes, yes.
Speaker 3 (49:35):
To learn to stop singing versus myself. You know what
I'm saying, like, Oh, they'll never be able to do this,
Like that was my mentality when I went to the studio.
They're going to be like when they can't sing, like
maybe I deserve was like in my mind, my worst
song vocally one of my biggest.
Speaker 1 (49:52):
Wow, and I didn't understand why until fifteen years later.
Speaker 2 (49:56):
Was that kind of stuff is incredible to me because
I kind of feel the same way like with some
of my biggest songs. For some of those songs where
and it's interesting how this works. It's like you can
be in the studio and you can have some song
that you feel like is a masterpiece and you just
have to put no every every box of that song.
(50:17):
No no, no, no, no no no, that wasn't right.
I want to can we can I bring the can
the guitar play come back to the studio because he
I wanted him to glisten on this, you know. So
it's like you can create this masterpiece and people will
hear it and be like wow, that's dope. Okay, let
me hear another one. And then you play a song
where you was in the studio for like four minutes throwaway. Yeah,
(50:40):
you can be in a song where it's like, okay,
we were just vibing on this, and then I put
some words on this motherfucker and it's like, oh shit,
that's the one.
Speaker 3 (50:48):
So it's like, I'm a story of mine, the story
of my career right A song Please Don't Go have
been played for numerous artists foof album whose albums I've
worked on. I was like, I got this one thing
right here playing it's cool. I'm in Glenwood Studios working
(51:09):
on uh, working on tex Club and pain and I
got one day extra. I finished all the songs I
wanted to release, said something here.
Speaker 1 (51:19):
They was like.
Speaker 3 (51:19):
They was like, well, you got one more day. If
you want to do something, you do something. I was like, okay,
they got good cookies and ship hang out at the studio, chill,
and I'm gonna record this one track. One.
Speaker 1 (51:28):
I was like, I got this one track. I'm just recorded.
Speaker 3 (51:31):
Lonnie, my guy, Lonnie he call, He's like, he's like,
what you working on teas. I was like, I'm just
working on this song right here. Like he's like, let
me get some of that. Bridge was like absolutely. It
was one hundred percenter into the bridge, so he puts
a bridge down. I sing the bridge. I'm like, I'm
just turn it in with the rest of them. Turned
the song in and it was please don't go. And
(51:53):
they called me two days later, nigger you did it
the street guy, nigga, you did that ship nigg And
I started naming every other song, Oh you like that
ship right there, and they're like nah. I said, oh,
I know what you want you talk about. You talk
about that one because I put the song NA not
that with nigga, Nigga, Please don't go. I said, what right, Nigga?
Speaker 1 (52:15):
Is that snad? I said, are you sure?
Speaker 3 (52:17):
Right?
Speaker 1 (52:18):
You know I haven't been out in five years. I've
been on the bench.
Speaker 3 (52:23):
Yeah, I've been at war. Yeah, we're in rec company
for five years. And they're like, this is a song
and I'm like, I don't I don't think. I don't
think that after five years of being absent, that this
is this is where we go. We don't start with this, right,
And they're like this, yes we do, right, Yes we do.
Black Round Records I got.
Speaker 2 (52:42):
I got the same story. So it had been a
minute since I went through this whole thing. With Warner
Brothers where I you know, we did A Day in
the Life and that was a big record for me.
And then I did this other record, another album called
(53:02):
Better and Better, but they rejected my album, so the
whole album. So I'm going to the record label and
I'm like, Okay, y'all don't really get this album. Okay,
will you let me leave the label? Will you let
me out at my deal?
Speaker 1 (53:19):
Nope?
Speaker 2 (53:21):
Okay. Will you give me like a budget to go
in and do some more shit like if you didn't
like Nope. So basically I'm just sitting. I'm just sitting
for a couple of years. They wouldn't let me out,
they wouldn't give me a budget to do anything else.
And so I'm back home just vibing some songs with
my dudes. Ultimately I got another I got a green
lid to do another record. And we were in the
(53:44):
in my promotion man's room, Ken Wilson, you know, come
on now, yes, my job, my god. So we're listening
to all these songs trying to figure out, like what's
the single. And we were listening we had a couple
of dope joys, so yeah, yeah, man, you can have
man man dope ship on that look. But that's all.
(54:06):
It's like, I got this other thing, but you know
it's not a thing already, shut that down. No, no, no, nobody,
this is something new that I was like this other thing.
It's probably not a single, but I mean I played
for you. Maybe we put it on the album for
the Japanese release, like Jeffards bonus track or some ship.
Like Nigga, I played the song Ken Wilson, Nigga, that
(54:31):
that motherfucker right there, Nigga, that's your first thing. It
was You're the only one, wow right, that you play
as your throwaway?
Speaker 1 (54:40):
Yeah. I thought it was just like, yeah, I thought
it was.
Speaker 2 (54:44):
I thought because when we wrote You're the only One,
I thought it was one of those like throwback to
you know, the whole vibe we were doing like a
seventies throwback thing, and I was like, I don't know
people ready for that right now. It's probably just gonna
be like a cool vibe on the album. Can It
was like, Nigga, that was the vibe, that ship right there, Nigga,
(55:04):
don't know what you're smoking, Nigga. So yeah, and that
was that was number one for like a couple more
number one.
Speaker 1 (55:13):
You got toast the number.
Speaker 2 (55:17):
Boy.
Speaker 1 (55:19):
It was got a lot of my money. We have
a part of the show. Okay, right, he can do it.
He can definitely. What is it?
Speaker 2 (55:29):
Does it involve calistenics or doing push up?
Speaker 1 (55:32):
No?
Speaker 6 (55:33):
No, no, okay, it involves talking that talk, so it's
called I ain't saying on that m.
Speaker 1 (55:41):
Hm, whoa No, listen, listen, listen, listen.
Speaker 6 (55:47):
It can be funny or fucked up. Are both funny
and fun up your story? But you do not say
the names of the other participants in the story. But
you give a non be like, oh you talking about that?
Speaker 1 (56:03):
Could have been.
Speaker 2 (56:05):
I ain't saying, I ain't saying. Okay mm hmm.
Speaker 1 (56:08):
But you know I know I didn't prep you for this.
You just not. We like to do it on the spot.
We like to do on the spot. You like to
get it honest uge.
Speaker 2 (56:21):
Let me see now in my memory, I'm you know,
I'm doing like the fucking don't say that. They don't know.
They don't know who that is that ship either. No, yeah,
we're swiping. I'm swiping right.
Speaker 1 (56:34):
Now in my brain. Old hell, let's see, no name,
no face, no case.
Speaker 2 (56:40):
Here's that I'm trying to think it don't fit. I
ain't saying no name.
Speaker 1 (56:46):
Y'all edit this ship. No we wrong you the ben man.
Whatever you need, whatever you need.
Speaker 2 (56:57):
Jamie told us, don't any ship custs us out.
Speaker 1 (56:59):
But I wanted to adder some ship. Okay, okay, okay.
Speaker 2 (57:05):
I ain't said no names. I mean it's I mean
just in the spirit of the conversation and being from Milwaukee,
and you know Milwaukee gets cold as ship. Mm hm.
Speaker 1 (57:18):
Ah.
Speaker 2 (57:18):
Somebody was uh this was I used to before I
actually moved to LA. I kept my I kept the
place in Milwaukee for a while. And uh there was
an artist. Oh my god, I can't believe I'm telling
you burdening ham. If I didn't have like three glasses
(57:49):
of wine, I probably wouldn't say this man hold up.
So there was somebody. There was this female artist who
I was kind of vibing. By the way, full disclosure,
was not married. This was like Eric in Milwaukee, just
like being at the Milwaukee BNA, being at BNA. There
(58:11):
was this artist in Milwaukee and we, uh, we had stayed.
I forgot how we got each other's information, but we
stayed in touch. And she was like, I'm in Milwaukee,
we should have some drinksoo, we went out. My god,
this sounds horrible. This sounds horrible, man, but it's really
(58:35):
not that bad. So we went out, you know, east
side of Milwaukee. It's all kind of dope little bars
and dope pizza joints, and were one drink after another
and it's cold as ship. I think it was probably like.
Speaker 1 (58:50):
It was it was. It was.
Speaker 2 (58:52):
It was either December or January in Milwaukee. So you know,
that's no way, no joke. So we are, we're drinking,
we're eating, and as we're drinking and eating, we're getting
a lot more touchy philly with the laughs, the laughs,
the lingering hands are lingering longer and boom boom boom.
Speaker 5 (59:11):
And then.
Speaker 2 (59:13):
We're both drunk, which this is everything about the story
is horrible because because I'm drunk in the bar with
this person and now I'm gonna I'm like where you're
saying what what? Held are you saying?
Speaker 1 (59:27):
Okay, I'm just driving.
Speaker 2 (59:28):
I'm not drunk. Incredibly irresponsible. So we're in the car
and she says we're driving past esther Brook Park. She
says streaking. I'm like streaking, Yeah, let's do it. So
it's like one o'clock in the morning, it's probably like
(59:51):
eight degrees outside.
Speaker 1 (59:53):
Drunk as hell.
Speaker 2 (59:54):
That's a great idea.
Speaker 1 (01:00:00):
Pull over, Oh my god, pull.
Speaker 8 (01:00:03):
Over as the Brook Park in the parking lot, looking ship,
we takeing off our clothes. We run through Estherbrook Park
one o'clock in the morning, butt ass naked, ended up
in the bushes, and that's where I'll leave the.
Speaker 2 (01:00:31):
Bushes eight degrees you are wow?
Speaker 8 (01:00:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:00:36):
Do you ever hear about the news run in Milwaukee?
Speaker 1 (01:00:39):
This this is me say.
Speaker 2 (01:00:40):
I got a lot a lot of crazy white boyfriends
in Milwaukee. So they got this are they used to?
I don't know if they do it anymore? But on
New Year's Eve, you got the Polar Bears, and they
jump into the Polar Bears, y'all. They don't know what
the Polar Bears is. It's a bunch of crazy ass
white people in Milwaukee. On New Year's Eve, they will
strip down to their swimsuits and jump into sub zero water,
(01:01:04):
freezing ice water for whatever reason. I don't know. But anyway,
some other homies in mind, some of them I went
to college with. But some of them were just like
crazy ass white dudes. Like I would go have drinks
with every year they would do the nude run. You
would run from like River West all the way to
the lakefronts. But as NICKI what, yes, So you would
(01:01:27):
do the nude run and you would ultimately end up
at this public swimming pool that of course was closed,
and then it would turn into.
Speaker 1 (01:01:38):
They were break into the swim.
Speaker 2 (01:01:39):
Yeah. So I did the nude run in Milwaukee once.
Speaker 1 (01:01:45):
But I feel like you do more.
Speaker 2 (01:01:47):
Probably probably the nude run Milwaukee.
Speaker 1 (01:01:54):
I did it like one time.
Speaker 2 (01:01:55):
I know I was lying. You could tell I was
lying right every year like new Road.
Speaker 1 (01:02:05):
This niggas wilf Ferro didn't mean that's Frank the tenth
right here? Why is the gentleman? This has been Everybody
Podcast with our brother Eric Bennay. He name name, name name,
I don't even be money money
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